As 2011 ends, its time to take stock. Perhaps more is at stake today than ever before. Our world is changing monumentally. From the Kyoto Accord to the EU split, from the Arab Spring to austerity protests in Europe, the world seems topsy turvy.

Though I do not pay much heed to it, I have to also mention TIME magazine’s declaration today that their Person Of The Year is The Protestor.

I think that this glamorous title needs some perspective. Why is it that this is the year of the protestor. How is it that 2011 came to be that year, and what do we take away from it?

I feel like I may be reverting back to my rhetoric of old when I say that it is clear that our world is coming apart at the seams. We are the cusp, or perhaps we have already jumped of a mountain. Does it not seem that everywhere we look, everywhere we turn, there are people who are expressing their dissatisfaction with the state of affairs? Have we had enough? Have we truly been pushed so far that we leave the comforts of our homes and march down streets in numbers never seen before to declare, Basta! Enough!

From Athens to London, Cairo to Tunis, Aden to Damascus, Ben Ghazi to Tripoli, New York to Moscow - people are rising up. Sure, its not everyone. Sure, its not even even one sixth of the global population, but in doesn’t take much. It didn’t take much. What army can hold back such a show of force? Who can challenge the might of the people?

2011 gave us a clear answer- use that pepper spray, use those bullets (rubber or otherwise), use your tanks, your water pipes, your servicemen or your merceneries - all methods are welcome, because all methods are useless. We are here, we are fighting, in our own ways, on our own terms, and we will bring change.

This is not the year of the protestor. This is the year of the awakening. The system stacked against us is faulty, it is bleeding us dry, it is mincing us raw, and we have been pushed far enough now to push back. I will bring my child to the protest, I will invite my grandmother too.

Viva la revolucion, bitches.

ahmedsalman:

5 minutes of Syria from Ruslan Fedotow on Vimeo.

Syria beckons.

… and I will have to heed its calls soon.

(Source: inthenoosphere)

Ribal al-Assad doesn’t look like the son of a war criminal; fluent English, fluent French, fluent Arabic (of course), fluffy black hair and brown eyes, a youngish 35, Boston graduate, self-assured, a member of the Damascus elite, sitting in a Marble Arch hotel, turning down my offer of coffee, talking about freedom and democracy and human rights in Syria, denying – gently but forcefully – that his father, Rifaat, is a war criminal.

Funny that. Back in February 1982, on the banks of the Orontes river, I stood next to one of Rifaat’s tanks as it shelled a mosque in the blood-boltered battle between the Assad regime and the Sunni insurgents of Hama. The tank crew and many of the soldiers around them were wearing the pink uniforms of Rifaat’s Special Brigades.

The Sunni uprising – as ferocious as the Algerian war or Iraq, regime party families slaughtered in their homes – was real enough. So was the brutality of Rifaat’s lads. Up to 20,000 souls were reported killed in the streets and underground tunnels of Hama.

Read more at The Independent

I personally think that Israel is gearing up for a war with Hezbollah this summer; whether that happens in Lebanon via ground forces or in Syria via rockets, or in both, is a whole different matter. But I think the Israelis are getting ready for a war. They are still smarting from the thrashing they got last time and though it may not have been outright victory for the Hezbollah, the Israeli army was severely embarrassed and that kind of feeling just doesn’t dissipate away. Combine that with an upcoming election in November where Obama needs the support of powerful Jewish lobbies and you the makings of a perfect scenario where Israel can once again get away with murder.

My recommendation? Stay the hell out of the Levant region this summer.

via The Call