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Anas Maarawi is the latest Syrian blogger to have been imprisoned. He was detained on Friday July 1, 2011, in his neighborhood of Kafarsouseh in Damascus, and nothing has been heard of him since.

Anas is a well known blogger in Syria and beyond. Apart from his personal blog, Anas Online, he ran a number of tech-blogs and projects, most prominently, Ardroid, which was the first Arabic-language blog to focus on Google's Android OS.

His arrest prompted a campaign for his release. A dedicated blog was set-up, as well as a Facebook page and a Twitter hash tag, #FreeAnas. Many Arabic tech-blogs participated in the campaign, starting with his own pet-project, Ardroid [ar]:

ربما تساءل بعضكم عن سر غياب صديقنا أنس معراوي الذي اعتدنا على مقالاته اليومية المتميزة على صفحات أردرويد.. اعتقل أنس معراوي تعسفياً يوم الجمعة 1-7-2011 في كفرسوسة, دمشق. ولا نعلم عنه شيئا حتى الآن.
أنس المعراوي من خيرة الشباب السوريين وهو مدون ومطور ويب ومهتم بالبرمجيات مفتوحة المصدر ومؤسس موقع أردرويد.

The campaign also circulated a video about Anas:

Tech-World, another Arabic tech-blog, wrote about Anas' arrest [ar]:

تعرفت على أنس المعراوي من خلال مدونة اردويد الرائعة والمتخصصه في مجال نظام الاندرويد ولقد حصل لي شرف لقائه في مؤتمر عرب نت الماضي وكان ولايزال من خيره شباب سوريا ، ولقد سأني خبر اعتقال الزميل أنس في سوريا منذ اسبوع تقريبا ، وكما عرفت أنس عن قرب كان بعيدا عن السياسة فأنس كان يكتب في أغلب تدويناته في مدونته الشخصية عن التقنية ومواضيع عامة ولا يكتب عن الامور السياسية الا الاشياء البسيطة لذلك اتمنى ان تقوم السلطات السورية بإطلاق سراح أنس فمثل أنس يستحق ان تفتخر سوريا به ولا تقوم بإيقافه

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011.

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Black comedy is one of the ways one deals with traumatic events. The recent events in Syria, while bloody and depressing to many people, have also brought about an explosion of blogs, Facebook pages and articles that try to satirize the events, and point out the absurdities in the official narrative - sometimes in very unorthodox ways.

One of the most popular and talked about of such attempts is the “The Chinese Revolution” Facebook group. The group tries to mirror the events in Syria, and satirize them as if they're happening in China. Through photos, videos and status updates, it mixes real-life Chinese individuals, officials and the names of places with Syrian ones that are made to look, and sound Chinese.

Banner for the satire Facebook group, "The Chinese Revolution"

One of their latest status updates mocks the government tours conducted for foreign media to show off the latest mass graves allegedly perpetrated by the armed gangs [Ar].

The page's popularity encouraged several spin-off pages based on it, satirizing the different Facebook groups that represent the different antagonists in the revolution, including CHANA (purportedly, the Chinese official news agency, based on Syria's SANA) and the Chinese Electronic Army, which satirizes the pro-regime group, the Syrian Electronic Army.

Another satire blog that has become very popular is Syrian Hashish. Written by a blogger who identifies himself as “a Syrian guy born and bred in Damascus, and now is doing his masters, looking for a job, and smoking marijuana in the decadent lands of the West.” His posts attempt to discuss and analyze serious topics related to the revolution, but with a colloquial language and in a mostly sarcastic tone.

In one of his recent posts, he addresses the president after his latest speech.

Al-Mundassah, (The Lurking Blog), which references in its name what the pro-government news agencies call the protestors, is another blog with a heavy reliance on light satire. Since the beginning of the protests, the website emerged as one of the largest group blogs and archives dedicated to the revolution. It mostly publishes reader contributions, both serious and satirical. This post satirizes the state of the so-called national dialogue in the country, before and after the revolution.

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011.

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On Friday 24 June, 2011, Syria marked the 100th day since the start of the country's protest movement. Protests every Friday have become almost a ritual.

But there's another side to the story. For 100 days the country's economy has been frozen. Commerce has halted to a standstill and the coming tourist season does not look good. In addition to that, thousands of frightened Syrians have been changing their savings from Syrian pounds to US dollars or Euros, putting an enormous pressure on the Syrian pound.

Syrian pounds. Image by Flickr user shellfish (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

In fact for a period of 48 hours in the beginning of April, the pound lost almost 10 per cent of its value, sparking fears of an eminent meltdown.

Meltdown threat?

The Syrian Central Bank has been successful so far in keeping the currency from dangerous devaluation. But with the new measures announced by the president in hist first speech in March; raising salaries, and raising the state's oil subsidies, and without any significant tax income, many have been pondering the possibility that the country might go bankrupt.

Many in the opposition are even working hard towards that goal. Their argument is that an economic meltdown will deal a fatal blow to the regime, and will make everybody turn against him. Others, however, are very skeptical of that scenario. Syrian blogger, nuffsilence, argues such:

To be honest, I'm not so sure how an economical collapse will help anything. If the regime is strong enough to survive the protests, then it may also weather another crisis. A fall of the regime isn't a sure result were the market to crumble and fall. We shouldn't forget that Mugabe and Saddam survived both and more. Mugabe, especially, had seen to it that his country's economy was beyond repair, and yet, it didn't inflict much damage on his power grip.

Syrian economist, and frequent guest-blogger at Prof. Joshua Landis' Syria Comment, Ehsani, tried to answer these questions about the future of the Syrian economy:

Is bringing down the economy and bankrupting the country a realistic danger?
And as for the Lira. Is there a way to manipulate the currency from outside the country? Is it technically possible to put pressure on the Lira from governments outside?

On the main economic challenges, he says:

Syria’s economic challenge is twofold:

Excessive government spending on subsidies and the constantly bleeding public sector with little tax revenues to match. This budget deficit is a major challenge.

Sub-par economic growth and hence job creation. The domestic purchasing power is too weak to support economic growth of 7-8%, which is the rate needed simply to produce enough jobs for all those presently coming of working age. The government is too broke to spend and invest. This leaves investments and exports. Syria is so far behind when it comes to infrastructure and human and capital resources that it is nearly impossible to catch up and compete in the global economy when it comes to exporting its products and services. This leaves investments. The political background has made slowed foreign investments to a trickle. It will be a while for this to change. Domestic investors need to see significant reforms before they decide to take risk with long term investments. The government has done very poorly on the legislative side when it comes to offering incentives and cutting red tape for potential investors.

Some of the commenters however had a more optimistic view of the crisis; Why Discuss says, in his reply to Ehsani:

This is the best time to buy SP! I’ll do that now. It gives 9% in the bank, while the Euro is eroding.
Just a thought
Contrary to the western countries, Syria never lived beyond its means. Except for the a few westernized Syrians, usually Syrians are frugal and they are not into the vicious circle of consumerism.
The next few years in Syria won’t be worse than Greece or Spain and Portugal, don’t you think?

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011.

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Today marks the 100th day since the protest movement found its foothold in Syria. A 100 days later, more than 1,400 deaths, and three presidential speeches, the protest movement is still in full force. This Friday is being billed “friday of delegitimization”.

To mark this day bloggers from Syria and elsewhere started a blogging and Twitter campaign called “Blogging Day for Syria”. The campaign called on every blogger to post his article with the hashtag #Blog4Syria. Here are a selection of these.

Syrian blogger, Suriyeh, writes about her memories as a child in Syria, and about the children of today's revolution.

Those kids… Because of them, we are talking politics! Because of them, we are arguing and tearing each other apart in name-calling and accusations of treason. Because of them, we are engaging in a massive cathartic experience of opinion sharing and debate. Because of them, our world has lost the horizon of perfection and has fallen into greatness: greatness of fear and greatness of values. Because of them, we were forced out of our time-honored apathy. Bloody tags!

Palestinian activist and blogger, Abir Kopty, writes that no Palestinian will enjoy freedom if it comes on the expense of other people's. She continues:

الشعوب العربية أكثر وطنية من زعمائها، ففي تونس ومصر تعالت الهتافات لأجل فلسطين وصدحت الميادين ب “الشعب يريد تحرير فلسطين” وفي بنغازي رفع علم فلسطين في ساحة التحرير منذ اليوم الأول لتحريرها من القذافي، بماذا يختلف الشعب السوري؟ أليس هو ذات الشعب الذي علمه حزب البعث العروبة والوطنية في المدارس؟

Tunisian blogger, Sarah, also expresses her solidarity with the people of Syria:

Un président qui massacre son peuple parce qu'il a osé lui demander de partir, parce qu'il a osé lui réclamer sa liberté, c'est ce qui se passe en Syrie aujourd'hui et c'est ce qui se passe dans toute dictature. En Tunisie, on en sait quelque chose, et c'est pour cela, que nous tunisiens, sommes de tout coeur avec les syriens qui se battent chaque jour pour leur liberté et pour leur dignité. Et il l'auront un jour, ils paieront le prix fort mais ils l'auront. J'y crois.

Syrian blog, Muammarjiyeh, or the “builders” of Syria, writes:

ثورة تونس صعقتنا! ثورة مصر عطتنا أمل كبير، والمشاعر القومية اللي كان البعث مكرّهنا فيهن اكتشفنا أنّها فعلاً موجودة، وأنو النظام ما بدّو أنو فعلاً نتعاطف مع بعض كشعوب، بدّو نتشارك بغريزة القطيع بس. وكل قطيع على جنب الله يخليك!

Luma, a Syrian blogger based in London, also chose this day to share her feelings about the events in Syria.

Over the past three months, 3 different Syria(s) emerged, the Syria which you see in Al Jazeera, the Syria you see on Addunia TV and the real country that I visited earlier this month and spent most of my short time listening to people and what they had to say, the everyday occurrences and what they’ve been through in the past few months.

So which of the 3 Syria(s) is the real one? Who is demanding what and who is shooting at whom? Unfortunately, truth has been one of the early casualties of these events, followed by reason and the ability to talk across differences and because of that the future Syria was a Syria that does not exist in any form.

Blogger, Furious Syrian, chose to write a letter to his son, to be read in the distant future:

You will probably not remember this, but you were weeks old when I held you in my arms, walked the living room back and forth, tears rolling from my eyes like a young girl, chanting loudly: The people want to topple the regime.

This was the first day I called you with your Syrian name. This was the day when everything changed, and everything kept changing, and life as we know it will never be the same.

And finally, blogger, nuffsilence, dedicates a poem to “Syria and all Syrians under the #Blog4Syria campaign”.

O Syria

How do you feel
As you mourn the loss of your children
How do you plan to deal
With the colossal sadness
With the geriatric madness
Inflicted upon your men of power
The bickering of a household
and its long-neglected woes
The young feminine face
Of your beloved
Forehead furrowed in a question mark:
Why?
Why this late?

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011.

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Abu Fares lashed out on this disturbing trend in a post he called, “The Syrian Private Sector: A Socioeconomic Farce“:

Officially disclosed salaries in the Syrian private sector range from the minimum full-time wage of $125 to $42,000 a month.
…
This is our current state of affairs in a nutshell and 15 years after the government cut the leash and set loose a whimpering private sector in an attempt to help rebuild the dismal economy. What did the rising stars of the Syrian open market and trendy society, the Nouveau Riche and Old Money, the crooks and their offspring, the deserving self-made millionaires and the rarest of them all, the honest entrepreneurs contribute to this country besides sucking it dry of resources, potential and wealth and devastating its environment?

Abu Fares describes several ailments and shortcomings in the private sector, including its complete disregard to social responsibility, the environment and tax evasion.

Ehsani, a Syrian economist based in the US, published a detailed rebuttal of Abu Fares‘ post on Prof. Joshua Landis‘ Syria Comment. In a post titled, “The Sin in Syria is Low Wages“, Ehsani argues that while economic reforms will inevitably leave some people worse off, they are unavoidable and should be pursued even more rapidly by the government. He also proposes that the main problem isn't how much money the better-off could be making, but rather how little money the ones at the bottom are making:

To look at the problem in a different way, we should not be shocked at the bank manager who earns $42,000 a month but the accountant who goes home with only $400 at the end of the month and must face his family. It is not the Four Seasons hotel and its prices that should dismay us but the fact that Damascus only has one 5-star hotel. Dubai has over 70. Similarly, it is not the $170,000 Beemer that should make us angry but the fact that so many Syrians must still ride “battered micro-buses with 9 sweaty (and stinking) passengers” who live below the poverty line.

His proposals at moving forward revolved around reforming the tax code, and introducing strict controls over tax evasion, and eventually for Syria to make a complete break with its socialist history:

Syria will never put its economic house in order unless it makes a clean break from socialism. Introducing vague German economic terminology and saying that we are now a “social market economy” is not enough. For a country with such limited financial resources, our government has no business being in the business of making shoes, cloths, tires, bottled water, beer and 244 other constantly losing establishments. Every manager in charge of these inefficient businesses sees his job as a license to steal and plunder.

In his reply to the post, Abu Fares recalls a personal story about his own experience in the private sector:

Among my more shameful memories is sitting on a board meeting for a new venture, a huge manufacturing plant in Syria, where the main topic of discussion was the hiring of Indian foremen and supervisors because qualified Syrians would not work for the pathetically low salaries the board members were willing to offer.

The debate included many participants in the comment sections of both articles. Alex, commenting on Ehsani's post, says that the Syrian government should listen more, and better, to what its people actually want:

Before we decide to move totally to the right, we need to somehow “ask the Syrian people” how far they want their country to move away from socialism. Proper opinion polls should be conducted instead of relying solely on the opinions of experts (from visiting western bankers, to Baath party representatives in government meetings) who advice decision makers on how and how far to reform.

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A few months ago, Ardroid was launched. Touted as the “first Arabic website” focused on reviews, tips, and tweaks related to Google's new Android OS. The website went into the war of words head on with its reviews of Android phones, and its comparisons to the iPhone and more recently the iPad. Most recently commenting on the latest remarks from Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO and mastermind, about Google:

The response from the Apple community came in quick, with the launch of iPhad - a technology website focused on the iPhone and the newly released iPad. And don't let the striking similarity in design fool you, they also mean business, and just like that in their Statement No. 1, they went on the offense:

And so, the battle begins for the hearts and minds and phones of Syrian and Arab techies.

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Our first stop will be at Hanzala's Departure unto God, where he writes about his decision to quit his job:

We leave Hanzala to ponder the derelict state of Syria's public sector and his decision to quit, and we move to a little more joyful topic.

As with every Friday, the blogosphere was blessed with the new installment of Abufares and Mariyah's Sea Side collaborative story. In Part 29, you'll read:

Yasmina sat down on the couch behind me. Obviously she had seen way beyond the sexy smile.”Oh, Houssam. Oh god, Houssam.” She couldn’t hold back her tears and as she cried her heart out again, I knew that I couldn’t let her down. I would just have to hope that Youssef would forgive me…someday.

“We’ll go in the morning, Yasmina. I’ll be here early. Ok?” I said as soothingly as I could.

And on the topic of love and Valentines, Untold Damascene Stories, the blog of FW Magazine, publishes a report about the commercialization of Valentine's Day on the streets of Damascus:

For Syrians, who also aren’t safe from the hands of commercialism, the rituals of valentine start a month before Feb the 14th. Guys start calling their friends to ask for money; No “man” wants to be caught penniless in front of their girl friends on Valentine’s. Restaurants start preparations with decorations and special offers “For Families Only,” “No single men allowed.” 50 liras red roses magically gain an extra zero, turning to 500 liras. And finally, cell phone companies start spamming their customers with bulk messages, such as: “Send a message to #### with your partner’s name to join the ‘Lover’s Day competition’ or to ‘test your compatibility.’”

Politics is also a featured staple in any conversation, and Syria Comment brings us the latest updates and analysis from around Syria and the world, with the provocative headline of “Has Washington Decided to Focus on Syrian-Israeli Peace?“:

In short, the return of an ambassador is good, but playing along with a peace process that is long on process and short on peace will be difficult for Syria, which has none of the media savvy that Israel has. Damascus undoubtedly fears that Mitchell will ask Syrians to meet with Netanyahu without conditions. Syria believes this is tantamount to normalizing relations without any Israeli concession.

And finally, we'll sit down with Syrian Foodie in London, and finish our tour with a delicious Damascene treat, Ful Nabit:

Ful Nabit is boiled fava beans served with salt and cumin. The seller cart will have huge pot with the beans slowly simmering. The beans are served in a proper glass or china bowls rather than paper wrap or a plastic plate, which I find adds a nice touch. to the experience. You usually get a glass of the cooking stock and half a lemon to accompany your ful. The cooking stock flavoured with salt, cumin and a squeeze of lemon makes a delicious (but not at all pretty) side drink.

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A low rumble in my stomach broke into my daydream as a waft of spices and seafood drifted enticingly by me. I felt as though I hadn’t eaten in days. I looked back through the window and spotted the waitress, resting casually near what appeared to be the kitchen door. She had been immersed in a book but as though she had a sixth sense, she caught my gaze within seconds of it falling on her. She smiled knowingly and approached my table.
“Hungry?”
“Oh, yes! Do you have a menu?”
“Not here. But I’ll tell you what’s being made fresh today.”
“Oh heaven.” I thought to myself and smiled back at her, enthusiastically awaiting her description of dinner.

The story starts out as simple as that. The two writers, who are switching places every week, went from there. We learn about Yasmina, Prof. Youssef's former student and the waitress at Sea Breeze, and Yazan, the nonchalant chef, all to the backdrop of Tartous' marvelous sea side, and Abu Fares‘ and Mariyah's exquisite writing.

When Yasmina was introducing herself my eyes were distracted by the other woman. With delicate fingers, she picked a small hot fish by the tail, dipped it slightly in a bowl of sauce, brought it close to her lips, blew on it to cool it down then swallowed it all, head, bones and tail like a true gourmet. She closed her eyes and swam in her own pool of ecstasy. Then… then with her other hand, she pulled at a lock of hair which went astray in front of her face and shepherded it to join the others behind her ear. It was precisely the way she pulled at her hair that made me utterly defenseless.

We are at Part 16 at the moment, but be sure to catch it from the beginning.

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