The Thinking Person's Blog

I was tagged last week by Arima. This came as a surprise to me, especially since my ideas have turned media these past month. It is a great honour and quite flattering that my ideas do have a resonance in this huge digital scream. In return I will post the blogs that make me think, and the original rules from The Thinking Blog

Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging. I thought it would be appropriate to include them with the meme.The participation rules are simple:
1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

My nominees are as follows:

American Wars: Riliescu doesn't speek nor opinate on his blog. He just collects all the media about nowadays atrocities, clloects it and leave it to ourselves to decide and think about it twice.

Not in His Name: Virgil Johnson is the opposite of Riliescu, the angry activist, fighting the falshood of nowadays society and culture through his words, eager for a world where if not equal, at least we can all call ourselves humans.

Middle East Street: Although I know the Angry Anarchist won another prize, I feel that another one is welcomed and well deserved.

I Cite: Although I'm new to this blog, I find Jodi Dean has some interesting insights about politics, in particular, and life in general.

thoughtstreaming: Troutsky is intelligent, clever and sarcastic. You can get that one from his profile. And from his writings, if you fail figuring the pun.

Desert Peace: Steve is The Activist. He's more dedicated to the Palestinian cause than us Arabs. I fell we should start learning from him. I've said this before, and I'll keep on saying it. He asked for his nomination to be removed, in order for other bloggers to get their chance. I cannot remove him, but I will give accord him a Silver Award.

There are many other blogs I would like to mention, in fact all that are on my blogroll, because, heck, this is why I keep them there.

In Lack of Anything Else to Post...

... I'm posting this pic I took yesterday at Khan Asaad Pacha. I'll be back shortly. Arima, I didn't forget you, I'm sorry for the delay.

Two More

Two more gifts for Syria's Day: featured country this week on National Geographic and an editorial on Syria News acclaiming Independence Day as day of all Syrians, far from religion, ethnicity and political adherence.

Many happy returns!

Happy Birthday, Syria

Today is our National Independence Day as a moden western defined nation. No, I'm not going to be cynical, therefore, I'll dedicate my post to Syria, a country, a "nation", an entity.

Ruins at Ugarit

Palmyra

The Eastern Minaret, Omayad Mosque

Maalula

Passageway, Saidnaya

Romanesque Hall, Craq des Chevaliers

Marqab Fortress

Bougainvillea Garden, Dmascus

Bazar at Night, Damascus

Easter Sermon

Dabke Folcloric Dance

Ficus Trees, Lataquia

Art

Seen Ghost in the Shell Innocence, but still trying to figure it out. If you thought the first one was philosophy, wait till you see this one. I guess I'll have to watch it some other 5 or 6 times to find some tread for solving it. Another fine thing that I enjoyed was it's heavy "film noir" atmosphere which reminded me of Blade Runner, the ultimate SF noir masterpiece, in my book.

Well, I'll leave you with some eye-candies from both films, just a small reminder why Japanese Anime should be glorified. Chapeau!

Red Herring

Sometimes I wonder of my name. Puppeteer. Derived from "Ghost in the Shell" vilain, The Puppet Master, who in fact is anything but a villain, as great Japanese Anime go. You know, the ones who everybody is human, natural and subjected to such human phenomena like change.

But lately, I wonder why haven't I named myself otherwise. Like Red Herring, for instance. Or Ohma, or even Cactus Repubilc Citizen (because we don't have bannanas in Syria, only cactus)... Just a thought.

Islamic... Syria?

I'm having some heck of a dilemma lately. My usual domain of inquiry lies within mythology mostly, it is there that I seek the facts interesting enough to keep me thirsty for more. It is there, quite paradoxically that I sometimes find the most appropriate answers for today's problems. History repeats, isn't it? First time should have been a tragedy, second time definitely a comedy. But a tragic one, nevertheless.
As some things recently clarified some rather obscures issues, some other questions were risen, questions whose answers aren't most likely to be totally satisfying. But I'll leave that for some other post, what I've said until now is more than enough for my introduction.
My way to work each day passes through the transportal (whatever that is) center of Damascus. Ironically, as it weren't enough, that same center is the universitarian center. The Baramke, for non-dhimis. Counting people on my daily routine road, it occurred to myself that women on the streets might be easily categorised. I tried doing so in the following drawing. Anyway, here goes.

P.S. To enlarge, click here.
to be continued...

Breaking News

In an unprecedented way, Colonel Moammar Qaddafi, the Lybian Leader, have won the latest elections with a 99% of votes.

Very Personal Post

I got these by email last night:

Now this one here is the Omayad Square in Center Damascus. This masterspiece of a tunnel took some 6 years until now and is yet to be accomplished. We had a joke back in the 90's with Bush Sr. asking God whether he'll live to see world democracy. I don't think I'll live to see the Omayad Square finished.

April's Fool Beauty King

While talking with Orwa tonight, we bumped into this annoying dilemma: who is more rightful to be crowned Beauty King of Middle Eastern politics? I know mocking some one's physical traits isn't the most orthodox of things, yet, these guys aren't exactly orthodox themselves. So, everybody vote: who should be April's Fool Beauty King of Mid East?