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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Damascus, Arab Cultural Capital for 2008: A fitting title

Damascus welcomes 2008 as the cultural capital of the Arab world.

While this may be amazing - considering the Syrian regime's track record, I find that it is a fitting title in an Arab world where the pervasive ruling culture is that of oppression of the masses, repression of dissent, stifling of freedoms, incarceration of liberals, persecution of intellectuals and brutal crack downs on opposition, not to mention political assassinations.

If the "culture" that permeates the Arab ruling classes is to be celebrated, then what better capital than Damascus.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

seems the author here doesn't know damascus nor its rich culture.
very shallow sentnces reflect the narrow mind the author has. i advice u to visit or revisit damascus these days and experience its diversity, richness, peacefulness and charmness..so you can stop your mouth from saying and generlising very untrue and misleading words.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
R said...

you clearly missed the point of the post. Somehow you stopped your mind from listening :). What I said is neither untrue nor misleading.