Watching on TV the Egyptians demonstrate peacefully in their hundred of thousands in order to take up their Revolution once more, I go back in my mind to the beginnings of the Syrian Revolution. The world, especially the world media have decided for some time now to treat the Syrian Revolution as a civil war inspired by sectarianism, overrun by Jihadists and salafis, bearing the mark of Cain and practicing cannibalism, thus endangering the safety of the geopolitical powers, which in their opinions legitimizes stigmatizing or condemning this Revolution.
Forgotten are the quests for freedom and social justice, the dreams of establishing a democracy and a civil society free of despotism and based on equality and justice for all. The present, no matter how bitter it has become, does not cancel the past. A people’s history is a continuous flow that cannot be altered by forgetfulness, distortions, and attempts at remaking reality. If what is, claims reality ,then what was is also real. The bitter truth is that the terrible untold violence, which the world has failed to stop, unleashed by the Syrian regime against its unarmed civilians because they dared to demonstrate asking for change, the truth is that this violence destroyed Syria, the children of Syria, the people of Syria and the history of Syria. When entire cities , neighborhoods villages and farms are reduced to rubble and debris, the jackals roam freely and all the evils, hatreds, crimes and cruelties mankind are capable of are let loose. Death unbound is death victorious.
One of the greatest poems I have ever read is entitled The Second Coming (1919) by W. B. Yeats. It contains all the wisdom needed to understand the plight and the tragedy of Syria and the Syrians at this juncture of history. Yeats was Irish.
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Perhaps it is nostalgia or mainly the desire to reinstate the truth that is motivating me to post the following images of the Revolition at its onset in 2011 and the beginning of 2012.
Peaceful demonstration: Hama 2011
Peaceful demonstration forming the colours of the Revolution flag
There was a time when the people sang and danced in the streets for love of freedom, unity and peace.
Kafarsusa, Damascus, 2012. Image by a citizen journalist
Homs 2012
Homs 2011
Lest we forget and the world forgets
From the Revolution archives
There was a time when the people dreamed of one Syria, free from despotism, injustice and sectarianism. They wanted to be free so that their children might have a future full of promise and dignity.
From the Revolution archives.
Yes there was a time ,and let us never forget, there was a time ,even when the killing started, there was a time when we loved Syria, all of Syria and its people and wished to live together in peace. The Syrians did not choose violence but violence was thrust upon them.
From the Revolution archives
Hama at the beginning of the Revolution, demonstrating despite memories of annihilation, butchery and destruction by the regime in the past. Is that what frightened the regime to death and drove it to unleash all its vengeance and violence ,not on one city this time but on any city which demonstrated peacefully all over Syria.
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Hama 2011
- The peaceful demonstrations ended with the annihilation of man, stone and all life. A work of art by Alisar Iram. Based on images posted by activist to Facebook
- All other images were posted to Facebook, or obtained from Wikipedia images and You Tube
alisariram 