Remember about Syria and Yemen

by Jérôme E. Roos on July 5, 2011

Consumed as we may be by austerity and financial crisis, let’s not forget that the most epic battle for freedom is still being fought in the Middle East.

Sometimes I wish I could lead multiple lives. Or at least work with multiple people. But since I’m still running this blog mostly by myself, I’ve had to limit myself to one specific cause, which was first the Arab Spring and has now become the European Summer.

But despite all the attention we’ve been paying to the protests in Spain, Greece and elsewhere in Europe, we haven’t forgotten about our courageous brothers and sisters in Syria, Libya, Yemen, Egypt, Morocco, Palestine and elsewhere — everywhere — where people continue to fight for freedom and dignity.

(Sidenote: if you are interested in contributing articles on the Arab Spring, please contact us here).

I remember when I attended a roundtable discussion on the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions in their early stages, somewhere in January. At the table was an activist from Syria. His name was kept secret from the audience and no one was allowed to take any photographs of him. When someone did put a picture up on Flickr, the director of the lecture hall stormed into the discussion ordering the photographer to immediately remove the photo.

At that point, it was clear that the Syrian activist’s life was in danger. I have no idea what he is up to right now, or if he is even still alive, but the situation made an impact. By then, the Syrian activist held that Syria would be the toughest nut to crack of all. So far, he seems to have been right — although Yemen is definitely up there as well.

I just wanted to share these two videos I encountered. The first one is of an anti-Assad protest in Syria on July 1st. I cannot independently confirm the location of the protests, but they are truly breathtaking in scope:

The second video from Yemen I encountered a few weeks ago. The video, aptly called ‘Yemen: the mother of all revolutions’, is truly mind-blowing:

Please don’t forget about our brothers and sisters who are risking (and often losing) their lives for democracy in the Arab world. They need our support and continued attention for their cause. One world, one struggle.

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