The last several days have involved travel via a number of different modes of transportation. As I noted in my last post, the folks at the Jisr ash-Shughur train station were kind enough to store our bikes for us so that we could ride the train to Damascus to meet up with Adrienne. It was a bit strange to cover the distance we had taken three days to ride (admittedly with some significant scenic detours) in just a few hours. We arrived in Damascus early in the morning the next day, after an uncomfortable night’s sleep on the train. Still, we were in better shape than Adrienne, who had apparently required a little assistance getting to sleep the previous night and was still a bit groggy. Early as it was, we had some difficulty finding some food, so we sat for a bit in a little park, where, just before we got up to leave, the sort of wingnut I’ve rarely encountered outside of Santa Cruz approached us and seemed very much to want to “help” us. He was full of all sorts of praise for the European stock from which he had decided we all came. Despite the fact that some poor Texan was waiting for him, and despite the fact the we clearly weren’t interested in his “help,” he carried on and decided we really needed to know what our names looked like in bad, blocky Arabic and Armenian calligraphy. We eventually extricated ourselves from this self-professed philologist and headed to Mayssun’s house. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘trains’
Intermodal—وصائل النقل المتعددة
Sunday, June 7th, 2009Links for January 29th
Thursday, January 29th, 2009These are my links for January 29th:
- Ezbet Abed Rabbo area: Remnants of houses and soldiers’ presence – There’s no polite way to put it—these people are assholes
- The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب: The Obama Era: Arab hopes or Illusions –
- ‘Draculas’ get their teeth back into lucrative Gaza tunnel operation – “It’s the Israelis who made us need the tunnels, and that’s the real tragedy, that they’ve created this situation where people can capitalize on disaster.”
- Daily News Egypt – RAILWAY WORKERS’ STRIKE PARALYSES MAJOR TRANSPORT ARTERY – It’s always good to see people breaking out of their craft-union ghettos to organize on the basis of industry (in this case, railroad switchmen working with train drivers)
- Pew: Almost half of Americans want to live somewhere else – USATODAY.com – I guess this isn’t entirely surprising, but interesting nonetheless. I’d love to see a similar survey around people’s jobs.
- Egyptians travel to US-Mexico border | Middle East | Jerusalem Post – A little something for you border activism folks
Trip to Upper Egypt & Sudan—رحلة إلى الصعيد و السودان
Thursday, January 29th, 2009Links for January 21st through January 22nd
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009These are my links for January 21st through January 22nd:
- Vacation To Israel Canceled Due To History Of Israel | The Onion – May the boycotting begin
- Alternative history – How would the history read if Germany had won WWII
- DutchNews.nl – Wilders should be prosecuted, says court – Ugh! This is ridiculous. I saw "Fitna" and it was a monumental piece of crap that isn't worthy of this amount of attention. And the timing couldn't be worse. Public opinion in Europe, especially in Scandanavia, appears to be shifting ever more toward sympathy with Palestine and Muslim immigrants and this will do nothing but mobilize the right-wing nut-jobs. Legislating against hate is always a bad idea in my opinion. If you're so keen on legislating something, impose sanctions on Israel. That might make a difference.
- Israel’s bigger battle ahead: its national identity | csmonitor.com – Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups are often criticized for not "recognizing" Israel. This article makes it clear why such groups refer to Israel as "the Zionist entity" rather than a state: it refuses to delineate its geographic boundaries (not mentioned here), refuses to accept Arabs as equal citizens and doesn't even have a constitution. I'm no fan of states, but seriously, you can't have your cake and eat it, too.
- ei: Up to 200 still missing under Gaza’s rubble – "I don't have any feelings any more," said Mohamed Hindi. "The Israelis have managed to destroy everything. Even our emotions."
- Bloomberg.com: Gaza Tunnel Owners Renew Smuggling Under Egypt Border – If they were ever closed down in the first place, the smuggling tunnels are up and running again. They are unlikely to have the capacity to feed and fuel the entire 1.4 million-strong population of Gaza, but it puts the lie to Israel's claims to have aimed to shut down the tunnels and stop the rockets, having either failed in their goals or deliberately mislead the public about their true aims.
- Barack Obama’s inauguration speech … crafted by 27-year-old in Starbucks | World news | The Guardian –
- YouTube – Students occupy LSE – speech to 10.000 in Trafalgar square – London School of Economics students have staged an occupation in support of Gaza and in support of the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanction campaign against Israel
- Train drivers demand promised pay raise, threaten to strike – Daily News Egypt – Sarah Carr reports on one of many labor struggles in Egypt right now
- ei: Israel’s "Dahiya Doctrine" comes to Gaza – Jonathan Cook addresses Israel's goal to "turn back the clock 20 years" in Gaza through the leveling of civilian infrastructure. Learning lessons from the 2006 assault on southern Lebanon, they'll also be impeding reconstruction efforts.