The Best of Tharwa's Arabic Reports
|
Tharwa Reports
|
Damascus Team
 DAMACUS -- The sidewalks adjacent to the local markets are usually lined with impoverished vendors who display their shabby wares along with their own shabby clothes and miserable countenance. This is the place for desperate vendors. However, when we entered Al Kanawat area, we found only one vendor. After investigating, we discovered that the police had cleared the vendors from the area because they consider their presence an eyesore similar to garbage and rubbish on the street. |
|
Damascus Team
 DAMASCUS -- Average admission rates at Syrian universities have become much more competitive over the past few years. Students are required to have higher exam marks in order to be accepted both in the schools and into their preferred majors. Yet if average admission rates have become more competitive, some students are allowed to coast through untouched by the increased demands. Those students who have the right connections, most notably the sons of professors and affiliates of the Youth Revolution Union, can get into schools and majors with substantially lower exam marks than their peers. As a result, qualified students, with higher marks, are often denied access to university, or to their preferred field.
|
|
Damascus Team
 DAMASCUS -- In Arabic, there is a phrase that describes the moment when a blooming rose begins to wither and die. This phrase is khourbet al warid, and it seems an appropriate description for this neighborhood, where dilapidated houses droop over the streets. Dust coats every surface and turns the faces slightly grey. Uncovered holes blight the streets and sidewalks. Houses in the district have eroded beyond repair.
|
|
Damascus Team
 DAMASCUS -- Najha is an isolated district outside of Damascus, ridden with poverty and waste. Most of its inhabitants have been forced into the area by war, homelessness, or exile.
|
|
Damascus Team
 DAMASCUS -- The refugee camp of Khan Sheih is located on the Damascus Qunaitera highway, about twenty kilometers outside of the city center. A mixture of Palestinian refugees, Golan refugees and Syrian immigrants inhabit the Khan Sheih camp.
|
Sobhi Muhammad, Professional Journalist
Monday, June 9, 2008
 A regime can be judged by four things. It can be judged by the extent to which it achieves economic and social development; by the level of freedom and dignity it provides for its citizens; by the extent to which it secures decent, stable living conditions and the extent to which it promotes cultural and scientific standards. The ostensible purpose of a regime, of any regime, is not to in remain power while offering empty slogans. Its purpose is not to loot public money. Nor is its purpose to humiliate its citizens, as is the case with the Syrian Baath and his Arab brothers from Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, all the way to Algeria and Morocco. We can barely find an exception for this type of regime in the Middle East.
|
 DAMASCUS -- One of the greatest difficulties faced by families in the developing world, far too many children are deprived not only of the most basic physical necessities, but of their very childhood.
|
 DAMASCUS -- In the Naher Aisha district, located near the southern entrance to Damascus, things are hard. The residents of this district, like many in Syria, are preoccupied with numbers. Prices and percentages are sprinkled in every conversation. As one resident, Mr. Bushra, puts it, the rising price of goods is the most popular topic of conversation among the people. |
|
 DAMASCUS --
Piles of garbage stretch up toward the sky, supported by the walls of alleys and buildings in Al-Dokhania, a district outside of Damascus. For the residents of this district, the smell and the sight of garbage has become a part of everyday life. To some residents, it is now the prominent characteristic of the district.
|
 DAMASCUS -- The Al-Bayader quarter is located near Al-Dahadeel’s district, south of Damascus. The economic situations of most of the residents of the Al-Bayader quarter have deteriorated beyond repair. Two such residents are Mrs. Mohammad and Mrs. Wael. Both women struggle to support themselves and their families. |
 Azzam Al-Turkmani, professional journalist Monday, May 26, 2008
A month has passed since the latest Ba’athist “act of generosity,” which caused an incredible increase in the price of goods and necessities. This is best evidenced by the current bread crisis, which can be witnessed by a trip to any overcrowded bakery. Unfortunately, the long lines at bakeries seem likely continue.
|
Damascus Investigative Team
DAMASCUS --
Tabab is an area populated by rusted and decrepit structures, dirty children, and exhausted faces. Matchbox-like structures, called homes by those who can’t afford anywhere else to live, sprawl out across the entire quarter. The people in this area live under immense stress and pressure, struggling to survive, to find food for themselves and their family. Yet the people of Tabab, though exhausted, have somehow managed to find a calm coexistence even in the middle of such a volatile area. |
Amjad Al-Shami, Human rights advocate and lawyer
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
 Ever since the Islamic revolution of Ayatollah Khomeini and the raising of the Palestinian flag over the Israeli Embassy in Tehran, it has been obvious that the new Iranian regime, with its Islamic influence, believes that showing hostility towards the United States of America and Israel is the most effective way for them to achieve Iranian interests in the region. The Iranian regime believes that their aggressive approach will pave the way for the restoration of the Persian Empire and make the Persian dream of controlling the Arab region, particularly Iraq, a reality. This Persian dream has been alive and well since the days of the Persian King Khosrau. |
|
Firas Muhammad Ali, Student
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
 DAMASCUS --
Calling a place a “market of thieves” does not necessarily mean it that shelters a group of thieves. Nonetheless, it is a good description for this market – such a name, after all, does give the impression that one would be unlikely to find any licensed, authentic, or legal goods in this market! It is well known that the all too famous “thieves’ market” lies behind the bend of al-Tharwa bridge, in the heart of Damascus.
|
|
Azzam Al-Turkmani, Professional journalist
Monday, July 21, 2008
DAMASCUS --
At a time when all (civilized) countries of the world pay attention to their heritage - including traditional professions - we find that, in Syria, these traditional professions have become endangered and are now on the verge of extinction. Many shops which still employ traditional professions are now marked for demolition.
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 Next > End >>
|
|
Page 3 of 5 |
|
