The incredible story behind the Syrian protest singer everyone thought was dead
▻http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/syria-civil-war
Vous avez aimé la Gay Girl of Damascus ? Voici maintenant Qashoush, le faux poète de la révolution égorgé par le régime ? (Il y a des travaux universitaires sur son oeuvre, en France !) Bientôt peut-être on connaîtra l’histoire de la petite Twitteuse (anglophone) d’Alep, et même peut-être celle des enfants aux ongles arrachés de Deraa. Ca nous rappellera les bébés dans les couveuses de Koweït City, entre autres. #propagande #syrie
So how come a blatantly false story went around Syria and the world? “I don’t know who spread the rumour,” Farhood told me, with uncharacteristic irritation. “I hope I find him.” But it was someone from the Local Coordinating Committees, the new- media-friendly opposition outfits receiving ad hoc support from the US and other western governments, who was quoted in newspaper articles in support of the story.
The Syrian conflict was the first real YouTube war, where much of what we see comes via the grainy lens of a smartphone. Early on in the uprising some of Syria’s activists had put their faith in it to get their message out. They were encouraged to do so by foreign governments and well-meaning NGOs. As the vogue for “media activism” in western capitals developed, scores of young Syrians were invited to Turkey and paid up to ten times the Syrian national wage to make new media against the Syrian regime. None of it did their revolt any good. The resulting wall of made-for-YouTube agitprop compromised many young politicos and distracted them from the hard work of persuading their fellow Syrians away from the devil they knew. And in the end, when faced with the might of the Syrian regime and war-hardened Islamists, it turned out to be a very weak weapon anyway.
