The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب : 01/01/2016

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  • Angry Arab: Western media and lamentation about the "Arab spring"
    http://angryarab.blogspot.fr/2016/01/western-media-and-lamentation-about.html

    This is stunning about Western media commemoration of the “Arab spring”: they seem to engage in all sort of theorization and generalizations and explanations about “what went wrong” but oddly they leave out the most important element regarding the “Arab spring”: that Western governments and Israel proved that they will defend the Saudi-led Arab regional order with all the might of NATO.

  • Le ministre de la censure du gouvernement libanais (pardon : « de l’information ») aimerait rien moins qu’un « pacte d’honneur » pour les sites Web.

    http://nna-leb.gov.lb/fr/show-news/55514/Joreige-discute-du-pacte-39-honneur-avec-les-repr-sentants-des-sites-lec

    Le ministre de l’Information, Ramzi Joreige, a rencontré, ce vendredi, le comité constitué des représentants des sites électroniques libanais, afin de discuter d’un pacte d’honneur qui régirait leur travail.

    C’est justement aujourd’hui qu’Angry Arab te fait (encore une fois) savoir où le ministre peut se le carrer, son pacte d’honneur : Saudi King proposes marriage http://angryarab.blogspot.fr/2016/01/saudi-king-proposes-marriage.html

    In this picture, the Saudi King is seen proposing marriage to a little child he spotted while greeting the Chinese president.

  • The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب : Hunger in Madaya
    http://angryarab.blogspot.fr/2016/01/hunger-in-madaya.html

    This passage in an article by Al-Akhbar’s Elie Hanna, who was able to reach Madaya yesterday, sums up the situation (these are the words of one old man in the town): "No one can deny cases of hunger and illness in Madaya: “How don’t we get hungry when the aid is not being distributed adequately, and the siege exists, and the armed men and merchants control the existing commodities and at their prices, said an old man holding a bag containing bushes for heating”.
    “لا ينكر أحد حالات الجوع والمرض في مضايا. «كيف لا نجوع والمساعدات لا توزّع بنحو سليم والحصار موجود والمسلحون والتجار يتحكّمون بالبضائع الموجودة وبأسعارها»، يقول عجوز يحمل بيده كيساً فيه بعض الأغصان «للتدفئة».”
    So some remarks about Madaya:
    1) Yes, there was hunger in Madaya. That can’t be denied.
    2) Those who are responsible for Madaya: the Syrian regime forces and Hizbullah forces imposing the siege; and the various armed groups in the town who basically confiscate all humanitarian aid and either use it for themselves or sell it at exorbitant high prices.
    3) Mocking the hungry in Madya is discpiable: and mocking the suffering of people has become a staple of both sides in Lebanon and in Syria.
    4) Of course, international media ignored the suffering of people in Fua and Kafrya, and Nubul and Zahra, because the civilians there are not residing in the “liberated” areas of Syria.
    5) The armed groups in Madya and their supporters grotesquely exploited the suffering of the people in Madya either by showcasing little children and elderly and forcing little children to hold political signs and also by adding pictures that are not from Madaya. The propaganda of Syrian armed groups has no respect for truth; it never has.
    6) Hizbollah’s statement on the matter of Madaya was rather pathetic: it basically used the typical Israeli Zionist line “about how armed groups are hiding behind women and children”: even if that is the case, that should not deny aid to the people. On the contrary: it requires more aid. Also, the notion that aid was delivered in November is a silly response: if there is a need for more aid (even if the reason has to do with confiscation by armed rebels) there should be more aid, no matter.
    7) Not one side in the ugly Syrian war has clean hands. This is a filthy war which dirties the hands of whoever enters it.
    8) Please spare me the fake sympathy of Lebanese March 14 journalists: the March 14 coalition in Lebanon is in charge (through its Minister of Social Affairs, Rashid Dirbas) of handling the Syrian refugees in Lebanon and not one in that camp is protesting the mistreatment and injustices inflicted on Syrian refugees: from blatant racism to imposed curfews on Syrians in Lebanon.

    #madaya

    • Dans Beirut West Beirut de Ziad Doueiri (1998), il y a cette scène vers la fin : les gens font la queue pendant des heures chez le boulanger pour avoir du pain, le boulanger rationne (sagement) à un sac de pain par personne. Arrive le milicien local, qui passe devrant tout le monde avec son fusil mitrailleur, et au motif qu’il « défend ce quartier », exige 20 sacs de pain immédiatement. Une altercation s’ensuit.

      Les Libanais savent mieux que quiconque que, si tu assièges une population en l’enfermant avec sa propre milice, les miliciens ne tarderont pas à exploiter la population. Si le Hezbollah a un « problème de communication », et croit pouvoir rejeter toute la faute du siège de Mayada sur les miliciens qui sont à l’intérieur de la ville, il est mal parti.