By Hazim Bitar via Golaniya.
"Two hours north of Amman, Jordan, an Arab Hollywood is emerging, in Damascus, Syria. Along with it, a flurry of digital filmmaking activities is starting to give Syrian New Cinema shape.
Syria is the Arab country with the most developed cinema and audiovisual production infrastructure east of the Mediterranean. Syrian TV drama has dominated Arab TV screens over the last decade with no contender on the horizon."
| Permalink | 
83 Egyptians who entered Syria illegally are on their way back home.
The group was arrested, and it's claimed they were on their way - illegally - into Turkey and then to Italy. They entered Syria through the Jordanian border, and were detained a week ago.
Syrian, Jordanian and Egyptian gangsters helped them through. And it was claimed the gangsters were demanding a ransom from the families - that's being denied by Egyptian authorities.
An Egyptian newspaper says the father of one of the men claimed his son went to work in Jordan where a Jordanian convinced him to travel to Italy. The gang demanded $1700 which the father paid. He promised him the boy would be released in Lebanon. He has not been heard of since.
| Permalink |
The UN says the world is in denial about the Iraq refugee crisis in Syria and Jordan. Both countries have asked for more help.
Syria hosts about 1.2 million, and Jordan has 800,000.
The UN praised Syria for its work, and the US even sent a top level government minister to discuss the problem.
| Permalink |
This from As'ad.
Priorities of the Muslim Brotherhood.
I expressed my contempt for the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood a few days ago. Today, they made strong statements against the Jordanian government.
They said that the government is:
1) neglecting the Arabic language in some official functions;
2) encouraging students to gravitate toward pornographic websites.
These are the worries of the Muslim Brotherhood. What do you expect from an organization that was raised by the colonial powers and their clients in the region.
Labels: Jordan, Muslim Brotherhood, Reform Party of Syria, reformists/dissidents
| Permalink |
Jordan has put in place tough new entry requirements which effectively ban Iraqi refugees.
They require Iraqis to have a new style passport which is only available at one location in Iraq, and only for a huge bribe.
Jordan already had restrictive entry requirements before today's effective ban.
Jordan and Syria are struggling under the weight of Iraqi refugees, and the UN has asked the international community to provide them with support. That support still hasn't arrived.
It comes just weeks after Syria tightened its visa rules - previously any Iraqi could stay in Syria as long as they wanted. Now Syria requires Iraqis go through the usual visa process which all other foreigners have to.
Kuwait, Iran and Saudi Arabia banned Iraqi refugees many years ago.
The US has taken just 700 Iraqi refugees in the past 4 years.
| Permalink |
