This focuses on the tragedy but is unrealistic about the social reality. Syria has been loaded with sectarian divisions and strife for thousands of years. Many of the clans fighting in this war have been in conflict for very long periods of time already. The quote peace unquote that existed in Syria did so in large part because the leadership had so aggressively murdered its detractors. It is true that much has been lost, but it is false that this is all some kind of strange mystery that was put upon Syria from the outside. Conflicts festered in Syria for a very long time and eventually without adequate solutions bubbled over and initiated this catastrophe.
What was Syria like before the war
201–210 of 213 posts
Re: What was Syria like before the war
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
From a "I think it's more technical" to "I think it's less technical" order: * This website uses fullPage.js [1], which is a widely used javascript library for such full screen presentation (for instance Apple use it in their Mac Pro promo page [2]). You can get around it's API if you know a little HTML and a little javascript, but it's still a lot of manual work. And the neatier features are locked behind a (totally…
There was a huge discussion of scrollytelling (company creating propitiatory interactives with Pageflow) accusing Al-Jazeera of using their code: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12524998 https://www.scrollytelling.io/al-jazeera.html That's when I learnt about Pageflow.
Hi paradite.
Pardon the late reply, I have set up fairly aggressive noprocrast settings which means that I am not always in a position to reply immediately.
Pageflow is especially neat: the pages load fast, the pricing is friendly, and the company can self-host the page. Thank you for taking the time to reply- will be checking this out with my buddy over the weekend.
PetitPrince also provides appealing options, some more noob friendly than the others... I will take the time to download the git repos and see just how successful I can be installing/deploying the code.
All in all, thank you guys for reaching with helpful suggestions.
Re: What was Syria like before the war
#203For the record: I don't think that Mid-East is ready for democracy yet (the majority wouldn't support basic human rights IMO) so the biggest mistake was for the "West" to support the Arab Spring. Yeah, those dictators were bad, but they were predictably bad. Nature abhors vacuum and radical Islam is filling in. P.S. I don't care about down votes.
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14410329 and marked it off-topic.
Re: What was Syria like before the war
#204Meta-commentary: This is one of the more fascinating threads I have seen on HN. It seems to parallel many of the problems with political discourse in the world today - maybe it's always been like this, but I'm not old enough to know. I would break down the comments into several types: 1) conspiracy theorists who believe in some secret cult that is unilaterally organizing everything 2) trolls - state sponsored or othe…
Don't forget 6) agenda driven propagandists like you...
We've banned this account for making personal attacks despite our asking you to stop.
I agree with you that people are far too quick to cry 'troll' and that it's not a legit move unless there's evidence. But that doesn't mean you can personally attack people and expect not to get banned here.
Re: What was Syria like before the war
#205For the record: I don't think that Mid-East is ready for democracy yet (the majority wouldn't support basic human rights IMO) so the biggest mistake was for the "West" to support the Arab Spring. Yeah, those dictators were bad, but they were predictably bad. Nature abhors vacuum and radical Islam is filling in. P.S. I don't care about down votes.
I strongly agree. I want to add to that to say that democracy doesn't work anywhere, not even in the US.
Democracy works by people choosing their key decision makers i.e. people who decide what happens with the tax money. People who market themselves better win the elections. Someone who has interest in the tax money (for the money itself or anything else it can buy eg. protection) can invest in the marketing... who if they win find ways to channel tax money to the investors. This is an issue in fairly stable and strong economy like the US. Imagine how much worse it is in smaller weaker economies.
Re: What was Syria like before the war
#206Re: What was Syria like before the war
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
Too many people believe in the movie version of the American revolution.
God I agree, can you imagine how Ethan Allen would be covered today? I don't know enough to have a side in the Syria conflict, but man, the Green Mountain Boys weren't so far off from a lot of modern non-state actors.
Google tells me he's a furniture store these days.
(I'm a Brit, so my knowledge of the American Revolution is cobbled together from popular media, Sid Meier's Colonization, Wikipedia, anti-colonialist literature, and a trip to Boston. The latter led me to believe it was mostly about lobsters. This may or may not be more accurate than what's taught in US schools)
Re: What was Syria like before the war
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
If I tell you that I'll give you weapons and support "should you decide to rebel", am I "orchestrating" or "helping"? Semantics.
If you don't tell me such a thing during the months of planning before the war starts, you aren't orchestrating anything. It's not semantics, sometimes people happen to rebel without it being the machinations of a foreign power.
I think most people would strongly disagree if these things make the difference between success and failure of a rebellion.
I would strongly disagree regardless of that factor. If there's a realistic chance it'll make a difference, I would say you're orchestrating things. Even if not, it still is.
There are always people looking to rebel. For all sorts of reasons. Injustice. Ethnic alliances (esp. popular in Africa). Regional alliances (e.g. Catalonia, and the Balkans in general: the cities want to secede from their countries). Religious differences (esp. one particular religion, but not exclusively). And some want to purely for personal gain (famously in South America).
Even when there is no chance of making a difference. You could say yesterday's attack in Manchester was carried out as a rebel act, to get the UK to govern itself according to the islamic religion. That is certainly a true statement, even if very unpopular. Providing material support for such things is definitely orchestrating, even though it has essentially zero chance for success.
Re: What was Syria like before the war
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you don't tell me such a thing during the months of planning before the war starts, you aren't orchestrating anything. It's not semantics, sometimes people happen to rebel without it being the machinations of a foreign power.
I think most people would strongly disagree if these things make the difference between success and failure of a rebellion. I would strongly disagree regardless of that factor. If there's a realistic chance it'll make a difference, I would say you're orchestrating things. Even if not, it still is. There are always people looking to rebel. For all sorts of reasons. Injustice. Ethnic alliances (esp. popular in Africa).…
The Spanish Civil War wasn't, to quote OP, a "grass-root movement engineered" by Hitler; it was a failed coup.
Both Hitler and the British intelligence offered logistical help to the rebels. The coup was already planned for months by the generals, and they were just waiting for the appropriate time to strike. The moment came when the police murdered Calvo Sotelo, not when the Nazis and British encouraged them.
Re: What was Syria like before the war
#210I covered what it was like growing up in Syria before the war with fellow software developer Nada in my podcast if you'd like an in depth answer from an actual Syrian: https://mattfraser.co.nz/2017/04/08/s1e1-syrian-woman-nada/
Thanks for this. It's always great to hear personal experiences.
I read an interview of a female architect still living in Syria. If anyone has a source, I would appreciate it.
If I recall correctly, she said what follows. I hope I am not putting words into her mouth.
She had been urged to get out of the country. She chose to stay as she wanted to be involved in rebuilding her city.
She criticised those who wanted to go back to what it was like before the uprising. She said that all was not nice in the past.
She pointed to the corruption in the exam system. She pointed to the fact that people could not travel freely throughout the city, as different parts of the city were controlled by different factions.