Stuck in Memories

Damascene Words

There are numbers in my head, that I’ll never forget.

One day, Damascus was cold and my eyes witnessed a river of bloodshed in Abbaseyyin square, Dimashq. A random bomb hit the capital, accidentally, because it was supposed to explode in the rural areas where poor people live. Yeah, sorry! We don’t kill rich people who serve the government and worship the president.Ignorance is the major factor that divided Syrians into millions of different groups.It’s all because of the Assad family who established an authoritarian government under the control of the Ba’ath party since 1971.

‎”الأسد او نحرق البلد“Which means, “Either Assad or We’ll Burn the Country.”

“Either Assad or We’ll Burn the Country”, Damascus. That was their way to force the civilians to say “لاالهالابشارالاسد” which means, “There’s no God but Bashar al-Assad.”

Two examples of how this government poisoned…

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Men in the Sun – Ghassan Kanafani

Manar Darkazanli ARAB 325- GMU Seraj Assi 12/4/2017 Palestinians are Refugees Today and Tomorrow      “Those big clean fruits were beloved objects on [their] eyes” (Kanafani 77). Ghassan Kanafani, the author of Men in the Sun and The Land of Sad Orange, was one of the most talented Arabic prose writers who was born …

Nizar Qabbani – The Greatest Love Poet

One of the most beautiful pieces in the Arabic literature history. Qabbani is originally from Syria, and lived his whole life loving the one and only woman who died at a young age.

Definitive Thoughts

Over the past month, I’ve been reading a great deal of Nizar’s work. Nizar, for those of you who don’t know is a poet of Syrian decent. The Labanese Daily Star best described him when they wrote that his poetry is  “more powerful than all the Arab regimes put together.”

Nizar wrote about love in all its forms and its resulting consequences in a time and place where love, in its most primal (if that even exists) form, was an extremely taboo subject. And to be fair to the region, he wrote some ‘racey’ pieces even by today’s standard. I don’t really want to make this post about Qabbani, not that he doesn’t deserve one, but instead I’d like to share with you 17 pieces of poetry (some of which are only excerpts) that I enjoyed a great deal. Do keep in mind that he wrote in Arabic and as…

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ليس سرابا-Not a Mirage

و أخذ يسير على مهل بين أضواء دمشق و شجرها و بشرها ..فكر كل شي ها هنا جميل، لكن ثمة شيء ما يشوب هذا الجمال لعله شيء من الحسن، لعله شيء من البحث عن الذات عن ذات هذه المدينه العتيقة نعم انها تدرك روحها و هويتها و تتغنى بأصالة يحق لها أن تتغنى بها ..لكن …

Diarrhoea is a Killer

Manar Darkazanli Graduation GCH- GWU Lyons, K. (2017, June 02). Diarrhoea kills half a million children globally, shows Lancet study. Retrieved June 29, 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/jun/02/diarrhoea-kills-half-a-million-children-globally-shows-lancet-study   Description of the global health issue/problem what is being done or could be done to address the global health issue discussed: This guardian article reported a study by …

The Highway to Dimashq

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKIo7iiOhPA&feature=youtu.be

Haiti and Water Sanitation

Manar Darkazanli Summer 2017 internship GMU Abstract Since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010, the low quality of water sanitation has exacerbated. This has resulted in Haiti having the lowest rates of improvements in water infrastructure in the Western hemisphere, according to the 2012 report by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. …