Smiling man under siege

There is a section of Damascus that has been under siege for, like, forever. So no food or medicines have gone in, and lots of people have died. This place is called Eastern Ghouta.

Every once in a blue moon, the United Nations is able to get an agreement to be allowed to send in vital supplies. The government in Syria agrees to this usually only when the number of bodies is really piling up.

Here's someone smiling from his hospital bed in Eastern Ghouta:

 Other parts of Syria, like Idlib, also came under the truce. The people in the city center below were saying that finally, they hear no more airplanes. It's a very nice clock; I'm glad it hasn't been destroyed yet.

Though looks like it has had many close shaves:

A women-run mosque in Denmark

This is also from August 2016.

It was a Danish girl with parents - one Finnish, one Syrian - and she started a mosque with a woman in charge. Her name was Ahlaam. That means 'dreams' in Arabic!

They interviewed her on the BBC Arabic.

She described how people say: you don't live in Arab countries, it's because you've lived in foreign places that you think the women-run mosque is okay.

This is partly true, she conceded. "The Ahlaam of today is not the same Ahlaam of 30 years ago. I lived in Switzerland, and I saw things I wasn't used to in Arab countries. I had to ask myself, why can't I find these things in my religion? I had opportunities and possibilities to think this way.

"But then again, right now, I'm living in Qatar, and I have traveled all over the Muslim world. What I found in Switzerland can also be found in Malaysia, Kashmir - it can already be found among Muslims.

"And I see the youth today looking for a way to live their religion in the world of today."

Abuse in Greek refugee camps

The BBC Arabic did a call-in show about the sexual assaults and child abuse occurring in refugee camps in Syria.

The British newspaper, the Guardian, is the one who had documented the abuse, and the BBC Arabic was just getting people to express their opinions.

They spoke to some refugees living at the camps right now. Mostly, they spoke to Syrians. The first Syrian man said things like: Yes, I know of little girls who have been attacked. And you know what, really, unfortunately, it's really not the Syrian men doing it. It's the Afghanis. I hate to say it, but it is the Afghanis.

The second man to call in from a camp backed up the first: it's the Afghanis, and the Pakistanis, too.

One dad called in and said: I am here in the camps with my kids, I have a little girl, I go with her everywhere, I never let her go anywhere alone, I'm just doing what I have to do to protect my kids.

What a lot of the people calling in said was: the Greek authorities are the ones in charge of keeping the camps safe, like the Greek police. However, when people go to them to report assaults, the police will say: well, what's the evidence, and we didn't see it happen, and where's the proof? Usually, nothing happens to the criminals.

One Syrian called in to say that he saw an attack on a little girl by a gang, he was there as it took place. He added: these gang men were Iraqi, Syrians, and from North Africa. And even though it happened right in front of me, what could I do? They were all armed.

Someone mentioned they knew an Iraqi family whose little girl had been attacked, and they went to the police, who did nothing. Now that family has returned to Turkey, they didn't know what else to do for their daughter. The person telling the story didn't know anything else about it, just that the family had returned to Turkey.

They interviewed a lady who I think works for the UN about the situation. They asked her, what can you all do? And I think she said that they really had already achieved some success on this issue, at least in Jordanian refugee camps. I didn't catch all the details, but apparently they have a pretty sturdy operation there. As far as the Greek camps, I think she said they are still gearing up the programs, and in the meantime, they would urge that there is more community-based approaches, a better recognition of the problems and making sure men understand they should not behave as brutes. The BBC Arabic anchor said to that: I don't think people are interested so much in community awareness, I think they want an official response.

Finally, they also talked about the fact that for the kids getting abused, there is no counseling, there's no trained staff who can help.

Shipwreck on Mediterrean

The BBC Arabic was reporting on a boat that sank full of refugees and migrants.

Here's the ship captain that was close by and stopped to pick up as many passengers as they could:

 Here's a dad who lost his son. He said: I couldn't find him I couldn't find him I couldn't find him I kept calling Hamza Hamza Hamza Hamza there was no Hamza.

Sad news from Syria

Every few days, the BBC Arabic will have a report about all the places that have been bombed within the last two days in Syria. It's always a long list, always many places. On this particular occasion, they were describing all the places that were bombed during the holy Muslim day of Eid.

Here's a bomb falling on Douma, near Damascus:

And here there's tremors in Tiblisa, near Homs:

This girl in Halab (Aleppo) is sharing her Eid wishes:

I wish I could get back to my school and play with my friends and I wish that I could play during Eid, and I hope that the whole world will be happy.

Refugees in Turkey

The BBC Arabic was reporting on how Syrian refugees trying to reach Europe handle their transit through Turkey.

First, they set up camps in the parks:

Then, they hang their laundry in the trees:

There's NGOs handing out food, as long as you wait in line:

There's lot of shops selling life jackets for the treacherous boat ride:

The shopkeepers stock them right alongside the clothes.

This man says that he paid 1200 euros (or dollars?) to the smugglers. Now he's got to pay living costs here. So he has no excess money!

Refugees in Croatia

There are 7000 refugees in Croatia right now. Well, it's a mix of refugees fleeing war and people who better economic opportunities. The BBC Arabic was on the scene.

See the lady in the green scarf below:

I'm pretty sure she was from Syria. She was explaining in Arabic to the BBC Arabic reporter what was happening. "We want to go to Germany," she said, "they're the only ones who take us, we want to study there."

"Why won't the police let you pass?" asked the BBC Arabic reporter, over the shoulder of the police.

"We don't know," was the answer.

Refugees on the move

When the Hungary train station in Budapest was turned into a refugee camp around September 4, I was keeping half an eye only on the BBC Arabic, so I might have missed something. But when I had time to pay attention, they were not. The BBC Arabic was having deep discussions about the crisis in Yemen, or the crisis in Syria. I guess the crisis of a few tens of thousands of refugees in Europe was not as pressing.

By Saturday and Sunday, when the refugees were being let into Austria and Germany, the coverage picked up a little. It was the top story. But if they did any in depth analysis on it, I missed it completely. 

I'm sure they did, though, because the BBC Arabic has been doing in depth shows on refugees in Europe for a long time: here and here.  

Two days ago, they had a short story about some refugees who were able to swim to shore after their boat capsize:

There were others on that boat that died. 

And they were showing the situation in Germany:

Scandinavia in the Arabic news

Yesterday, the BBC Arabic had a Norwegian man in the news, for about 5 seconds:

The man on the left is Jens Stoltenberg. He is the the Secretary-General of NATO.

But today was much better because a Swedish man was on the news, and for a longer time, too!!!

This is Stefan di Mistura. He is the UN envoy to Syria.

He was talking about Russia sending warships to Syria.
The Swedish man said: Russia should be the one to decide when to send warships, it should be the UN.
Then he added: We understand the Russians want to put down Daa-esh (ISIS), but they cannot be beaten by dropping bombs or even by killing fighters. We need to solve the root problems.

A Swedish man talks about Syria at the UN

I am actually very happy, because a few years ago, there was a Swedish man called Åke Sellström who was on the BBC Arabic a lot, because if I remember correctly, he was trying to do something about chemical weapons in Syria.

Now, there is another Swedish man!

His name is Staffan di Mistura. He is half-Italian, but that's okay.

He has been trying to come up with a plan to solve some of the big problems there. He is appointed by the UN.

So they've shown him a couple of times at the UN, and a few days ago, they showed him meeting the foreign minister of Syria.

The nice about Swedish people is: even when they meet evil people, it doesn't rub off on them! But I think that they rub off on other people <3

So here he is:

Safe Zones in Syria, and a Norwegian man Talks about Turkey

They had the man who is in charge of NATO on the BBC Arabic giving a speech.

He is Norwegian. He used to be the Norwegian prime minister.

I don't know if he's really in charge of NATO, but he has a fancy title.

So here he is. He was saying that the attack on the people and army of Turkey in the south of that country was very deplorable.

(Reporters and camera-people rush across the main hall to take photos. )

This is Jens Stoltenberg.

Jens Stoltenberg while someone from the BBC Arabic reports live from Istanbul.

Jens Stoltenberg looks up.

Right, so about this bomb: people in Turkey are very angry about it. Some of them blame the government, I think so there have been riots, which the Turkish police have been attacking:

In the mean, the US announces that together with Turkey, they want to set up a safe, Daaesh-free (ISIS-free) zone in the north of Syria for all the Syrians:

This man gave some insight about what was going on:

He asked: how is this safe zone going to be enforced? Will the US and Turkey send ground troops, or will it be purely through air power? Will the Kurdish armies be allowed a role?

Refugees and who is most unjust towards them

The BBC Arabic spent an hour discussing refugees in the middle of June.

First, they showed these pictures of Syrian refugees who I think were rushing over a fence on the Turkish border. The pictures are entitled: 'What more can be said?'

You can see in the next picture how the 'polis' fence gets knocked down.

They focused on Arab refugees, but they also talked about people fleeing in South Sudan:

They showed the boats that refugees are crossing on, and the shipwrecks, too:

And they talked about the persecuted Rohingya minority in Burma:

Then they started debating. This man was corresponding via video. He said: Europe is lying when it says it wants to help the refugees. Instead of helping, they are actually engaged in military operations in all these suffering countries.

This lady, though, put more of the blame on the Arab countries. She said: all these governments are just going to war and they are awfully corrupt.

The anchor probed her further. He said: Why is it always the West that is blamed? We always seem to blame others. What about our role in the problem?

That's exactly what I was saying, the lady said. But you know, we should also keep in mind that this world has a minority (the West) that has a lot and a majority (everyone else) who has very little.

There was another man in the studio with a bright blue tie:

He said: now that there's internet, Arabs see how other people live. They see the difference, so they want to go to these more modern places.

But, he added, the very dangerous boats that people are crossing the Mediterranean on, the ones that kill so many people - people never took that risk just because they wanted a more western life. They are taking that risk now because there are so many wars and people are desperate. Before all these crises, the people who just were seeking a better life did not take that route.

Then, it was the turn of the man on the video link-up again. He said: Well, it's the West's fault. They act like they are martyrs to all the illegal immigrants, but really, they deal with it in a military way rather than trying to help the people. The EU says it wants to defeat terrorism with their military operations; but they won't help countries like Nigeria and Chad that are suffering from the most of it.

So the BBC Arabic anchor put forth the question: Well, don't you think the EU wants to help, but they know those governments are corrupt and that the money won't go anywhere?

This made the man on the video very mad.

He said: Actually, the UN has said that they will take care of the money transfers, so there's no need to be worried. And also, what about all the refugees arriving in Bulgaria and Italy. Why won't the EU help them?

Then he got even more mad:

And he continued: plus, the total number of refugees in Europe has not reached 100,000 yet (either I misunderstood him, or he was making that number up. I think there's 80,000 Syrians in Sweden alone) and meanwhile, Jordan and Lebanon have millions of refugees each, and they're both poor countries.

Plus, the man on the video added, there's 4 million Syrian refugees total and the EU now says that they'll take 40,000 of them, and that's just not good enough. And the UN is taking care of a lot of people, but no one helps it.

Then it was the turn of the man in the bright blue tie again. He said: What about the supposedly Muslim countries of the Gulf. They haven't taken even one Syrian refugee. (That actually is not true, either. The bloated, baggy-eyed 60-year-old men of the Arabian Gulf have actually taken quite a few Syrian refugees - the 13-year-old girls that they are marrying.)

The BBC Arabic anchor was quite intrigued on this point. He asked: do the Arabic Gulf countries just hate the Syrians, what's going on?

I didn't catch exactly how the man in the blue tie answered him, but it might have been in the affirmative, because he tacked on to the end: there's always been Syrian laborers working in the Arabian Gulf, from even before the war starting. But those laborers aren't even allowed to bring their families over.

Then, the man in the bright blue tie started piling it on:

He said that in Turkey and Lebanon (and maybe Jordan, I'm not sure), they don't even refer to the Syrian refugees as 'refugees'. That's a problem, because designating someone has a 'refugee' comes with certain obligations of having to take care of them and help them. But Turkey and Lebanon just call the Syrians 'guests' or 'displaced people', so they really have no permanent rights. If a new government comes into power in Turkey and has new politics, they can choose to kick all their 'guests' out, because they never labeled them officially as refugees.

Meanwhile, the man on the video link up sat with his head cast down as he listened to bad Muslims who won't treat their fellow Muslim refugees properly:

The lady in the black and white dress added a word about Iraq. She mentioned how in Iraq, the Iraqi citizens of Anbar have been blocked from fleeing to other parts of the country at the very moment when Daa-esh (ISIS) was taking over their towns. So actually the movement of the refugees was restricted inside of the country. And she added that for those who are internally displaced in Syria, they face the same problems that different sects will bar each other from coming into their territories.

And then the lady reminded everyone that 'really, Africa is the forgotten continent'. Apparently, five of the countries with the most refugees are in Africa, and there's no plan and no help for them.

The man in the bright blue tie came back in: It's not just the right-wing parties in the EU who are against helping refugees, but actually, there's really bad movements against refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt. And for example, Jordan still has not provided electricity for its largest refugee camp, the one in Zaatari.

Well, the BBC Arabic anchor challenged him, you know that Jordan is a very poor country.

Sure, said the man in the bright blue tie. But so is Lebanon, and Jordan has fewer refugees than Lebanon. Not to mention that the refugees in Lebanon and Jordan are not even going to school. We must do something so that going forwards, this crisis does not explode into the future.

And the lady in the black and white dress had more stories about bad treatment: It's true that Turkey has taken in lots of refugees, but two months ago they shut the borders and the police were very brutal to those who ended up coming illegally, anyways.

Looks like the man on the video link-up was too embarrassed to say any more. Naw, it was just that he couldn't stay any longer - his spot on the TV is empty!

A refugee is a refugee, the two guests remaining explained: you're not allowed to stop them from coming, like what was done in Iraq with those fleeing from Daa-esh.

Now it was coming towards the end, and they were very despairing at this point, so the question was: Why does all this happen in the Middle East?

Well, said the lady in the black and white dress, because there's no justice in the whole region. It's all corruption, governments don't care. Add to that the religious and political conflicts and there you go.

If that's the case, the BBC Arabic anchor asked her, why should anyone else care?

Because, the lady said, we are all partners on this planet. It's just like with global warming. What affects one affects all. What happens in the Middle East will affect everyone.

And the man in the bright blue tie closed the conversation by saying: if we'd given a strong role to the UN at the very beginning to forge a solution, then we wouldn't have reached this point of four million Syrian refugees.

A Swedish man on the BBC Arabic

There's a Swedish man called Staffan de Mistura who is a diplomat and tries to help make peace. Well, he has Italian ancestry, too, but that's okay.

He was on the BBC Arabic a few weeks ago:

He was condemning really dangerous bombs that everyone in Syrian is dropping on everyone else. The Syrian government, if I remember correctly, was complaining because they claim they aren't the worst actors and why should they be singled out; but the Swedish diplomat was condemning everyone.

The lady at the BBC Arabic who was anchoring the news that evening is right here:

Do you see the glow on her face because she is speaking about a Swedish person? Well, she is the first hijabi anchor on the BBC Arabic. At first, I only saw on her special occasions, like the summer Olympics, or during holidays (last Christmas). Now they've put her on in the middle of the night, too.