Reflection Time

No fear!!

I'll still be posting about Hana and Abdulhadi and all that stuff, but for this post, I wanna focus a bit on what it is that Mike and I are doing with this blog, and what's going on in the Middle East with social media and everything.  So I'll probably be a little more informal than I already am.

So, from the three stories that we've followed closely - Hamza Kashgari and his offensive tweets, Abdulhadi Alkhawaja and his human rights activism, and Hana Shalabi and her arrest, freedom, and rearrest - let's assess what we've gathered (keep in mind that these three people were all imprisoned for WILDLY different things and were each held captive in different countries and prisons).

Hamza Kashgari: a perfect case of lack of censorship gone wrong.  I think Mike or I had mentioned how Twitter was gonna start censoring offensive tweets in countries where they would be considered offensive.  Had Twitter gone, "Tweets about the Prophet Mohammad? Might not wanna let Saudi Arabia see those," then Kashgari would never have been arrested and nearly executed for them.  And now he's supposedly being released from jail.

I'm just like this entire mess could've been avoided had Twitter actually decided to censor these tweets.  They promised to, and didn't really deliver.  But don't blame Twitter for that; I'm under the impression that the tweets need to be reported to be censored.  Seriously, though, as interesting as this story is (and i wish they were still writing more about it), the basis behind it is kinda stupid.  Well, stupid isn't the right word.  I'm trying to say that the entire arrest, attempted-execution, tweets, EVERYTHING about this story could've been avoided had Hamza thought about the effect his tweets would have on people, or had Twitter, Saudi Arabia, ANYONE censored these tweets, the entire thing could've been avoided.  Go censorship?

Abdulhadi Alkhawaja: civil rights activist sentenced to life in prison now on day 36 of his hunger strike.  Last April (2011) he was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Bahrain uprisings.  Why he was arrested, I'm still unclear on.  He'd been leading peaceful, pro-democracy protests all across Bahrain.  Nothing like that warrants an arrest.  Then, on April 9th, he was beaten, arrested, and tortured before being sentenced to life imprisonment.  Alkhawaja had already been threatened and harassed before his arrest, but because he felt so strongly about democracy and helping move Bahrain in a direction that he believed bettered the country.

And now, he's on hunger strike, protesting his arrest.  Unfortunately, no one has been taking a real interest in him.  I mean, his family is focusing on trying to get him released, and so are other activists and his support groups and myself, but he still needs the media to bring attention to his hunger strike.  He can barely stand now, and he's only been on hunger strike for five weeks.  Khader Adnan was on strike for 66 days; I'd hate to see what Alkhawaja will look like if he even makes it that long.

I read somewhere that the revolutions in the Middle East aren't Twitter revolutions, or Facebook revolutions, or even YouTube revolutions.  There revolutions of the people.  But when people who wanna help can't make it over there to help, or are still a little too young to make a difference, you have to reach out and help others over there in the only way you can at the moment: through social media.  Bringing awareness to Alkhawaja's strife is still putting him in the spotlight, so people can do something about it.  And it's hard to get people to listen and care enough to help  him, and even if you do care it's still hard to actually do something about it.  Right now, I'm trying to spread awareness about him.  That's the same thing that I'm trying to do with Hana.  Until I can raise money, or travel over to Bahrain, Israel, Palestine, or wherever, this is my contribution.

And now, last but certainly not least, Hana Shalabi:
http://freehana.org/
Just a little website telling you to write to Obama about Hana.  A good idea, but I don't want Mr. President to have the same reaction that Andy Carvin had about people bombarding his @ mentions with people trying to get him to cover Alkhawaja (he'd already been doing so and people were complaining that he was ignoring Alkhawaja's cause).

I've been researching and googling and doing all these things to try and figure out why Hana was arrested, and the only reason I can come up with is that she was a member of the Islamic Jihad.  Yes, I know that members of the Islamic Jihad are usually viewed as terrorists, but just because you support their cause doesn't mean you deserve to be arrested, beaten, and starved (even if that last bit is your own choice).

Let's have a little reflection now.  I feel like I'm running my mouth on these stories, and I'm telling people, and I know that people are reading the leslieandmik blog, but I don't know if I'm reaching anybody.  I don't want people to think that this is just a high schooler's blog; I want them to read it, think it's interesting, and tell their friends.  Then I want those friends to think it's interesting, or horrible (the subject, not my writing!) and tell more people.  With everyone sharing what they've learned with others, then we're closer to informing more people, and then ALL those people can work with me and Bahrain and Palestine and whoever to try and free those in jail who shouldn't be.

I just want to know that this isn't just me typing and hoping for the best.  This blog/protect/combo thingy will never be finished.  Social media is always changing, and as a result so will the Middle East.  And, you know, the world. 

I mean, just from researching my blog posts I'm already more informed.  And I'm going out and tweeting and telling other about what's going on.  Fingers crossed that the letters, blogs, tweets, everything get heard, and actually make a difference over there.

Leslie out!
@see_you_sLATER
I feel like the end of this post took a slightly depressing turn, and I'm sorry about that.  I just want people to be as invested in this as Mike and I are.