No one can remain untouched by the current assaults against civilians in Syria. Most people, too, I believe, when confronted with what increasingly seems to be an escalating genocide on the country’s own citizens, are struck by what must be deemed the really evil paradox of our media society. We witness. We know what is taking place. We have very small means of preventing the occurring events. Those of us who remember Rwanda in 1994 recognize this situation.
This is perhaps not the arena for speculations about the world’s intervention or not. However, the fact that we know what is happening and what is being done to people—in detail—is simultaneously both a source of despair and perhaps the most hopeful aspect of the situation. That we are reached by the voices and images of those who live in the epicentre of oppression is a fact that puts high demands on us. The Dissident Blog wants to be a link in the chain of all these voices. In this issue we hear the voice of Manhal al-Sarraj, a Syrian poet, who—in detail—describes the dilemma of the evil paradox: what knowledge dare I share with others? How do I manage the feelings of impotence that come from being allowed a look into the locus of the violence? And do we fully understand all the fragmented pictures and messages that reach us through still rather unrefined information channels?
