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A Syrian Rap song has been circulating among my friends; it cynically and brilliantly criticizes the Syrian regime’s repression of protesters. Similar to other pictures and media that capture the protests and its related dynamism, the song has been widely shared on social networking sites.
We express what we think, for example in a status on Facebook, because we simply need to exist not to be silent. And, that is exactly what the Arab protestors have done. Most of them are youth with high-tech skills who share the eagerness for change; the kind of change that the Syrian rap band seeks.
The band combined the song lyrics with photos exposing the crackdown on protesters, while highlighting the emptiness of the official rhetoric.
Arab demonstrators, from Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Syria have been able to change their accustomed perception of images and media. They take to streets with the knowledge that they may not come back.
Through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, not only are they expressing their thoughts about death and pain, but sharing their debates, their jokes, their mocking of themselves and the tumultuous world in which they live.
Undoubtedly, the telecommunications revolution we are witnessing right now is an achievement that many in the US are proud to have taken credit for.
But social media has not provided protesters with thoughts or the bitterness they have developed under their regimes for many decades.
The Arab revolutions have relied upon a difficult-to-disarm weapon; social media. However, although this technological medium originated initially in the US, protesters in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, and Libya were not on the American diplomatic agenda. The US has often turned a deaf ear to the dictatorships and corruption of these regimes.
Today, generalizing the idea that what happened is just a social media revolution seems shallow and silly. Western culture has offered protesters the means, but it didn’t provide them with frustrations about their regimes’ despotism and corruption. The West cannot take credit for these changes. Those protesters instead have forced the world to listen to their voice and it’s up to them to determine their future.
