Time magazine for Americans vs. the rest of the world: Neat club for ex-presidents vs. photo gallery of victims of Syrian violence

US edition compared with the international edition of this week’s Time magazine:  Americans can read about how ex-US Presidents have a special club (and even a clubhouse!) and the rest of the world can ponder a disturbing photo gallery of victims of the Syrian violence.

Why Does Syria Make White Guys Do Stupid Things?

First there was the Gay Girl Blogger of Damascus who turne
d out to be a white American male graduate student with too much time on his hands and an uncanny ability to fool a lot of people.

Now, it’s two “citizen journalists” who’ve taken a road trip to Syria, drawing on their extensive cultural understanding of the Middle East acquired through the Occupy movement in the US.  Huh?

Look guys, Syria already has activists and citizen journalists.  Who are Syrian. Who live there. Who are at terrible risk.  So, please pay attention to the real hereos of Syria like blogger Razan Ghazzawi and her compatriots at  the Syrian Center for Media and Free Expression and stop feeding these sideshows.

Foreign Correspondents Added to the “Stamps of the Syrian Revolution” Project

Syria Today reports that many young artists from that country are turning to the Internet for their exhibition space.

One such project appearing on Facebook is the creation of mock postage “stamps” that range from a photo of the University of Allepo to a commemoration of International Women’s Day.

Included in the stamps are foreign correspondents who have covered events in Syria, including Remi Ochlik and Marie Colvin, who were killed by government shelling in Homs as well as journalist Edith Bouvier, who was wounded in the same town.

The artist(s) Facebook page describes the project this way:

Only 1.5cm x 2.5cm in size, the revolution’s stamps are the smallest documents that honour people and cities that had profound and remarkable effect on the course of the Syrian revolution

A Slideshare presentation of some of the stamps, set to music, is also on display.

The world’s top news this week according to Time magazine? Syria (Except if you’re American)

Here’s the US edition of this week’s Time magazine and the International edition I picked here in Lebanon. And you wonder why Americans are so often poorly informed about what’s going on in the world.

Syria photos are up

You can see them here

Animoto slideshow  set to Fairuz here

& two brief stories on Demotix:

New Year’s Day with the South/Southeast Asian domestics in Jordan

Islamic art exhibit in Amman