Slashdot Mirror
Syrian Protesters Roll Out New iPhone Apps
An anonymous reader writes "Protesters in Syria, dealing with a strict media blackout, have rolled out new iPhone and iPad apps to share news, stories, and even jokes. Amid a brutal crackdown, rebels are fighting back on their iPhones. The Arab Spring's newest weapon keeps the opposition informed—and the regime in check."
praises of brave souls trying to bring democracy into their lives in 3,2,1 while at the same time making fun of the occupy protests in "free" countries.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
That is until Apple takes their app down for no apparent reason.
Knowledge is power.
It will be interesting to see how many posters here will back Al-assad claiming that he is the rightful ruler of Syria.
Would be rather fitting if the iPhone helped along a revolution for freedom.
So the dissident first has to jailbreak out of his cell, only to have to jailbreak his cell? Why would they want to rely on an app that can be remote wiped by Apple at a moments notice? Not only are the Android phones more free, the faster processors will speed up encryption/decryption. Poor choice of phone.
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
praises of brave souls trying to bring democracy into their lives in 3,2,1 while at the same time making fun of the occupy protests in "free" countries.
Very few people are making fun of "occupy" protesters. Its "occupy" campers that are being made fun of to some degree, even by supporters of the "occupy" protesters and the occupy movement in general.
Camping in a public park despite regulations to the contrary is something quite separate and different from showing up on wall street carrying signs and speaking up about abusive practices. Get a room? Stay with a friend who lives in the city? Stay with a supporter who lives in the city? Camp in a *real* campsite outside the city and take a bus into the city? People I've spoken with who attended big protests in the 60s did these sort of things. Is there a lack or organization and planning today compared to the 60s, or is there a lack of supporters offering their couch or living room floor?
So you're saying it's okay to destroy property, but not lives. Funny -- the bill of rights seems to disagree with that.
The Bill of Rights speaks of due process. Setting up a camp in a public park against regulations, being *notified* to remove your property, being *warned* that property left in the park will be thrown out, might be considered a constitutionally acceptable due process. Requiring a permit to camp may also be considered a constitutionally acceptable practice.
To be fair everyone was given notice that the park had to be cleared for cleanup. If a person chooses to leave their stuff there despite such announcements and warning there is an argument that the property was abandoned in a legal sense. It is a public park where camping is not allowed, is there not an inherent risk in setting up a tent? Personally I suspect may of those tents were left there in the hope they would get tossed, they were more valuable as PR tools than shelter. The cold weather is going to shut this thing down real soon and the tents will not be needed much longer.
Police throwing 5,000 donated books into a dumpster is not a visage of democracy.
The Mayor's office is reporting that Sanitation workers, not police, cleaned up things and that they handled books separately from trash. Books are being held at a city garage and may be picked up.
The Syrian "opposition" has an army that is capable to mount an assault on the largest arms deposit in the country, their "resistance" has ipads and iphones in large enough numbers to warrant apps? Come on. I participated first hand in one of the regime changes in Eastern Europe, and have witnessed, also first hand, two democratic transformations and one crackdown in Asia since 1988. In no case there was such access to weaponry or Western technologies for the people, who opposed the regimes, and in one case the regime change was government-initiated, i.e. the opposition wasn't particularly pressed except politically.
Call me what you want, but after seeing what happened in Libya, it is very hard to accept that the events in Syria are spontaneous "rebellion" against the regime. This shit is paid by the people who'll order the air strikes in a few weeks or months.
It is a sad development, because the West is setting the stage for the next round of "liberations" in 20-30 years, when a few non-democratic countries will have enough power to engage in the same behavior and on the basis of a different ideology.
Clearly there must be thousands of thousands of iPhones and iPads in a country with average per capita GDP of $2,958.
Millions even!
In the spirit of having an informed discussion, it's important to know that while the property occupied in NYC may be privately owned, legally it is public property. In order to gain a zoning variance, the propery owner allowed the city to attach a lien specifying that access to the park be provided to all members of the public at all times, 24 hours a day, forever. So saying things like, "It's private property, they're tresspassing," is utterly false. The people do not own the land, but they have full legal rights to be there. They can stand, they can sit, they can sleep. They can bring books, musical instruments, and tents.
Not like you can install an application package file on an Iphone without Apple's Express permission.
Millions of jail breakers do just that every day.
Watch how far you chuck those stones there, the walls are mighty close.
I see you had no response about pre-installed root kits on many Android that the protestors would not have the technical ability to remove and the government could compel Syrian carriers to cough up data for...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Wait, wait,
Isn't Syria one of those evil countries who American companies aren't meant to trade with or ship technology to?
How do they get Mac's and app developer licenses if there's an embargo?
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
I didn't see any application link or name in that article, and a google search leads only to slashdot and that article.
Did they mean a website, maybe?
PS: I hope the new ruling party of Syria will be nicer to Israelis than ASSad.
hemi
still the driving force in that revolution. These apps will also be used by fundamentalists in that movement.
:P ), and I wish the Syrian people a true democracy and not another dictatorship or another Iran-like Theocracy (a sunni one). Most of the people running the show in the Syrian revolution have fundamentalist and pro Al-Qaedah positions. This was seen in many sectarian and extremest speeches by Mosk Imams in Daraa and other cities and is also seen in some of the pro-revolution demonstrators. Even though the Arab media moronically tries to hide these facts and images (picture below shows Bin-Laden and Hamas founder), foreign governments have people on the ground and know these facts. Rarely seen image of a demonstration in Tripoli-Lebanon by the so called Future movement (Harriri group who are for some reason still supported by the US gov):
For the record I despise the Assad dictatorship ( who wouldn't unless you are the dictator
http://i40.tinypic.com/j8i07b.jpg
The PDF file(s) of the corresponding article (article in Arabic):
http://ifile.it/h379mtq
http://ifile.it/vu3seit
It is unfortunate that in-spite of all the wars (and civil wars) in that region no one accepts the principle of separation of religion and state except dictatorship regimes!
These are just few facts worth knowing.
At a GDP per capita of just over 5000 USD, Syrians owning iPhones is the equivalent of Americans owning a 5000 USD device and using that to bring the government down. Or requires the American equivalent of earning 500.000 per year to make the cost of the iPhone for these Syrians comparable to their income. Like, the masses, right? Clearly, not quite. Syrians owning iPhones are a tiny and rich minority. Claiming these people are rebels is like saying the 1% are, really, rebels.
> rebels are fighting back on their iPhones
Translated: the government have created an app so that they can better track and manipulate the citizens
Or maybe this is saying that they are throwing iPhones instead of stones?
Problem is that no Muslim country is a true democracy - by which I mean that not only do all people have the basic rights, but also, that outside of government, the majority communities don't harass the minorities, the way Copts are being persecuted in Egypt, other Chrisitans are being persecuted in Indonesia, Pakistan & Malaysia, and even in new Iraq, Assyrian Christians are being persecuted to the point that most have fled to... Syria.
The easy access to weapons is symptomatic of another problem - that in Syria, it's not a mere uprising against the Assads, but rather, an actual civil war between Sunnis and Alawites (who are arguably a Shia sect - see below). The revolt in Syria is Sunni, led by that country's Muslim Brotherhood (same party as in Egypt) and backed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar. The way Baath parties worked - in Iraq & Syria - for which they were sometimes thought to be secular - was that they would form a coalition against the majority Muslim sect of everyone else (except the Kurds). In Iraq, that coalition was the Sunni Arabs, Sunni Turks as well as Christians against that country's Shia majority. In Syria, the situation is flipped, and the Baath coalition there is Alawite led, and includes Syrian Christians (who have more rights there than in any Muslim country), Shia, Druze and anyone else who is not Sunni Arab. This actually is the main reason why Hafez al Assad supported Iran during its war against Iraq in the 80s, and the US in 1991. When any Muslim country calls itself an Islamic republic, what that means is that the majority sect in that country gets to implement its own interpretation of shariah law. In Iraq, that means Shia inplementations, while in countries like Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and Afghanistan, it means Sunni implementations. Muslim fanatics from other sects are excluded from such set-ups.
However, calling this regime as one that 'accepts the principle of separation of religion and state' is misunderstanding it. The Syrian regime is closely tied to Iran, and is the main supply line to Hizbullah in Lebanon, with which it has a symbiotic relationship - during this uprising, Hizbullah has been actively fighting alongside Syrian security forces, because if Sunnis come to power in Syria, Hizbullah's hegemony over Sunnis in Lebanon would be brought to an end. The toleration of Christians is something done as a matter of expediency, rather than principle - they want to shore up their numbers against the Sunnis - just like Saddam did in Iraq against the Shia. This is not a Soviet style regime that cracks down on all religion - it's a minority sect that knows that seizing power is the only way to survive. After all, they, being Muslims, know that Muslims do not co-exist with them, and indeed, Alawites are looked at as heretical by other Muslims due to their deification of Virgin Mary, although one Iranian based Shia ayatollah once declared them as Shia. In other words, if the Assad regime falls, what will follow would be a situation like Iraq, actually worse for Alawites, since in Iraq, Sunnis are still a solid 20% of the population, whereas in Syria, Alawites are less than 5%.
In Libya, the Gadaffi regime, odious as it was, has now been replaced by a new leadership that, regardless of what else it does, has promised Libya an Islamic theocracy. In Tunisia, the Islamic Enahdha party has one, and its Prime Minister-elect has fantasies of becoming the next Caliph. In Egypt, the only organized party there is the Muslim Brotherhood, which will take over come the next elections, while the army and civilian crackdown on Copts continues. Bahrein too had a popular uprising - it's 70% Shia, and that was put down by the Saudis with tacit US approval, and the Hanafa monarchy continues there. Just like the Saudis prevented Shia from taking over in Bahrein, and even opposed the US taking down Saddam because they knew that the result of a democracy would be what it is now - Shia taking over and getting orders from Iran, similarly th
Is there an English version of the Syria app? Many in the USA support their search for freedom