Young kufiya'd fighter in the Free Syrian Army

The photo is by Tyler Hicks of the New York Times, who accompanied Anthony Shadid (RIP) on his final visit to Syria. The photo gallery it is taken from is here. The very interesting article on their trip, to visit the armed opposition in Idlib province, is here.

And from the article, note that Anthony Shadid tried to protect himself from the horse dander by covering his face with a black-and-white kufiya. It didn't work.

Anthony’s health had been good during the week and he prepared himself for the trip down with antihistamines and a supply of inhalers. He had a black and white kaffiyeh covering his face to filter the air, the same one he had worn around his neck throughout the assignment. He told the young men he wouldn’t ride a horse and to walk ahead with them at a distance.

“Should we walk in front of the horses?” I asked Anthony.

“No, they need to guide us,” he said.

Revolutionary debke in Hama, Syria

I got this via today's New York Times. This was filmed yesterday in the Halfaya neighborhood of Hama. Apparently this is a regular, morning event. 100's gather to dance the debke, as someone chants and the crowd responds, to the backing of live percussion. Pretty stirring.



You will recall that Hama is famous for its revolutionary debke chants. It is the source of that famous chant,  "Come On Bashar, Leave," sung by Ibrahim Qashoush, who shortly after a video of him chanting at a demonstration circulated widely, was found with his throat slit, on July 4. I posted about it here. The recently-departed Anthony Shadid, the intrepid journalist for the Times, got into Hama in July 2011 and reported on the song, the song's author, and conditions in Hama.

It's cheering to see that, despite the deadly assaults by the regime, Hama is still at it. I hope that someone can fill the shoes of Anthony Shadid. I don't know whether I'm more pessimistic about that or about the future of Syria.

(The expert on Syrian debke is Shayna Silverstein, graduate of the University of Chicago. I look forward with keen anticipation to her publications on the subject.)