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By Guest Blogger Hanibaael Naim

Editor's Note:

Syria enters the third year of its uprising in devastation to the people and land. Satellite imagery gives a grim picture of what has become of the land while the horror of a rising death toll now at more than 70,000 according to the UN and more than a million refugees scattered around the world facing a dangerous and uncertain future.

In observance of this anniversary, we chose to post an updated version of last year's 'Big Brother and The City: The Case of Damascus' by guest blogger Hanibaael Naim. In his in-depth analysis of the relationship between a dictator and the city he controls, Naim describes Damascus as Bashar Assad's last stronghold. Two years after the peaceful uprising, Naim describes how the face of dissent changed with time and why he believes that the "decisive battles are near" through this analysis and its conclusion.

I'm always grateful for guest bloggers for carving time out of their busy schedules to share their insights with the octavianasr.com audience. I hope that you find those additions helpful and enriching. Your feedback is always appreciated.

Our life is defined by cities. Those we belong to and love stir deep emotions in us such as pride, home, inspiration and nostalgia. Dictators also love their cities, but theirs is a story of obsession and control. An abusive relationship that can last for decades and can only be broken by force or revolution!

Once considered routine in the Middle East, this bizarre relationship between tyrants and cities has become a pressing issue in light of the Arab Spring. In Syria today, Bashar al-Assad is a dictator hanging by the capital city of Damascus, refusing to relinquish power even if the entire country is destroyed one city at a time, and every message of dissent killed along with its messenger.

What Haifa Taught Me

It has crossed my mind on several occasions during my lifetime that Haifa is the city I could one day live in. Diverse, lively and has a great beach.

Ramallah Is Palestine

No other city says Palestine to me more than Ramallah. At the Kalandia checkpoint, a large Israeli sign warns visitors they are about to enter Palestinian territories and that as such their safety and security are under threat. The obvious separation wall Israel has erected is an eyesore that immediately sets a mood of desperation and isolation. The huge cement wall which Israel calls “security fence” is tall and lifeless. It separates, divides even West Bank residents from their schools and businesses. It explains in no uncertain terms how difficult and challenging life behind it must be.

Jerusalem Is Ours

To visit Jerusalem is considered a pilgrimage no matter what your religion or ideology. Its mysticism is hard to miss. You feel it through your pores, into your bones and all the way deep into your soul. The outpour of faith and awe of its visitors reverberate at so many different levels of one's being and its history touches you so deep that expression becomes impossible.

Fragmented Lebanon A Safe Haven for Syrians

Walking around the fashionable Hamra area of Beirut recently I was shocked by the amount of Syrian accents I encountered. Young and old, pedestrians and car riders, patrons at sidewalk cafes and restaurants, teenagers hanging at neighborhood corners, high-end shoppers and bargain hunters, in hotel lobbies and apartments; dialects of various Syrian cities were noticeable everywhere. Even the staple Beirut beggars have started to sound distinctly Syrian.

The New World Dis-Order

The pulse of the world is going at an alarming rate signaling an inevitable explosion. While some individuals and politicians are concerned only with their small turf, the entire globe is going through transformation adding emerging crises to already accumulated challenges and unresolved problems.

Insisting on Backwardness

Why should everything logical be turned into a controversy in Lebanon, and why should commonsense modern laws be so agonizingly difficult to pass? I'm not going to discuss the shameful fact that Lebanese woman still does not have the right to naturalize her children or spouse, although that is one of the most backward signs of a nation ever. Today I'll follow the trend and write about the Topic Du Jour, the proposed civil marriage law and the controversy it has stirred.

A Tale of Two Maryam’s (Part II)

Marie was a beautiful Palestinian woman from Haifa who, like any young woman of the 1930's, aspired to marry a good man and raise her own family. She met Youssef, a young Lebanese man From Bkassine who had immigrated to Palestine with his family in search of a better life. Under the British Mandate, immigrants to Palestine were given the choice of having the Palestinian citizenship or keeping their Lebanese nationality, but they could not have both. Youssef's family chose the Palestinian citizenship: It made life easier since they lived permanently in Palestine and ran a successful restaurant business in the Horse-and-Carriage Square  (Sahet El-Hanatir) in the heart of Haifa.

A Tale of Two Maryam’s (Part I)

This is a true story that began when Palestine existed as an entity under the British Mandate, and shared soft borders with Lebanon, Syria, Transjordan and Egypt. Life then was very simple and decisions were made short term, although they bore lifelong consequences. Most stories passed on through the generations speak of basic plans for weeks or months, never years or decades, let alone one's entire life or the life span of their descendants. No one from that distant past had imagined, even in their wildest dreams, life's upcoming twists and turns.

Nonviolent road to Palestine

The Palestinian struggle for statehood has been for the most part a violent one. Whether one agrees or disagrees with its violent path and the goals it achieved, it is important to remember that Palestine today is at the verge of becoming once more a part of the international community after seven decades of being denied that right and privilege.

My Dear Brothers… I Understood You… Who Are You?

The Syrian Opera House is probably the most significant part of President Bashar al-Assad's latest speech. A venue very fitting for a staged performance by Syria's strongman as he put on a well-scripted show to say nothing new and offer no substance to a people suffering through the worst political and military crisis in its history.

Welcome 2013!

In the big scheme of things, today is nothing more than another date in a calendar. Yet, people give it great importance and treat it with reverence as if a period is truly ending and another one is starting. If we were on an island in the middle of nowhere, with no watches to tell the time or calendars to point out the date, would we know the difference? Would it even matter? The importance of bidding the old year farewell at parties and welcoming a new year in pomp and circumstance remains a mystery to me. Yet, I continue to join millions of celebrants in this senseless ritual. It might be that, deep down I believe that something good is about to manifest itself with one simple movement on a calendar. Maybe I need a symbolic action to revive my hope -- killed by the previous years -- that our world will have another chance at righting the wrongs or that my fate is truly embarking on a new path that might bring new people, new experiences, and new excitement.

2012 The Year Of The Arab Woman

As this eventful year draws to a close, we are humbled by the heavy toll the Syrian people have paid and continue to pay for their freedom. As expected, President Bashar al-Assad has shown his willingness to sink the entire country in a bloodbath rather than admit his government’s failure to uphold a façade of peace and stability it was able to propagate for decades. Syrians face a bloody holiday season with no clear direction as to how their crisis will end or when. There is no telling who will be at the helm when it is all over, what shape will the country be in at that time, or who will be left alive of the civilian population to carry thenation through a healing process and back into prosperity.

Syria: The Beginning of The End?

Bashar al-Assad must be finally seeing the writing on the wall: “You are done Mr. President!” One has to give him credit for staying the course and playing strongman for almost two years, a quality or vice many predicted he cannot pull off. Well, he did and he has survived so far the fate some of his Arab counterparts have faced. He remains in a position to negotiate his way out of the impasse. But, the clock is ticking, and his chances to step out with a saved face are fading by the second.

Palestine.. What’s in a name?

When one word is worth a million rockets, that word must be Palestine!

Gaza’s Eight Days of Terror: What Victory?

Victory these days has become a cheap commodity that warlords bestow on each other to lift the morale and propagate a false sense of achievement.

Hamas Terror and Israel’s Greater Terror

Benjamin Netanyahu is taking the state of Israel to new levels of inhumanity and senseless bloody murder. In the past week, he has reduced one of the most powerful armies in the world to a band of thugs, assassins of Hamas terror targets and petty murderers of innocent Palestinians.

Arabs and Obama’s Second Term

America elected a president, but the whole world had something to say about it. Reaction in the Middle East was mixed from those who shrugged pretending total disinterest to those who jubilated for no apparent reason and others who wept also for no good reason. Still there were others who believe any President of the United States is bad news for them and the region on account of the U.S.'s historical, unwavering support of Israel.

Who Will Mend Our Bruised Up World?

As the United States of America holds its breath waiting for what the election dawn holds, this is a time to reflect on who we are as Americans and world citizens.

Presidential Race Seeped In Racism

In one week, the U.S. will elect a president to lead it for the next four years. In the best of worlds, we would be able to predict who that person might be with a degree of certainty and margin of error. But this has not been the case for recent U.S. elections. Lately, they have always been “too close to call.” The fiasco of the Bush V Gore, Florida re-count and the Supreme Court intervention in 2000 to settle on a winner is the perfect example. Who doesn't remember the faulty punchcard voting machines, hanging chads, missing ballots?

Selling Their Soul To Feed Their Master

The Lebanese traitors who concern themselves with a foreign master and its survival over their country's peace and security are the scum.

The Sheep of Panurge

One of my favorite readings from primary school is the story of �The Sheep of Panurge.� I must have been 9 years old the first time I came across it in class and listened to my French teacher explain with a very serious tone the �moral of the story.�

My Sad October Memory

I had just moved permanently to the United States and was struggling with a cultural shock: No family, no friends, new job, and a taxing immigration process. Not to mention the personal life of a young independent woman uprooted from the only culture she has ever known to be planted in the vast and overwhelming �land of the free and home of the brave.�

Netanyahu’s Bomb Goes Awry

Someone needs to tell the Israeli Prime Minister that his old persuasive tactics are in dire need of updating. Between the gigantic political shifts due to the Arab Awakening and our world becoming more transparent and better connected thanks in part to social media turning privacy and secrecy into things of the past, debunking propaganda and its masters is becoming mainstream. Benjamin Netanyahu seems to be way behind on what works and what does not work when trying to scare the UN General Assembly and its member nations, most of whom unsympathetic due to Israel's track record of ignoring all UN resolutions against it in its ongoing conflicts with Palestinians as well as its other neighbors.

No Threat Is Bigger Than Terrorism

It is mindboggling how many issues around the world remain unresolved! Conflicts, wars, tensions, land disputes, political divisions, violence, economic strife, cultural failures, ethnic confrontations, just to name a few. Each nation faces challenges man-made or imposed by nature or geography. Every one of us can list a number of unresolved issues that block our path, preventing us from moving forward, slowing us down or derailing us.