The Web-TV team of Al Arabiya English sifts through a fair amount of videos on a daily basis. With the current circumstances in the Middle East, we are all subjected to a little more violence than we can tolerate, be it the bloody protests aired on the TV or learning of traumatizing accounts of those unfortunate to experience the crisis first-hand.
However, amidst the layers of strife captured on shaky handheld cameras or from reputable agency cameramen, I started noticing something that makes me smile with hope and admiration of these citizens from nations across the region.
Beyond the blood and the shootings that shock us, and the wails of women, men, and children, weeping for their loved ones lost we all sympathize, it’s the sheer visual of mass demonstrations that gave me goose bumps of pride in the power of the people. This is what started capturing my attention from the daily dose of despair and conflict.
Seeing men of Yemen clasping their hands, raising their clenched fists in unison, and chanting in perfect harmony, seeing Syrians take the streets of Homs, Deraa, and Aleppo, and waving their country flag in the hundreds, and seeing Libyan women in the dozens marching in Benghazi, strong and defiant in the face of tyranny.
This is the definition of “Arab Spring,” when the long-dormant volcano has finally erupted. They are the democratic antidote to the dictatorial disease.
It’s always a good idea to see the positive in every negative, and I may have found the ray of sunshine breaking through the grim clouds of political reformation.
(Noora Faraj, a senior producer at Al Arabiya English Web TV, can be reached at: noora.faraj@mbc.net)
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