“10 Things to Know About Refugees in Jordan,” by Justin Schon
Sunday, August 10th, 2014
10 Things to Know About Refugees in Jordan
by Justin Schon, a PhD student in the Department of Political Science at Indiana University Bloomington. His research focuses on insurgency and population displacement during conflict. He can be followed on twitter @goliathSchon
This post is the first of two posts I will be writing for this blog. It is based on the observations I have made and conversations I have had during my fieldwork in Jordan. This is by no means an all-inclusive list, but they are all points that are important to know about the refugee situation in Jordan.
1) Syrians are not the only refugees in Jordan
Although Syrians have stolen much of the attention in recent years, Jordan is actually home to many groups of refugees. The largest of these groups is Palestinian refugees. However, Jordan also hosts large and growing numbers of Iraqi refugees. Then there are many other smaller groups of refugees, such as Sudanese and Somali refugees, as is discussed here. All of these groups face serious challenges in Jordan.
At the same time, the types of challenges these groups face can be very different. Syrians are currently the high profile group, so there are a lot more aid organizations focusing their efforts on them. At the same time, they may also be more likely to be the victims of backlash against refugees than other refugee groups because of that high profile. On the other hand, Sudanese and Somali refugees are a small and often ignored group. These groups even have difficulty acquiring refugee status.
Thus, when thinking about responses to refugee influxes in Jordan, it is a mistake to lump all refugees in Jordan into one category. Their needs are different, and they can require very different responses.
2) Most Syrians are not living in the refugee camps
Currently, more than 80% of Syrian refugees in Jordan do not live in a refugee camp. Zaatari may capture a lot of the public interest and media headlines, but the refugee camps only contain a small portion of the total Syrian refugee population in Jordan.
This means that the focus of the response to Syrian refugees needs to be on urban refugees. The Jordanian government has stressed, justifiably, that aid programs should target geographic areas, rather than refugees specifically, so that Jordanians can benefit from these programs as well. UNHCR and the broader INGO and NGO community generally agree with this goal, so it should not be seen as controversial.
3) Refugees strongly support the Free Syrian Army
Many refugees in Jordan have friends or family that fought with the Free Syrian Army (FSA), and the FSA is instrumental in helping many people leave Syria. So, it should come as no surprise that many of the refugees in Jordan support the Free Syrian Army. There is speculation about how much support IS/ISIL/ISIS has among Syrian refugees in Jordan, but my own work has made me skeptical of this claim. Some Syrian refugees are even convinced that the Assad government and ISIS are in an alliance, making it even more unlikely that they would be willing to support ISIS.
4) It is unlikely that there would be a large voluntary repatriation of Syrian refugees if Assad were allowed to take control of southern Syria.
One of the arguments for allowing Assad to win the war is that it would at least be a way to bring stability to Syria and provide a way for Syrian refugees to return to Syria. There is some logic in this, but the conversations I have had with refugees in Jordan do not support the argument.
For many refugees in Jordan, they were specifically fleeing from government troops and pro-government militias. Even if Assad were to create stability in Syria, many Syrians would be unlikely to return voluntarily because the source of their fear would remain in power.
The word voluntary is important because the Jordanian government is showing a desire to encourage Syrian refugees to return to Syria, even at the cost of suffering protests from UNHCR and numerous NGOs. If Syria becomes stable, then Jordan could use the norm of safe return, rather than non-refoulement, as its rationale for repatriating Syrian refugees. In short, safe return is the idea that refugee return is facilitated by host governments when the origin country becomes safe. It does not have to be a voluntary return. Non-refoulement means that refugees should not return to their origin countries unless the decision has been made voluntarily and without coercion. This legal distinction between safe return and non-refoulement is important to consider, and could become relevant in the case of Syrian refugees.
5) Refugees often pay close attention to what is happening back in Syria.
Every refugee that I have spoken with has told me that they regularly call friends and family that are still in Syria. They even frequently watch television and surf the internet. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are also used by many people. So, the Syrian refugee community in Jordan is very engaged in following and discussing the events taking place inside Syria.
6) Syrians in Jordan know more about the conflict in some ways than Syrians in Syria.
Consuming so much information does often mean that Syrian refugees are consuming more information than they were when they were back in Syria. In addition, many people that primarily watched movies and television series before the war switched to watching the news during the war. Meanwhile, many television channels and internet websites have gotten blocked by the Syrian government. Television channels can change their broadcast frequency, but this is still an impediment for those attempting to get their news from watching television.
This may seem counter-intuitive, but it is actually consistent with some recent work published by Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre. Refugees often consume more information than other civilians.
7) Syrian refugees are not welcome in Jordan long-term.
Syrians currently make up about 10% of the population inside Jordan. This influx has strained Jordan’s economic resources, security services, and environmental resources. Thus, Jordan has made it very clear that aid organizations should avoid livelihoods programs or any measures that would encourage Syrians to stay long-term. For example, Syrians cannot obtain work permits, and Syrians caught working without a permit risk serious harassment or punishment from the Jordanian government. There is even a possibility of deportation back to Syria in some of these cases.
While it would be preferable for Jordan to welcome Syrians for as long as they should choose to stay, the government’s response must be taken in context. It is facing security challenges in both Iraq and Syria, high unemployment domestically, water shortages, and rising discontent among its domestic population with the Syrians. One could even argue that it is amazing that Jordan has not struggled even more with the strain of hosting so many refugees.
8) There is disagreement about whether Syrians that want to return to Syria should be encouraged to do so.
This is related to the previous point. UNHCR considers Syria unsafe for refugee repatriation, even if it is voluntary. However, the Jordanian government encourages refugees to return to Syria if they are willing. Therefore, UNHCR has chosen to monitor these returns to ensure that they are least voluntary. As time passes, this dynamic is important to watch.
9) The bail-out system is flawed.
One quirk of the Jordanian system of hosting refugees is that Syrians can leave the refugee camps if a Jordanian pays 300 JD and agrees to take responsibility for the refugee. This system was meant to be a way to allow Syrians to leave the refugee camps while providing a way for Jordan to continue monitoring the movements of Syrian refugees.
Officially, the Jordanian is supposed to be of a certain age, be married, have no criminal background, and satisfy several other characteristics. Unofficially, additional money can be paid to get around these requirements. Fake papers are used in some circumstances. These issues have meant that the bail-out system, which was originally meant to be a compromise with good intentions, has now become a system that encourages bribery and pushes many refugees under the radar once they leave the refugee camps.
10) Border closures have many negative effects upon civilians.
Jordan’s decision to close border crossings from Syria has produced many additional hardships for displaced Syrians. Syrians unable to cross at the border crossings near Deraa often have to find an illegal border crossing. Much of the crossing happens in the eastern part of Jordan, where there is little but desert. Making this trip takes much more time, costs a lot of money, and exposes fleeing Syrians to the risk of more checkpoints. This is not to mention the large displaced persons camps that have emerged along the border due to being forced to wait for permission to cross the border.
In my second post, I will discuss these challenges in greater detail. I will be focusing on this point because border closures do involve tremendous costs for displaced Syrians. These costs merit additional discussion.
* This work was supported by a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) scholarship and a grant from the Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis.
my website: http://justinschon.yolasite.com/
Comments (39)
Ghufran said:
Maliki was not picked to be the PM, if he refuses to step down he should be arrested, the days when stab heads of states remain in power until they die, get killed or get arrested need to come to an end
August 11th, 2014, 9:03 am
sami said:
You read about it and it terrifies you, but watching it just drives home how insanely backwards and dangerous these pathetic monsters are.
Enforcing Sharia in Raqqa: The Islamic State
August 11th, 2014, 12:44 pm
SimoHurtta said:
Hmmmm ….
Israel Grants First Golan Heights Oil Drilling License To Dick Cheney-Linked Company
August 11th, 2014, 1:57 pm
ALAN said:
Hmmm……
http://burisma.com/hunter-biden-joins-the-team-of-burisma-holdings/
August 11th, 2014, 3:28 pm
ALAN said:
The US bombing its own guns perfectly sums up America’s total
failure in Iraq:
“the US has to use American weaponry to destroy the
American weaponry it gave
Iraqis to make Iraqis safer, in order to make
Iraqis safer.
Is it complete insanity? or traditional American business in the arms trade?
August 11th, 2014, 5:01 pm
SANDRO LOEWE said:
Assad is bombing its own populations who were supposedly grown up and educated to fight and liberate Palestine. While Israel is bombing palestinians, Mr Assad is using against its own nationals all the bombs he bought to fight Israel. Russia is producing weapons to be paid by Iran who is supposed archienemy of Israel to destroy all Syria. In the meantime US are paying all weapons that Israel is using to destroy what remains of Palestine. Assad, Iran and Israel respect each other and do not fight each other since 41 years. They have a lot of job to do to crush and let vanish all arabs from earth.
August 11th, 2014, 5:40 pm
Warren said:
Sunnis once again exposed for their treachery, perfidy, cowardice, barbarism and cruelty. The Sunnis of Mosul actively and enthusiastically participated in the persecution and expulsion of their Christian “neighbors”. Christians never “marginalized” or “discriminated” against the Sunnis, Christians never held any power, yet the Sunnis held such hatred towards their neighbors that they felt entitled to expel Christians from Mosul penniless!
Another example of Sunnis cowardice and genocidal barbarism occurred in Tikrit, where the local Sunni population participated in the massacre of Iraqi Air Force cadets.
August 11th, 2014, 7:33 pm
omen said:
which means jordan isnt hosting refugees in refugee camps but instead rather is holding syrians as prisoners in internment camps.
if this were happening to you, i doubt you would minimize this as an amusing little oddity.
August 12th, 2014, 12:57 am
Austin Michael Bodetti said:
I hope the best for refugees in Jordan.
August 12th, 2014, 1:43 am
ALAN said:
🙂
a new Daily Beast report says Obama, in a closed-door meeting with lawmakers, said criticism of his Syria policy is “horseshit.”
Some of the legislators in the room complained in the meeting that Obama should have armed the Syrian rebels, leading the president to use the expletive. And it wasn’t just Republicans, Obama faced criticism from both sides.
Sen. Bob Corker asked the President a long question that included sharp criticisms of President Obama’s handling of a number of foreign policy issues—including Syria, ISIS, Russia, and Ukraine. Obama answered Corker at length. Then, the president defended his administration’s actions on Syria, saying that the notion that arming the rebels earlier would have led to better outcomes in Syria was “horseshit.”
White House officials confirmed the charged exchange between Obama and Corker but declined to confirm that Obama used the expletive.
Well, of course they did, what else are they gonna say? “Yeah, the president swore like a sailor in there.”
August 12th, 2014, 8:03 am
ALAN said:
Hmmm…..
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/08/real-reason-obamas-new-military-deployment-iraq.html
http://rinf.com/alt-news/war-terrorism/moneys-putin/
Washington thinks “modern warfare” involves covert support for proxy armies comprised of Neo Nazis and Islamic extremists. Moscow thinks modern warfare means undermining the enemy’s ability to wage war through sustained attacks on it’s currency, its institutions, its bond market, and its ability to convince its allies that it is a responsible steward of the global economic system.
August 12th, 2014, 1:41 pm
omen said:
are.
August 12th, 2014, 2:30 pm
omen said:
please expound.
August 12th, 2014, 3:09 pm
ALAN said:
Now it’s Hillary Clinton’s time,
So it’s Hillary Clinton’s dime.
Patriot’s warfare is o.k.,
‘Cause she knows how to make it pay.
Neocons, they call the shots
While Americans get the trots.
Clearly paying through the nose,
While the deficit grows and grows.
And the arms boys have their way
While Americans pay and pay.
🙂
Better ways to kill and spy,
On Americans as we try…
Another war in Iraq to curtail,
And a war in Syria to derail.
We’re surveilled and spied upon,
While her spin goes on and on.
Yes, her terror spin has clout.
For it’s what she’s all about.
Keeping folks all scared and green,
While she cranks the war machine.
Hill will break the law with ease,
Torture if and when she’ll please.
Keep the mainstream press in line,
Muzzle critics, lie just fine.
If in ’14 Hill gets the vote,
Then Hill’s gonna gloat, gloat, gloat.
‘Cause more warfare’s comin’ our way,
As she gets her pay, pay, pay.
August 12th, 2014, 3:31 pm
Syrialover said:
It’s been great to read MATTHEW’S well-written observations from the field on what’s happening in Iraq. And the report on refugees in Jordan above is also welcome.
As SAMI commented in a previous thread, it’s a return to what SyriaComment used to be.
August 12th, 2014, 5:08 pm
Syrialover said:
SAMI #2
One good description I saw of ISIS is “A killer cult” which has “created a sick fantasy haven for misfits and morons”.
They expose themselves as sicker, stupider and more dangerous by the hour.
You probably saw the report this week of the Australian killer jihadist Khaled Sharrouf who proudly posted a picture of his 7 year old son struggling to hold up a severed head in Raqqa with the words “that’s my boy!”
Sharrouf’s background is that he was convicted and jailed for terrorism offences in Australia, but didn’t receive a tough sentence because he was disgnosed as schizophrenic.
Mental illness is common among ISIS members.
He apparently left Australia for Syria on his brother’s passport last year, dragging along his sad strange Muslim convert wife and five children. Ugly and pathetic situation all round.
But at least Sharrouf has cranked up international fury and disgust with ISIS.
Including at last – send up fireworks of celebration – some public condemnation of Sharrouf and his ISIS comrades from Islamic community and religious leaders!!
August 12th, 2014, 5:31 pm
Syrialover said:
It’s not much consolation, but Obama’s inaction over Syria has now well and truly exploded and set his backside on fire! Looks like it is going to be significant problem for him in the lead up to the election.
Hillary Clinton, who was on the record while secretary of state as pushing for US action against Assad, is now kicking little Barak with steel capped boots.
Article: Hillary Clinton: ‘Failure’ to Help Syrian Rebels Led to the Rise of ISIS
The former secretary of state, and probable candidate for president, outlines her foreign-policy doctrine. She says this about President Obama’s: “Great nations need organizing principles, and ‘Don’t do stupid stuff’ is not an organizing principle.”
Excerpt:
President Obama has long ridiculed the idea that the U.S., early in the Syrian civil war, could have shaped the forces fighting the Assad regime, thereby stopping al Qaeda-inspired groups—like the one rampaging across Syria and Iraq today—from seizing control of the rebellion. In an interview in February, the president told me that “when you have a professional army … fighting against a farmer, a carpenter, an engineer who started out as protesters and suddenly now see themselves in the midst of a civil conflict—the notion that we could have, in a clean way that didn’t commit U.S. military forces, changed the equation on the ground there was never true.”
Well, his former secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, isn’t buying it. In an interview with me earlier this week, she used her sharpest language yet to describe the “failure” that resulted from the decision to keep the U.S. on the sidelines during the first phase of the Syrian uprising.
“The failure to help build up a credible fighting force of the people who were the originators of the protests against Assad—there were Islamists, there were secularists, there was everything in the middle—the failure to do that left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled,” Clinton said.
As she writes in her memoir of her State Department years, Hard Choices, she was an inside-the-administration advocate of doing more to help the Syrian rebellion. Now, her supporters argue, her position has been vindicated by recent events.
Professional Clinton-watchers (and there are battalions of them) have told me that it is only a matter of time before she makes a more forceful attempt to highlight her differences with the (unpopular) president she ran against, and then went on to serve.
On a number of occasions during my interview with her, I got the sense that this effort is already underway. (And for what it’s worth, I also think she may have told me that she’s running for president—see below for her not-entirely-ambiguous nod in that direction.)
[article continues]
(source: The Atlantic, August 10 2014 –
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/hillary-clinton-failure-to-help-syrian-rebels-led-to-the-rise-of-isis/375832/)
August 12th, 2014, 5:45 pm
Jasmine said:
Hilary Clinton is an opportunist who is using the crisis in Iraq to gain an extra card in preparation for next election,her adventure in Libya and the way she handled the mission of rescuing its embassy will never be forgotten,let alone the mess achieved after liberating Libya,or may be not ,it was another gain to control more resources in the ME,exactly like what is going on now to guard the oil in Erbil.
If Obama has bombed Syria(he wouldn’t ,because there is no oil)Hilary would have lost her embassy a la mode libienne ,so she should have really shut up and look after Bill and retire gracefully in the Caribbean.
She looks like a witch in her recent photo.
August 12th, 2014, 7:15 pm
Syrialover said:
JASMINE #17 You are such a determined hater, negativist and fault finder. Obviously uninterested in the bigger reality but enthralled by smalltime conspiracy theories.
Who cares why, the fact is that the US now has the Syrian issue back on the agenda with Obama’s decision not to help the Syrian people being made to look wrong, wrong, wrong.
If they punch out ISIS’s lights will you still object? And if they move to offer more assistance to Syrians, will you abuse them for it?
But the bottom line is that Syria and ISIS are now at last getting onto America’s agenda. And who else in the world in 2014 but the USA is realistically in a position to do anything about anything?
Please, tell us your preferred actor. Putin? The head of Iranian security? They are pissants with no power except to destroy.
Over to you.
PS
And if you want to whine about Hillary Clinton do it in an informed way. Read the rest of that article. It says she is supporting Israel against Gaza! Obviously because she thinks it will help in the election. Just as she thinks helping Syrians will gain her support – and how marvellous if she’s right about that last part.
August 12th, 2014, 7:40 pm
Jasmine said:
Syria lover
You are too emotional to see that America and Russia are looking after their own interest and only their own interest, making mistakes on the way.
Just follow the thread of arm dealers,money makers and oil and all the dynamic in this filthy political environment can be explained,there is no conspiracy any where and interests are everywhere.
Are you celebrating because Syria is in the American Agenda?
Isis would never be in their agenda if the oil resource was not threatened and the life of their citizens is in Jeopardy,they helped indirectly with the creation of ISIS.
Unfortunately I don’t have a preferred actor,I prefer a real politician which are rare nowadays.
Nothing is marvellous about Hilary,she is a big liar(which lawyer is usually)who gained her carrier by deception and playing up in the emotions of the American citizens.
I had a busy day,I can’t answer you again(I made an apricot jam today for the first time and that was exhausting).
August 12th, 2014, 8:21 pm
ALAN said:
what is this?
Degeneration.
http://youtu.be/4992i6xbShw
August 13th, 2014, 4:10 am
mjabali said:
Watching the videos produced by the Islamic State is better than wasting time on a video done by VICE narrated by sleepy fellows..
The Islamic State makes them in English too….
August 13th, 2014, 7:37 am
mjabali said:
Hillary put her money on the Muslim Brothers and they turned up to be nothing. Hillary and Obama did not help the progressive people in the middle east flourish, instead they said we help the Muslim Brothers and they take care of the rest. We see what is going on now…
During the Hillary and Obama reign, minorities in the Middle East continue to dwindle due to violence.
Now: under their watch: we have IS with their Caliph, Nusra with their Prince, Ansar al-Shari’ah with their Prince….and thousand of suicide bombers and head cutters from all over the world.
August 13th, 2014, 7:42 am
ALAN said:
My same understanding from Texas: ACT OF WAR!
Ron Paul “USING BOMBERS AND DRONE MISSILES! IT’S AN ACT OF WAR! WE’RE COMMITTING WAR!”
http://investmentwatchblog.com/ron-paul-using-bombers-and-drone-missiles-its-an-act-of-war-were-committing-war/
August 13th, 2014, 11:02 am
omen said:
i miss you, tara. i should have worked up the nerve earlier to tell you before how i appreciated your insight and intellect & marveled at your wit that cut thru artifice & double standards. i learned a lot from you. and how i was touched by the kindness you’ve bestowed through out the years. it didnt go unnoticed.
August 13th, 2014, 11:01 pm
ghufran said:
A Yazidi young man, Jamal Jamir, told CNN that local Arabs helped ISIS in killing Yazidis
August 13th, 2014, 11:07 pm
omen said:
this is assad protecting minorities:
https://twitter.com/OS26/status/495354321064964096/photo/1
August 14th, 2014, 12:44 am
omen said:
obama has done a great job protecting one minority:
assadists.
August 14th, 2014, 12:49 am
SimoHurtta said:
Omen now under the name vote_nfz in Twitter, the great Californian defender of Sunni Arabs and “democracy”, why in your recent tweets is not mentioned the word GAZA not a single time. Syria tens of times and even Israel a couple of times, but not Gaza. Avoiding totally the Gaza topic is in these times an achievement for a self declared “human rights and democracy to Middle East” activist.
You say in your twitter introduction: responsibility to protect = R2P doctrine opens the door to intervention even absent UNSC authorization. see also ‘illegal but legitimate.’
Why on earth have USA and the “west” the responsibility to protect and intervene with Syrians, Kurds, Afghans and Iraqis? But not the Palestinians under a very cruel and well documented occupation and exploitation? Maybe the main “rabbi” in your employer organization can explain that to you and you then to us.
Congratulations Omen of writing 121,000 tweets, posting 2,300 pictures and videos mainly about Syria plus following 2,000 people and organizations. That giant work for a Californian Christian granny can’t be a hobby, it must be a work.
August 14th, 2014, 6:35 am
Observer said:
Why should we care for this or that group around the world? Charity starts at home. We have many communities in need of help and infrastructure that needs to be repaired. Why Yazidis and not Congolese? Why this group or not that group?
It usually is the oil or a strategic position that we are interested in disguised as humanitarian rescue; or bombing them into democracy; or 100 billion a year to bring them from the 13th to the 19th century. All of it is folly and waste.
Let the people over there sort it out entirely on their own. If they want to do it by dialogue so be it and if they want to do it by force so be it.
No one bets on anything any longer in the ME. We have no influence over Bibi or Sissi or Abdallah or Maliki or anyone else for that matter. The hypocritical Europeans that dragged us into the humanitarian action in Libya are absent in the humanitarian drama in Mount Sinjar today. Go figure.
As for the images of minorities fleeing, it is heartbreaking indeed but is just a foreshadow of what is coming when not only thousands but millions will be driven out and slaughtered. Hopefully the civilized world will not permit it again.
My question though is who will volunteer to do it? Putin? Obama or the next President? Hollande? Merkel? China’s premier? Sissi? Khamenei?
Or perhaps Bibi will do it?
At any rate we should not be involved any longer. Let the rest of the world step up. The US as the world’s cop is over forever.
Rand Paul for President of the US
August 14th, 2014, 8:26 am
ALAN said:
http://youtu.be/V4H5PFGr03Q
Obama: Netanyahu “Too Strong” to Make Peace
http://mycatbirdseat.com/2014/08/obama-netanyahu-too-strong-to-make-peace/
August 14th, 2014, 8:52 am
omen said:
didnt i tell y’all? im a cia, wahhabi, mossad agent based in tel aviv. part of a sleeper cell working to trigger the new world order, hired by the rothchilds & george soros. i was sent from the future to prep the ground for our new reptilian overlords. repent, convert, the end is nigh!
August 14th, 2014, 3:30 pm
omen said:
i protested the unjustified israeli onslaught of gaza. im not a hypocrite, selective in my outrage.
leftist silence on syria is tantamount to endorsing assad wage genocide. 3oo,ooo dead already, liberals couldnt care less.
August 14th, 2014, 3:43 pm
Uzair8 said:
If Iran can drop Maliki then is it conceivable they can drop Assad too?
Perhaps Assad, worried about this possibility, promised his wife as a birthday gift a couple of days ago formation of a state on the coast, Assmanistan*?
*The Expendables 3
August 14th, 2014, 4:33 pm
omen said:
i too hold obama at fault, for inaction.
look what slipped under the radar. a late admission.
~~~
August 14th, 2014, 4:39 pm
Uzair8 said:
Check out this revealing twitter conversation (11th Aug) on Edward Dark’s (anti-rev) twitter regarding the current state of Assad’s military and shortage of men.
https://twitter.com/edwardedark/status/498886105606144000
August 14th, 2014, 4:42 pm
omen said:
30. Observer said:
is this satire??
August 14th, 2014, 9:41 pm
SimoHurtta said:
33. OMEN said:
i protested the unjustified israeli onslaught of gaza. im not a hypocrite, selective in my outrage.
leftist silence on syria is tantamount to endorsing assad wage genocide. 3oo,ooo dead already, liberals couldnt care less.
Well a strange way to protest without mentioning Gaza. Your “outrage” Omen is politely said very one sided.
Omen Gaza is by population 14 times smaller than Syria. So the now 2,000 killed in Gaza would be equal to 28,000 killed in a country sized Syria (or over 330,000 in a country sized USA). Well further in our math and logic exercise. The Syrian civil war has taken years, Israel’s Gaza massacre only about one month (net) so we have to multiply the 28,000 with 24 (months) to make the figures more comparable. The result is 672,000 (killed). What about that Omen?
Be serious Omen, no one generates such amounts off tweets, hundreds of thousands, in a couple of years, if it is a pure humanistic non-paid “hobby”. A normal person has to go work, raise children, make food, clean etc. She/he simply can not write tens and hundreds of tweets (even if many of them are re-tweets) daily and often in the middle of the night in her claimed living place. And hang for hours on different blogs discussion forums arguing about a topic of which she has very little real reliable knowledge.
How can a Californian, non-Muslim who can only understand English pretend to be an expert of Syrian situation, culture and future, so that her views are worth presenting and repeating 100,000 times? In reality you only pick those “messages” made in English which fit in your strange prejudice world view and amplify them by re-tweeting those views and/or rewriting the picked “message” in a bit altered form. Professor Landis for example has written 5,770 tweets you have 121,000. Which one of you two produces real thoughtful opinions worth following and which one works as a crazy megaphone without a real own mind? The answer is obvious.
August 15th, 2014, 4:21 am
omen said:
i dont know why your panties in a wad. im just a nobody.
August 16th, 2014, 12:17 am