Although I have long stopped presenting myself as a writer and poet, there is something of that old spark still lurking within me, and that will undoubtedly be reflected in my writing style as a blogger. But these days I am more an activist than anything else. As such, this new iteration of my old website, Amarji, will be dedicated mostly to nonfictional pursuits.
The first iteration of Amarji was officially launched in August 2002, and the second came in May 2004. The website was then neglected for years as I switched my attention to a blog with the same name between 2005 and 2008, before putting the whole thing on hiatus due to the increasing responsibilities of running an activist foundation.
The Arab Spring and the Syrian Revolution in particular changed all that. Keeping the Syrian Revolution Digest up-to-date slowly revived in me the passion for blogging and writing again. But while, the SRD will remain dedicated to covering the specifics of the Syrian Revolution, I will focus here on developments elsewhere in the region and the world, and will use the website as a platform for keeping my “followers” updated on my various activities and projects.
For those wondering as to the meaning of the website’s name, Amarji is an ancient Sumerian word meaning, well, what else? Freedom. But, in vernacular Syrian, it also means a habitual gambler. Harkening back to my days as a teacher, and since many of my students in Syria were originally from South Asia (I taught in schools reserved in part for the children of diplomats), Amarji in Hindi stands for “Mr. Ammar.”
Amarji 