A glowing profile of the wife of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad written two years ago for a major fashion publication

Written by Joan Juliet Buck for Vogue magazine, the article entitled “A Rose in the Desert” serves as a litmus test for cynicism when considered against the backdrop of mass-murder, torture and imprisonment of tens of thousands of Syrians that has occurred since the story was first published.

In March, 2011, the 3,200-word story on Asma al-Assad praised the “wildly democratic” family-centric couple who vacation in Europe, nurture Christianity, and leave their security guards at home when cruising around Damascus with Brad and Angelina. Buck declared that “Syria is known as the safest country in the Middle East” and described the couple’s aim to give Syria a “brand essence.”

With catastrophic mistiming, the story was published online right before Syria’s Arab Spring erupted. It was later revealed to be the result of a coordinated public relations effort managed by Brown Lloyd James, the same firm that handled media spin for Libya’s Qaddafi regime.

The profile became a heated topic among journalists and activists, and Vogue quickly removed the article and all references to it from their website. The magazine, published by Condé Nast, boasts over 11 million readers. It later defended the story saying it was “a way of opening a window into this world a little bit,” with a qualifier that the nation under Assad was “not as secular as we might like.”  The URL is still visible, but a click gets you this image:

Last week, news and gossip website Gawker reprinted the full article, without author or Vogue approval. It then went down from Vogue. But we found the last copy online and filed it here. You can download the PDF here.

We have found the first paragraphs from the original Vogue article:

“We did not ask permission beforehand,” Gawker editor John Cook told Mother Jones. “I think it’s important that people are aware of how Vogue and (Editor-in-chief Anna) Wintour…felt about the Assads, and characterized the Assads. It came out almost exactly as the regime embarked on its campaign of murdering women and children…And now in the context of the United States possibly going to war with Syria, it’s important for people to see how the magazine portrayed them…[Wintour] was pushing her people to give cover to a tyrant and murderer.”

Cook continued, “There’s a very important public interest behind publishing [the profile] in a vastly different context than the one it was originally presented in. Our goal was to make sure that the actual artifact is readily available.”

Bashar is not the only Arab leader with a comely, intelligent and media-savvy wife with Western public appeal (London-born Asma studied computer science at King’s College, worked as a banker for J.P. Morgan, and sports European designer clothes).

Spinning the similarities in west-leaning lifestyle and fashion makes for easy “Oprah-fying” of these women which also reflects positively on their men. It’s a tactic borrowed from American and European politics, and it flies both ways (recall Hilary Clinton’s damaging admission that she chose to not stay home and bake cookies, as example).

Was this a factual profile of a contemporary political figure or blatant propaganda to dress up the dictator and his wife into a sanitized, Middle East “lite”? Read the article yourself (link is here) and let us hear your view.

The post Dressed to Kill: Vogue’s Profile of Asma al Assad appeared first on Green Prophet.

Looking for day trips to explore modern Middle East architecture, I stumbled across Jordan’s The Aqaba House (TAH). This ambitious little house was the first modern home fully based on green building principles specific to its Aqaba location.  Oriented to capitalize on sun exposure, with purposeful shading, its terraces offered fantastic views overlooking Aqaba and Eilat across the Red Sea.  Recycled graywater irrigated the local flora filling its gardens.  Solar thermal heated its water and air conditioning ran on solar electricity. A decent alternative to Aqaba’s swanky resorts, I was ready to pack my toothbrush.  The only catch was it closed two years ago.

I learned the sad news after a friendly Dutch guy named Theo answered my emails to their website, explaining some of the backstory. It got me wondering about the people behind these sensitive, small eco-projects.  What happens when their hard work and dedication is dashed by economic or political hiccups?

Meet Theo van de Laar, Middle East tour guide and the guy behind the Aqaba House:

Green Prophet: Holland to Jordan, didn’t you like tulips?

Theo: Yeah, I’m from the Netherlands. I studied history and after a few post-grad years working in marketing, I decided a traditional office job wasn’t for me. I applied for work as a tour leader, got hired and was sent to Egypt for three months. That was in 1999 and I’ve been on the road ever since.

After three years working in the Middle East, I wanted to experience actually living in the region and in 2002, I moved to Beirut.  Lebanon was my base, but I worked as a tour guide to Sri Lanka and Morocco and to everywhere in between. At one point I was hired to guide academic tours to Jordan. That’s how I met Florentine Visser, the architect for TAH, who turned out to be from my Holland hometown. When she asked if I’d be interested in running the place, I jumped at the challenge.

I’ve always behaved in an eco-friendly way. I’ve never owned a car; I’ve recycled paper and glass even in the most remote places. But to me, this house was less about sustainable technology and more about turning traditional tourism on its head.

So, spill the beans on The Aqaba House.

TAH was a pilot project to demonstrate eco-friendly building in a hot, dry climate.  Designed as a private home (called the Aqaba Residence Energy Efficiency), EU underwriting required that the premises be open to the public for at least one year.  So it was reborn as a guesthouse called TAH.  Through the architect, I was asked to devise a plan for exploiting the house’s unique qualities.  A few months after its official opening in 2009,  I moved to Aqaba.

Unfortunately, financial support immediately got wobbly, promised cash didn’t materialize. At that point I probably should’ve turned around, but I didn’t. I totally believed in this project.

I staged a lot of activities and TAH became a “happening” point in Aqaba’s art scene. I managed the personnel, organized the events, did the marketing and ran the B&B and art gallery for almost a year.  The house attracted publicity and visitors, however relations with its owners became problematic. Within a year its doors closed to the public.

I’m glad I was given the chance to run that special project. It was presented as “good living made sustainable,” and that slogan that had a lot of truth in it.

So when those doors closed, did others open?

After Aqaba, I returned to guiding tours throughout Jordan.  Together with winemaker Omar Zumot, I worked to set up an eco-friendly tourist stopover in northern Jordan.  In 2010, new project development was stalled by regional unrest in Egypt and Libya, and tourism in general was slack, so I returned to Holland.

I consulted with Volunteer Services Overseas (VSO), an international development organization that sends volunteers abroad, and did a lot of travel writing. Eventually I got back into guiding tours through Jordan, Ethiopia, Georgia and Armenia. My clients tend to be Dutch and Belgian: I conduct my tours in English, Dutch and French.

What are you doing now?

Last October, as a VSO volunteer, I traveled to Dushanbe, in the Central Asian republic of Tajikistan, where I now work as a teacher and consultant at a local university. Land-locked Tajikistan’s the third least-visited country in the world.  Tourism could, in a pretty sustainable way, make an enormous difference in this nation’s development.

My job is to act as an agent of change: open the windows to the 21^st century and to build capacity in both students and teachers to support Tajikistan’s tourism industry.

I organize ‘master classes’ for teachers and students, inviting 3rd party lecturers and establishing relations with other, relevant organizations in and outside of the country.

I’m deeply honored to have had a chance to work here, but at the same time I have to admit that I’m starting to miss my old life and touring work.

Partly, that’s because of the volunteer-life: sharing a house with 3 (and sometimes 4) others on a very limited income is challenging, especially in the relatively expensive capital city of Dushanbe.

On the other hand, Dushanbe is a very attractive city, and Tajikistan is absolutely worth a visit.

But political rest knows no boundaries. Civil conflict in the mountainous southeastern region of Tajikistan is undermining Tajikistan’s potential as a tourist destination.

It’s heartbreaking, because this nation has a lot to offer world travelers. Competition for touristic dollars is steep.

Aqaba to Tajikistan: what’s next?

I’m planning tours to Lebanon, Morocco and trips to Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, all with a culinary focus. I’m heading to Lebanon in mid-October to manage a fully-booked food and wine tour. Food is an excellent way to connect to a culture.

Looking back over my career, I don’t ever seem to do “normal” things. I’m passionate about helping people and places to develop, in maximally sustainable ways, because along the way, I develop myself.

End note:   As someone who threw a dart at a university admissions book and hit jackpot with a major that’s seen me happily employed through global upheaval and economic thunderstorms, I’m fascinated by people who recycle their skills, always adding new ones, and reapplying them with passion to new opportunities.

Got a Middle Eastern touristic challenge?  Contact Theo through Green Prophet.

All images of Theo with VSO Tajikistan colleagues courtesy of Teodore Kaye

The post Recycling Yourself When Green Projects Go Bust appeared first on Green Prophet.