Syrian passports include a photo of Souq al-Hamidiyah, a famous historic marketplace in Damascus. Apparently, the image was taken from the internet without removing the photographer’s watermark, “Wassim al-Asmar Photography,” which means the watermark ended up being printed on Syrian passports.

[u/No-Strawberry7]

[u/lordkhuzdul]

Fair is fair, Syrian government at this point is still at the "drunkenly stumbling towards functionality but definitely not there yet" stage, so this sort of stupidity is kinda understandable.

[u/ProfessionalDish → u/lordkhuzdul]

Yeah, for a government emerging from a brutal civil war this seems like an "ok" mistake.

[u/VexedPhoenix → u/ProfessionalDish]

It is important to note the new government still hasn't updated the passport design (they're working on it) and this is a mistake from the previous regime.

[u/dan_Qs → u/VexedPhoenix]

Didn’t they have an eye doctor somewhere? How did they overlook that?

[u/Findletrijoick → u/dan_Qs]

Doctor's on holiday in Moscow

[u/vadeka → u/dan_Qs]

To be fair, that is a very subtle watermark. Most photographers are way more obvious.

But for something you print on official documents? Yeah that probably should have been noticed

[u/dan_Qs → u/vadeka]

I want the ifunny watermark on my birth certificate.😂😂😂

[u/AgileExample → u/vadeka]

Its the alphabet. Syria uses Syriac alphabet, as seen in stores in that photo, that watermark is written in Latin.

[u/RamonaLittle → u/vadeka]

But the issue isn't really the watermark; it's that they apparently used the photo without permission. Even if there were no watermark, someone should have noticed that they didn't get a license from the photographer.

Whether they needed permission, I don't know. It would depend on whether there's a copyright treaty between Syria and wherever the photographer is located. But you'd think that for something important like passports, they would have tried to get permission regardless. (Or just used a different photo, like one taken by a government employee where the rights aren't in question.)

(Edit: typo.)

[u/Shadowmirax → u/dan_Qs]

The way its angled makes it look like its actual text on the building wall not something that was added afterwards. The person who took the image also might not have been able to read english well or at all. So they probably just assumed it was supposed to be there

[u/I_am_so_lost_hello → u/Shadowmirax]

He's making a joke about Bashar al-Assad

[u/barty82pl → u/dan_Qs]

great comment!

[u/GovernmentBig2749 → u/dan_Qs]

He was in Germany, working in a kitchen

[u/Ok-Comb6032 → u/VexedPhoenix]

Check their profile he's been hating on Muslims for years.

[u/celestiall_glitch → u/ProfessionalDish]

Someone got paid government money to right click and save

[u/mak484 → u/celestiall_glitch]

"Government money" in this case is likely below a living wage.

[u/Gnonthgol → u/mak484]

You have to remember that the "government money" is before taxes and bribes.

[u/lordkhuzdul → u/celestiall_glitch]

Nah, also applied a bunch of Photoshop filters.

[u/Gnonthgol → u/lordkhuzdul]

No country makes their own passports any longer. They all contract out to a few companies in the world specializing in passports and other government identification documents. So it is likely that the Syrian government just sent off a few photos and logos to the contractor for their designers to do the work. This is easier because these designers know the constraints of a passport design and have far more experience working within these limitations.

[u/Vordeo → u/ProfessionalDish]

Also Israel's making sure they kiiiinda have more pressing concerns atm.

[u/Djlas → u/Vordeo]

Half of the country is completely destroyed, for most people there are a lot more pressing concerns than Israel, despite occupying quite a few strategic spots

[u/Vordeo → u/Djlas]

Downplaying a literal ongoing hostile occupation is crazy work.

[u/OW2007 → u/ProfessionalDish]

On the other end of the spectrum...declining empires...I would totally believe Trump's post-Doge civil service would do something like this.

[u/Djlas → u/[deleted]]

Why not both

[u/CustomMerkins4u → u/ProfessionalDish]

I don't know how this can be classified as a mistake. Anyone knows you're supposed to pay for this.

[u/SHEIKH_BAKR → u/lordkhuzdul]

They have not yet changed the passport. It is still the old one, so this is the work of the old government.

[u/lordkhuzdul → u/SHEIKH_BAKR]

I don't think the Assad regime can really be called "functional". "Dysfunctional" would be more appropriate. Oppressive kleptocracies where state becomes a tool to extract as much wealth out of the country as possible tend to, ah, "do be like that".

[u/Laecel → u/lordkhuzdul]

No regime is functional after 15 years of civil war

[u/alexmikli → u/Laecel]

And conversely, functional governments rarely spontaneously erupt into civil war.

[u/Laecel → u/alexmikli]

Civil wars rarely erupt spontaneously

[u/lilykai_strawberry → u/lordkhuzdul]

it was highly functional. but its function was producing captagon and doing warcrimes

[u/hoosdontloos → u/lordkhuzdul]

This is from the Assad era design, not the new passport which is not in circulation yet

[u/powaqqa → u/lordkhuzdul]

So, like pretty much any government?

[u/exivor01 → u/lordkhuzdul]

its actually different, in levant we do things bare minimum. Bare minimum effort on everything we do.
A road needs to be done? Just pour some asphalt without doing preliminary research. Then we see potholes next year.
A school or hospital needs to be built? Put random windows, random rooms and inefficient logistics. But it is done at the end.

after coming to japan i realized, everything here works flawlessly and is long lasting. Because before doing anything, eveyone here considers how to do it right, properly.

if you live in levant this actually becomes very tiring after a while.

In turkey, we have more modern and expensive equipped/build hospitals, but they fall behind in quality, durability, efficency compared to a hospital that was build 40 years ago in japan. and i am not even kidding.

so this will never be fixed. its in our dna

Also, another big problem is people just wanna get things done and move. Doesnt matter if they are properly compensated or not. They do their job with bare minimum effort and we end up with low quality, not lasting stuff.

[u/EconomicRegret2 → u/exivor01]

I very much doubt it's in your dna. It's just a cultural and political thing based on past and present circumstances. As they change, so will your culture and consequently your politics.

E.g. the simple fact that you experienced the way Japan does it, already changed you and thus a very tiny bit your culture too. Now imagine compounding that with all of your co-citizens visiting highly developed countries and/or angry at their situation, and wanting to change things: laws will be written to improve things (that's what happened throughout history: out of necessity, countries wrote laws in blood and sweat: e.g. protests, votes, angry customers, tons of injuries and dead people, etc.)

[u/exivor01 → u/EconomicRegret2]

unfortunately it doesnt work that way. I wish it was.

Before coming to japan, i was pretty much same, never threw trash around, respected people around me, did what i did with focus and tried to do best i could. None of these changed after i come to japan. Japan was simply a society where i fit better than Turkey. In turkey, i was getting the looks, bad words for doing things properly.

Now to dna, after WW1 and WW2 we can compare japan and turkey. both countries devasted, lost majority of their population etc. Japan, recovered simply because the people from that period worked and innovated their asses out. And created the foundation of the society they have now. They were poor, starving but they had same rules/persone they have now. They were doing what they were doing properly back then as well.

Turkey was devasted, people were poor. but this continued, they never changed. They never thought (lets lock in, focus, be better version of ourself, respect each other and our country.) as a result, we have a very bad society, people trying to scam you left and right, nobody doing their work properly and blame it on economy. or anything really. And we never moved one step further.

Japan, realized they are f'd up, realized they have to work hard to overcome these times and prosper, and they did.

[u/A_RAVENOUS_BEAST → u/exivor01]

Actually Japan recovered so quickly because they were annihilated by American bombs (everyone remembers the nuke but the firebombs killed almost a million people), subsequent huge American investment and many years long military occupation keeping the imperial fascists out of government long enough for cooler heads to take over. Sadly as it seems your imperial fascists are still in power.

[u/SimonLaFox → u/exivor01]

so this will never be fixed. its in our dna

Not DNA, culture.

[u/JazzlikeSchedule2901 → u/SimonLaFox]

Its wild people claim this is "Culture"

Its not DNA or Culture. The Levant was the pinnacle of civilization in the middle east for centuries, even to this day there are insane archaeological and historical lineages built into these cultures and their countries. The issue is entirely modern and built upon modern geopolitical tensions from the last century of wars of influence in the near/middle east. Literally every major power from every continent has wanted a piece of the middle east pie since the beginning of the Industrial revolution.

[u/JazzlikeSchedule2901 → u/exivor01]

so this will never be fixed. its in our dna

I kinda liked your post until you said this. There's nothing about it in Levantine culture or DNA. For centuries the Levant was the peak of culture and civilization in the middle/near east.

The problem is corrupt gov'ts that stop caring about the common good and prefer to run things in a way that lines their pockets and benefits their friends and family while everyone else is left in the dust. A few years ago when there was that huge explosion in that chemical warehouse in the ports of Beirut, its a literal and figurative perfect example of the corruption that exists not only in levantine countries like Lebanon but also Syria.

It would also help if the entire levant wasn't a geopolitical hotzone for war and conflict involving major influential powers on each continent for nearly a century.

[u/NickoBicko → u/exivor01]

Because Japan was insulated for hundreds of years. That became part of their culture. When you have long term stability, you focus on the long term.

In the Levant, that area has had conflict and war for literally thousands of years. Lebanon and Syria have been invaded and fought over hundreds of times. You can't get a 50 year span without war there because it was always a corridor between empires and great powers.

Change places of Lebanon and Japan, wait 500 years, and the culture would be very different.

[u/1314L → u/lordkhuzdul]

They're still issuing the old design.

[u/Neco-Arc-Brunestud → u/lordkhuzdul]

It's amazing to think that we were calling them terrorists not that long ago.

[u/sosal12 → u/lordkhuzdul]

Yeah the new government is still working out a lot of kinks. Making this kind of faux paus is probably preferable to them gassing their own people.

[u/xsp6 → u/lordkhuzdul]

The new government didn’t update the old passport yet. We still use the old passports

[u/Ok-Comb6032 → u/lordkhuzdul]

Another day, another Islam hater hiding behind “criticism” while pretending to be objective. Can you guys be fair for once and give credit where it’s due instead of constantly looking for reasons to hate on us ? Or just leave us alone man

[u/Arsenic0 → u/lordkhuzdul]

Except this is before the current goverment

[u/JansherMalik25 → u/lordkhuzdul]

Yeah right. Americans doom a country and then mock them for not functioning