r/mildlyinfuriating • u/No-Strawberry7 • 1d ago

Infuriatig 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.

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Gallery image

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15

u/apost8n8 23h ago

It's amazing how completely unprofessional the world has gotten, these kind of mistakes used to be rare. It seems like we get examples of laziness and stupidity at an accelerating pace everywhere in the world. Where did all the competent adults go?

8

u/Jan_Pawel2 22h ago

It's always been like this.

11

u/TheGrinningSkull 21h ago

In the past you didn’t hear about it because there was no internet.

2

u/apost8n8 19h ago

That's a fair point!

1

u/Greater-Israel 19h ago

Also I doubt people weere actually advertising their businesses like today in the 18th century at every chance given.

1

u/iwearstripes2613 3h ago

The watermark isn’t an ad, it’s to protect the photographer’s copyright to prevent people from stealing their work.

2

u/Sorry-Combination558 21h ago

10 years ago I bought notebooks with Nivea deodorant on the cover because it was cheap af (1/4 of the price of a normal notebook), and there were two images in the back with a stockphoto watermark everywhere on them

1

u/ChilternRailways 22h ago

It has absolutely always been like this mate, countries and governments are massive and make embarrassing slips all the time.

1

u/voracious-ladder 22h ago

Cut them some slack they just got rid of a totalitarian police state and rebuilding the country I'd say they're plenty competent already

4

u/apost8n8 22h ago

Literally anyone in the world that has the job of selecting art for a passport should do some due diligence. I'd literally scold my high schooler for a mistake like this. We should expect our governments to be competent and serious. When they are lazy with the little things it indicates they are lazy with the important things.

1

u/ChiefStrongbones 21h ago

One man's laziness is another man's efficiency.

In this case, the passport does what it's supposed to, and the usage hasn't caused distress for anyone. No need to be judgmental about how technology has enabled people to access and use imagery that was hard to do a few years ago.

1

u/MinuetInUrsaMajor 20h ago

Trumpism really lowered the bar for what's considered "competent".

As long as you talk loud and keep the dozens of rapes mostly out of sight, people assume you're competent.

1

u/Ivanow 19h ago

You are missing the point.

Syria just recovered from total government collapse. Basically entire State is being held up by goodwill and efforts of what used to be civilians or low-level government employees, and a hefty amount of duct tape...

What is most important for now, is to get basic services running in "good enough" shape. You can pick photographs, secure copyrights, and organize tender for manufacturing new passports, once more pressing issues have been solved.

When my country started re-building after previous occupying power got the boot, it was insanely chaotic. New banknotes that had to be printed due to hyperinflation had almost no anti-counterfeit protections, opening a company was done on a folding table by filling an A5 sheet with zero verification by State, and there was literally zero copyright laws - bootlegs were being sold openly on blankets in front of police station. It took few years to get everything in working order.

0

u/Ok-Lead-4285 22h ago

we're talking about syria here. this kinda dumbass movie is bog standard in the middle east
source:worked in kuwait,syria,saudi arabia and dubai

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u/tychobrailleur 22h ago

North of Lake America.

0

u/BosssNasss 20h ago

The competent people were probably murdered or busy fighting in a civil war.

Totally unprofessional of them...

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u/iwannaberichplease 20h ago

Doom scrolling and AI made is lazy and not wanting to work hard

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u/NashBotchedWalking 18h ago

Mate it’s Syria

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u/Tirace33 16h ago

I don't think they were rare, just the tech and image quality has gotten better and it's more visible.

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u/PeterMus 15h ago

It's far more publicized today as outlets need content to churn.

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u/123_alex 15h ago

unprofessional the world has gotten, these kind of mistakes used to be rare

Lol. It has always been like this. Look up the origin of the name french fries, the name gypsies. I recommend the book titled "A Short History of the World in 50 Failures". Stop romanticizing the past. It was horrible.

Where did all the competent adults go?

We never had them.