
Show HN: Help programmers from Syria get jobs elsewhere - whoishiring
http://hireprogrammersleavingsyria.org
======
ibrow
Yesterday my wife and I were discussing the UK vote on intervening in Syria.
It is such a horrible plight for people trapped in the middle of this, that
both options of going in or not going in are equally awful.

The conclusion was that we don't know what the right answer is, but there must
be some better way. We've got to stop thinking that military action is the
only alternative.

We need to seriously do some bigger, different thinking. Possibly the UK
granting opening it's doors to anyone who wants to flee this hell? I don't
know.

Initiatives like Hire Programmers from Syria are a great start to thinking
differently. I have no idea if it will be successful at achieving its goals or
not, but I still applaud the effort.

Well done, and good luck.

~~~
devx
The right thing would be to convince Assad to offer a truce, step down, and
allow a democratic election to happen. He'd have to be given protection, too,
otherwise he'd never agree to stop, because he'd fear too much for his life.

Of course, even if they do convince Assad of that, it doesn't mean things will
go smoothly. The "rebels" might still be upset if they lose the election,
which is why it's so important UN or whoever needs to guarantee fair
elections. It's the least they can do to appease the rebels, so they don't
want to start the civil war all over again. They could even guarantee some
sort of remuneration from the state for all the people who lost a family
member in the war.

This is the least violent, and best solution for everyone involved.

~~~
rdl
IMO the right thing to do would be to solve _just_ the chemical weapon
problem, and solve it in the most limited way possible.

Have Assad escrow his chemical forces with the Russians at the Russian naval
base in Syria (Tartus), on the basis of "you may have lost control of your
forces; they must be kept safe so there will be no unauthorized use."

Other than that, focus purely on helping the civilians. I dislike both Assad
and the rebels (the AQ/etc. groups), and don't want either to win. I also
don't want them to fight forever, because it is killing civilians.

We should provide secure IDP facilities within Syria (either camps or
protected cities), with real force (so we never again have another
Srebrenica), or just focus on providing what infrastructure we can (free
internet/phone/tv/etc. from Rivet Joints and UAVs and cross-border, medical
supplies, etc.).

Taking sides doesn't really help.

(Letting Assad step down and go into comfortable exile in Iran or Russia would
be fine, too, but making regime change a requirement to deal with chemical
weapons seems to be an overcomplication.)

~~~
s_q_b
This is exactly spot-on.

My only addition would be that the rebel groups must be inspected to determine
whether they have gained control of any chemical stockpiles.

~~~
rdl
Definitely -- all chemical weapons should be escrowed. I'd be ok with doing a
1 for 1 swap of chemical for conventional weapons in exchange, if required, if
the goal is just to get rid of the chemical weapons.

~~~
s_q_b
Exactly. That's smart foreign policy. A limited definable goal, preservation
of the norm of prohibition against the use of chemical weapons, and a way to
accomplish it that respects the interests of each of the parties.

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Nrsolis
Why are Syrian programmers the only ones worthy of help here?

~~~
noloqy
The website or post in no way implies that this is the case.

One reason to choose Syria is that the situation may be more acute than it is
in most other places in the world at the moment.

One reason to choose programmers could be that this is also the industry that
the founder is active in, perhaps making it easier to approach potential
customers.

~~~
Nrsolis
I'm going to clarify my question here:

Why are Syrian _PROGRAMMERS_ the focus?

It would be just as easy to divide up the population into any other
constituent subgroup and select only those for help.

Any of these would also be a valid goal according to the effort being proposed
here:

Syrian auto mechanics Syrian bakers Syrian musicians Syrian nurses

You are presupposing that you can ONLY easily help programmers and
furthermore, ONLY those Syrians with programing skill SHOULD be helped. Taken
to it's logical extension, you end up helping people based on Ethnicity or
Religion.

Why not instead focus on trying to help the greatest number of people in the
most expedient way possible: by working to END this terrible civil war. That's
CERTAINLY possible given the assemblage of talent reading these words.

You're setting your sights FAR TOO LOW.

~~~
nandemo
OP is organizing something that might end up helping (or even saving) many
Syrians. You're just bikeshedding.

This is HN, it's only natural to focus on programming. There are many here
with the authority to hire programmers, not many people hiring nurses or
mechanics. Besides, it's easier to get a visa if you're a programmer, and it's
also easier to get remote work (e.g. in case a Syrian can't get a visa to US
or EU but can move to Lebanon or Turkey).

------
pearjuice
And what about those who didn't choose to have programming as a career?

~~~
wslh
This is HN and there are many initiatives to help Syrians.

------
monk1991
help to make better situation there rather than.. displacing people from their
country.

~~~
icoder
Yes, well, that's probably what many would love to do. Please tell us how.

In the mean time, let's go for the alternative that seems less ideal but
concrete and doable.

~~~
m0skit0
I bet you can vote in your country. Learn to use that.

~~~
icoder
Me 'learning to use my vote' seems a rather long term solution to the very
immediate problem that is at subject here.

~~~
m0skit0
Cause you're accepting 4-year vote. This can be changed. More things like this
will happen in the future. Let's find a real solution and not just patches
when the inevitable already has happened. Jeez Western people...

------
level09
Thank you very much for this, I'm Syrian (programmer) and seeing this makes me
feel really happy and grateful.

I know this could possibly be a life changer for a lot of Syrians (I will try
as much as possible to spread it across my friends and colleagues are still
alive there)

For a Syrian, living abroad means a lot, it means having basic human rights,
equality, freedom of speech, and easy access to knowledge etc .. those
privileges are taken for granted by most western people.

Unfortunately, We are victims of a geographic accident and we have to go
through a harder way to have those privileges.

------
seldo
The idea here is apparently that there are people living in a war-torn country
ruled by a murderous dictator who will gas his own people and the only reason
they haven't left is because they can't find a good programming job. As if
they're sitting there on Monster.com as the bombs rain down, desperately
refreshing for a job with benefits.

The degree of disconnection here from the reality of the situation in Syria is
so enormous as to be insulting, even though that was not the intent.

------
susi22
Please consider making the font color higher contrast. Not everybody has a
super bright LED display. It's hard to read for me.

------
beshrkayali
This is great, but I've been trying my very best to get hired in a decent web
company in the US for the past year or so, and all my attempts have failed
many times because of visa issues or that the company wasn't interested in
candidates from outside the US.

~~~
frank_boyd
And when you'll succeed, I'm not sure you'll feel like being in some kind of
"Land of the free": [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/us/fbi-sharpens-
scrutiny-o...](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/us/fbi-sharpens-scrutiny-of-
syrians-in-us-for-signs-of-retaliation.html)

------
benjlang
Israeli startups want to hire Syrians. Here are startups that are hiring:
www.mappedinisrael.com

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iloveponies
So... where are all the Syrian programmers? This website says none are
available.

~~~
djm_
It's a chicken and the egg situation I think; I believe the purpose of this
site is to connect people and probably stemmed from the Ask HN thread the
other day [1].

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6300923](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6300923)

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nsp
Emailing helpout@ failed permanently. Via your mail to link, just a heads up

~~~
_p6xs
helpout@hireprogrammersleavingsyria.org instead of .com. Fixed. Thanks!

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dado_eyad
The email on the website didn't work.

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zakelfassi
AWESOME. Huge Kudos for that Matt !

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antocv
We need this for every profession. Seriously, lets just take out all the
civilians from a conflict and leave the place to those who willing choose to
die for it.

Open all the borders. Revolutionary, radical, but consider the thought before
you trash it.

------
m0skit0
Why only programmers? What are you, "professioncist"?

