WorldBoston

Thank you for doing this AMA! We're big fans of GlobalPost and appreciate high quality int'l coverage provided by esteemed journalists such as yourself.

Our organization hosts int'l visitors through the U.S. State Department for professional exchanges that are successful on the concept of citizen diplomacy and authentic exchanges of information between professional peers.

Have many Syrians with whom you've worked traveled to the U.S., and if so, how do they differentiate between the government and the people? If unsatisfied with US Gov official responses--and actions--do they think Americans are generally indifferent to the events over there?

Thank you very much! As a nonprofit coordinating tons of events, we're always looking for new ways to get the word out, so it's nice to have a relevant place to share instead of posting into the /r/boston abyss. Besides being able to (semi)legitimately lurk at work, this is the whole reason I created an account for our org! Not that we're hijackers of comment threads, just try to be strategic with the (free) marketing

Plus, like you said, the event is free and open to the public...l

Wow, thank you very much for answering this question and for your courage in covering this region.

We find that many of our members are indeed concerned and interested in learning more about the situation on the ground over there. In fact, on Tuesday evening, we're hosting Darin Johnson from the U.S. Department of State, Office of Special Coordinator for Middle East Transitions for a free event at the Boston Public Library. Details on our WorldBoston website

State Department fact sheet on assistance to the Syrian people here for the interested

Hey, the opportunities to reddit actively (read: productively) at work are few and far between...seriously though, our event on Tuesday is definitely focusing much more on Egypt than Syria, but it seemed like a relevant plug for a boston audience and I at least wanted to share the relevant link about the State Dept. having a "Special Coordinator for Middle East Transitions", which I thought might be interesting in light of Tracey's response...I'm a (personally) a daily redditor so we usually just post our own largely unseen announcements in /r/boston and wouldn't hijack a comment thread unless we thought it was relevant...(reddiquette!)

Hope it didn't take anything away from this awesome AMA for you--feel free to contact us (or me, Eli from WorldBoston) directly through our social media channels or by email if you're interested in what we do (events & int'l visitors)