On the flickering screen, they watch Omar line up on a track in Beijing.

If he were alive today, contemplating an electronic inbox on a flickering computer, he might well have added, Where is the information that has been lost in trivia?

There was a beaten up black and white television flickering in the background, and a former head of state and general was being blindfolded and tied to the pole.

Flickering lights, not strong enough to read by, cast their shadows on the walls of your house, powered by car batteries which Syrians also now use to generate electricity in their homes.