Grab and Keel

Update: I was able to access this first link below, again, around 3:00 PT.

In searching for information on Paris I found that another terrible event had occurred. Why didn’t I know? Where was the outrage? I watch the news yet I missed it-including the part where ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack […in the southern Beirut suburb of Burj al-Barajneh, a predominantly Shia community which supports the Hezbollah movement. Not counting Israel’s assaults on Lebanon, the slaughters represent the deadliest bombings in Beirut since the Lebanese civil war ended more than two decades ago…]

Paris Attacks Highlight Western Vulnerability, And Our Selective Grief And Outrage

The above page, along with the whole website, has been removed from the web. I don’t know if this is temporary, if it’s been hacked or? However, the Wayback Machine says the Australian page is here:

Library of Congress.

As with al Queda, if we blinker ourselves to see just part of what is happening with IS, we are going to miss the story. Should I care, when the victim nation itself, has muddied its own pond of refuge? Human Rights Watch provides a synopsis:

Lebanon: Deadly Attack Kills Dozens

Why is so much hatred and violence emanating from Syria?

Rather than politics, maybe it’s useful to review some geography about Syria. The CIA produces a geography book on countries. Here is what the CIA’s “The World Factbook” says about  Syrian refugees:

[…refugees (country of origin): 526,744 (Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA)) (2014); undetermined (Iraq) (2015)
note: the ongoing civil war has created nearly 4.3 million Syrian refugees – dispersed in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey – as of November 2015
IDPs: 7,632,500 (ongoing civil war since 2011) (2015)
stateless persons: 160,000 (2014); note – Syria’s stateless population is composed of Kurds and Palestinians; stateless persons are prevented from voting, owning land, holding certain jobs, receiving food subsidies or public healthcare, enrolling in public schools, or being legally married to Syrian citizens; in 1962, some 120,000 Syrian Kurds were stripped of their Syrian citizenship, rendering them and their descendants stateless; in 2011, the Syrian Government granted citizenship to thousands of Syrian Kurds as a means of appeasement; however, resolving the question of statelessness is not a priority given Syria’s ongoing civil war
Trafficking in persons:
current situation: due to Syria’s political uprising and violent unrest, hundreds of thousands of Syrians, foreign migrant workers, and refugees have fled the country and are vulnerable to human trafficking; the lack of security and inaccessibility of the majority of the country makes it impossible to conduct a thorough analysis of the scope and magnitude of Syria’s human trafficking situation; Syria is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Syrian refugee women and girls are forced into exploitive marriages or prostitution in neighboring countries, while refugee children are forced into street begging domestically and abroad; the Syrian armed forces and opposition forces are using Syrian children in combat and support roles and as human shields
tier rating: Tier 3 – the government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; increasing violence undercut any law enforcement efforts in 2013; the government failed to protect and prevent children from recruitment by government forces and armed opposition groups; a new law passed in 2013 criminalizing the recruitment of children under 18 by armed forces was not enforced; authorities did not make efforts to investigate and punish trafficking offenders, including complicit government employees; no trafficking victims were identified or provided with protective services; the government did not attempt to inform the public about human trafficking or to provide anti-trafficking training to officials (2014)…]

Despite the presence of the Euphrates River, Syria is water poor with mostly degraded land. With one of the highest growth rates in the world, 34% of it’s population is under 14. It’s products are: petroleum, textiles, food processing, beverages, tobacco, phosphate rock mining, cement, oil seeds crushing, and automobile assembly. There is concern, as we gardeners know, generally, that phosphates, required for agriculture, will be in very short supply by 2020, and is projected to lead to worldwide food shortages. Industry is state owned.

Under increasing desertification, it’s 17% of agricultural land is devoted to: wheat, barley, cotton, lentils, chickpeas, olives, sugar beets; beef, mutton, eggs, poultry, and milk. Though the CIA doesn’t say, I would speculate with 9-12 inch of rain or less, that most of the land is in dryland wheat farming. The exception is the coast, which receives more rain. This is not enough to sustain a country that is one and half times the size of Pennsylvania.

I have read right sided discussion about why Syrians don’t stay home and fight for their homeland. Why emigrate?  From a numbers perspective, 160,000 refugees AND their children were declared stateless by Syria itself. Although that order was rescinded for many, its not clear how long that will last. What do you do when you aren’t allowed to work, obtain medical help if you are shot, or even eat? How long will your family funds last? Other Syrians themselves can attest to the insecurity of living. It’s clear that under these brutal conditions that there isn’t generally enough sustenance. The photos of refugees I have seen are of thin humans.

In order to fight a war, the first thing that is needed is food and water to support troops. There isn’t enough without import. In order to fight a war the second thing needed is arms. From whence are those to come? What strings are attached? Who controls these things in Syria?

What about Money?

The EIU reports that the current banking system is in urgent need of reform. The system is criticized by business leaders for being inefficient and offering only basic services. There are, for example, no ATMs, checks, or credit cards in Syria. Commercial loans are hard to obtain without using political party or government connections or traditional patronage relations (a system of relations in which government or any other sectarian, tribal domineering authority distributes the sources at its expense to its supporters as rewards). The new Syrian government has acknowledged the need for reform of the financial system and these new moves show that progress is being made. Some modernization efforts have been initiated with the computerization of the Central Bank and other commercial banks.

The government has also announced that foreign banks will be allowed to open branches in Syria for the first time. Banks with at least US$11 million in capital will be permitted to operate in the country’s free zones (an area where goods may be landed, handled, manufactured, reconfigured, and re-exported without the intervention of the customs authorities) to finance commercial and industrial activity. In August 2000 3 Lebanese banks were issued licenses while some non-Arab international banks expressed their wishes to enter the full international market rather than be restricted to the small free zones. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has estimated that Syria would gain US$8 billion in foreign investment if it allowed the establishment of private banks, opened a stock market, and unified exchange rates .

Read more: Syria

Whether it’s France or Lebanon who sends support to fight IS, while struggling to provide sanctuary for refugees, we are all affected.  While we mourn for those lost, we need to pay careful attention. It is not acceptable to become tone deaf to the struggles in the Middle East. Nor is it acceptable to be ignorant to it’s nuances. Neither is it okay ignore strife elsewhere. Westerners don’t live in a safe little cubby where nothing bad happens and they are somehow better. Mightiness and technology might contain hate, but only other values will change it.

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