Syria - Where is the Humanity?

 

Ornate marble domes and minarets, almond-eyed dancing girls twirling in chiffon harem pants, narrow cobbled streets lined with mounds of fragrant spices, vials of perfume, plump, juicy dates and bolts of rich fabric ready to be sold in exchange for pieces of gold, olive-skinned men going about their daily business and turbaned bards with snow white beards reciting fantastical tales of magic and mystery. Fed on fables from the 'Arabian Nights', my imagination once invoked this portrait each time I thought of cities like - Damascus, Baghdad, Kabul, Cairo and Ankara. They sounded exotic, wealthy and clairvoyant beyond words.

Sadly, pictures and news clips from war-torn Syria have brusquely obliterated every inch of this fairy tale image. It is more than evident that over the years things have taken an unsettling turn. Streets aren’t paved with prosperity any more and people are no longer engrossed in the healthy humdrum of every-day life. Instead, amid concrete ruins of once bustling alleys, bloody carcasses and armed men with a maniacal glint in their eyes, a sea of innocent men, women and children, most of whom are missing a limb or two, wearily make their way to the aid trucks handing out food packets. While some of these people might get lucky today and go back with a meal, others will yet again sleep miserably on empty bellies, urging themselves to feel grateful for at least being alive.

A potent concoction of political discord and religious dissonance has left Syria a shadow of its former glorious self. What started out as a peaceful protest by citizens advocating democracy as opposed to a one-party dictatorial government, has in a mere 3 years exploded into a civil war of cyclopean proportions. Several different warring factions have in the course of time jumped in with their own varied philosophies adding fuel to the already out of control fire. Not only do you now have pro-democracy blocs like the Free Syrian Army fighting the security forces controlled by President Bashar-Al-Assad but you also have a landslide of radical Islamist groups and Kurdish opposition wings embroiled in violent scuffles amongst themselves. The fact that these groups pledge allegiance to disparate foreign powers doesn’t help either.

In the chaos, the number of wounded and dead civilians skyrockets with each passing day. Those prudent enough to have sensed the looming danger in advance find themselves in a slightly better situation cooped up in refugee camps which have mushroomed all over neighbouring Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. Grief-stricken little Syrian boys and girls stare at you wistfully from the glossy pages of magazines like ‘Time’. It is either the physical pain of injuries or the mental trauma of losing loved ones or in some cases both, that is writ large on their agonized faces. And it makes you wonder - aren’t these kids entitled to a secure childhood brimming with good health, love and learning like our own children? What is it that they did wrong to get dealt such a rough hand?

‘The quality or condition of being humane’ – this is how Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Humanity. You might thus expect humanity to be a basic characteristic, ingrained deep within every specimen of the human race – a trait that sets us apart from savage animals. Alas, heinous reports such as the one about children as young as 6 being taken away from school to have their fingernails pulled out by barbarians suggest otherwise (Source - Syria through the eyes of children). Humanity seems to have died a rather brutal death along with the rest of the war causalities in Syria. All that remains now is an abysmal hollow shell of a country with a handful of antagonistic elements feeding on its battered remains.