Hardly anyone argues today that official wages in Syria are no longer able to cover some of the actual costs of living. We have explained on several occasions on the pages of this newspaper that the State apparatus in the country has long stopped paying actual wages to its employees, whose number in 2020 was estimated by the Central Bureau of Statistics at 1,595,475 workers, out of 5,726,290 workers in general.
Talking about the global food crisis is no longer just speculations and warnings done by some, as the countries of the world, the countries of the global south in particular, have made real steps in this direction. At the Syrian level, where we are already suffering from food insecurity, the country is effectively left to the unknown, to be a prey between the jaws of the global food crisis, which is still not clear where it is headed yet. In addition, internal plunderers are ready to seize any crisis that increases the accumulation of wealth above their already accumulated wealth.
The catastrophic economic and social repercussions of the Syrian crisis have affected society in general, but they have affected the situation of Syrian children more deeply, entrenching them as the most vulnerable and fragile group in the country. Part of this group was forcibly pushed into the labour market in order to contribute to their families efforts to fill the huge difference between the minimum costs of food for the family and the minimum of wages. At the same time, most of these children live under conditions that threaten them with consequences throughout their entire lifetime.
With each passing day, and with every additional complication and blow to the global economy, it is becoming increasingly clearer that only the countries that have maintained and developed their production systems – particularly the real production in industry, agriculture, and others – are the ones able to be resilient and ensure the living conditions of their people considerably, and away from the corny use of slogans about resilience.
Estimates of the disaster affecting the food system in Syria are increasing daily at an unprecedented pace, as there is an additional number of Syrians every year getting in a state of food insecurity, not in thousands or hundreds of thousands, but in millions. This is happening at an accelerated pace, which threatens to drag more citizens into destitution and poverty.
At the beginning of Ramadan 2022, the average cost of living for a Syrian family of 5 has exceeded 2.8 million Syrian pounds according to Kassioun index. It is an unprecedented increase within a record period of time that threatens millions of Syrians who are witnessing a catastrophic gap between the costs of living and the minimum wage of Syrian workers, which remains at the threshold of 92,970 Syrian pounds (i.e., less than half of the cost of the minimum amount of food per working individual alone)!
The Syrian healthcare sector is facing crises and chronic problems that are reflecting in the lack of the availability and quality of healthcare services across the country. Alongside the inability to determine the real effects of the spread of Coronavirus in the country, in absence of reliable government figures on cases and deaths, disruption in healthcare services and systems continues. This is not only because of the spread of the virus and the conditions of the Syrian crisis, but mainly because of the decline in government expenditure on healthcare sector, which continues to reduce constantly and rapidly.
All the financial and monetary procedures that have been officially taken and implemented, especially during the previous two years, boil down to the aim of sequestrating the Syrian pound and preventing the speculation of it, in addition to limiting the circulation of its cash flow as much as possible. Regardless of the accuracy and validity of these Resolutions, one of their consequences was the inflation of money supply in public and private banks, reaching a large excess liquidity that is not practically invested. These mechanisms of releasing this excess bank liquidity have started through a series of financial and monetary Resolutions, and these Resolutions have given way to (public and private) banks to widely open the door for lending, by opening the loan ceiling for some, and raising it for others.
No sooner had the latest Ukraine events begun, a total alignment shaped up globally. This was not limited to the countries involved in the crisis and those affiliated with them or entrenched in their trench, but also included forces, parties, organizations, and personalities from all over the world.
More than two years after absence of any major operations of the terrorist organization ISIS, it has reappeared in two simultaneous operations, in Iraq and Syria.
