Syrians want an immediate and urgent solution; they want an end to the catastrophe and the trail of pains they are treading. It is no longer important for them to even think about why things have gotten to the way they have. All they think about is how to get to salvation.
The issue of Syria refugees has resurfaced over the last week, and this time through the Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and the focus by Lebanese and Syrian media on some of them returning to Syria. As is usual from the extremists in the Syrian sides, the issue was exploited as a tool for media dueling, as well as trying to politicize the issue in a way that perpetuates the current situation, from which extremists from the sides benefit in putting additional obstacles to prevent making progress towards reaching a comprehensive political solution. The necessary conditions to move forward with the political solution are also necessary to stop the Syrian bleeding, one of the manifestations of which is the migration of Syrians out of the country. This means, the Syrian refugees file today cannot be dealt with as a humanitarian, political, economic, social, or security file; rather, it is all of those, in addition to being an existential file linked to the continuance of the country and its unity.
At the end of September 2022, when winter, which the vast majority of Syrians fear, is on the doorsteps, the average cost of living for a Syrian family of five exceeded 3.5 million Syrian Pounds barrier, according to Kassioun Cost of Living Index (while the minimum amounted to 2,234,339 Syrian Pounds), which leaves Syrian people victims of the new gap that separates these costs from the minimum wage in the country (which does not exceed 92,970 Syrian pounds).
On Thursday, August 25, the “Rai Al-Youm” (Today’s Opinion) news website published an article titled “What are the secrets and behind-the-scenes of the escalation again US forces in Syria?” (Arabic) by the well-respected Palestinian journalist and author, Kamal Khalaf. We will discuss the subject of the article due to its importance.
Although the discussion of the two terms of centralization and decentralization in the new Syria has taken a back seat a little, and is no longer as hot of a topic as it was years ago (and perhaps this is better so discussions move in more objective and sustainable directions), the topic in its essence is still hot and important. One could even say that the time for serious preparations to discuss it and reach understandings about it is dwindling, given the amount and speed of the ongoing changes.
The Century Foundation, an American think tank based in New York, published on the fourth of this month a report titled “Syrian Prisoner Amnesty Could be a Breakthrough if Damascus is Ready to do More”.
Scholars of World War II history agree that among the most important reasons for the collapse of Nazism at the time, was its opening two major fronts together, the first in 1939 and the second in 1941.
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.
