Syria in Ruins

The pictures at the end of this post are of Syria in ruins.  While recent media attention has been focused on Hurricane Sandy and then the elctions and now the holidays- the horrific war is still going on.  In some areas of Syria it has gotten worse.  The aerial bombardments of civilian neighborhoods, street fighting, and executions have become the norm.  It has become normal to see dead bodies in the street and to walk over them to get to your destination or to take cover from the sniper fire that is taking place around you.  Years ago when I was living in Syria during a different civil war that was being orchestraced by Bashar’s father- I got to the point where death did not mean anything and a dead body on the street was just another dead body.  But it never got to be as bad as what his son is doing – an educated  man who studied in London and got married to a woman from Homs, also educated in London, and they have children.

She was called the Desert Rose when they came into power, but now I see these two people as evil as evil can be.  No regard for life, for the women and children, all this killing to just stay in power. As he said in an interview “I was born in Syria and I will die in Syria.”  But he seems to want to destroy the country and not leave anything standing.  There seems no path for peace- neither side will talk to the other.  Each peace agreement or cease fire that has been negiogated has collapsed. The foreign intervention is non existant except for the arms that are being supplied – but not helping the peace process.  The innocent women and children are right in the middle and being killed or maimed.  They will take a long time to recover and get back to what we think is normal.

Thank you all for your contributions to help the needy.  Hopefully, a couple of us will be going to Turkey to see the camps and try and get into Syria after the container that we sent out today is delivered with supplies, clothing, blankets, etc.  We had a great partner (shipping company) that gave us a fabulous rate to ship the container – it was less then half of normal rates.  People are so kind- the American people are so generous.  We will be getting you pictures ofo the shipment and its delivery.  We will also be buying goods in Turkey since the price is so good and we can get it to the people faster.

The weather conditions are getting worse on a daily basis, right now it is the heavy rains that are flooding the camps and making the roads muddy and hard to walk on, especially with sandals.

Thank you again for all your help and if you can keep passing this around to people you know we need so much more.  It will take a long time for Syria to get back on its feet and for the Syrian people to return to their country.  We have 2.5 million syrians that are displaced at this time.