THOUGH the war is at President Bashar Assad’s doorstep in Damascus, his government is still trying to give the impression of business as usual. The regime continues to pay salaries to Syria’s civil servants, wherever they may be, even though government offices in swathes of the country are empty. Earlier this month the north-eastern provincial city of Raqqa fell to Mr Assad’s enemies—the first city to do so.
Yet the show must go on. In Damascus the electricity board still issues citizens with bills. The postal service still delivers mail no more erratically than before. Even the Meteorological Office is on hand to publish forecasts of rain. For Syrians who enjoy star-gazing, the Astronomical Society has notified them to look out for a comet between March 12th and 14th.
Though almost no tourists came last year, the government heralds a tourism body charged, among other things, with “preserving traditional handicrafts”. Meanwhile, the environment ministry is keen to start a study into “pollution caused by terrorists’ actions, such as burning forests”.
“The state is investing heavily in the desire felt by many Syrians for a return to normalcy,” says Peter Harling of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. Earlier this month Mr Assad’s rubber-stamp parliament presented a bill to regulate dentists.
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One must, after all, keep the Titanic's band playing as scheduled....
Oh, yeah, return to normalcy. Anybody remembers Comical Ali? He must have trained the Syrian information officers of today...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfAeMtcURg0
Assad is sure trying harder than Gaddhaffi did to keep up the fiction of a functioning state.
So "the desire for a return to normalcy" is felt by many Syrians? What's so strange about it, anyway?
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Let's wish their desire come true.
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Aw, and it's no good to burn forests, is it?
The longer this increasingly sectarian civil war lasts, the more Syrians pine for the old days and with no winner in sight for years to come, will eventually give Assad another chance at ruling as long as he promises relatively free elections. Syrians hate the prospect of absolute Sharia Law as proposed by the legions of Saudi and Qatari armed and funded Islamic extremists sent to overthrow secular Syria.
Denial is not just a river in Egypt.
I think it runs through Syria, no?
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One day people will wake up in Reality...And it is like running into a brick wall.