Syria as we knew it no longer exists. The country of the great poet Nizar Qabbani, whose refinement was the pride of the Arab world, has disappeared. Ten years of civil war dislocated its economy, demography and sociology. A Syrian who disembarks today in his homeland, after a decade of absence, would probably find it difficult to recognize it. And even more difficult to hold back the tears.
Half of the population has been displaced, inside or outside the borders. Entire communities have been wiped off the map. In almost every family, there is one or more dead, disabled or prisoners. The Syrian conflict, by its magnitude, is the emblematic event of the brutalization of our world, the marker of the resurgence of barbarism, at the start of XXIe century.
On the United Nations Human Development Index, Syria fell 40 places between 2010 and 2020, from 111e to 151e rank out of 189. This is perhaps the most concerning. Cities and factories are rebuilt in a few years. Human capital, on the other hand, requires decades to replenish itself.
The future is all the bleaker as no solution is emerging. The regime’s prisons are always full, the camps for refugees and displaced persons are still as populated and the wallet of the population has never been so empty. With the collapse of the national currency, nearly 90% of households now live below the poverty line.
A cardboard ballot
Certain international sanctions, poorly calibrated, and the bankruptcy of Lebanese banks, the lungs of Syrian entrepreneurs, have a role in this disaster. But the problem goes far beyond. The conflict has brought the predatory and mafia nature of the Syrian economy to its climax. The engine is broken, and no matter how much gas is thrown at it, it won’t restart without a lot of cleanup.
But the chief mechanic, Bashar Al-Assad, the president of Syria, has no intention of getting his hands dirty. The man, who massacred his people to defend his throne, has no embarrassment to see them queuing for hours to buy bread. In the cardboard presidential election scheduled for spring, he is expected to grant himself a new seven-year term, more than ever convinced that Syria belongs to him.
In one of his poems, Cogitations of the leader, Nizar Qabbani (1923-1998) had mocked the vanity of despots. Since culture is perhaps the last glue of this shattered nation, it is this text that will have the last word. “Whenever I consider leaving power / My conscience forbids it … / Who, after me, will rule these good people?” (…) / Who will punish them with ninety lashes? / Who will crucify them on the trees? / Who will force them, if not, to live like cows? / To die like cows? / Every time I consider leaving them / My tears spread like a cloud! / I then leave it to God… / And I decide to mount the people / Until the day of the Last Judgment! “
