It's telling to see those people who cannot bear the possibility of hope in Syria. Some do it for political reasons. Others as an emotional instinct, I guess. I feel terribly sorry for them. What a way to live your life.
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I think we, lazy westerns living in our peace privilege should all shut up and listen to the siryans who live there and who are exiled. This is neither a matter of “teams” nor a game.
But won't you feel silly if things eventually go badly and you've missed the opportunity to feel miserable and hopeless and wryly superior about it all along?
We absolutely need to have hope. But I do confess to feeling a little uncertain. It was heartening to see news interviews from young women yesterday who were sitting having coffee outside and marvelling at their new-found freedom and safety 🥺.
They don’t see any distinctions in the Middle East other than Israel & the rest. It is so simple to lump all those very distinct nations into one & write them off. Arabs? Muslims? All scary & written off.
The people I've spoken to who are least hopeful (actively pessimistic) are Christian Syrian refugees with family in various parts of Syria who, I suggest, are more clued up than most western commentators. And your tweet is patronising beyond belief!
A relative of mine (who I mostly avoid) started ranting about how bad this would be the other day and he’s exactly who you’d think, politics wise, to come out with that stuff- into Trump.
It's not just some on the far right, but also on the far left too (horseshoe in action). Pro-Assad because anti-Islamist; pro-Putin because supporting Assad and also attacking Nazi Ukraine. Effectively pro-Iran, because anti-Israel. Yet in their case, anti-Trump. All very messed up.
I feel terribly sorry for people who can’t let in the reality that our way of life is in terminal decline and collapse, just as at least eighty civilisations of the past three thousand years have done. But this time, because it is unclear what or who if anything will survive at all,
people shut their minds in order to be able to carry on. In some way, you can see denial as a way of surviving, a way to “live one’s life”. Staring down the barrel of a gun with open eyes is something that takes courage and practice, after all.
Sincerely hope it all goes well and that it's a real high point of the decade to date. But... learn from the problems in other places and prepare for a just-in-case scenario.
Agreed, but fear can be rational and self protective. We're desperately hoping for peace, stability and freedom for Syrians, but have seen too many dreams crushed before. The Taliban is devastating women's lives again step by step. We need to pressure our govts to support the best long term recovery
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/64718139
/ reminds of the old joke of Spencer's Law: "Murphy was an optimist."
Plan for the worst. Hope for the best.
Sincerely hope it all goes well and that it's a real high point of the decade to date. But... learn from the problems in other places and prepare for a just-in-case scenario.