6 things you wish were true about Syria at the moment, but aren't....

If we look at the actual achievements of the president and not at all the killings, I have to admit that I don't really know, if this was two years ago, whether Syria is good under his rule or if it was in a bad situation. I don't know anything about politics and don't claim to. I am just reporting what I personally saw and felt whilst living there for the past few years.


So that brings me to the six things you wish were true about Syria at the moment, but aren't....

Number 1, everyone is against the government.

No. There are people who have strongly included the assad's into their own political beliefs. I know a guy who is so strongly in favour that he was willing to report anyone he knew to the police, who were against the regime. How do I know? Because he posted a website created by the secret police asking for people to come forward with information, onto his Facebook page!
Basically, anyone who wants these Syrian people to 'wake up and smell the coffee' is asking for a lot. For two years I lived next to a Syrian public school. Every morning I was woken by children chanting that they would remove their right eye and stamp on it before they let their president die. When you come from that kind of brain washing, all your life, how can you be expected to just snap out of it. The media are expecting miracles with that one.

Number 2, this is a revolution.

No. This is a war.

Number 3, this is all about getting the president to 'step down'.

No, it's about religion now. Muslims who are against the president hate the Christians because they think they are supporting him. Actually, this is an uneducated, broad sweeping statement or belief because I knew a typical Syrian girl. Perfect hair and make up. Loves fashion. Christian girl. At night she put a bandanna around her face and chanted slogans against the government with a bunch of university students.
I didn't think it was right to paint people with one brush because of their religion and often argued with friends who made those kind of comments. I know best friends turned against each other now because one is Alawi and the other is Shiite with one making a public Facebook comment that all Alawi's should be killed. These are educated, wealthy women, turning against each other and talking about murder.
I remember on my first day in Damascus, I got told off for asking a man his religion. He said that Syrians don't live their lives around this issue and in the only country in the middle east where people of all religions live in the same block of flats, and where girls who wear headscarves mix with those who don't (unlike Turks to name but one), it's particularly sad that this is the way things have turned out in this amazing, tolerant country.
I even know a Buddhist Syrian family!

Number 4, the people are out in the streets, protesting.

Errrr not so much because then they would be dead and they know that.
The millions of people that you see gathered in the street are from rallies organised by the government to prove the support that they have. A way to notice this would be that they are holding the current flag. People who oppose the regime have reverted back to the one held before the Assads.
There are definitely genuine supporters joining them because I have a few friends who went of their own accord and I also know a couple who were forced into it by their managers because they clash with work days. If you refused to go someone could report you and it would be obvious why you didn't join. So there was definitely a mix of people.

Number 5, People are being slaughtered, left, right and centre. 

I am sure that you don't want this to be true, but the media would have you think it.

In a few cities, maybe. In Damascus, no. I lived my normal everyday life and so did everyone else. Occasionally I wondered how they could sit and drink coffee in cafes and get their hair done and buy shoes. After all. There is a war happening. However, they felt that there wasn't much that could be done. They just had to carry on living. I think they are right.

Number 6, Syrians don't want foreign intervention.

Actually, most that I spoke with seem to. Since September, they have been expecting it because of what they saw in Libya but obviously they don't realise that Obama and co are loving every second of their plight. The country that wouldn't follow their lead. Wouldn't interact with them. Wouldn't come running like a puppy dog and wouldn't grant visas to their citizens a majority of the time. And this country, over the past few years under Bashar's rule has been growing in power with some serious best friends! The White House are just sitting back and enjoying the show.....

And so that's the main run down of what I heard with my own ears and saw with my own eyes!
The media love to manipulate the Syrian issue and try to portray it in the same vein as the other 'uprisings'. However, there is such a complex situation in the country due to religion and position within it's region, that it never was going to be the same thing.

I remember in 2011, February, I was walking down a Damascus street with a very good friend of mine - Armenian Syrian - who whispered that a revolution could never happen there, reason being that her fellow country men and women, didn't know what they really want. I don't know if that's true but when we look back at the time when the Lebanese got rid of their government, in a similar uprising known as the Cedar Revolution, as we have seen in Tunisia and Egypt, the young people who were so excited to vote, chose practically the same government again! Syrians have never been able to imagine a world in which they had a democratic system and so I think, if the government were to step down, and a new one voted in, people will need to be educated in some way in order to get the best out of the process for themselves and for their country.