It’s hard not to get wound up by what’s going on in Syria. We patted ourselves on the back when the Arab spring started, how great technology and western values have been in helping promote democracy in these countries. Tunisia was easy – not many of us had been there and it wasn’t geopolitically important to anyone that important (sorry France). And then it got sticky – Egypt. Hilary supported the wrong people, and then worked out who she should be supporting.
And it carried on – Arab and other nations.
And Syria, run by Mr Assad (our optician friend from West London), and married to that lovely lady, is one of the most shameful episodes of the last years.
Never again – how many times have we said this?
We’re about to celebrate the Olympic games. That bastion of commercialisation, where sport moved mountains and brought down apartheid. But we’re happy to accept Syrian athletes to the games (that their team includes a sharpshooter is a bloody irony). And we barely say a word.
Scratch that – it’s easy to not get wound up about it. We all seem to be doing a very good job of ensuring that it’s not front page news.
raam thakrar 