{"id":12140,"date":"2011-09-21T15:06:46","date_gmt":"2011-09-21T19:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?p=12140"},"modified":"2011-09-25T21:22:07","modified_gmt":"2011-09-26T01:22:07","slug":"aleppo-remarks-by-the-newly-appointed-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/aleppo-remarks-by-the-newly-appointed-governor\/","title":{"rendered":"Aleppo – Remarks by the newly appointed Governor (By Ehsani)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since the new Governor of Aleppo took his new post recently, he has been making unflattering remarks about the city\u2019s cleanliness. Back in 2009, similar remarks were made here<\/a>. The pictures taken of garbage cans make the situation clear.<\/p>\n

Aleppo was recently host to a conference entitled \u201ccreating 6,000 new jobs\u201d. <\/a><\/p>\n

This was sponsored by the Chamber of Industry, a private education facility, and the Syrian Trust for Development. During the conference, the Aleppo Governor was quoted as saying that the \u201csanitation and cleanliness of Aleppo are in a terrible state\u201d.\u00a0 The conference\u2019s noble goal of creating 6000 jobs was soon overshadowed by news<\/a> that over 41,000 employees had lost their jobs nationally between January and mid May of this year. Indeed, the head of the Chamber of Industry, Mr. Chehabi, warned that poverty and unemployment are the two major problems that need immediate attention. Unemployment is thought to be somewhere close to 30% (official government figures continue to record a number around 8.5%). The poverty rate is believed to be close to 40% with 400 villages out of 1000 falling under the the poverty line.<\/p>\n

The bad news was not done. The official representing the education center reported that close to 40% of Aleppo\u2019s population is illiterate. He referred to this statistic as a \u201cdisaster\u201d. Below I list a few other statistics that he cited:<\/p>\n

University graduates make up 3.4% of Aleppo\u2019s population.
\nVocational center graduates are 2.9% of the population
\nHigh school graduates make up 9.2%
\nMiddle school graduates are 13.9%
\nPrimary school graduates are 29.2%
\nIlliterates who have not attended schooling make up the remaining 41.6%<\/p>\n

Aa number of industrialists at the conference complain about the lack of fuel oil (Mazot).\u00a0 The Governor promised that when Mazot could be purchased an effort should be made to make it available to manufacturers who need it to produce and keep workers employed.<\/p>\n

The lack of fuel oil in Syria has been widely reported of late. This has become more acute since the government subsidy was increased, lowering the price of a liter from from SYP 20 to 15. It is now very hard to find it at the official price. The Aleppo Governor admitted that it is being smuggled to neighboring countries. This is not surprising. The price of fuel oil (mazot) in Turkey is now SYP 105. At the official price of SYP 15, the price difference is 86% (as Areal points out in comment 17, the difference is 600%)\u00a0. This is astounding. No wonder smuggling is rampant. The Governor promised to put an end to this illicit trade soon. It is highly likely that such efforts will not work. Smuggling Mazot across the border to Syria is now the livelihood of many families. Taxis cross the border merely to sell their tanks in Turkey after they fill them up at the last gas station in Syria. Large tankers do the same. The latest joke in Aleppo is that it makes economic sense to drink Mazot in Syria and pee it out in Turkey given the price differential. As winter approaches, the domestic availability of this critical product\u00a0is on everyone\u2019s mind (the government could be stockpiling it too, hence the acute shortage).<\/p>\n

David Goodman of the New York Times is seeking help<\/a> from readers in deciphering a video showing a dramatic moment of gunfire in the suburbs of Damascus.<\/p>\n

The NYT<\/a> claims that an advisor to the Iraqi Prime Minister visited Syria and sent a message to Mr. Assad that he should resign.<\/p>\n

Not long after the article appeared, we get the following denial<\/p>\n

*(DP-News \u2013 agencies)<\/p>\n

The media advisor to Iraq\u2019s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki \u201cabsolutely\u201d
\ndenied statements reported by The New York Times this week that the Iraqi
\ngovernment urged the Syrian president to step down.<\/p>\n

Ali al-Moussawi said these statements, which are allegedly made by him, are
\nincorrect, and added that \u201cit is neither the nature nor the
\nfollowed-discourse of the Iraqi government to intervene in internal affairs
\nof other countries,\u201d AFP reported.<\/p>\n

Moussawi said he \u201cabsolutely\u201d denied these statements and added that the
\nIraqi government did not request Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to resign.<\/p>\n

Assad Has No Friend in Lebanon’s Christians<\/a>-WSJ<\/p>\n

The Maronite Church is not a bastion of democracy. But the church has long been an advocate for an independent Lebanon, free from the shackles of foreign powers\u2014whether Turkish, French or Syrian. For decades the church has been in synch with Arab nationalists who yearn to be free of dictatorship and military occupation.<\/p>\n

Syria’s Opposition<\/a>\u00a0– USIP<\/p>\n

USIP\u2019s Steven Heydemann discusses the state of Syria\u2019s opposition and why the U.S. may be hesitant to recognize an emerging opposition.<\/p>\n

The American Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford called Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad evil<\/a>\u00a0–<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, actually I do because what\u2019s happening under his authority in terms of people being tortured to death, people being shot who are unarmed and no one being held accountable for it,\u201d Ford responded following a pause after being asked by TheDC if he thought Assad was\u00a0 \u201cevil.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can understand it if it was against orders and you just were trying to remake a police force or you were trying to remake a prison system and so there are a lot of orders being disobeyed, but you would want people held accountable. But because I see no accountability, I can only assume that on some level that he accepts it if not encourages it. To me that would be evil.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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This was sponsored by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[42,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ehsani","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nAleppo - Remarks by the newly appointed Governor (By Ehsani) - Syria Comment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/aleppo-remarks-by-the-newly-appointed-governor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Aleppo - Remarks by the newly appointed Governor (By Ehsani) - Syria Comment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Since the new Governor of Aleppo took his new post recently, he has been making unflattering remarks about the city\u2019s cleanliness. 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