Poverty Knocks on the Door

SMN No. 8, August 19, 2010

News about poverty levels in Syria found its way onto the blogs and activist websites after the third national report on progress towards
millennium development goals was published in Syria recently.

According to the report, a joint effort of the Syrian government and the United Nations, around 6.7 million Syrians live below the poverty line in 2007, a slight decrease on previous years.

Abo Dimaghen wrote in his blog on August 14 that in 2010 just under eight million Syrians were experiencing poverty, a figure that, in his opinion, shows all efforts to combat the problem in the past few years have failed.

“[Financial] loan policy has failed, the farmers and workers unions have failed, the governmental sectors consume more than they produce, and the middle-class has shrunk”, he concluded. But despite this failure, he continued, the economic course has not been changed.

As a solution, the blogger suggested cynically “to get rid of the poor” by “castrating” a third of the young male population to limit the
population growth.

On Facebook, a group, Poor People of Damascus are Bleeding, has been set up to campaign for the poor. The page, which gathered around 200 members on the day it launched, provides information about poor areas of Damascus for those who wish to
help. “Many families don’t have food to eat, and can’t buy their kids clothes for Eid [Islamic holiday at the end of Ramadan]” it said.

Another group was established on Facebook earlier to help poor people who need medical treatment and can’t afford it.