...Or Does It Explode?: Chickening-Out in Damascus

February 17, 2006

Chickening-Out in Damascus

Ammar has been pining for a Jasmine Revolution in Syria - a non-violent reform movement that would draw its name from Syria's famed spice trade. But now he admits that it may be more of a Chicken Revolution.

He points to a new Elaph report that several hundred Syrian poultry workers are pounding the pavement in protest outside the Prime Minister's office. Avian Bird Flu has its first major political consequence:

...The authorities['] large-scale culling policies meant as a preemptive move to contain Bird Flu, coupled with popular boycott of poultry and poultry products, have hit hard against the interests of the over 2 million Syrians who work in the industry. And the government, it seems, was doing nothing to ease their suffering. Surprise, surprise.

Well, what’s so surprising really, at least for some, was that when people actually saw their livelihood threatened, they broke the barrier of fear and took to the street, albeit in a very civil manner, so far...

Let’s see if how our inept authorities will handle this situation. If they screwed things up, as they usually do, a lot more people have a lot more reasons to take to the streets as well, and they might just up the ante, and there a million ways how they could do that, and thanks to satellite TV, they are not exactly totally uninformed about this. And people can actually be quite creative when they finally break through the barrier of fear. And they tend to develop their own organizational structures, ones which can be quite independent of any existing opposition or civil society movements and parties.

Ammar remains quite realistic about the short-term implications of the "Damascus Chicken Emergency" [see under "Hoboken Chicken Emergency"]. Yet he notes: "Still, those taciturn comatosed Syrian masses might just be waking up, finally. Oh boy."

Maybe they'll rename it the "Assad Bird Flu"?

February 17, 2006 in Stirrings | Permalink