generalspeaking

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Feeding The Afflicted

"Everybody says it is going to get much worse in Syria and that has implications there and here. There is very much a sense that even if there is a government change in Syria, this is a long-term issue. The real concern is not the numbers today, but the potential numbers.
"As a rule of thumb, we like to have funding three months in advance because, if you have that, you can bring commodities in by ship, which is cheaper.
"Unless there is a game changer like a NATO intervention, it looks like we are in this for the long haul. We have so many different scenarios for the day after the war ends. There will be internal conflicts. Unfinished business. There will be no social or economic structure, so it will not be safe to go back, especially if you are on the losing side."
Jonathan Campbell, World Food Program supervisor, Jordan

It seems somehow inconceivable that an original protest that morphed gradually into a two-year-long civil war can be spoken of as simply a prelude to an even more grievous human tragedy. That irrespective of whether the Baathist regime of Bashar al-Assad regains sufficient power and authority to resume dictatorial rule over all of Syria, or the opposition Sunni majority collective, that includes al-Qaeda-inspired foreign Islamists, 'win', the anguish of mass bloodshed is destined to continue.

So much of the cities of Damascus and Aleppo have had their suburban infrastructure destroyed. The hundreds of thousands of refugees from the cities and the besieged towns that have flooded in to refugee camps in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon will have little to return to, if they will be enabled eventually to return to their country of origin. So many have died at the hands of the regime's war machine, and as victims of the Syrian Free Army as well.

People in crisis, having lost everything they own and value, escaping with their lives from a death zone are understandably traumatized, morally demoralized. Depending on the auspices of the United Nations food program to keep themselves from starvation is not guaranteed to make for contentment. Living in damp, crowded conditions with no privacy, in tents or trailers insufficiently heated against the cold, where children come down with fevers makes people cranky.

They look askance if the pita bread they receive hasn't the weight and dimensions of those they are familiar with, produced by the bakeries they're familiar with. Bread is the mainstay for the displaced of Syria who already face malnutrition and starvation conditions and whose shortened tempers account for the food riots that take place in the camps.

French, Moroccan and Italian makeshift field hospitals have sprung up and expand to accommodate new refugees streaming across the Syrian border toward its neighbours whose capacity to absorb their entry is strained and worrying. Not quite worrying in the same way as the slop-over from artillery fire, though. The UN's World Food Program now distributes 19 tons of bread daily, and increasing steadily. It is the steady increase that is increasingly worrying.

Through appeals to the international community, $1.5-billion has been raised to deal with the results of the civil war. "We never get ahead. We are always catching up" explained Tamer Kirolos, country director for Jordan for Save the Children, assisting tens of thousands of children in the Zaatari refugee camp not far from the Syrian city of Daraa; close enough to hear the bombardments of artillery there.

What is being offered to the refugees represents small comfort in preserving lives, and perhaps even hope for the future. What is assailing Jordan is the weight of the expense in caring for these hundreds of thousands that have spilled over their border, and the challenge of maintaining order and safety for those very same refugees. Jordanian security forces are called upon daily to deal with food riots during WFP distributions.

"Whatever the mood or tensions, we have to deliver. It is not an easy environment", explained Mr. Campbell, who knows quite a bit about the challenges of chaotic conditions during war from his previous assignments in Congo, Kosovo, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Malawi, Sri Lanka, Algeria and Egypt.

Describing his role as that of a professional beggar, Mr. Campbell noted to Canadian journalist Matthew Fischer that Canada ranks third in the Syrian refugee donation stable. "Be proud of what you've done, but be prepared to do more." Everyone, particularly the refugees would like to know, how much more?

Labels: Conflict, Human Fallibility, Human Relations, Human Rights, Islamism, Islamism Crisis Politics, Jordan, Revolution, Societal Failures, Syria