Friday, May 19, 2006

Developing the East!


In my post at Creative Syria, I highlighted the huge gap in development between the eastern and western parts of Syria. For, despite the fact that most of the wealth of the country tends to be derived from the eastern parts, both in terms of agricultural goods and the petroleum industry, the western parts, where Damascus, Aleppo and Lattakia are located, continues to be far more developed and rich, relatively speaking of course, than the eastern parts.

But don't you worry, for here is our illustrious Prime Minister, Naji Otri, your usual run-of-the-mill Baathist moron, announcing that he has now formed a special team to help develop the eastern parts. After three years of hard work on part of so many well-intentioned people, and not so-well intentioned people of course, we now have a team that will be charged with actually working on the issue at hand.

How much time will this team need to actually come up with a plan of action in this regard I wonder? And how fast will it take for this plan to get to the point where it is assiduously mismanaged? Methinks mismanagement will begin long before an actual plan is formed.

But then that’s just old cynical me speaking, you may prefer to pay more attention to those rational moderate realistic voices out there, who continue to seek promises of reform in a pile of lion-manure.