Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2014/02/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Yes. My perspective on Syria was limited in time and scope, but four of us traveled freely by car in the summer of '79 and everywhere encountered friendly, peaceable people who were even tolerant of an obvious Westerner among them snapping pictures. Stores were open, hotels were accommodating, the cities bustled, and life seemed fairly prosperous. I even had the opportunity to strike up a conversation with a professor whose name translated as "Lamb" while an Iranian mechanic replaced my car's thermostat at a little garage on a side street in Aleppo. Everyone was interested in talking to an American and only a few of them asked for my help getting a visa to come to the US! I developed a real affection and affinity for Syria and its people, and I'm heartbroken that a nation that was, at least largely and apart from Hafez al-Assad's little-publicized repressive measures, so much more placid, safe, and prosperous under the Assad dictatorial dynasty, is suffering so terribly as a result of challenging it?while the UN, thwarted by Assad's Russian and Chinese sponsors and economic partners, is reduced to scolding clucks and resolutions. The country's going through horrible times that may be the birth pangs of something new and better, but more likely a disastrous miscarriage. And how incredible to think that Bashar "Not My Doing" al-Assad is a physician and surgeon, once an immigrant practicing ophthalmology in London. What preposterous, twisted paths history takes to give us what's next. ?howard On Feb 23, 2014, at 1:29 PM, Alan Magayne-Roshak <amr3 at uwm.edu> wrote: > On 2/22/2014 2:59 PM, Howard Ritter wrote: >> Tina's posts about her 2005 visit to Syria prompted me to upload some >> scans of slides I took there in 1979. Here are 8 from Aleppo, on the >> street and in the Souk. >> >> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/hlritter/Aleppo/ >> >> ?howard >> > ==================================================================================================================================== > These and Tina's are so sad now. > > Alan