Hard Way Home part 1/6

[calpolyis]

I do respect all Iraqis and I believe they deserve the best. I believe all Arabs should act as one, and if they did, maybe Iraq wouldn't be under occupation now. However, let's take a look at the big picture here. Iraq is a wealthy country, where Syria is considered a poor country. Have you been to Syria lately? Can you imagine dumping a million and a half people mostly in Damascus? Since Iraqis came to Syria, housing prices jumped almost 100%.

[Webins]

I understand that. But I recall reading of the Syrian government not giving working permits to these refugees. If so, then that explains the crime and the prostitution (the latter, incidentally, was in Syria before, largely from Eastern European women).

Imagine if the Syrian population itself grew (and it is ofocurse always growing) by 1-2 million, would you have trouble then?

The point is, these Iraqis seem troublesome only because they are kept outside the system and economy.

[calpolyis]

How can you give work permits to refuges when you already have 12% unemployment? It is already hard as it is for a Syrian college graduates to find a jobs. That is why you see a huge population of Syrians in the Gulf area. Second, the Iraqi people are sharing water, electricity, food and everything with Syrians.

[calpolyis]

Please go back to Iraq. We have enough problems in Syria to deal with.

[Webins]

You're not a real Syrian, are you?

[calpolyis]

Yes I am, born and raised in Damascus.

[Webins]

Well, if you wer a Syrian then you must have learned your history.

You must have learned how when the Crusaders conquered the Levant, many refugees from your land wert to Iraq (as well as Egypt), and later when the Mongols invaded Syria and pillaged Damascuc, countless Syrian refugees were welcomned into Egypt.

Why not show the same hospitality to your Arab and Muslim (and Christian) brothers than was once shown to you in even darker times?

[calpolyis]

Food is very expensive. Just few years ago, we would never hear crimes or prostitution in Syria, now it is almost everywhere thanks to Iraqis. Syrians are really struggling to make a living. If the Iraqi people are not helping themselves and stop fighting, how can we help them?

[calpolyis]

When you put an additional million and half people on top of almost 4 million in Damascus alone, you are really using the info structure big time. The funny thing, the United States already placing sanctions on Syria, and it is making it harder to build more power plants and to advance it is resources. Don't you think you should blame your Iraqi government for everything instead???

[Webins]

Well, first of all, I'm not Iraqi, I'm Saudi-Egyptian.

Second, that 12% figure isn't the fault fo the Iraqis. It's the fault of an inept and corrupt govermnent. It's high in most of the region anyhow.

[Webins]

Thirdly, remember three things: this situation isn't going ot last forever; and as bad as it is for Sryians, it's much much worse for the Iraqis; and finally, that as bad as it is for thr two of you, it's massively worse for other refugees, whther they be Palestinians, Darfurians, Congolese, Somalians, and Afghans (many of these suffering for faaar longer).

[calpolyis]

Let me ask you a simple question. How come Saudi didn't take more than 50,000 Iraqis? shouldn't Saudi take more responsibilty?

[Webins]

Why are you asking me? I'm not the Saudi government.

If it was up to me, the Saudis would expel all foreign troops, pull of money in Western banks, and rebuild Iraq and build up the Arab world.

But it's not up to me.

[calpolyis]

Let's just hope that peace will come to our countries. I promise, I will the first one to go back and help rebuilding.lol

[Webins]

Oh I'm sure we'll get through. We didn't get by all those thousands of years, and do all the things we did, by being so easy to beat and destroy.