March 02, 2015 – Our Weekly Selection

A dozen stories on economic and social issues in Syria selected from the world press.

Anatomy of a Crisis, A Map of Attacks on Health Care in Syria: “A map of attacks on health care infrastructure in Syria”

Cigars For the Warlords, Fodder For the People Of Ghouta: “With the people of Ghouta suffering at the hands of an unremitting siege, Syria’s General Corporation of Tobacco announces preparations for the production of new cigars, to be distributed to businessmen and warlords.”

Syrians Facing Mental Health Epidemic: “Most alarming among these statistics was an increase in mental disorders ratio reaching 25 percent, with 40 percent of Syrians in need of social and psychosocial support.”

A New Face for the Exploitation of Syrian Workers in Lebanon?: “The minister of labor listened to the contractors’ complaints and summarized their main demand as a desire “to benefit from Syrian workers with the least amount of administrative procedures, the lowest costs, and the least time.”

Syria’s Economy in the Grip of the Black Market: “After monitoring the demand for [foreign] currencies in the market, the demand for currencies for non-commercial purposes is estimated to be between $3-10 million a day. As for [the demand for foreign currencies] for commercial purposes, it has surpassed the permitted official threshold to about $25 million a day.”

Syria says must be part of fight against antiquities theft:“The world will have to cooperate with Syria to halt the trade in looted antiquities that helps fund jihadist groups, Syria’s culture minister said, putting the onus on Turkey to stop the smuggling across their shared frontier.”

Cholera Outbreak Feared in Syria’s Future: “Water has been used for political dividends and has been turned off to certain areas, and that leads people to drink water from unsafe areas.”

Death: The Only Reliable News in Aleppo: “A sense of despair is strong in the city, but it is coated with cynical indifference, sometimes sincere and sometimes made-up. Only hope is absent from Aleppo, the city that appears to have vowed to continuously live in the shadow of war.”

US looks to aid Syrian refugees amid security concerns: “The Obama administration’s commitment to take in potentially thousands of Syrian refugees is raising national security concerns among law enforcement officials and some congressional Republicans who fear clandestine radicals could slip into the country among the displaced.”

All It Takes To Cross From Turkey To ISIS-Held Syria Is $25: “Some smugglers “buy” a particular section of the border for a half an hour at a time from an Islamic State “emir,” or prince, who controls the border guards, he says.”

Islamic State is selling looted Syrian art in London to fund its fight: “We went into one gallery and were chatting about a piece and the person quite openly said, ‘We just got this out of Syria,’ and we sort of looked at each other and said that’s really quite interesting, and he said, ‘Oh, well, this piece is more interesting. It has just come from Iraq,’ ” the archaeologist told Radio 4. “So it’s quite open in that sense.”