No, Mr Pooh. A watch will have to be sustained!
No words convey more eloquently the feelings of environmental and social injustice behind the 2011 Syrian uprisings than those expressed by an anonymous local expert: ‘I defy anyone to claim that the displaced populations triggered unrest. We Syrians have always lived in arid areas, and climate variability has been historically high. The problem was not about climate change but about the mistakes made by the government. There was no transparency in food-security policies, ideological paralysis, heightened corruption, and the relevant ministries did not recognise their mistakes. No one dared to say anything out of fear. The main triggers of the Revolution were corruption, lack of justice, and the mistakes made in the government’s development plans’. [ RUSI ]