Seeking refugee in Bab al Hawa, Syria
When the camp on the border crossing was still being set-up. Families were fleeing an ongoing battle of Hama. They had hoped they would be let into refugee camps in Turkey, but it didn't happen. There was little water, almost no sanitary facilities. It was cold and damp.
Bab al Hawa, Syria, January 2013.
How would one define the price of freedom? Are those who are fighting accepting its price? What about those who do not take sides, trying to survive until better times ? Is it possible to accept the death of loved ones regularly? Bombardment by the regime of hospitals, bakeries, shelling residential buildings?
It is now estimated that close to 9 Millions Syrians, that is 40% of the nation, has fled homes. This is a final gesture of despair. You give up your place in the world. Instead of a roof you have cold sky above, and then instead of blankets your clothes are soaked in sweat. You do not know whether tomorrow your children will eat. No work , no future , except those of the fittest. Humiliation.
It would seem that Bashar has had to go away. Against him was almost the whole country. People took to the streets. Not once, not several times, but every day, every week and every month. They were met with tanks! But they went on. It would seem that such courage and determination is rewarded. By the support of the world, solidarity between those who value freedom. We all have the right to it. We need to believe in it.
But not in Syria. In Syria, if you want freedom, you must die. In Syria you can be free only once you were buried. Protesters are rewarded with death, the barbarism of this scale is difficult to imagine. It happens on such a scale that we can not understand it. Most of us never had to deal with it. Perhaps only our grandmothers and grandfathers, the generation affected by the Second World War, would understand.
Those who did not protest, they also had to run away from home. For more than two years the regime applies the principle of collective responsibility. Just that you are from Aleppo, Idlib, Hama and Homs, so should you die, and your daughters will be raped , if they fall into the hands of the Shabiha.
If, in Poland, 80% of people protested against the government, and the government would send tanks and artillery against us, bombed hospitals and our blocks of flats, would we we accept the fact that the world does not respond? Our world is based on the false assurance of solidarity. To be able to believe in it, it is better to accuse those who try to get a little bit of freedom. Even at such cost.
Seeking refugee in Bab al Hawa, Syria
When the camp on the border crossing was still being set-up. Families were fleeing an ongoing battle of Hama. They had hoped they would be let into refugee camps in Turkey, but it didn't happen. There was little water, almost no sanitary facilities. It was cold and damp.
Bab al Hawa, Syria, January 2013.
How would one define the price of freedom? Are those who are fighting accepting its price? What about those who do not take sides, trying to survive until better times ? Is it possible to accept the death of loved ones regularly? Bombardment by the regime of hospitals, bakeries, shelling residential buildings?
It is now estimated that close to 9 Millions Syrians, that is 40% of the nation, has fled homes. This is a final gesture of despair. You give up your place in the world. Instead of a roof you have cold sky above, and then instead of blankets your clothes are soaked in sweat. You do not know whether tomorrow your children will eat. No work , no future , except those of the fittest. Humiliation.
It would seem that Bashar has had to go away. Against him was almost the whole country. People took to the streets. Not once, not several times, but every day, every week and every month. They were met with tanks! But they went on. It would seem that such courage and determination is rewarded. By the support of the world, solidarity between those who value freedom. We all have the right to it. We need to believe in it.
But not in Syria. In Syria, if you want freedom, you must die. In Syria you can be free only once you were buried. Protesters are rewarded with death, the barbarism of this scale is difficult to imagine. It happens on such a scale that we can not understand it. Most of us never had to deal with it. Perhaps only our grandmothers and grandfathers, the generation affected by the Second World War, would understand.
Those who did not protest, they also had to run away from home. For more than two years the regime applies the principle of collective responsibility. Just that you are from Aleppo, Idlib, Hama and Homs, so should you die, and your daughters will be raped , if they fall into the hands of the Shabiha.
If, in Poland, 80% of people protested against the government, and the government would send tanks and artillery against us, bombed hospitals and our blocks of flats, would we we accept the fact that the world does not respond? Our world is based on the false assurance of solidarity. To be able to believe in it, it is better to accuse those who try to get a little bit of freedom. Even at such cost.