Everything is Fair in Love and War

Nora Bulbulian, Aleppo, 1 June 2016

 

 

I just love Aleppo specially when I am walking around its shops looking for a special product to buy, anything you can think of, you can find dear reader in our Aleppo city, please do not let the هاونات, (mortars) the جرر الغاز  (gas canisters) and the sniper cloud your judgment for as we say here in Aleppo "حتى لبن العصفور موجود" (even birds’ milk is found) just put your dollars on the table and you will see magic happens. I am telling you, you will be surprised what a 200 dollars or 300 can do in our dear Aleppo. So here goes our dear beloved Aleppo citizen to the market and please it is a time of war there is no room for indulgence and there is no worries there our Aleppo citizen is full aware of that fact, no need to buy a new shirt, let’s wear the same old shirt to the point of holes start to appear, still it is wearable, it is the new trend nowadays, the beloved Aleppo citizens tells himself as he is walking down the streets of his beloved city maybe his head is a little bit down compared to couple years ago (before the war) that is nothing to be sad about, why to walk straight with his head held high in the first place, it is for his best interest to adopt this new walk, for this walk will surly protect his head from unwanted sniper bolt, and we do not want that to happen to our beloved Aleppo citizen now do we!.

Nora Bulbulian, Aleppo, 1 June 2016

 

 

I just love Aleppo specially when I am walking around its shops looking for a special product to buy, anything you can think of, you can find dear reader in our Aleppo city, please do not let the هاونات, (mortars) the جرر الغاز  (gas canisters) and the sniper cloud your judgment for as we say here in Aleppo "حتى لبن العصفور موجود" (even birds’ milk is found) just put your dollars on the table and you will see magic happens. I am telling you, you will be surprised what a 200 dollars or 300 can do in our dear Aleppo. So here goes our dear beloved Aleppo citizen to the market and please it is a time of war there is no room for indulgence and there is no worries there our Aleppo citizen is full aware of that fact, no need to buy a new shirt, let’s wear the same old shirt to the point of holes start to appear, still it is wearable, it is the new trend nowadays, the beloved Aleppo citizens tells himself as he is walking down the streets of his beloved city maybe his head is a little bit down compared to couple years ago (before the war) that is nothing to be sad about, why to walk straight with his head held high in the first place, it is for his best interest to adopt this new walk, for this walk will surly protect his head from unwanted sniper bolt, and we do not want that to happen to our beloved Aleppo citizen now do we!.

 

So our Aleppo citizen walks past those shops, those shops do not concern him no more, and along he continues walking but to where one will wonder, what is the thing that a human being can’t live without, well food and not the diet kind food, really food that enhances your performance at work, gets you through your day, keeps you away from the doctor office kind of food, so to that place our Aleppo Citizen is heading, to that place Aleppo citizen is intending to spend his paycheck to that place, to bring food to his family to provide for them the way he supposes to do even if that meant it will be the only place he goes to. Well no one is complaining it is war and as the saying goes “everything is fair in love and war”. Well that saying is surly applies here in Aleppo. There is some kind of happiness that is so overwhelming that runs through the Aleppo individual veins when he robs his fellow Aleppo citizen out of his money. A kind of pleasure that can be described only by the thieve himself, and for his and his superiors pleasure, Aleppo citizens heads are forced to Kneel, what a heartbreaking scene to see and witness, it tears my heart every time I see Aleppo citizen looking to buy and cannot, he simply cannot afford to buy, he is getting paid in Syrian pound only to be forced to buy in dollars price as the thieves are forcing Aleppo citizen on but Aleppo citizen paycheck is not in dollars, it is in the Syrian pound which day after day losing its place between world’s currencies due to the many and many embargoes on our Syrian economy that are intended to slaughter Syrian economy only to watch him يقطر دم. (gush blood).

 

What hurts the most is not their acts but the acts of those individuals knowing all this and still wanting to torture their fellow citizens and watch them in return يقطرون دم. (gushing blood) See killing dose not only take the form of a dragger inserted in your body, you still can kill someone by preventing him and denying him the right to provide for his family and in that you are killing him daily and for all those who are killing Aleppo citizens on a daily basic do not forget God is watching you, do not think for a moment that if the government’s silence, her nap about it and giving you a pass is enough, believe me one day will come and all your doings will be reflected at you. To live in Aleppo, you need to put dollars on their dirty tables, Syrian pound is to some sort of a history to them, it does not suit them no more, and if you wanted to ask about the reason behind the skiing numbers of items, they start to convert themselves into economy graduates and talk about how they cannot help it, they must increase the pound of onion if the dollar changes, do not blame us blame the dollar. Thus, there is no need to take the kids to restaurants as restaurants are charging in dollars prices, no need to get a day off let us work double or if one can triple as the normal human being can work, let the Aleppo citizen work, work, work only to eat Falafel for lunch, phool (cheap fava bean food) for dinner and غصة قلب  (broken heart) for dessert. Yummy I bet anyone who reads this will surly get his appetite going. To be honest shame is not on those dirty thieves out there, the shame should and must be on the criminal ones who are protecting and supporting their robbing in the first place, those who because of them, those dirty thieves have the nerve to do what they are doing to the Aleppo citizen three years until this exact moment, those thieves are telling us to blame the dollar, well the ones who should be not only put to blame but to be performed the death sentence on, are their supporters, those are what we here call as رأس الأفعى"  (the snake’s head).

 

In conclusion, Aleppo citizens are not only going through a lot physically, emotional and physiologically speaking, but also and because of those robbing criminals who exist profoundly in Aleppo. Aleppo citizen will have to endure another form of suffering as well which is economically suffering. Here is Aleppo wondering in the name of God is there any other form of suffering left for Aleppo to feel in her bones! To tell you the truth nothing is impossible in general and in Aleppo in particular. Nonetheless, we only hope that those criminals will find their inevitable destiny soon and consequently justice will be served ,and from here farewell and God Bless.