The Syrian Revolt

An exclusive interview with Dr. Amr al-Azm and his views on the Syrian Uprising

Although many in the United States have turned their focus elsewhere, the Arab Spring is still alive and well and unrest still continues in many Middle Eastern states.  Recently (November 10^th, 2011) I sat down with Dr. Amr al-Azm for a one-on-one interview asking him his opinions about the Arab Spring and the events that are taking place in his native Syria.  Dr. Amr Al-Azm is very qualified to speak on this issue; he has appeared multiple times on the BBC as well as many other major news outlets and was recently in an episode of PBS’s Frontline.  A link to that video is listed at the end of this article and I recommend all those wanting to know more about the unrest in Syria to watch the video.

To give you a little bit of background on whom Dr. Amr Al-Azm is; he is an Assistant Professor of History here at Shawnee State University.  Dr. Amr Al Azm was educated in the UK, reading Archaeology of Western Asiatics at the University of London, Institute of Archaeology and graduated with a doctoral degree in 1991.  He has excavated a number of sites including Tell Hamoukar in Syria and one possibly associated with Ghengis Khan's final resting place in Mongolia.  He was the Director of Scientific and Conservation Laboratories at the General Department of Antiquities and Museums (1999-2004) and Head of the Centre for Archaeological Research at the University of Damascus (2003-2006).  He has taught at the University of Damascus (1999-2006) and served Dean of University Requirements at the Arab European University (2005-2006).  He is also a keen observer of Middle East events, in particular Syria and its neighbors.  He was a visiting Assistant Professor at Brigham Young University (2006-2009) teaching courses in political science and anthropology (2006-2009.)

In the following article all questions in bold where asked by me, William R. Balzer and the answers that followed were from Dr. Amr Al-Azm:

What is the Arab Spring?  Is that name appropriate for what is going on right now in the Middle East?

Well in a sense it’s a misnomer in that it started in winter; it started in December it didn’t start in the spring.  The reason we call it a spring is because spring is a time of rebirth of something new and after decades of repression, authoritarianism, and a lack of democracy we are starting to see a positive change.  It seemed that everybody around the Arab world and outside it had assumed that the Arab’s were destined to live or continue living in these pretty miserable conditions in terms of their civil liberties and their rights to free speech. When this Arab Spring happened it came out of the blue. 

This was a call for basic human rights that we take for granted here in the West.  It seemed that the Arab people and the youth in particular were finally tired of the situation.  The Arab world is a very young population; it is not an aging population.  There have been huge population booms in Syria, Egypt, and in the rest of North Africa and all these young people just turned around and said hey, you know what we’re not taking this anymore.  That is why it is called a spring in that sense because it is a rebirth of a movement or an expression, or a rejection of the decades of authoritarianism and lack of democracy.

So the suppression of human rights throughout the Arab world is what caused the Arab spring or where there other factors?

                Well it’s not just human rights it’s everything; it’s the whole combination.  I mean remember it’s the lack of opportunities; if you look at it this way there is a lack of opportunities for employment, opportunities to better yourself, improving your standing in the world around you and providing for your family.  It is hard to just sit back and watch while this kind of injustice is happening.

So since we are trying to relate this to the average American, do you think this is going to effect the United States at all and if so how?

                Absolutely, it is going to affect the United States for sure.  Anything that happens in the Middle East can have an effect on U.S interests in the region.  The Arab Spring is going to have an effect on the United States and its policies in the region; this is why we have seen sometimes contradictory messages coming out of Washington or even delays in terms of responses by the Obama administration to what is clearly a need.  This happens in part because they (Washington) are sitting there calculating and factoring in, saying how is that going to affect our strategic interests in the region and don’t forget this is a region that produces a significant amount of oil and also this is where Israel is.  These are all factors that when the United States makes policy it has to take into account.   

So do you think the United States has a “hands off” policy right now?  Is the United States just waiting for the dust to clear before they pick sides?

                No, I think initially they were caught with their pants down like everybody else but nobody was expecting this and I think that is why their initial responses were so hesitant.  I think now it is quite different and they are engaging on Syria, and in Libya but staying out of others.  It’s kind of interesting to see for instance with Bahrain the United States did not intervene, they let the Bahraini regime put down the uprising and I think it’s because of the fear of a Shia take over and we also have a massive naval station in Bahrain as well.  With all those things we were happy to let the Saudi’s role the tanks in and crush the uprising.  In Yemen we don’t seem to be really engaging President Ali Abdullah Saleh or demanding him to step down or freezing assets and that’s because one of the United States strongest partners in the region Saudi Arabia doesn’t really want us to do that whereas on Libya we were ready to go all the way and lead NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) on the bombing in Libya and taking Gadhafi out of power. 
 

 

With your background you have a very keen ability to see both sides of the coin.  In your opinion did the Obama administration handle Libya correctly?

                Libya is a bone of contention in this country for a variety of reasons but I think Libya turned out well.  With hindsight being what it is the administration can say here, this was the way to go and we made the right call.  Now had the whole thing went badly there would have been a different response to that but personally I think yes, I think it was handled right.  Once the people on the ground had made the decision to take up arms against Gadhafi then they needed the support and got it; it wasn’t very easy and mistakes were made but the end result was a good one for everybody with Gadhafi dead.  Also don’t forget that it was a NATO strike that finally basically stopped Gadhafi as he was trying to escape from Sirte and had him scurrying into a drain pipe where they finally found him.  What would have been wrong would have been to have a military intervention, NATO or not and the people not want it.

  

                I can tell you in Syria for example a lot of people on the ground, not everybody obviously but a lot of people on the ground, particularly the protestors who are facing the bullets, manning the barricades, the ones who are getting mowed down every day are calling for protection.  What they mean when they say protection which is interesting is a “no-fly zone.”  A no-fly zone when you look at it initially, you may say what the point is; the regime isn’t using any fixed wing or helicopters apart from occasionally moving troops around with them for logistics so why would anyone want a no-fly zone?

                A no-fly zone is a code word for something else; it’s a code word for we want the army to stay in its barracks.  We want NATO, the United States, whomever to actually conduct aggressive action against the Syrian army that is not sitting in its barracks.  I think that would be the ideal way to look at it.  They could hit Syrian troop movements while on the road, whilst they are moving from city to city, to go in and force them to stay in their barracks.  As long as they stay in their barracks their safe and as soon as they come out of their barracks they are going to be targeted.  That would be a very powerful message to the regime saying the rest of the world is very serious about the terrible abuses the regime has committed and at the same time it would protect the civilians.  The civilians are asking for this now like the civilians of Libya did earlier.  There is a big difference from when people are calling for this and when they are not.  Right now the vast majority of people, both inside and outside Syria are calling for some sort of action that would prevent the Syrian army or somehow restrict the ability of the Syrian regime to go out and kill its people.
 

 

Now I am sure that you would like to see something like a No-Fly Zone enacted in Syria but do you think that will actually come to pass?

                I don’t know it’s kind of difficult; so far all indications are that they have no intentions to do so but this can change and there are a number of events or acts that could change that.  A very serious escalation in the causalities can be a possible trigger to intervention; another trigger could be with the Arab League.  Once the Arab League suspended Libya’s member ship that opened the door for the U.N’s Security Council to make a resolution and from there NATO was able to act.  There is a chain reaction, right now on Saturday the Arab League is having a special meeting which we hope and we suspect will suspend Syria’s membership.  That would be a trigger that would hopefully trigger a Security Council resolution of some sort against the Syrian regime which may then trigger something with NATO.  Without that though unless there is an imminent catastrophe like in Benghazi you won’t see any outside intervention.  The regime is stupid but not that stupid; I don’t think they will ever take it to that level.  Their doing right now piece by piece and street by street, house by house; small bit size chunks to avoid that escalation.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on the Daily Show recently promoting her new book and when she was asked whether Operation Iraqi Freedom had any positive influence on the Arab Spring she said yes.  Would you agree with that statement?

                No, to the contrary actually; Operation Iraqi Freedom, and there is a couple of contradictory terms to put it together like that.  Operation Iraqi Freedom held back those of us who were active at that time, it made it hard for us to make the case for democracy because the US invasion of Iraq became the by word for this is what happens when you call for democracy, you invite US or foreign invasions and occupations.  The fact that the occupation was a terrible mess and it was very mismanaged by the Bush administration was clear for all to see. But most of all yes we did get rid of Saddam Hussein but is Iraq really a democracy now?  No it is not; I’m not saying that the Iraqi people were better of under Saddam that is in no way what I am saying.  But at the same time just because you got rid of Saddam does not mean that the mission was a success.  There isn’t a despot in charge but it isn’t a democracy either.  In Iraq there is a new form of autocracy in charge and it’s not working.  Maliki is not a good example of democracy in addition that now you have Iran for the most part in charge of Iraq whereas before they were not even in the picture in the way of influence. 

One of the major fears of Westerners is many of these Arab states breaking down and turning to chaos after the Arab Spring.  Do you think any of these states in the Middle East will turn into a state like Somalia or Afghanistan?

                The chances for any of these states to go into a Taliban style of extremism are very unlikely.  I’ll give you a very simple answer for that one; you need a certain environment.  Afghanistan and Somalia is a product of a complete breakdown of society and decades of civil war.  A group like this would not be able to take hold in many of the Arab states like Syria or Egypt; I don’t think the people would tolerate it.  The people would uproot it themselves; they wouldn’t need someone to do it for them.  The Islamist party that won in Tunisia is very moderate and all the public statements they have made are very reassuring the seculars, to the women and the West.  Everyone is looking to Turkey as a model to follow, in Syria it will be the same.  You have to keep in mind that Middle Eastern society by and large is conservative by nature.  They are socially conservative but liberal in terms of its politics, business, and management of its capital.  I don’t see a threat in a Taliban Islamist extremist government taking hold in the region. 

Do you think there is a way the Assad regime and the protestors can reach an agreement with Assad still in charge?

                The demands of the uprising are very clear; there will be no dialogue with the regime till Assad agrees to step down and even then the dialogue will be only about how to transfer power.  There will be no dialogue to extend the life of the regime.

So the opposition is willing to talk to him just under certain circumstances?

                If we are going to talk to him he has to first free all political prisoners, withdraw the troops from the streets, and then he could talk to us on how to hand over power, and not extend his power.  We’re not interested in any of these deals where he will hand over power hear in a couple of years.  He has total power right now and we are interested in the talks so there isn’t a power vacuum in the country.  The key demand of the uprising is that Bashar Assad step down as well as his family and bring an immediate end to the regime as it is now. 

Do you think there is a relationship between the events we have seen happen in the Middle East and the Occupy protests here in America and the protests in Europe?

                No, I don’t think there is much of a connection between the two or if at all.  I think people power has always existed.  The Arab Spring is not the first uprising to happen; we have seen it in Latin America, we saw it East Asia, we have even saw it in Eastern Europe back in the late 80’s early 90’s with the fall of communism.  To make idiotic bogus argument that this is some kind of a plot by the Middle Eastern world to so discordant America is not just idiotic but moronic and absurd and these people should be ignored.

Do you think the message between both these movements is similar?

                No, one is about bringing about democracy and an end to tyranny and authoritarianism and the other one is essentially about jobs and ending monopolies.  I don’t know how important the Occupy rallies are really; you guys have a mechanism where we don’t.  Just go and field candidates that believe in what you believe in and vote for them.  You don’t need to occupy anything.  Just call up your senator and your congressmen and tell them what you think of him and tell him if he doesn’t vote the way you want him to vote next time you’re not going to vote for him and if enough of you do that then that’s it.  But to sit out in a field and bang a lot of drums you may be bringing some attention to the issues but in the end what have you done.  At the end of the day, if you want to influence your candidate write him, start a movement; you have that mechanism, we don’t have that mechanism.  We are fighting right now to create that mechanism and that’s the difference.      
 

  

                In a following up of what has happened in Syria since this interview the violence still continues as well as many other Arab states.  The Arab League has given the Assad regime in Syria a three day ultimatum as of Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011.  Due to publishing times of this paper who knows what will happen in the Arab world between now and then but so far the events that Dr. Amr Al-Azm was speaking of to bring foreign intervention have started to move into place.  Whatever your view on the Arab Spring is or Syria, may a peace soon be reached in the region and in the world as a whole.

William R. Balzer  

The following is a link to a Frontline Special on PBS’s about the Syrian revolution and Dr. Amr Al-Azm is featured in this episode:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/syria-undercover/

Automation and the Worker: Friend or Foe?

My job hasn’t been shipped anywhere but it is still in danger; please help me and my brothers and sisters!

So this is my first writing since becoming a college graduate and I must say that it feels really good to write out of pleasure than out of necessity.  The following is addressed to my readers, my brothers and sisters in the UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers,) and to people who patronize Kroger’s and other quality union shops.

I am totally in favor of my business being profitable; if it wasn’t for Kroger’s profitability I wouldn’t have a job and would be forced to work under my previous work conditions which are less than desirable.  In my brief time at Kroger’s I have been acclimated back into the corporate world and now have a better understanding of the standard capitalist hierarchy that employees a great deal of us in one form or another.  I am proud to call myself a Kroger’s employee and a member of the local UFCW.  Kroger’s is the first job I have had in a long time that I don’t dread dragging myself into work, I go with enthusiasm (some would say I have drunk the Kool – Aid.)  With all this being said I have noticed something that alarms me.

A couple of weeks back I was working my register when a man came in and got in my line; it wasn’t a particularly long line but it was the end of the night and I was the only cashier short of the U-Scan attendant (for those of you not familiar with what a U-Scan is, it is an automated self-checkout.)  The U-Scan attendant came over and asked the gentlemen if he would like to be helped on the U-Scan instead of waiting in my line.  The gentlemen kindly replied “No thank you, those things take away jobs.  I can wait a little on this guy and insure he has a job.”  

For years I have used the U-Scans and not thought anything of it.  I assumed the cashiers preferred people to use these automated self-checkouts so they wouldn’t have to do as much.  I held this belief until I became a cashier, heard this man’s comments and put one and one together.  You see I used to work in the pharmacy at Kroger’s until I transferred to the registers up front.  I was getting around 24 – 32 hours a week in the pharmacy at slightly better than minimum wage and I was content to stay there for the time being.  Now that I am a cashier though I usually work the union minimum of 15 hours a week and layoffs are rumored to be coming soon.  I am in no fear of losing my job considering my seniority but I do feel for my brothers and sisters in the store who are not as fortunate.  I then got trained to work U-Scan the following day I worked after this gentleman came in and I saw how effective I was at running four registers at once with little knowledge of how they actually worked.  Did I get the same amount of interaction with the customers; not even close.  But I was pumping out paying customers pretty consistently.

Now again, I don’t want to see Kroger’s fail.  I like many people in the area count on my job at Kroger’s to pay my bills and put food on the table but as I was working the U-Scan, verifying the age of a 50 year old man buying wine with my foreign made electronic key pad and I was thinking, could I be cutting my own throat right now?  Is me preforming this duty at work hurting my hours and the hours of my brothers and sisters?  Is it even putting some of my brothers and sisters out of a job?  I can’t help but feel a little responsible for those layoffs now.  

I will never use a U-Scan anymore unless I absolutely have to; period.  It’s not because I don’t want to see Kroger’s succeed in being a profitable business; it’s because I want to have a job, my brothers and sisters in the union to have a job, and I am willing to pay a little more for a person to be my cashier and not some machine.  I know we are trying to pull ourselves out of this recession as a collective but I think that paying maybe a little more for our goods so our neighbors, family, and friends can keep a roof over their heads isn’t exactly a bad thing.  Labor costs can be a major expense for a company the size of Kroger’s but un-employment has a bigger cost in the communities we live in.  In this season of giving and being thankful I ask anyone who reads this to please tell your friends about this article, post it on a facebook wall or on your twitter feed.  Tell a friend about the harm a U-Scan can do and I bet most people haven’t even thought about it; I know I hadn’t until a customer brought it to my attention.  I am writing this on Christmas Eve, a time of giving thanks and the only thing I can think about is how four machines could affect the families of my co-workers.  So the next time you are in a Kroger’s or any other store for that matter and you have a choice of self-checkout or being waited on by a real, living and breathing cashier choose the cashier.  I know he or she will appreciate you picking their job and livelihood over saving a couple of second’s while dancing with the machine called U-Scan.  Merry Christmas and god bless. 

William Balzer 

This Article is not endorsed by the UFCW or Kroger's or any of it's subsidiaries.  The views in this essay are the views of the writer. 

Review of “The King of Limbs” by Radiohead

(This article was featured in the most recent issue of the Shawnee State University Chronicle)

Something for the diehard fans to get excited about and something the casual Radiohead listener can enjoy.

                Although “The King of Limbs” by Radiohead came out in late February earlier this year many people are just now hearing about its release.   If you are a diehard Radiohead fan you probably have been chilling to this album for a couple months and are already patiently awaiting the release of their upcoming album “TKOL RMX 1234567” which is slated to be released on October 11^th, 2011.  For those of us that were oblivious to all this and the sudden wave of promotion have caught our attention, this album is definitely worth buying!  

                At first I felt really bad for not noticing that one of the bestselling and innovative  bands in the last 20 years had released a new album but when Guy Raz of NPR sat down to talk with the guys I realized I wasn’t the only one who missed it.  Guitarist for the band Ed O’Brien and singer Thom York said this to Guy in response to the question of why there was such little fanfare with their last album; “We didn’t feel like it… we didn’t want to explain it.”  Radiohead released this album entirely on their own; there was no concert or interviews promoting the album.  I personally was first made aware of the album when “The Colbert Report” aired an hour long episode featuring Radiohead on Sept. 26^th and I strongly recommend everyone to check it out online.

                Now that we got the back story down, let’s get to the album!  I am honestly not a huge Radiohead fan, I don’t hate them it’s just I find them as more of a mood band (when the mood hits me.)  I also feel like putting a letter grade on an album is ridiculous; we all have different tastes in music, ergo ratings are flawed.  If you like Radiohead, buy it; if you are a fan of Alternative Rock it is a must have for the collection.  I don’t think this is an album that will bridge the divide between the Rock and Bluegrass scenes so if you prefer a banjo over a Gibson SG this might not be an album for you.  I will say that although there are some great songs on this album it is an album in the truest sense.  To fully grasp and appreciate Radiohead’s new work you need to buy this album and listen to it in its entirety.  

                Radiohead I feel channels other great “album” writers like Pink Floyd, The Beatles, and Bob Dylan.  I have a greater respect for bands that write great albums as opposed to those that write a couple good songs and put a bunch of filler on an album.  “The King of Limbs” is filler free, very eclectic, innovating to listen to, and one hell of an album to chill too.  In the movie “The Big Lebowski, The Dude got high listening to whale songs; if they made that move tomorrow he would be listening to this album!

William R. Balzer  

     

NPR Piece:  http://www.npr.org/2011/10/06/141093025/radiohead-everything-in-its-right-place

Colbert Report:  http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/mon-september-26-2011-radiohead

The Great Strike / Upheaval of 1877

                My most recent essay covers two different readings about the Great Strike / Upheaval of 1877.  This event is a very crucial event in American history and was part of a global movement that was happening around the industrial world at this time.  One of the later mentioned readings dealt more with the historiography of the event and one dealt more with letters and accounts of what happened during this pivotal moment in American history. 

                Now before we delve further into the essay one must understand what America was like at that time to fully grasp why the workers were so upset.  After the U. S Civil War there was an economic boom in the country.  There was relatively 50 years of peace in the US, (minus a short detour with imperialism in the Spanish – American War) a massive amount of natural resources and a constant influx of immigrants from war torn Europe.  All of these factors plus technological innovations turned the US into an industrial powerhouse.  In essence at this time America became more industrialized and with all these factors it was a capitalists market meaning that the workers had a clear disadvantage in regards to bargaining for wages, hours, working conditions, etc.  The whole of organized labor was on the decline at this time; organized labor in America got its start in the Jacksonian era and died off with the Panic of 1837.  In the years following the Civil War organized labor grew but with the economic depression of the 1870’s unions saw their influence and membership drop dramatically.  With all these events being stated let’s look at the Great Strike / Upheaval of 1877.

                So what was this major event in American history that little is known about except for those whom have made history their profession?  It started with a common happening in the depression ridden era of the mid-1870s, a pay cut.  The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company issued a 10% pay cut to all employees, the second pay reduction in less than eight months.  Railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia decided they had had enough and on July 16, 1877, workers in that town drove all the engines into the roundhouse and boldly declared that no train would leave until the owners restored their pay.  The local townspeople, miners, and other workers from the surrounding area gathered at the rail yard to show their support for the strikers and this was the start of a great showdown between the workers and the capital barons.

 

At this time strikes or other actions seen as disturbances were usually handled at the local level.  The mayor of Martinsburg tried in vain to threaten the striking workers into going back to work but the crowd stood firm in its resolve and prevented work from continuing.  The local police were far too small in numbers and many of them felt sympathy with the strikers considering a lot of them were family and friends.  In desperation, the mayor turned to the governor of West Virginia for support.  The governor sent units of the National Guard to Martinsburg to accompany the trains out of town by force of arms.  Some of the guardsmen where in the same predicament as the local police force and many of these guardsmen where railroad workers themselves.  After two people were killed in the standoff, the Guard simply lay down their weapons and began chatting with members of the crowd.  After the Governor saw that his guardsmen were ineffective he appealed to President of the United States Rutherford B. Hayes.  President Hayes sent troops to help move the trains but even then they were sabotaged and harassed along their routes.  Only one train reached its destination.

Now if this was all that happened it would have been one of many stories of strikes and unrest during this time but it soon spread out of the confines of Martinsburg, WV.  Soon other Baltimore and Ohio units joined the Martinsburg strike as well as competing railroad workers and other types of workers.  The movement spread into Pennsylvania, when workers on the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroads joined their compatriots.  Pittsburgh was the gateway to the Midwest, and so the strike widened to that region.  One isolated incident in a small town in West Virginia soon spread all over the United States in cities such as but not limited to Baltimore, Chicago, St. Louis, Buffalo, Zanesville, Louisville, and Cincinnati.  The police, the National Guard, and the United States Army clashed with angry mobs throughout America.  Throughout the land, wealthy individuals feared that the worst had finally come; a violent revolution seemed to be sweeping the nation.

But as soon as it started then it stopped.  In some cases the strikes were ended by force, in others the strikers simply gave up.  The thing to keep in mind is that most workers were not trying to overthrow the government or the social order; they simply wanted higher wages and more time to spend with their families.  The Great Upheaval was not the first strike in American history but it was the first mass strike to involve so many different workers separated by so much space.       

 

Bibliography

Elliot J. Gorn, R. R. (2010). Constructing the American Past 7th Edition. Prentice Hall.

Fraizer, T. R. (2002). The Undersidde of American History: 5th Edition. International Thomson Publishing.