Johha & his Mule

14Jan12

My absence from my blog has been intentional. My family has been visiting from Syria and for the first time in such a long time savoring every single moment with them was for me the most important thing I could do.

As we sat around dinner one night we spoke of all the corruption and lies, all the twisted games the Assad’s have played throughout their 42 year rule. So, rather than go through every single episode, every tedious detail – all of which are quite honestly cringe-worthy I will tell you a story, a folkloric tale, that describes every single action over the decades-long rule of the mafia that is the Assad dynasty.

Johha and his Mule

There was a man named Johha. He lived in the mountains and owned a mule. He was a hard working man and used his mule to transport products to sell in a village. He would leave in the mornings gather his products on top of his donkey and transport them across the village to sell.

He passed a tree daily, where two lazy men sat sipping tea and watching life go by. Liars and cheaters by nature they never knew an honest day’s work, they were unkempt and filthy. They watched as Johha took his donkey laden with product out to the village and returned empty but pockets full.

One day, they schemed a plan to steal the mule. Johha wakes in the morning to find his mule is gone. He is panicked and grief-stricken and runs around the streets of the village asking everyone if they’ve seen the mule. He returns home distressed and disappointed. He does this for 3 days until one day the men see Johha returning home upset and in despair. They approach him and tell him they know where the mule is and are willing to return the mule to him on one condition; that upon returning daily from selling his products he must pay them half of everything he made that day. Johha, in his surprise and happiness, says he accepts to the condition no matter – his desperation was more than he could take.

And so, Johha gots his mule back and the men return to sipping tea under the tree, except now their pockets are full.

This is how Syria has lived. The Assad regime has taken from everything this land has given. It has taken from its people, from its riches, from its history and from its generosity until the people and the land have nothing left to give.

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Filed under: Assad, Syria   |  2 Comments
Tags: Assad, folklore, greed, lies, syria, tale