In the name of god who sends the dawns light across the horizon and sends a surge of power to wake you from sleep only to touch your eyes with a thousand beautiful colors of light.

 My brothers and sisters of Syria,

We each need a home because half of the country has lost their home.  There is no chance that we will get our homes back if the borders are closed.  We cannot get food when the borders are closed.  We have been cut off from the world because some corrupt leaders have control of the world.  We need to take control of the world out of the hands of the bad leaders.  We can’t be cut off from the world because it is causing starvation.  We cannot be at peace in these tents and we cannot run a sophisticated business from a tent.  We cannot increase our possessions until we have a shelter to put them beneath.  The economy, the family business, the home for the family and the family dinner table are being starved by this one act of closing off all borders.  We have become very tired and sick because of the closure of the borders.  Who is closing the borders?  Leaders of world powers of oil and gas.  Leaders who have trillions of dollars from oil and gas and never invest it in the country.  They have their pipelines running through our cities pumping billions of dollars of revenues for the presidential palace.  We need payment for the destruction of our property.  We asked for him to invest in the economy back in 2011 and he wanted us dead for that.  He spent the past ten years battling only to take back those pipelines and facilities.  The occupation countries have come only for the gas and phosphate.  They came with diggers, pipes and dump trucks.  They used the money to pay an army to stand guard around the drilling and mining property. They are a handful of companies that make business deals with governments for the natural resources of the country.  They are always companies affiliated with the presidents. 

Syria is our home. Syria is not a battlefield.  We want the bombs stopped and the borders opened because its cutting off the life to Syria.  My brothers and sisters, we need homes and the homes here have all been destroyed.  We must open the border to get the material we need to rebuild our home.  Life in Syria is cut off until the day that the borders are open. 

Written by Catherine Alwan December 9, 2023