Last week, a new album called Never Again Is Now was released by The Aleppo Music Project. I feel fortunate and honoured to have been invited to contribute my composition, Return to East Aleppo, to this important project. My friend, Randon Purcell, is the mastermind behind this. Like me, Randon is sensitive to the injustices in the world and feels that music has a place in bringing to light such things.
The Aleppo Music Project is attempting to raise money to help doctors in Syria garner funds to purchase medical equipment and medicine. And the need is obviously great based on the absolute devastation that Syria has suffered since the war began there six years ago.
Watching or reading any news about Syria these days is an unbearable endeavour. To see a society that was the cradle of civilization and home to a large educated population reduced to rubble is a true tragedy. And why did this happen? For more or less the same reasons many conflicts start these days, the result of past western colonialism and current capitalist greed that feels the need to rape foreign lands of their resources and talent all so we can drive fancy cars and have the latest gadgets.
Ruthless dictators like Assad are only able to stay in power because various superpowers support them and enable them. Yes, hard to imagine that Putin is to blame for all this. And surprise, surprise, Trump is also now throwing his stupidity into this ring. Sure, he can cry that gassing innocent women and children must result in retribution, but that’s bogus. There’s absolutely no chance that US intervention (especially military) will bring an end to the Syrian war – precedent from previous conflicts and wars has shown us that over and over again.
My solution…support and invite all those folks who want to flee. Put economic sanctions on anyone helping any armed group in that country. Ban the large corporations who are selling armaments to the warring parties. Provide humanitarian relief as much as possible. But please, please, please, don’t add to the bombing carnage there.
Some people will say pacifists like me don’t have a grasp of reality in regards to such situations. But if we’re to always automatically dismiss the viability of peaceful resistance to solving conflict, one can assume we are doomed as a species. Unfortunately, Syria might be giving us an awful preview to what’s to come for the rest of us if we don’t change our view of how we should co-exist.
