There’s that man again

In Syria, there’s one face that stares at you everywhere: that of the president, Basher Al-Assad. Every town and city across the country is filled with pictures in which the president appears slightly moustached, with or without sunglasses, with his doctor outfit or in the camouflage uniform of the Syrian army. However, the most frequent image is the one of his silhouette with sunglasses, in black or silver, sticked on car’s windscreens. Shlakiyah got one as well. When we drove from Aleppo to Hama we played a Basher game. The one who would notice him and say Basher first would gain a point. In the final score Anna won by two Bashers ahead of me. Despite the fact that we drove mainly on the highway, we caught sight of 146 Bashers.
And so will the face of his father stare, the late president Hafez Al-Assad, whose giant statues and busts appear at the gates of Syria’s towns and cities. It’s said that the idea of presidential adoration came back with Hafez after a visit to North Korea. Moreover there would be trios. Trios of Hafez and Basher: with the departed son Basil, or with Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, or with lately favourite head of Hizballah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.