Despair and Rage in Turkey and Syria

Normally on Monday, I take time on my blog to reflect on whatever is going on in the world.

Pathetically, it's usually whatever bullshit Republicans are up to now.

In the wake of President Biden's State of the Union address last week, there was a lot of Republican bullshit to talk about. 

I decided I didn't want to go there and post about my happy experience at the Greensboro Symphony this weekend.  

But there are some stories that are too big, too tragic to be ignored.  

Half a world away, death has claimed the lives over 33,000 people in a death toll that is only likely to rise.  

Earthquakes struck in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6th with a death toll of rose to 33,179 and was certain to increase as search teams find more bodies.

While efforts continue to search for those who might still be living and to recover the bodies of the dead, attention has turned to assigning blame for the magnitude of the tragedy.

Turkey’s construction codes meet current earthquake-engineering standards.

Well, on paper anyway. 

But guess what codes are rarely enforced? 

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, like most autocrats, has little interest in actual governance and a primary focus on their own power and what they gain from it. 

For example, the Turkish government's amnesty programs that allowed contractors to pay fines instead of bringing buildings up to code went a long way in keeping business interests loyal to Erdogan and I would guess some of those fines went to line Erdogan's pockets.  

Now there are tens of thousands dead underneath those buildings which collapsed in the earthquake and to quote Mel Brooks from Blazing Saddles, Erdogan's realized "we gotta do something to keep our phoney baloney jobs" and pulls out one of the few tricks left in an autocrat's playbook: threaten to arrest people.  

Meanwhile, those in need in Syria are dealing with their own shit. A U.N. aid convoy sent to northwestern Syria through government-held areas was postponed due to obstruction from Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, an al-Qaeda affiliated group ruling Idlib province.  Again, autocrats have no interest in actual governance.

U.N. relief forces that did make it in Syria did not make it into the country until 3 days after the quake struck.   

People in a time of genuine distress and tragedy are at the mercy of forces more concerned with political power than in actually helping anybody.

Despair is turning to rage but less about the cause of this tragedy and more about where is the help these people need right now.   

Rubble of a destroyed building in Adana, Turkey