Worlds worst place to backpack #6

Syria - Whats with the freaky dude and all his posters?


Dont be distracted by the hotness of his wife beneath that warm fuzzy coat.  Does this mans face scare you?!





He scares me. Everytime he flashes before my eyes, I see an evil man, a man with a nasty side. His power yield certainly displays a nasty side. 
His loyal and well paid military and security forces have beaten, killed and tortured the Syrians every single time they have tried to voice their opinions publicly.





Its atrocious whats going on. It reminds me of an olde quote of Noam Chomskys, the acts of state terrorism are far worse than acts of individual terrorism.





This man is a terrorist in all sense of the word. Over 11,000 people have gone missing or are simply dead. Bells must be rung, sirens must go off. The alarm is beeping and the world pressed snooze.






Syria is a country where 22 million people live....the country has been living under a military republic since 1963. I thought those days past with the 50's and 60's but seems not.


Life is tough under the regime. Take your own laptop flashpackers as every comment anyone posts in any type of forum in a public internet domain, is recorded and viewed by authorities. Sounds like a very scared authority. One afraid of the implications social media and the internet in general can have upon a society.


Travel is restricted and watched under a close eye. Jimmy Foreigner has personal assistants, although sometimes Jimmy doesnt know about them.





Your average Syrian is lovely. Nice people with moderate standards of living in relative terms. Billy the backpacker would love wandering the old city of Damascus, the Roman ruins of Apamea and the layrinith mystery of Aleppo.


Unfortunately the people of Syria no longer use facebook. The authorities have out smarted them and are one step in front. People dont even use cell phones to send messages. Happy to say however, for those backpackers that do venture, Skype does work and is widely used as a safe channel of communication.






So Syria, with its daunting security presence and its dominating heavy handed authorities comes in at #6 on the worlds worst places to backpack.


Dont stop asking questions where those 11,000 people went......