Venezuela, Syria, and What They Are Fighting For

I thought that today I'd go over a few more of these places in the world going through such hardship and that I believe we should devote more public thought, debate, and give a helping hand out to.

Next on that list, is the country of Syria.

The Syrian Conflict is a very notoriously confusing situation to understand, so I'll try to explain it simply and keep out as many name-droppings as possible.

First off, we must come to understand this simple point when looking into the Syrian Conflict. There is not always a good guy. That logic is applied perfectly into this war. Neither side is particularly considerate of civilian casualties, both have very shady figures backing their causes, and both sides are divided.

The conflict's origins are found in Arab Springs in 2011, not long after the fall of an oppressive Tunisian government which inspired several other uprisings throughout the Middle East and North Africa including Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Libya who were being ruled over by oppressive, corrupt, authoritarian government leaders.

The revolt dawned after citizens called for Al-Assad's resignation after his family's long-running rule, and have democratic elections and a new system of government installed. The original violence started in March of 2011

However, the Alawites (ethnicity of rulers) being executed in villages, and we started to realize that there were  bad guys on either side of a brutal, never-ending war that the current ruling government of our own is scared to stick it's head in, because there is no right answer. 

So that leaves us with a problem that demands an answer otherwise innocent people keep dying, but no matter what option we choose, we're siding with the wrong people. On one side, there's a merciless and cruel dictator who gases his own citizens, and on the other side is a abusive militia that executes civilians for their ethnicity.

Unfortunately, I do not have an answer either. As much as I would love to say we should fight with the party that fights for the people, there doesn't seem to be a side doing that at the moment. And deciding whether or not it is the job of the United States to invade oppressive governments for their citizens aide is still a grey area morally. It's a debate that dates back even before we worked with Cuban rebels to overthrow Castro in the Bay of Pigs and even before then.

Then, we have beautiful country of Venezuela.

These protests began in February of this year in the western states of Venezuela named Tachira and Merida when a group of students started protesting over demand for higher security when a female student claimed she was raped.

Their grievances also included lack of food supplies and inflation (56.2%). The protests in Tachira turned violent, though, and let to the arrest of several students. These arrests sparked more protests in Caracas (the capital) for the student's release.

Then, the Caracas protests turned violent when three people were gunned down following a large-scale peace march. 

The students were the first to the fight, but then joined up with an umbrella opposition group called the Table for Democratic Unity (MUD).

Before long, when it was obvious the police were using unnecessary brutality on the protesters, more moderate people began to realize the problem and took to the streets as well.

So, what started as a rally for increased safety grew higher demands for the release of all protesters that were detained, economic reform to assist the high inflation issues, and government assistance in helping staple resource shortage.

Some of the protesters, however, believe the government is beyond repair and that it is time for the people to install a new system of government.

The government is accusing the opposition of staging a coup with under-the-radar backing from the United States, and has charged opposition leaders with inciting violence. He has referred on many occasions to the protesters as fascists. I'm starting to think politicians don't know what the word "fascism" means.

The protesters say that the violence is caused by pro-government motorcycle gangs, while the government says its all caused by those damned fascists.

As for both cases, I am always in support of the people. Whether there is a clear path or not, the people should always have the power to decide what they want our of their government for themselves.

My hope is that from these kinds of stories we can all take away that there is a fight to be fought, and there always will be. We can't stop fighting when we get tired, we just have to keep pushing through.

We must always remember that we are all humans, united together. That is, despite the imaginary lines in the Earth we're willing to murder each other over. Despite the invisible lines in the earth that we're willing to murder each other over.

That's all for today, I'll be back Monday with a new post!

"To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize." -Voltaire