Posts Tagged by Hama
Syria – an update on the revolution
| September 15, 2011 | Posted by Tom Wooldridge under international |
There is one country in the Middle East that has endured civil unrest for the past 6 months, but, due to its government’s suppression of the media, has not received the same amount of attention as the Egyptian and Libyan revolutions. Syria has been ruled by the Assads since 1966, when the current leader’s father, Hafez Al-Assad, took over running the country from a Baathist government of army officers. Hafez died in 2000 and his son, Bashar Al-Assad, succeeded him. Bashar was more liberal and instigated an economic plan that has transformed the nation’s economy from one based on central planning to a “social market economy”, which has produced growth rates of 4-5% in the past three years, despite the financial downturn. Unfortunately, this growth has not benefitted the bulk… more