Syria! Syria! Syria!

AMORE dreadful secret weapon seems to have been unleased from Syria, more dreadful than any of the chemical weapons it has been known to possess.It has wafted through the air, crossing the borders in the Middle East, crossing the Mediterranean, crossing the borders in Europe, crossing the Atlantic, and crossing the eastern and mid-eastern expanse of the United States of America. It has moved quietly, invisible, odorless, impalpable. It has made ruins not of physical structures but, more importantly, of the minds and hearts of people. Bearing the name of populism, it has emptied minds and hearts of reason and human compassion.

How else explain the phenomenon of Brexit and the Electoral College victory of Donald Trump? And now we may have to brace ourselves for yet the biggest surprise of all, for the contagion striking France, the birthplace of logical thinking, Rene Descartes and his axiom “I think therefore I am.” And even if France survives the Le Pens, the contagion threatens to engulf wider reaches. What to make of the huge anti-migration marches in, of all countries, Poland, which has a history of its people being turned immigrants or foreigners in their own country by its annexation by expansionist neighbors and its people seeking refuge abroad from war.

Brexit and President-elect Trump lured voters with an anti-migrants message, striking fear among a conservative population of a horde of barbarians rampaging in their communities. Their campaigns have distorted the humanitarian dilemma the war in Syria pose to receiving countries. Most countries on earth are bound by humanitarian convention to welcome and help refugees from war. The convention rests on universal spiritual values obliging men to help their fellowmen in need. It is also based on common sense: What country is immune from war and what people can be sure never to be in their country today?

Brexit and the Trump campaign promised the voters of their countries they would regain control of migration policies as if the UK and the US had ever been lenient about accepting migrants to their shores. To encourage tourism, the Philippines has unilaterally waived tourist visas for nationals of the UK and the US. If the Philippines were to require visas the same way the US and the UK do of tourists from the Philippines, Americans and Britishers might know the hardships US and UK visa offices inflict on Filipino tourists. As for permanent resident visas, the red tape involved and the long years their approval take are simply incredible.

The Brexit and Trump campaigns not only shamelessly vended lies, they carried racist overtones. They thus appealed, energized, and brought out white supremacists, neo-Nazis and ultra-right groups. Bullying of the children of migrants and minorities has reportedly increased in schools.

The international community will war-torn areas. They are bound to be big and bigger in the future considering the development of modern war and modern warfare. Despite the Geneva Conventions and the International Criminal Court, modern war does not spare civilians and non-combatants, including women, children and the elderly, and may even actually target them. Weapons of mass destruction are so named after all because they are made precisely to kill masses of people. Even so-called conventional weapons are getting more destructive than ever; anyone must fear being hit and perishing as collateral damage. To this nightmare must be added the role that organizations such as the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq bring to the situation with their avowed goal of wiping out all those who do not subscribe to their brand of ideology or religion, and living and hiding among and behind civilian populations.

It is truly, truly a shame that the international community has been more focused on the disruptive effect the war which has fast turned from a domestic quarrel to a full-blown international affair. Each day that the war rages, how many people are added to the casualty lists, how many ancient towns are reduced to ruins, and how many more refugees face the perils of sea to escape? Clearly those who get across are only a fraction of the people trapped in the war. Many of the refugees are unaccompanied

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