On The Vigil

Image of President al-Assad by Ranan Lurie

There’s a candlelight vigil in the evening;

All gather near the shelters, the rotunda, and they sing

For swathes of the oppressed and lines of displaced refugees,

But who will light a candle for the cause of this disease?

My lion has a calm and pleasant manner when he roars.

He’d never sanction poor behaviour, in or out of doors,

He has a birthday coming up, so let us light for him

A special taper carved out from a line of seraphim.

Off you go and wring your hands and change the way you feel,

I’ll strike a light for al-Assad and bring its glow to heel.

***

[nb ‘al-assad’, in Arabic, ‘the lion’, was the nickname adopted as surname by the President’s grandfather] [Update: in the wake of fresh evidence of a chemical attack by Assad forces, we suggested on Facebook in April 2018 that it was time to go (perhaps with family and retinue to a safe estate in Vladivostok.) This evoked a massive response, roughly 50% agreeing, the other 50% suggesting that we ‘butt out.’] [Further update: On 27 November 2024, forces led by Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS (‘Organization for the Liberation of the Levant’) backed by the Turkish government, took advantage of a distracted Russia and Iran and a power vacuum stemming from the squashing of Hamas and Hezbollah, storming Assad’s winnowed-out army and taking Aleppo, Hama, Homs and entering Damascus on 8 December 2024. Bashar al-Assad and the rest of his crime family fled to Moscow, where he and his family were granted asylum. They won’t be pretending to pray at the Great Mosque of Aleppo anymore, but there is always the Moscow Cathedral Mosque.]