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I am also curious about what happens with the captagon trade. I've seen mentions that captagon export was Assad's main source of hard currency. Der Spiegel suggested $5.7 bn annually.
The religious fundamentalists might want to make a big show of saying no to drugs, and destroy captagon production. If so, how well prepared are we for a new Syria who will see a corresponding fiscal hole in their economy? We may see the emergence of an urban middle class who sees everything around them falling apart, without really understanding why. These people may not have knowingly been part of the drug trade, but may have been a lot more adjacent to it than they were aware of themselves – I'm thinking money laundering, logistics etc.EDIT: Perplexity offer sources that suggest $2.4 bn directly to the state coffers anually, and a further $10 bn benefit to the Syrian economy as a whole.
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What should be the first novel Colm Toibin novel I should read?
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Any information as to where the loans come from? Reserves of some kind or are they just printing money for the purposes of printing money?
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If that’s true, then it would probably have more to do with the fight to end the British mandate than any mistreatment of Arabs.
I’ve met English poshos who could never forgive Nelson Mandela for “being a terrorist”. -
The work to create a more cycle friendly Syria has already begun:
https://www.reddit.com/r/syriancivilwar/comments/1h9fcln/boy_riding_his_bike_in_the_presidential_palace/ -
I wonder what the Russians might do. At the moment it looks as if they had placed all their chips on Assad, and if so they've got nothing left. But if they have been a slight bit more cunning than that, they may still have a way to influence (and fuck up) the formation of the new Syria.
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the Russians can't intervene as much as Syria would like?
Same with Hizbollah. Assad has been reliant on them.
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That CEO getting shot is making the internet seem fun again. So many entertaining little rabbit holes. Like, you read down to the 9th comment below the original post and the jokes are still good.
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Parklife?
+1
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