Some folks have wondered why I am so ‘exercised’ about Syria and Egypt.... and the UN. Well I come from a family which has had two generations serving the UN and in my case I have lived in the Middle East as a child when my father took up his post as part of Ireland’s contribution to the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation in 1965, I think (I’m not great on dates ). Some of my earliest recalled memories stem from the family sojourn in Jordan ( Beit Hanina, Jersusalen ), Israel (Tiberius) and Syria (Damascus) consequently I have a deep affinity with these lands and their peoples. We also took a brief trip to Egypt. I remember well visiting the pyramids at Giza , which at the time was some distance from Cairo. I was the only one who could walk upright in the tunnels of the great Pyramid. This visit galvanised a lifelong passion for all things ancient Egyptian. Every time I see footage of UN four wheeled drive vehicles on telly I immediately am taken back to the memory of the family jeep which , as I recall, bore the UN logo. My principal memory from Syria is playing by the ornamental pool in the backyard of our ground floor apartment in Damascus with some toys which were Xmas presents purchased from Sears Roebuck ( our first introduction to catalogue shopping). I heard a strange whistling sound very loud then the ground shook and I was so startled that I dropped and broke the plastic horse Iwith which I was playing. Mum did not see too concerned at the time but years later she confided her great fear). The sound was actually the sound of a payload ( a bomb) hurtling through the air from an Israeli military aircraft deployed against Syria (I think it struck a village not far from Damascus). Of so many Mid Eastern countries Syria seemed for a time to have a good template a secular socialist government.... it is such a tragedy that this country has been so terribly torn apart by ideological, ethnic / clan and religious differences.
Posted on: Wed, 28 Aug 2013 22:41:48 +0000
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