Reports | 25 05 2020
After emerging from detention Salam, a human rights activist, stopped posting anything concerning the situation in Syria on her Facebook page. She chose to merely replace such with videos of animals displaying acts similar to proper human actions, or that attempt to reflect animal instincts, and how harmonious they are with nature and its laws.
She tells Rozana: "This is how I chose to express my disillusionment with this situaion to which we have arrived. Words are no longer useful and we can defend no one. The laws of the jungle are far better than ours."
Additionally, media has extensively reported recently the story of a Syrian cat quarantined at a health center in Italy, pending "reunion" with its owner who had, herself, found asylum in Sweden. A Facebook page appeared, bearing the name "Diary of a Subversive Kitten." Finally, the poisoning, last October by the Damascus Governorate through poisioned garbage containers, of stray cats and dogs had raised such wide criticism in the virtual world; to the point of prompting the Governorate, in a move that could best be described as extremely rare, to issue a statement justifying its actions by the desire to preserve the environment.
Attention to animal news is nothing new; what is new, however, is the linking between the animal world and the political or social situation in Syria, as a result of the conflict and its complexities.
Grace, living in Damascus, posts numerous videos of animals and animal news, as a reaction to what she describes as brutal acts in Syria. She adds, "it is a kind of human self-contempt, by considering animals superior; the aim is to reject and criticize those bearing arms."
Grace sometimes aims to "preach" through sharing clips with benign animal acts, in an attempt "to revive man's humanity, by learning how animals respect the natural laws of life; and how not one single living creature takes more than it needs."
Syrian novelist Nabil al-Melhem, attributes this new-found attention to animal world news, to a state higher than politics, actually closer to human meditation; and as "an attempt to move from the degeneration of the political towards the elevation of the human or the natural."
He adds that the lives of Syrians have become alienated, rendering them "unable to communicate with their kind. It is natural for them to shift to taking an interest in other partners in nature. These partners most likely become vertebrate animals."
Almost a Pathology?
Psychologist Ahmad Oussaili commented on these cases, noting that many Syrians are going through a period of despair amid a continued and open-ended conflict in the country. This drives them to escape into other worlds in which to find what that which is missing in their lives; it seems the animal world is the closest to the human psyche.
He explains that "the issue is seeking or transferring that which we lack onto other objects. This resembles someone who suffers a failure in the world of reality; he will escape to the imaginary world."
Dr. Oussaili considers such escape or compensation through the animal world, as a "quasi, not a complete, a pathology. A person should remain firmly implanted in the real, and in an ideal situation, any confrontation with reality must come with solutions emanating from the same reality."
He, finally, confirms that Facebook and other social communication media, make it possible to spread a general sense of escapism, as well as providing the tools therefore.
Valid Criticism
The animal world may be employed to express a political opinion in a light and funny manner to draw attention. For example, in a video shared by Murad, a donkey attempts to imitate the gait of a show-horse. The young man, in his comment on the video, points to those people who have recently become "masters and commanders" by exploiting the current situation and chaos in Syria; after having previously been virtual unknown entities. He says, "with no more thoroughbreds, we have no option but to put saddles on asses!"
In the virtual world, of which "Facebook" represents a main component, what a person publishes on his or her page, greatly determines his or her character to others.
Lina recounts how she looks to virtual friends who frequently share animal videos, as being sensitive and peaceful people who reject the violence of humans. More importantly, they share in her view of being "bitter, because of what has happened to people. They are acting like monsters, animals are far more humane, and way ahead of humans."