“A Syrian news agency, STEP, asks residents of opposition-held Syria what they used to say when asked by their teacher what they want to be when they grow up. 90% say doctor, the rest engineer and lawyer. The correspondent then asks them what their dream is now and multiple respondents say they have no dreams anymore.
To some extent, the Syrian uprising was about Syrians daring to dream that they can have more than an undignified and silent life under the boot of a brutal regime, with their horizons and options in life limited by class, sectarian affiliation and ties to regime cronies. It is painful to see, eight years after the outbreak of the uprising, how it failed to deliver those dreams to those who remain trapped in Syria.”
–Elizabeth Tsurkov