'A Slow Death': How the War Is Destroying Syria's Economy

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http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/civil-war-in-syria-destroying-economy-a-918815.html




It's a sector that ought to be booming. Businessman Wissam* works in hospital supplies. He sells bandages, needles and disinfectants -- all products for which there is a great need in the increasingly bloody Syrian civil war. But unfortunately, Wissam has little opportunity to sell his wares.

"More than 50 percent of the Syrian healthcare system's infrastructure has been destroyed," says the man in his mid 40s. Of the 75 state-run hospitals, just 30 remain in operation. In the embattled city of Homs, just one of 20 hospitals remains open. The Al-Kindi Hospital in Aleppo, once the largest and most modern medical facility in the country, is now a pile of ash.

Wissam is matter-of-fact about the situation. The destruction of the hospitals is widespread, he says, and those who are injured or sick receive hardly any medical care. The business is "dying a slow death," he adds.

While the world debates what its reaction should be to what was likely a chemical weapons attack in Syria last week, and the United States positions its destroyers off the country's coast, much of the focus has been on the humanitarian crisis caused by two-and-a-half years of war. But the fighting has also crippled Syria's economy, which could potentially be a factor in ending the turmoil.

[kelliekat44]

1. Well, isn't that the idea behind all the smoldering problems in the ME. Tear down the beautiful

places, palaces, workplaces, homes and leave an ash pile of rubble for those Islamic tolerant dictators and replace them with Islamic intolerant dictators that we can control? They don't need any history or heritage..just what the west leaves. Get them divided against each other, bomb them, starve them and than take over all the resources and call it a day! Oh, and call it peace, or democracy or spring or whatever.

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2. +1