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Professor breaks down effects of Syrian chemical attack
Sandy Marshall, assistant
professor of geography, offers
insight on the Syrian civil war
Austin Kreeger
Elon News Network | @elonnewsnetwork
Sandy Marshall
This April, evidence of chemical
attacks on citizens by the Assad re
gime in Syria was uncovered. This
took place in the city of Douma
where nearly 70 people had died be
cause of the gas.
President
Donald Trump
responded by
launching sev
eral missiles
on locations in
Syria last week.
Sandy Mar
shall, assistant
professor of
geography,
who holds a
Masters degree in Middle Eastern
Studies, explained the background of
this ongoing issue and where it might
lead next.
0; What is the context of the
current war in Syria? What is
the role of the Assad regime?
At At the start, the war began as a
nonviolent political uprising against
the oppressive Assad regime, which
is an autocratic family dynasty. The
current party took power in the
1940s while Bashar Al-Assad gained
control in the 2000s. He was believed
to he a reformer as he was trained in
ophthalmology in the United King
dom, but this changed as he began to
Syrians are evacuated on March 25,2018, from Zamalka
PHOTO COURTESY OF TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
fi Syria’s eastern Ai-Ghouta province outside Damascus.
crack down on political dissidence to
show him and his family were going
to maintain control.
After the events of the Arab
Spring, starting in Tunisia but then
spreading to Egypt and Libya and
elsewhere, there was great hope
among the Syrian people that they’d
be able to also change their circum
stances. This led to the uprising
started by a group of teenage boys
that wrote a graffiti, which said,
“You’re next. Doctor,” the Doctor
being Assad as he would be the next
to fall among the leaders of Egypt
and Tunisia.
Assad captured the boys and
tortured them for days on end, in
cluding pulling their nails out. This
caused massive outcry across the
country as many nonviolent peaceful
protests began, which were met with
force.
Since the Arms Struggle began,
many proxies have become involved,
such as Russia, Iran and the United
States. Russia and Iran are both look
ing to exert more influence upon the
area while the US. is looking to back
up its allies in the Persian Gulf. What
began as peaceful protests turned
into a civil war and now has further
escalated into a proxy war.
Q: There has been an on
going issue of where Syrian
refugees find safety. WHiere
have they gone to seek asy
lum?
A: This year, about only a dozen Syr
ian refugees have been admitted to
the United States as the current ad
ministration has basically shut down
the Syrian resettlement program.
With the way this has been going,
little seems like it will change for the
US. to allow more refugees in. At the
height of the refugee flows in 2015,
about a million or so asylum seekers
from Syria were looking for refuge in
Europe. Since then, there’s been extra
efforts by Europeans to strengthen
their borders to prevent that flow.
The countries that are facing the
bulk of this crisis are Lebanon, Ior
dan and Turkey. Turkey has several
million refugees while Jordan has a
million and Lebanon about 600,000.
These are small and not economi
cally wealthy countries that are be
ing forced to shoulder the burden,
whereas other countries that are
signed up to the refugee convention
should be doing much more.
Q: How might the conflict
escalate and what the con
sequences might be?
Al The civil war and proxy war in
Syria are already dangerous enough,
but another issue could begin. There
is a potential for the United States
and Russian forces to interact and
even open fire which would have
devastating consequences.
Russia-US. relations are at an all-
time low and some say are even worse
than the end of the Cold War, which
is why this recent military strike
against chemical weapons facilities
in Syria was actually restrained.
It is important to say that these
strikes were not sanctioned by the
U.N., so they are technically illegal
under international law. Thus, they
were very restrained and ineffective.
The missiles basically hit some emp
ty military facilities, and that was
calculated because the US. military
didn’t want to risk suddenly hitting
Russian forces.
It would be in Russia’s interest to
avoid the conflict with the US. and
to settle the conflict diplomatically.
Russia helped sign up Syria to the
chemical weapons ban, which it vio
lated, so Russia should take responsi
bility for that.
There are a couple of issues Rus
sia, Syria and the United States can
begin to talk about before they get to
the big question of what comes after
Bashar Al-Assad. There are avenues
for diplomatic engagement, and it is
vital now to begin them because as
bad as the situation is, it could get a
lot worse.
Elonthon raises over $452K for Duke Children’s Hospital
ELONTHON | from cover
had raised $13,884 just by calling
and texting their friends and family
or posting on social media during
that one-hour period.
I Free thinks Elonthon brings to
gether the campus community.
“I think its a great way to get
everyone involved, no matter what,
I whether you’re in a sorority, fra-
I ternity, or on a sports team, it just
brings everyone together,” she said.
Elonthon’s president, Sydney Ep-
' stein, was unavailable to comment
about the event. Every committee
member asked to comment de
clined, and referred ENN to Epstein.
Who’s dancing?
On Elonthon’s website, all 52
teams and their members are listed.
An ENN analysis found that 65 per
cent of participants were registered
with a Fraternity and Sorority Life
(FSL) organization.
The actual percentage of students
who are both Elonthon participants
^d members of FSL organizations
is higher because some committee
members are also affiliated students.
According to the FSL website, 42
percent of Eion’s campus are affiliat
ed members of the FSL community.
Elonthon event planning com-
mittee and executive members
made up 18 percent of the registered
dancers, and the other 18 percent
were dancers from other organiza
tions or were not part of a team.
from* **** coming
There is a mandatory fundrais
ing minimum of $250 for commit
tee members and $100 minimum
for dancers who are not on a com
mittee.
According to Elonthon’s website,
the 16 executive board members
raised more than $100,000.
Although the committee mem
bers only made up 18 percent of the
participants, they fundraised almost
half of the total money raised on
their personal pages.
Teams registered with FSL raised
33 percent of the money, and teams
from other organizations raised 3
percent of the total.
The highest individual fundrais
er was Sophie Healy, an executive
board member who raised $51,038.
See the ENN breakdown of the
fundraising by individual teams at
elonnewsnetworkcom.
Where’s the money going?
According to Epstein, every cent
of the $452,965.18 raised is do
nated to Duke Childrens Hospital
through the nonprofit Children’s
Miracle Netvrork Hospitals.
To put that number into perspec
tive, the most recent data for Ala
mance Regional Hospital showed
it took in $176,035 in donations for
the entire year in 2015. That’s a third
of what Elonthon raised for Duke in
a few months.
Epstein said all the operational
costs of the event are covered by a
$25 registration fee that each dancer
pays and a $10,000 grant from Love’s
Food Shops. Committee members
also work to get food and supplies
donated.
ELONTHON FUNORAISING
Committees
Greek Organizations
Unaccounted
Other
SOURCE; ELONTHON.COM
KATE DRURYI Designer
FUNDRAISING THROUGH THE YEARS
$500,000
$400,000
SOURCE; ELONTHON.COM
KATE DRURY [ Oesigner
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