who is bashar al-assad

Synopsis

Born on September 11, 1965, Bashar al-Assad had no intention of entering political life, let alone becoming president of Syria. But a tragic death and a calculating father saw to it that he would. Though promising to be a transformational figure who would propel Syria into the 21st century, al-Assad has instead followed in the footsteps of his father, leading to demands for reform and the launch of a deadly civil war.

.Death is not the end of life

   “Human beings die – that’s certain. But death is not the end of life.”

Roll your eyes, skeptics. We’ve heard it before. Spiritualism is as old as humanity, as old as human gullibility. Furthermore, life after death is so desirable that the temptation to succumb to wishful thinking is apt to fog the most objective mind.

The one striking fact about the above assertion is the identity of the man who utters it. Naoki Yasaku, 57, is neither mystic nor quack. He is a doctor on what may well be described as the front lines. For the past 11 years he has been director of the emergency ward at Tokyo University Hospital.

How to find the real socialism

Real socialism With the non-applicability of the terms socialism and communism, given the divergence of the reality of Soviet socialism from the ideal as interpreted within the corpus of the Marxist-Leninist classics, an alternative term was required. ‘Actually existing socialism’, ‘developed socialism’, and ‘state socialism’ were just some of the contenders suggested by supporters and detractors alike. ‘Real socialism’, which emerged as the favoured caption, implied that the economic, political, and social make-up of the Soviet bloc societies was in fact a distinct mode of production,