The Daily Star
Syria is now a virtual country, with Bashar Assad acting as a virtual president. And Assad, with his make-believe mandate, has decided to build a new government, as if it were made of Lego. It is a shame he is not more imaginative, because his ministers’ titles should at least try and reflect the Syria they pretend to rule.
One minister’s portfolio is responsible for immigrants, but surely that should be migrants, unless it means the foreign militants who have swarmed in.
Meanwhile, one can only speculate on whether the of public works and housing minister is responsible for putting a roof over the 6 million Syrians spread across 50 countries.
The agriculture minister? In a land of scorched earth he is better off taking up a firefighting portfolio.
And no words can describe the fallacy of having a tourism minister, whose remit must be showing Russian soldiers around the ruined ruins of Palmyra.
At least naming a member of his Cabinet a justice minister shows Assad has a sense of humor, but the responsibility of the health minister – concealing the number of those who have died in the hospitals his army have bombed – is no laughing matter.
And as for the electricity minister, he is entrusted to look after something that doesn’t even exist. while another man has been put in charge of internal trade and commerce, days before the U.N. warned of famine in Syria’s besieged towns.
Comics have always taken aim at high-flyers whose job entails little more than testing beds.
Syria’s Cabinet, however, has taken this joke too far.