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Noisy Thoughts's avatar

I love hearing your memories of your life. You and Ribhi were a handsome couple.

Thinking about the point of this story, that Syria actually helped and accommodated the refugees, is another point in many that demonstrate that government had always opposed Israel and the US backing of it. They just didn’t play ball with Israel, which I admire, but it led eventually to the US overthrow. Yet another US over throw, not because of the regime, but because Israel and the US want to install a proxy and take over the country. Yet people are naive enough to celebrate.

This is Rochelle, by the way.

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Greta Berlin's avatar

I completely agree with you and it's great to see you here. ☺️

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D. Thompson's avatar

The mainstream media, over the decades, has proven themselves to be the tellers of deception and misinformation. Your eyewitness accounts clearly humanizes the needed reality that gives us hope in this joined fight we share.

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Charlie Proud's avatar

Thank you for sharing that memory, what a wonderful experience ❤️ my heartbreaks at the knowledge the western powers have abused all these wonderful middle east cultures.. I'm praying for so many tortured souls and hope humanity rises up against this evil and ends it all once and for all... please keep sharing your experiences and wisdom xxx so many of us need to learn more.

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Greta Berlin's avatar

Thank you. I have so many wonderful memories of living, working and teaching in MENA

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D. Thompson's avatar

Thank you for your shared experiences of life that’s difficult to find. 🙏🏾

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Greta Berlin's avatar

I have so many of them. Mostly, I don't want people to think the Middle East is the way our media describes it. Those of us who remember the area in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s should be sharing our experiences. Thank you

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Martina Lauer's avatar

The story you tell about Palestinians in Syria is so different from the situation in Lebanon. i recently talked to a man from Lebanon and his life as a Palestinian was very harsh there. Always fun and educational to read your stories!

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Greta Berlin's avatar

Yes. I agree. I have several Palestinian friends who fled to Lebanon instead of Syria. This was the situation they told me. The Christian Palestinians were offered Lebanese citizenship (my Christian Palestinian friend refused). Muslim Palestinians were not, because Lebanon was barely a Christian majority then (it's worse now). So the Palestinians we see in camps in Lebanon are almost totally Muslim. The situation in Syria is completely different because it's a majority Muslim-country.

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Martina Lauer's avatar

You are right. I never thought of it. Thanks.

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Fred Artus's avatar

Continue to write.

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Greta Berlin's avatar

Thanks, Fred. I've kept a diary since I was 12. Most of these stories I wrote in real time. I just change the tense and sometimes add something

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Laurie McL's avatar

Diary writing is such an excellent way for us regular folks to document our lives - the on-the-ground reality. Thank you (again) for sharing your knowledge and experience.

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Greta Berlin's avatar

Does anyone remember those blue books we used to write in to take exams? I had hundreds of them. One week in 1995, I sat down at WORD, a brand new app at the time, and I transcribed every entry from age 12 to 54 into WORD. I've used that ever since, of course.

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Noisy Thoughts's avatar

I've always been here, but also always forget to identify myself.

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