Syria Comes of Age - By David Kenner

Syria Comes of Age - By David Kenner
clipped from article:
But whether these Syrians stayed in the country or made their way to the cities, they found it nearly impossible to pull themselves up from the bootstraps. "At the national level, growth was not pro-poor," a 2004 report
 produced jointly by the Syrian government and the UNDP assessed politely, as it highlighted the country's rising income inequality.
Syria's education system has contributed to this problem by utterly failing to pave the way to meaningful employment. A 2009 Syrian government survey
 found that more than half of Syrians leave school before finishing their secondary education, and that an overwhelming majority of this group assessed that their schooling was of little or no use in their first job. The report went on to find that students found the most success in finding work through family and friend ties, but noted that "the efficiency of job allocation patters based on informal networks is questionable."
There is no small amount of irony in the current crisis, though Bashar may not care to recognize it. Just as his Alawite community came down from the mountains in generations past to seize control of the state, the citizens filling Syria's streets for the past eight months are also seeking to reverse decades of marginalization. And as they move through Syria's squares and alleyways, they are slowly circling closer to the center." [read more at link]