Ironic that Syria is the home of the world’s first domestic cats

A cat stands among debris in the damaged old souk of Homs, on November 15, 2012. Picture taken November 15, 2012. (Reuters/Yazan Homsy)

Syria is in the middle of the “fertile crescent”, the area where the wildcat was first domesticated about 9,500 years ago, it is believed. Syria is also the place where, at the date of this post, terribly cruel things are happening to people and to animals in a horrible civil war that the international community are unable to stop because they are unable to come to an agreement. The usual dysfunctional planet.

Syria is in the fertile crescent, the place where the first domestic cats existed. Map by Michael from Wikimedia Commons blacks and maps.

I’d like to remember the cats of Syria, many of whom must be injured, suffering, starving and dying. Some of the world’s first domestic cats were in Syria so it is ironic that people are now killing each other together with animals, including cats in the very same area.

See cat history.

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Sorry Michael I can answer more properly – the fact is the drought caused many of the farmers to pitch deeper wells for the first few years of the extreme drought. This was fine but what happened in the end is the water table dropped to a level lower than could be reached with their conventional resources. That was around 2007/8 as I understand it – and that is when they all headed for the cities. The desert that is called the Syrian desert effectively got alot bigger (the Syrian desert actually goes well into Iraq but is called as such) – the Syrian part got bigger. The fertile crescent is effectively gone. After the farms were abandoned the grain production dropped hugely and that is when the Syrian gov started top sell of the reserves – at first maintaining the reasonable value of grain until the resaerves were depleted. At this point UNICEF was warning political disaster. The farmers couldn’t get jobs in the cities and the price of grain got too high for people to be able to afford it. Thats when the riots/manifestations started in Dara which is where the country first tumbled into the civil war which then grew into being an international war basically. This is what I have read and how I understand the whole process to have started.

It should be noted the Russians are not souless – they are scared of Islamic extremism both from these areas and from their own area of the Caucasus mountains and Chechnya and Dagestan – where they have ongoing fights with these people. Furtherore these people send suicide bombers, often women with dead islamist husbands(look up the ‘Black Widows of the Caucasus’) who go up to Moscow and let off bombs in the subway. The Russians are quite rightly scared of what the US calls the ‘rebels’ winning this war. Furthermore Russia has alot of people in Syria and a their own international army base is there. Alot of Americans may think Russia and China make it impossible and they shouldn’t – with regard to the security council but they have only vetoed 2 times whereas the US has vetoed 54 times since it was created. Imagine how the US would feel if Russia and China went to war regardless of their veto. The fact remains that the security council was created, and the veto was created – in order to stop war proliferating. Furthermore it was put there to ensure the passage of diplomatic efforts. Just because Russia and China are doing thier minimal second veto doesn’t make it illigitimate. The US is the one breaking the law and running an ILLEGAL mission creep as we speak. And now Israel is sending hundreds of lobbyists to go and lobby congress to go to war. WTF. I’m sick of it. My firends in Israel say that they get off on the fact in Israel that everybody hates them. They actually like it. They can say “see, we were right, now we should fight” – they are just constantly on the “we are being ostracized” angle ever since the start of history. They will always take that angle. They will cause the end of everything and they will suck the US in because of all the US jews with money. F*** them. It’s not their planet – it’s everybody’s planet.

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Comments

Ironic that Syria is the home of the world’s first domestic cats — 9 Comments

Ankara Kedisi Derneği on September 8, 2013 at 11:02 pm said:
Sad!:( Syrians are brothers and sisters of Turks!
I hate that our horrible pro-Islamic government is so supportive for a war!
Poor cats. Syria is also the Angora cat’s homeland 🙁
When you speak about the domestication of cat, you should also include Anatolia, which was part of Fertile Crescent. The genetic variation found in Turkish cats also supports Anatolia as a place of cat domestication.
Kind Regards
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Dan in Tempe on September 7, 2013 at 11:24 pm said:
The cats, the people, the animals, all of it is a shame.
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Dee (Florida) on September 6, 2013 at 4:11 pm said:
Poor cats, poor all animals, poor innocent people, and poor US citizens. We, the people here, are SCREAMING that we are not in support of an attack on Syria. We are being ignored. Not any portion of the U.N. supports it either.
WE never appointed this nation’ leader(s) to be the world police, judge, jury, or executioner. We HATE it!
But, it will happen. This country is broke and war is big business and generates revenue.
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Ruth aka Kattaddorra on September 6, 2013 at 10:00 am said:
This is too horrible and I feel so sad for the cats and for the innocent people of Syria.
I don’t understand much of politics but it seems to me that if only human beings would live and let live peacefully, the world would be a far better place for us all, people and animals too.
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Marc on September 6, 2013 at 4:58 am said:
Ironically this whole war is created by us westerners. Because Syria has in the last 10 years become mostly desert on the south side. So much so that alot of farmers and so on have had to leave and head for the cities where the ensuing overcrowding made for a lack of jobs and resources. Over the next few years the grain reserves got used until depleted and then the situation was terrible and that is what sparked this war and rioting. Infact UNICEF warned in about 2008 or 2009 that the situation was perfectly set up for a political disaster to happen. The price of grain was going up and up and people had no jobs – danger of civil war.
Following that the Assad regime was unable to finish the war because of the US sending the opposition arms and training them in Jordan – meanwhile Saudi Arabia has been throwing money and chemical weapons into the hands of the more extremist terrorists. So the war has dragged on and on. And now the US with their repugnantlican mission creep is getting more and more disgusting everyday with zionists like Samantha Power making damn sure that Israel willl get the war they so badly want. America and its phosphorous and depleted uranium should F right off for once in its life and leave the rest of the world alone. It’s horrifying to watch those warmongers in the top of government being morally superior yet entire hypochrites and in charge of the very cultures that made the once fertile crescent totally un fertile. I really hope the Russian give Assad all the bommbs and missiles he wants and needs. I’d just love it. This has gone too far.
And more people will die.
And cats of course will become almost extinct in the very place they began historically in their relationship with humans.
America is hell bent of destroying the world – its ancient rome – its the imperial shithole of the world and I’m starting to hate it so much and so is everyone else. The US people don’t want war and yet they seem not to live in a democracy so it’s not up to them. The US governemnt and rich corporate and military industrial complex is the true forde of terrorism in the world. These are the real terrorists. Right now they say they want to go to war but its not actually war. They are also stupid. They are going to be the end of this planet. Israel will be the nail and America will be the hammer in the coffin of this planet. I will not have children because of these forces of evil and terrorism. I’ve had enough – it makes me sick.
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- Michael on September 6, 2013 at 7:02 am said:
  Fantastic insight, Marc, thanks. Syria is really “business as usual” for the human race. Human generated mess and of course the cat suffers and all animals, and, of course the children. It is the vulnerable who suffer at the hands of the tyrants and “leaders”.
  Because Syria has in the last 10 years become mostly desert on the south side.
  This event seems to have been the beginning of the present crisis. Do you know what caused it?
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  - marc on September 6, 2013 at 7:13 am said:
    This drought has been caused by climate change and goes back as far as 2003 in terms of severity. The only mistake the Syrian government made was to sell off their grain reserves a little too quickly in about 2008/9. As far as I understand. One can always argue its not a direct result of global warming/greenhouse effect but the only people who would argue this would be the shameless assholes who are trying to make money out of finite and polluting resources and processes. Soon the environment will trump political war and so will be the start of eco-terrorism and I for one would be proud to drop everything and defend the environment if it got bad. This unfertile crescent is the perfect symbol of the disaster we have created, perfectly exacerbated by the ensuing political problems that came as a result of the extreme drought.
    The US gov should get a prize for the successful recruitment of terrorism beyond anyone’s wildest nightmare. They have made this world a much worse and more dangerous place with the help of Israel. One day they will hang and it will be their own fault.
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  - marc on September 6, 2013 at 7:29 am said:
    Sorry Michael I can answer more properly – the fact is the drought caused many of the farmers to pitch deeper wells for the first few years of the extreme drought. This was fine but what happened in the end is the water table dropped to a level lower than could be reached with their conventional resources. That was around 2007/8 as I understand it – and that is when they all headed for the cities. The desert that is called the Syrian desert effectively got alot bigger (the Syrian desert actually goes well into Iraq but is called as such) – the Syrian part got bigger. The fertile crescent is effectively gone. After the farms were abandoned the grain production dropped hugely and that is when the Syrian gov started top sell of the reserves – at first maintaining the reasonable value of grain until the resaerves were depleted. At this point UNICEF was warning political disaster. The farmers couldn’t get jobs in the cities and the price of grain got too high for people to be able to afford it. Thats when the riots/manifestations started in Dara which is where the country first tumbled into the civil war which then grew into being an international war basically. This is what I have read and how I understand the whole process to have started.
    It should be noted the Russians are not souless – they are scared of Islamic extremism both from these areas and from their own area of the Caucasus mountains and Chechnya and Dagestan – where they have ongoing fights with these people. Furtherore these people send suicide bombers, often women with dead islamist husbands(look up the ‘Black Widows of the Caucasus’) who go up to Moscow and let off bombs in the subway. The Russians are quite rightly scared of what the US calls the ‘rebels’ winning this war. Furthermore Russia has alot of people in Syria and a their own international army base is there. Alot of Americans may think Russia and China make it impossible and they shouldn’t – with regard to the security council but they have only vetoed 2 times whereas the US has vetoed 54 times since it was created. Imagine how the US would feel if Russia and China went to war regardless of their veto. The fact remains that the security council was created, and the veto was created – in order to stop war proliferating. Furthermore it was put there to ensure the passage of diplomatic efforts. Just because Russia and China are doing thier minimal second veto doesn’t make it illigitimate. The US is the one breaking the law and running an ILLEGAL mission creep as we speak. And now Israel is sending hundreds of lobbyists to go and lobby congress to go to war. WTF. I’m sick of it. My firends in Israel say that they get off on the fact in Israel that everybody hates them. They actually like it. They can say “see, we were right, now we should fight” – they are just constantly on the “we are being ostracized” angle ever since the start of history. They will always take that angle. They will cause the end of everything and they will suck the US in because of all the US jews with money. F*** them. It’s not their planet – it’s everybody’s planet.
    Reply ↓
    - Marc on September 6, 2013 at 9:16 am said:
      For years I didn’t bother reading the news and I felt much much better. I think this little foray into international politics will have to end soon – it is too horrible for words.
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