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Faris defected from the Syrian air force after witnessing indiscriminate bombings from military aircraft "attacking my own city and district. I knew they cannot discriminate between enemies and the people. I am a witness. We are all witnesses," he said, an empty-handed relic of lost and blackened Syria, cradle of civilization. "From space," Faris told his listeners, "I saw the world without limits. She carries us and we destroy her. I wonder, as the destiny of my country is being written every day, how will we go on?"
Just a few days after that meeting in Istanbul, Donald Trump's travel ban came down, bringing "Space Refugee" one step closer to reality. Now Faris, native of Aleppo, a city that has suffered as much as any in the world, and a critic of the regime, falls into the ever widening group of people not allowed in the United States, not as a refugee nor even as a visitor. In a phone call, Faris was supremely aware of the irony. Having fled Assad, Faris now saw the United States falling under the sway of the same kind of power.
"Trump does not understand anything about human history," he said, toggling between humor and seriousness with such ease that the only translated effect of his character is sheer dignity.
full: http://www.villagevoice.com/arts/dark-reality-catches-up-to-a-show-about-a-syrian-astronaut-9624742
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