narrator in video clip states this vendor is being forced to give a free watermelon to the Assad army. The Assad Regime in Syria is a corrupt criminal enterprise in addtion to being a ruthless military dictatorship. Imagine if the Mafia Gambino crime family ran a whole country and now just imagine how corrupt and degenerate the society would become, with bribes and payoffs everywhere and ruthless punishment for anyone who is noncompliant. - Well this is Syria under the Baath party Assad Regime. Everyone in the regime is stealing and shaking down businesses for a piece of your action The dictators cousin is a billionare from stealing and many business have to pay him a percentage of their profits to stay in business - - In this video clip we see a watermelon vendor being forced to give a watermelon to the dictator's soldiers for free. This is a sample shakedown that goes on hundreds of times a day throughout Syria. Once when I was coming into the country from a neighboring nation the bus driver announced that we each had to pay the equivilent of $20 US Dollars in order to avoid customs inspections. Upon further inquiry I was informed that this involuntary bribe money was split up by the customs inspectors and their supervisors. Syria under Assad has become a rotten "fish that stinks from the head down" as the old American adage goes. 20 7 Homs أوغاريت حمص أخلاق الشبيحة حتى بائع البطيخ لم يسلم من النهب