BEIRUT // Three years of siege, famine and bombing of his Damascus refugee camp didn’t kill celebrated musician Aeham Al Ahmad.
But something died inside him the day extremists burned his beloved piano in front of his eyes.
It was then that Ahmad, whose music had brought consolation – even a bit of joy – to Yarmouk camp’s beleaguered residents, decided to join thousands of others and seek refuge in Europe.
“They burned it in April, on my birthday. It was my most cherished possession,” Ahmad said.
“The piano wasn’t just an instrument. It was like the death of a friend.”
For 27-year-old Ahmad, whose songs of hope amid the rubble of Syria’s largest Palestinian camp became a social media sensation last year, “it was a very painful moment”.
Since Syria’s civil war struck Yarmouk in 2013, the once-thriving neighbourhood saw its population dwindle from 150,000 Palestinians and Syrians to barely 18,000 people.
The camp was caught up in fighting among government forces, rebels and extremists, and suffered a devastating siege by the Syrian army. About 200 people died from malnutrition and a lack of medicines.
Ahmad became a symbol of hope, helping Yarmouk’s people – particularly its children – forget for a moment the brutal war raging around them with every note he played.
“The days when I felt the most helpless were when I had money, but I could not get milk for my year-old baby Kinan, or when my older son Ahmad would ask me for a biscuit,” he said.
“It was the worst feeling.”
It was after ISIL militants attacked the camp in April, that Ahmad’s gentle, tentative ray of light was engulfed in flames.
He was in a pickup truck, trying to move his piano to nearby Yalda, where his wife and two boys were living, when he was stopped at an ISIL checkpoint.
“Don’t you know that music is haram [forbidden by Islam],” a gunman asked, before torching his beloved instrument.
Ahmad had stayed in Yarmouk until the day ISIL reduced his battered but precious upright piano to ashes. “That’s when I decided to leave.”
He would make for Germany, from where he would then try to get his family out of Syria.
He began the dangerous journey out of Damascus “as rockets rained down”, heading north through the provinces of Homs, Hama, and Idlib until he reached the Turkish border.
“At every step, I would meet another trafficker of human flesh,” he recalled.
With the help of smugglers, he avoided Turkey’s increasingly watchful security forces by crawling through barriers of barbed wire and spending nights sleeping fitfully in dark forests.
With other Syrian men, women, and children, Ahmad trekked through mountainous terrain to reach the Turkish coast.
“Once, we went 24 hours without eating a thing; the children were so hungry they would cry. It was horrible,” Ahmad said.
On September 10, he began posting pictures on Facebook to document his journey.
The first was of his emaciated face. When he was in Yarmouk, he weighed a mere 45 kilogrammes.
When he finally arrived in Izmir on the Mediterranean, Turkey’s second port, Ahmad was shocked to see refugees “sleeping on sidewalks as they couldn’t afford a hotel room”.
A trafficker arranged for him to spend the night in an apartment “full of rats and insects”.
Then, he and some 70 others were crammed into a tiny van heading to the coastline, where they would take a dinghy to the Greek island of Lesbos.
They each paid smugglers US$1,250 (Dh4,590) as thousands of others had done, knowing they might not survive.
Suddenly gripped with fear, Ahmad took to his Facebook travel journal, “Diaries of a Traveller in the Sea”.
“Dearest Mediterranean, I am Aeham and would like to safely ride your waves,” he posted on Monday.
When the first rays of sunlight struck the sea at dawn on Thursday, Ahmad found himself on a Greek beach.
Tapping along on his knees, he sang a tragic tune about the “death haunting” his country: “Tragedy has crossed the seas, Syria implores its displaced children to return.”
Dreaming, like so many others, of reaching Germany, Ahmad made his way to Macedonia, then Serbia, and was on his way to Zagreb Saturday night “if they let me in”.
“It has been non-stop,” he said. “I haven’t slept for the past three days; I am exhausted. I hope I will reach my destination soon.”
“I want to play in the streets of Berlin like I played in the streets of Yarmouk,” he said.
But his dream doesn’t end there.
“I would love to play in the most famous orchestras, touring around the world and conveying the suffering of those that are besieged in [Yarmouk] and of all the civilians still in Syria.”
* Agence France-Presse
Cinco in numbers
Dh3.7 million
The estimated cost of Victoria Swarovski’s gem-encrusted Michael Cinco wedding gown
46
The number, in kilograms, that Swarovski’s wedding gown weighed.
1,000
The hours it took to create Cinco’s vermillion petal gown, as seen in his atelier [note, is the one he’s playing with in the corner of a room]
50
How many looks Cinco has created in a new collection to celebrate Ballet Philippines’ 50th birthday
3,000
The hours needed to create the butterfly gown worn by Aishwarya Rai to the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
1.1 million
The number of followers that Michael Cinco’s Instagram account has garnered.
Company profile
Name: Tabby
Founded: August 2019; platform went live in February 2020
Founder/CEO: Hosam Arab, co-founder: Daniil Barkalov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Payments
Size: 40-50 employees
Stage: Series A
Investors: Arbor Ventures, Mubadala Capital, Wamda Capital, STV, Raed Ventures, Global Founders Capital, JIMCO, Global Ventures, Venture Souq, Outliers VC, MSA Capital, HOF and AB Accelerator.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: SmartCrowd
Started: 2018
Founder: Siddiq Farid and Musfique Ahmed
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech / PropTech
Initial investment: $650,000
Current number of staff: 35
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Various institutional investors and notable angel investors (500 MENA, Shurooq, Mada, Seedstar, Tricap)
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Results
2.15pm: Maiden (PA) Dh40,000 1,200m
Winner: Maqam, Fabrice Veron (jockey), Eric Lemartinel (trainer).
2.45pm: Maiden (PA) Dh40,000 1,200m
Winner: Mamia Al Reef, Szczepan Mazur, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami.
3.15pm: Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 2,000m
Winner: Jaahiz, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinel.
3.45pm: Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 1,000m
Winner: Qanoon, Szczepan Mazur, Irfan Ellahi.
4.15pm: Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Cup Handicap (TB) Dh200,000 1,700m.
Winner: Philosopher, Tadhg O’Shea, Salem bin Ghadayer.
54.45pm: Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 1,700m
Winner: Jap Al Yassoob, Fernando Jara, Irfan Ellahi.
The five pillars of Islam
Company profile
Company name: Shipsy
Year of inception: 2015
Founders: Soham Chokshi, Dhruv Agrawal, Harsh Kumar and Himanshu Gupta
Based: India, UAE and Indonesia
Sector: logistics
Size: more than 350 employees
Funding received so far: $31 million in series A and B rounds
Investors: Info Edge, Sequoia Capital’s Surge, A91 Partners and Z3 Partners
Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus
Developer: Sucker Punch Productions
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Console: PlayStation 2 to 5
Rating: 5/5
Results:
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,400m | Winner: Eghel De Pine, Pat Cosgrave (jockey), Eric Lemartinel (trainer)
5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,400m | Winner: AF Sheaar, Szczepan Mazur, Saeed Al Shamsi
6pm: Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan National Day Cup (PA) Group 3 Dh500,000 1,600m | Winner: RB Torch, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinel
6.30pm: Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan National Day Cup (TB) Listed Dh380,000 1,600m | Winner: Forjatt, Chris Hayes, Nicholas Bachalard
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup for Private Owners Handicap (PA) Dh 70,000 1,400m | Winner: Hawafez, Connor Beasley, Ridha ben Attia
7.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 80,000 1,600m | Winner: Qader, Richard Mullen, Jean de Roaulle
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 258hp from 5,000-6,500rpm
Torque: 400Nm from 1,550-4,000rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.1L/100km
Price: from Dh362,500
On sale: now
Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
The biog
Favourite films: Casablanca and Lawrence of Arabia
Favourite books: Start with Why by Simon Sinek and Good to be Great by Jim Collins
Favourite dish: Grilled fish
Inspiration: Sheikh Zayed's visionary leadership taught me to embrace new challenges.
The specs
Engine: Dual synchronous electric motors
Power: 660hp
Torque: 1,100Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Touring range: 488km-560km
Price: From Dh850,000 (estimate)
On sale: October
more from Janine di Giovanni
UAE v Gibraltar
What: International friendly
When: 7pm kick off
Where: Rugby Park, Dubai Sports City
Admission: Free
Online: The match will be broadcast live on Dubai Exiles’ Facebook page
UAE squad: Lucas Waddington (Dubai Exiles), Gio Fourie (Exiles), Craig Nutt (Abu Dhabi Harlequins), Phil Brady (Harlequins), Daniel Perry (Dubai Hurricanes), Esekaia Dranibota (Harlequins), Matt Mills (Exiles), Jaen Botes (Exiles), Kristian Stinson (Exiles), Murray Reason (Abu Dhabi Saracens), Dave Knight (Hurricanes), Ross Samson (Jebel Ali Dragons), DuRandt Gerber (Exiles), Saki Naisau (Dragons), Andrew Powell (Hurricanes), Emosi Vacanau (Harlequins), Niko Volavola (Dragons), Matt Richards (Dragons), Luke Stevenson (Harlequins), Josh Ives (Dubai Sports City Eagles), Sean Stevens (Saracens), Thinus Steyn (Exiles)
Confirmed bouts (more to be added)
Cory Sandhagen v Umar Nurmagomedov
Nick Diaz v Vicente Luque
Michael Chiesa v Tony Ferguson
Deiveson Figueiredo v Marlon Vera
Mackenzie Dern v Loopy Godinez
Tickets for the August 3 Fight Night, held in partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, went on sale earlier this month, through www.etihadarena.ae and www.ticketmaster.ae.
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
In The Heights
Directed by: Jon M. Chu
Stars: Anthony Ramos, Lin-Manual Miranda
Rating: ****
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3
Director: James Gunn
Stars: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper
Rating: 4/5