A Syrian-Vincentian has noted the political unrest in Syria and said she is lucky to be in St Vincent and the Grenadines.{{{more}}

International media reported yesterday that rebel fighters had shot down a Syrian army helicopter over Damascus, as the opposition claimed more than 300 people had been massacred in a town southwest of the capital.

And Mona Dare, of Fred J. Dare Co. Ltd, told SEARCHLIGHT on Friday she was blessed to be in St Vincent.

She was commenting about sales at her businesses place this month.

“Whoever [are] not doing well, they should close down. If I am not doing well, I should close down. We have to be realistic,” she said of ethnic Syrian owners of business in Kingstown, as she also noted the global recession.

“Politics should never divide us. We have to give thanks unto God and we must be grateful because, you know, we are still very lucky to be in St Vincent,” Dare added.

“See my area (Syria) what a terrible state it is in — you catch me? Politics [is] dividing us — you catch me?” she said of the Syrian community here.

“I supported both of them, believe me, with my heart; I love them,” she further said of the two main political parties here.

“People will create things and say it [is] so bad. If it is so bad, why don’t they close down and let we have more chance. You don’t think so? Go back!” she said in reference to Syrian business people, who, she said, might be complaining about poor sales.

“We are behind the business,” Dare said of her company, which was established in 1938 and has three stores in Kingstown.

“Nowadays different from the old days when the whole [of] town used to be Fred Dare and Layne’s and Corea’s,” she said of some of the oldest department stores in the nation’s capital.

“Now, it is so competitive. So you have to be behind it 24/7,” Dare said. (KXC)