The gray sky of the Arab spring

The pictures and videos of the dead body of a 13-year-old boy, named Hamza Alkhatib, is taking Syria beyond the unrest phase. Some people refuse to compare it to Libya, that's right, you should not compare the country, but we can compare the leaders.

Both Moamer Gaddafi and Bashar al-Assad have gone crazy over power. Hosny Mubarak, Zine AlAbidine and Ali Abdullah Saleh were also mad with power.

But Gaddafi and Assad have closed their minds to the sound of reason. Numbers of people killed in both countries is getting higher minute after another.

Gaddafi got mercenaries to fight with him when most of the army defected, while Assad got his Shabiha (thugs) to kill his people.

The 13-year-old Hamza Alkhatib has died after he was brutally tortured. He was badly beaten, his penis was chopped off, and there were signs of burns all over his body. (I could not link the video because it is too disturbing.)

The news made me think of this woman I talked to a couple of times by phone. She is in Damascus, she was in charge of some rights group after its director was arrested.

Their office was closed, they were threatened and they worked from home.

The last time we talked, she was extremely sad. She had no clear thing to say, and she was weak.

"I'm fed up. I've been called names, I've been accused of selling my country, of being a conspirator. I've been accused of fabricating stuff. My father was a warrior. He took part in liberating my country years ago, how can I be an outsider now. How can I erase this heritage I carry and sell my country."

She kept going on, and for few minutes I could not say anything.

People die everyday in Syria, Libya and Yemen. People still die in Egypt and Tunisia and Bahrain.

The Arab Spring has not bloomed,  the heat and the sun took over, and it is summer already.