Remaining ‘above the soil’

Here is a great article from the UK Guardian on daily life under the Ba’athist regime:

I remember our physics teacher coming to class one day to say goodbye. He said that he was being moved from his job at the school to be appointed as an ordinary clerk in the municipal authority office opposite. The reason was obvious: he had refused to join the Ba’ath party.

In later years, even this option was not on offer. Everyone who wished to remain “above the soil”, in the eloquent words of the Iraqi poet, Sa’adi Yousuf, had to join the Ba’ath party. If you refused, you and your family could expect an uncertain future, and lose your right to remain above the soil.