I just spent a quarter of an hour at least going through many photographs of Homs, which were taken after the city was liberated from rebels against the Syrian regime. That was a few days ago. The devastation is quite fascinating. It is amazing to see what happens with concrete, the most popular among contemporary construction materials, after prolonged fighting with today’s weapons. But my fascination has little to do with Homs as such. Or Syria, for that matter. The photographs tell me a great deal about the way many other cities across the globe will look right after World War III. Tilting structures, walls with gaping holes, structural steel pointing every which way, hanging balconies, sandwiches of floors piled on top of each other, mountains of bumpy rubble between crumbled buildings… Any collection of photographs from Homs is to be recommended as a lively preview of devastation yet to come to a city near you. Welcome to the Twenty-First Century!