I am writing this post as I have just a few hours left in this city on the edge of the desert that has come to be my home. I have had often confused feelings about this place, I guess like a love affair. Aside from big and complex issues, such as the continuing constraints on political and sexual freedom, I see many bad points and nuisances - for example, the shebab who drive the foreign girls crazy with their stares, harassment and even, in a few cases, assault. Then there is the oppressive heat. It hasn't dipped below 30C since April, and this week saw the first rain in four months. The Barada river has dried to a black trickle whose terrible stink has acquired such potency that it now has a physical force that hits you.
Nevertheless, this most ancient of all cities definitely has something, a mysterious feling which remains elusive and hard to define. Maybe I remain wedded to an Orientalist love of the exotic - certainly some of the appeal of Syria lies in it's 'otherness' related to the UK (though, paradoxically, much also feels familiar). But, I think, it is something greater than that. My best guess is that life is somehow warmer here - both climatically but also emotionally. Here I shed the breathless rush of London life, slowed down and savoured life - the smile of a stranger offering a glass of tea and the chat, the taste of a falafel sandwich or the apple-flavoured smoke from a nagileh, the ripe orange glow of the sunset behind the silhouette of the city and the plump bright moon suspended in the indigo sky.
Damascus, I'll miss you, but do not fret - I shall return!
Shout Outs to:
The Bab Saghir Posse: Brett, Dan, Jan, Manaf, Matteo & Laure, Rory, Somi, Munir & Paul ("nobody expects the BFLL")
Abdullah Ar-Rabie, Abudeh, Al Jazeera International Crew ("does it go up and down?"), Ali Mu'allim, Amelie, Amin, Andy and Bastian, Arbi, David, Fabian, Faisal, Felix, Frank, Hadi, Jackson, Jan (Lux), Joe, Jonas, Josef, Leah, Martina, Mayad and the Star-Crossed Lovers crew, Mohammed(s), Mohanned, the MSF Peeps (especially for those crazy moves on the Cave de Baal dancefloor), Naaz, Omar, Raf and Zaid.
Big hugs to Bencestan: Alina, Bence "El Presidente" & Queen Hermina, Dan, Ilaria, Ingrid & Eirin, Menno, Paul & Anna, Yasar and Claudia.
In the meantime I have more to add in the coming days, charting some of my last days in Damascus. Beyond that I think I will keep the blog going in anticipation of my return.
23 August 2006
19 August 2006
Road Trip: Syrian Compass Points (Updated with pics)
I’m sitting here in the courtyard of my Damascene home, on a Saturday afternoon, listening to music and coming to terms with the fact that soon I shall be leaving this place to return to the country of my birth, England. Life here has not always been easy – it has been full of frustration and challenges. Yet I have also experienced great friendship, hospitality and stimulation here, these things it will be sad to leave behind. Yet this feeling is bittersweet, compensated for by the anticipation of seeing all my friends and family back home whose company I have missed a lot.
Thinking about my homeland is made all the easier because today, for the first time in months, there are clouds in the sky over Damascus. The last time I saw clouds was by the Mediterranean Sea, in Lattakia in north-western Syria about ten days ago. Thus the clouds also serve as a reminder that I really must press ahead and finish off the long-promised write-up of my road trip around the compass points of Syria, the country I have called home for the last five months.
Love to y’all (whether you're in Syria, Singapore or Surrey),
Dave
PS: Raf is also working on a write-up of his own thoughts about the trip. When he has sent it to me I will publish it here, as a guest commentary, so that you get an alternative perspective on the same places and events.
PPS: Most of the photos in this post are courtesy of Raf.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raf and I had spent a few days hanging about in Damascus, giving him time to acclimatise, and for me to say goodbye to some good friends who were leaving Damascus to move onto new adventures (Dan to Jordan, Munir to Lebanon).
Then we decided the time was ripe to set out on a planned epic trip around Syria. As a prelimiary we took a trip to the National Museum in Damascus, where we could see artifacts from many of the places we were hoping to visit: from ancient and enigmatic civilizations in the Euphrates valley to Hellenistic and Roman Syria (below) and on through the advent of Islam to the modern era. It was a good taster of some of what was to come.
Therefore, at lunchtime on 4th August, we negotiated through the bustle and the touts of the sprawling and confusing Harasta bus terminal and caught a luxury (i.e. air-conditioned) coach to Palmyra/Tadmur.
Palmyra (again): 4-5 August 2006
I don’t really have much new to say about Palmyra that I didn’t already say in a previous post. Needless to say the ruins are still awe-inspiring and it’s still very nice to watch the sunset from the castle.
It was perhaps, a little quieter than when we were there before, but it was fairly quiet back then too. The street traders were still desperately trying to eke out a living selling silly trinkets and camel rides to the trickle of tourists wandering around the ruins, but they did not detract too much from the splendour of the extensive historical site.
We only spent one night and a morning in Tadmur, during which we saw a little more than had been possible the previous time I was here (one extra underground tomb, and a bit more of the ruined city, including the market place and assembly hall). Then we caught another coach travelling deeper into the Syran desert, heading for a rendezvous with the Euphrates river.
Deir Az-Zur: 5-6 August 2006
We got off at Deir Az-Zur – straight into the office of a local policeman. But it was fine, he was just logging the foreigners who were coming onto his patch. I guess he was more concerned about stopping (or at least controlling) the flow of young men coming to volunteer to fight for the insurgency across the border in Iraq, just over 100km away, than with two young Brits coming to look at old ruins. I guess that we didn't fit the profile of potential suicide bombers so, after briefly taking down our details, we were soon on our way.
Deir Az Zur turned out to be an interesting place. It’s a busy market town of about a quarter of a million inhabitants, that was apparently something of a boon town in the 1990s. However, it still feels pretty much off the (relatively lightly trodden) Syria tourist circuit.
The souq is very busy, populated with a mixture of people. A high proportion of the women are totally covered, but the infamous black chador is a rarity here. Instead the clothes were beautifully decorated and brightly coloured in greens, reds, blues and black. Many girls wore plastic flowers in their hair and were heavily made up as if going to a wedding rather than just to the market. Then again, maybe it's the place where they find their future husbands so I guess it's not so different after all.
The people at the budget hotel were lovely – so kind and friendly. We ended up having an impromptu joint language lesson – in English and Arabic. One man offered to put me up at his house free of charge in exchange for months of English lessons!
The town is nestled against the south bank of the Euphrates River which is a very impressive sight. It’s almost half a km wide, fast moving and full of islands and positively humming with life.
We had a nice meal in one of the huge restaurants on the banks of the river, the air around us full of bugs. Even at ten at night it was horrendously hot. Thanks to the proximity of so much water it was also uncomfortably humid. There was a constant flow of sweat over our bodies just sitting down and eating. Needless to say our sleep was disturbed.
Sweat-drenched and sleepless, we opted out of heading further east for a day trip to the ancient site of Mari and the Hellenistic/Byzantine ruins at Dura Europos. The fact that our plan to take the sleeper train to Aleppo was scuppered by the fact that there were no longer any trains to Aleppo was our excuse, which meant we had to catch a bus during daylight hours. However, in reality I don’t think Raf and I could bear the idea of spending the day walking around the desert being roasted.
Whilst planning our next move we sat in one of the many juice bars that you find in all Syrian towns, just south of the central square and souq. It suddenly struck me what a surreal scene it was. There was I, sipping a fruit cocktail with my friend from London, talking on my mobile to Claudia in Damascus whilst two teenage girls in niqab (face covering), shyly glanced in our direction and giggled.
I was longing to get out of the desert, but it was a little sad to leave Deir Az-Zur so soon. It left a pleasant impression on both of us. Instead we took a bus, following the thin line of green vegetation that clings to the banks of the Euphrates as it threads it’s way through an otherwise dry landscape. This was an epic 5-hour journey. To kill the time I watched some of the Egyptian film that was showing on the TV screens. Hobak Naar (Your Love is Fire), a recent hit starring Mostafa Amar and Nelly Kareem, was a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, transplanted to modern-day Alexandria, this time with a happy ending.
Finally we left the river behind, entering the greenary and hills of northern Syria. Eventually the Citadel of Aleppo appeared on the horizon, like an island above the urban sprawl and pollution mist spread out below it. It was an impressive sight.
Aleppo: 6-8 August 2006
We arrived in Aleppo, the city of 3 million that is often described as Syria’s economic capital, in the early evening. We arranged a room in one of the many hotels around Sharia Baron, just north of Aleppo’s Old City. This part of the city is home to all the budget hotels and tyre shops, and also has many fruit juice bars and cinemas (below). It's an eclectic, busy place.
Once we had offloaded our bags we headed to Jdeideh, an old residential part of the city (17th, 18th Centuries), which is now one of the centres of the nightlife. It’s full of cafes, restaurants and bars and really comes alive after dark, with glammed up families, couples and groups of young people strolling, posing and hanging out. Here we had a rooftop dinner soundtracked by the greatest naff Western love Songs album in the world… ever! part 3 (i.e. Celine Dion, Robbie Williams, Chris De Burk). The music may have been bad but the food – a mix of French and Italian – was superb, and the view of the city’s skyscape was fantastic.
Neither Raf nor I were up for late one - a combination of lack of sleep and long travels meant we were knackered - so we foresook the Aleppan nightlife and headed back to our hotel relatively early. There I engaged in a brief chat with some of our neighbours (2 Syrians and an Iraqi), who ended up trying to convince me to become a Muslim and marry a Syrian girl (I did say it was a brief chat!).
The next day we spent mainly in the Old City of Aleppo. Aleppo’s citadel and souqs I have already discussed. I’ll just add that the souqs seemed a little quieter than when I had previously been there back in April. We were told by one shopkeeper that business was bad at the moment – he blamed the war in Lebanon for keeping the tourists away.
After two days in Aleppo we felt it was time to move on. I really loved the place, far more than during my previous visit, and could've stayed longer to explore it in more detail. However, we only had a limited amount of time in which to complete our circuit of Syria. Therefore, we packed our bags and headed to Aleppo train station. We had decided to take the scenic – but slow – train ride through the Jebel Ansariyya which divides coastal Syria from the interior. It was nice to take a train which people still stopped and waved at, as we wound our way past the villages in the Orontes valley and in the hills. The highlight was seeing the sunset over the mountains.
Lattakia: 8-9 August 2006
Lattakia is a prosperous, trendy place (population: about 400,000) that prides itself on its liberalism and shows little sign of its ancient past – just a few Roman columns standing in the city centre remind you that Laodicea was an important port in Seleucid and Roman times. Instead its architecture mainly consists of bland concrete apartment blocks, reminiscent of Lebanon less than 100km down the coast. The people are more likely to be clad in Western labels than in traditional jalabiyya or abiya. The hijab count is very noticeably down on the rest of Syria. I got the impression that the people of Lattakia pride themselves on their sophistication and modernity. Nevertheless, despite it's reputation, it's not all champagne and caviar - we saw several poor people wandering through the streets scavenging through rubbish. However, relatively speaking, this is still the home of Syria's bold and beautiful.
On the first night we wandered around the centre of town, checking out the cool kids and the nice restaurants, before ending up on the Corniche where we had a fruit juice and smoked an apple flavoured nargileh (water pipe). However, this was hardly comparable with Beirut's famous seafront promenade. Instead of picturesque views of the beautiful blue Med, we were afforded prime views of the cranes and machinery of the modern port which intrudes between the city and the sea.
Another surprising thing was how soon everything closed down. Not long after midnight the vibrant city centre had become a virtual ghost town - not exactly 24 hour party people!
The following day we took a microbus up to Kassab, a pretty little mountain village just a few km from the Turkish border. We climbed up into the mountains overlooking the town, and enjoyed the views and the relatively cool air.
However, because there was basically nothing else to do there, we didn't hang around for long. Within a couple of hours we were on board a microbus heading back – this time to the beach. Syria’s premier coastal resort (Shaat al-Azraq - the Blue Beach), wouldn’t win any prizes for cleanliness, and we heard that there are more beautiful beaches further up the coast, but it was still great to enjoy an afternoon by the Mare Nostrum.
The beach was fairly crowded with families. The bikini and bathing suit count was nil. Women bathed in the sea still wearing their hijab (head scarves) and jalabiyya (full length robes).
I guess the sophisticated young Lattakians were sticking to the private beaches and not mingling with the tourists from other parts of Syria. In this sense it was more Great Yarmouth than St Tropez!
In the early evening we befriended a couple of young lawyers from Lattakia. Together we sat on the rocks, watching the sunset whilst sharing a nargileh, drinking Arabic coffee and eating fruit grown in the garden of one of the men.
We talked in a broken Arabic-English about our respective countries, the war in Lebanon, and our travels. It was only soured by the fact that after we parted company we arranged to meet later in town for a drink – a commitment that they did not honour. Maybe the Syrian paranoia got the better of them – who knows. We even briefly wondered if they might have been secret policemen – viewed through this lens their seemingly innocent request to look at the pictures of our travels became transformed into a well executed and friendly interrogation.
However, we soon dismissed all these silly thoughts and grabbed a drink in a US-themed café/diner frequented by the cool kids, which to us seemed a little tacky. Then we headed for a quiet restaurant for an amazing feast of grilled fresh fish and mezze – hummous, moutabbel and fattoush. It was a real treat, well worth the price of admission. Then we retired to our hotel to nurse our full bellies, too stuffed to face the idea of a staying out. This was just as well because, as with the night before, Lattakia was not exactly jumping at 1:00!
Qal'at Salah Ad-Din: 10 August 2006
The next day we headed back into the Jebel, this time bound for Qal’at Salah Ad-Din (Castle Saladin). This former Crusader castle fell to the legendary Kurdish warrior after a siege of just two days in 1188. It’s a huge castle, located in beautiful green hills covered with pine forests. It’s main feature is the fact that it is built on a ridge, with natural cliffs on two sides, and the third side protected by an impressive man-made chasm carved out of the rock (below). 
Unfortunately, the lower castle is ruined and overgrown, and thus inaccessible. However, we still spent a happy couple of hours exploring the upper castle, enjoying the panoramic views of the landscape and trying to avoid vertigo as we looked down from the battlements into the sheer drops on all sides. 
Then it was time to head from the verdant landscape of Syria’s Med coast and return to the desert conurbation where I live. This meant another long and relatively uneventful coach ride.
Bosra: 13 August 2006
After a couple of days of partying in Damascus (bon voyage Fabian!) we took a day trip southwards to Bosra near the Jordanian border. Its another Roman/Byzantine ruined town, much like Palmyra but considerably smaller, and mainly built of black basalt, which contrasts quite dramatically with the deep red soil of the fields in the surrounding countryside. However, unlike Palmyra, people still live amongst the ruins, giving the place more of a sense of living history.
The main place of interest is the well-preserved Roman theatre. It is protected by a fortress which was added in the 11th-12th Centuries. It's quite wonderful to emerge from the dark tunnels of the Arab fortress into the space and light of the auditorium. This was one of the biggest of its kind in the world, with a capacity of about 15,000 spectators (note: this was a theatre designed for staging dramas and not an amphitheatre, which were often considerably bigger and where more brutal events, like gladiatorial contests, were held).
Then, leaving the theatre/fortress and heading to the Old City, it was interesting to wander for a while amongst the jumbled mix of ancient ruins and buildings still being used as contemporary shops and houses, down Roman colonnaded streets (below) and over crumbled down buildings. 
Within the Old City is the ancient monastery (below) where, according to legend, a young caravan leader called Mohammed met the Christian monk Bohira. This Mohammed went on to become a great Prophet and the founder of Islam, which meant that there were a number of early mosques in Bosra, though the earliest still standing dates back to the 12th Century.
On the way home I struck up a conversation with the man sat next to me. It turned out he was an Ancient History professor from Baghdad University who was on a holiday in Syria with his wife and two young daughters. I started to talk about the Iraq war, and apologise for the behaviour of the idiot Bliar, but he soon changed the subject back to more comfortable territory. I had a moment of realisation that I had been a little insensitive. My clumsy attempt at compassion had actually come across as pity, reducing his dignity, and briefly broken the holiday spell whereby the troubles in his homeland were but a distant, almost forgotten nightmare. Thus the rest of our conversation lingered on our mutual interest in the ancient history of the region.
As we got off at Baramke bus station in Damascus he expressed the hope that one day soon Iraq would be safe enough for me to visit it. Then we parted company with “anta sharif’ – the Iraqi equivalent of best wishes. The encounter had made me feel a little sad. I thought of the contrast between the peace of Syria and the daily bloodbath on the streets of Baghdad and hoped that this learned and courteous man and his family remain safe and well.
This encounter brought to an end our thrilling ten day trip around many of the main sights and places of Syria. Overall we had a fantastic time. Being outside Damascus, and its attendant high number of English speakers helped to consolidate my Arabic skills to date (still pretty limited, but at least able to get us from A to B without too much trouble). Everywhere we went we were greeted by friendly courteous people, many of whom were very keen to chat about a host of topics (but especially politics). If I ever had any doubts, this trip certainly cemented my deep interest in the history, politics and culture of this region.
Thinking about my homeland is made all the easier because today, for the first time in months, there are clouds in the sky over Damascus. The last time I saw clouds was by the Mediterranean Sea, in Lattakia in north-western Syria about ten days ago. Thus the clouds also serve as a reminder that I really must press ahead and finish off the long-promised write-up of my road trip around the compass points of Syria, the country I have called home for the last five months.
Love to y’all (whether you're in Syria, Singapore or Surrey),
Dave
PS: Raf is also working on a write-up of his own thoughts about the trip. When he has sent it to me I will publish it here, as a guest commentary, so that you get an alternative perspective on the same places and events.
PPS: Most of the photos in this post are courtesy of Raf.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raf and I had spent a few days hanging about in Damascus, giving him time to acclimatise, and for me to say goodbye to some good friends who were leaving Damascus to move onto new adventures (Dan to Jordan, Munir to Lebanon).
Then we decided the time was ripe to set out on a planned epic trip around Syria. As a prelimiary we took a trip to the National Museum in Damascus, where we could see artifacts from many of the places we were hoping to visit: from ancient and enigmatic civilizations in the Euphrates valley to Hellenistic and Roman Syria (below) and on through the advent of Islam to the modern era. It was a good taster of some of what was to come.
Therefore, at lunchtime on 4th August, we negotiated through the bustle and the touts of the sprawling and confusing Harasta bus terminal and caught a luxury (i.e. air-conditioned) coach to Palmyra/Tadmur.Palmyra (again): 4-5 August 2006
I don’t really have much new to say about Palmyra that I didn’t already say in a previous post. Needless to say the ruins are still awe-inspiring and it’s still very nice to watch the sunset from the castle.
It was perhaps, a little quieter than when we were there before, but it was fairly quiet back then too. The street traders were still desperately trying to eke out a living selling silly trinkets and camel rides to the trickle of tourists wandering around the ruins, but they did not detract too much from the splendour of the extensive historical site.We only spent one night and a morning in Tadmur, during which we saw a little more than had been possible the previous time I was here (one extra underground tomb, and a bit more of the ruined city, including the market place and assembly hall). Then we caught another coach travelling deeper into the Syran desert, heading for a rendezvous with the Euphrates river.
Deir Az-Zur: 5-6 August 2006
We got off at Deir Az-Zur – straight into the office of a local policeman. But it was fine, he was just logging the foreigners who were coming onto his patch. I guess he was more concerned about stopping (or at least controlling) the flow of young men coming to volunteer to fight for the insurgency across the border in Iraq, just over 100km away, than with two young Brits coming to look at old ruins. I guess that we didn't fit the profile of potential suicide bombers so, after briefly taking down our details, we were soon on our way.
Deir Az Zur turned out to be an interesting place. It’s a busy market town of about a quarter of a million inhabitants, that was apparently something of a boon town in the 1990s. However, it still feels pretty much off the (relatively lightly trodden) Syria tourist circuit.
The souq is very busy, populated with a mixture of people. A high proportion of the women are totally covered, but the infamous black chador is a rarity here. Instead the clothes were beautifully decorated and brightly coloured in greens, reds, blues and black. Many girls wore plastic flowers in their hair and were heavily made up as if going to a wedding rather than just to the market. Then again, maybe it's the place where they find their future husbands so I guess it's not so different after all.
The people at the budget hotel were lovely – so kind and friendly. We ended up having an impromptu joint language lesson – in English and Arabic. One man offered to put me up at his house free of charge in exchange for months of English lessons!
The town is nestled against the south bank of the Euphrates River which is a very impressive sight. It’s almost half a km wide, fast moving and full of islands and positively humming with life.
We had a nice meal in one of the huge restaurants on the banks of the river, the air around us full of bugs. Even at ten at night it was horrendously hot. Thanks to the proximity of so much water it was also uncomfortably humid. There was a constant flow of sweat over our bodies just sitting down and eating. Needless to say our sleep was disturbed.Sweat-drenched and sleepless, we opted out of heading further east for a day trip to the ancient site of Mari and the Hellenistic/Byzantine ruins at Dura Europos. The fact that our plan to take the sleeper train to Aleppo was scuppered by the fact that there were no longer any trains to Aleppo was our excuse, which meant we had to catch a bus during daylight hours. However, in reality I don’t think Raf and I could bear the idea of spending the day walking around the desert being roasted.
Whilst planning our next move we sat in one of the many juice bars that you find in all Syrian towns, just south of the central square and souq. It suddenly struck me what a surreal scene it was. There was I, sipping a fruit cocktail with my friend from London, talking on my mobile to Claudia in Damascus whilst two teenage girls in niqab (face covering), shyly glanced in our direction and giggled.
I was longing to get out of the desert, but it was a little sad to leave Deir Az-Zur so soon. It left a pleasant impression on both of us. Instead we took a bus, following the thin line of green vegetation that clings to the banks of the Euphrates as it threads it’s way through an otherwise dry landscape. This was an epic 5-hour journey. To kill the time I watched some of the Egyptian film that was showing on the TV screens. Hobak Naar (Your Love is Fire), a recent hit starring Mostafa Amar and Nelly Kareem, was a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, transplanted to modern-day Alexandria, this time with a happy ending.
Finally we left the river behind, entering the greenary and hills of northern Syria. Eventually the Citadel of Aleppo appeared on the horizon, like an island above the urban sprawl and pollution mist spread out below it. It was an impressive sight.
Aleppo: 6-8 August 2006
We arrived in Aleppo, the city of 3 million that is often described as Syria’s economic capital, in the early evening. We arranged a room in one of the many hotels around Sharia Baron, just north of Aleppo’s Old City. This part of the city is home to all the budget hotels and tyre shops, and also has many fruit juice bars and cinemas (below). It's an eclectic, busy place.
Once we had offloaded our bags we headed to Jdeideh, an old residential part of the city (17th, 18th Centuries), which is now one of the centres of the nightlife. It’s full of cafes, restaurants and bars and really comes alive after dark, with glammed up families, couples and groups of young people strolling, posing and hanging out. Here we had a rooftop dinner soundtracked by the greatest naff Western love Songs album in the world… ever! part 3 (i.e. Celine Dion, Robbie Williams, Chris De Burk). The music may have been bad but the food – a mix of French and Italian – was superb, and the view of the city’s skyscape was fantastic.Neither Raf nor I were up for late one - a combination of lack of sleep and long travels meant we were knackered - so we foresook the Aleppan nightlife and headed back to our hotel relatively early. There I engaged in a brief chat with some of our neighbours (2 Syrians and an Iraqi), who ended up trying to convince me to become a Muslim and marry a Syrian girl (I did say it was a brief chat!).
The next day we spent mainly in the Old City of Aleppo. Aleppo’s citadel and souqs I have already discussed. I’ll just add that the souqs seemed a little quieter than when I had previously been there back in April. We were told by one shopkeeper that business was bad at the moment – he blamed the war in Lebanon for keeping the tourists away.After two days in Aleppo we felt it was time to move on. I really loved the place, far more than during my previous visit, and could've stayed longer to explore it in more detail. However, we only had a limited amount of time in which to complete our circuit of Syria. Therefore, we packed our bags and headed to Aleppo train station. We had decided to take the scenic – but slow – train ride through the Jebel Ansariyya which divides coastal Syria from the interior. It was nice to take a train which people still stopped and waved at, as we wound our way past the villages in the Orontes valley and in the hills. The highlight was seeing the sunset over the mountains.
Lattakia: 8-9 August 2006
Lattakia is a prosperous, trendy place (population: about 400,000) that prides itself on its liberalism and shows little sign of its ancient past – just a few Roman columns standing in the city centre remind you that Laodicea was an important port in Seleucid and Roman times. Instead its architecture mainly consists of bland concrete apartment blocks, reminiscent of Lebanon less than 100km down the coast. The people are more likely to be clad in Western labels than in traditional jalabiyya or abiya. The hijab count is very noticeably down on the rest of Syria. I got the impression that the people of Lattakia pride themselves on their sophistication and modernity. Nevertheless, despite it's reputation, it's not all champagne and caviar - we saw several poor people wandering through the streets scavenging through rubbish. However, relatively speaking, this is still the home of Syria's bold and beautiful.
On the first night we wandered around the centre of town, checking out the cool kids and the nice restaurants, before ending up on the Corniche where we had a fruit juice and smoked an apple flavoured nargileh (water pipe). However, this was hardly comparable with Beirut's famous seafront promenade. Instead of picturesque views of the beautiful blue Med, we were afforded prime views of the cranes and machinery of the modern port which intrudes between the city and the sea.
Another surprising thing was how soon everything closed down. Not long after midnight the vibrant city centre had become a virtual ghost town - not exactly 24 hour party people!
The following day we took a microbus up to Kassab, a pretty little mountain village just a few km from the Turkish border. We climbed up into the mountains overlooking the town, and enjoyed the views and the relatively cool air.
However, because there was basically nothing else to do there, we didn't hang around for long. Within a couple of hours we were on board a microbus heading back – this time to the beach. Syria’s premier coastal resort (Shaat al-Azraq - the Blue Beach), wouldn’t win any prizes for cleanliness, and we heard that there are more beautiful beaches further up the coast, but it was still great to enjoy an afternoon by the Mare Nostrum.The beach was fairly crowded with families. The bikini and bathing suit count was nil. Women bathed in the sea still wearing their hijab (head scarves) and jalabiyya (full length robes).
I guess the sophisticated young Lattakians were sticking to the private beaches and not mingling with the tourists from other parts of Syria. In this sense it was more Great Yarmouth than St Tropez! In the early evening we befriended a couple of young lawyers from Lattakia. Together we sat on the rocks, watching the sunset whilst sharing a nargileh, drinking Arabic coffee and eating fruit grown in the garden of one of the men.
We talked in a broken Arabic-English about our respective countries, the war in Lebanon, and our travels. It was only soured by the fact that after we parted company we arranged to meet later in town for a drink – a commitment that they did not honour. Maybe the Syrian paranoia got the better of them – who knows. We even briefly wondered if they might have been secret policemen – viewed through this lens their seemingly innocent request to look at the pictures of our travels became transformed into a well executed and friendly interrogation. However, we soon dismissed all these silly thoughts and grabbed a drink in a US-themed café/diner frequented by the cool kids, which to us seemed a little tacky. Then we headed for a quiet restaurant for an amazing feast of grilled fresh fish and mezze – hummous, moutabbel and fattoush. It was a real treat, well worth the price of admission. Then we retired to our hotel to nurse our full bellies, too stuffed to face the idea of a staying out. This was just as well because, as with the night before, Lattakia was not exactly jumping at 1:00!
Qal'at Salah Ad-Din: 10 August 2006
The next day we headed back into the Jebel, this time bound for Qal’at Salah Ad-Din (Castle Saladin). This former Crusader castle fell to the legendary Kurdish warrior after a siege of just two days in 1188. It’s a huge castle, located in beautiful green hills covered with pine forests. It’s main feature is the fact that it is built on a ridge, with natural cliffs on two sides, and the third side protected by an impressive man-made chasm carved out of the rock (below). 
Unfortunately, the lower castle is ruined and overgrown, and thus inaccessible. However, we still spent a happy couple of hours exploring the upper castle, enjoying the panoramic views of the landscape and trying to avoid vertigo as we looked down from the battlements into the sheer drops on all sides. 
Then it was time to head from the verdant landscape of Syria’s Med coast and return to the desert conurbation where I live. This meant another long and relatively uneventful coach ride.Bosra: 13 August 2006
After a couple of days of partying in Damascus (bon voyage Fabian!) we took a day trip southwards to Bosra near the Jordanian border. Its another Roman/Byzantine ruined town, much like Palmyra but considerably smaller, and mainly built of black basalt, which contrasts quite dramatically with the deep red soil of the fields in the surrounding countryside. However, unlike Palmyra, people still live amongst the ruins, giving the place more of a sense of living history.
The main place of interest is the well-preserved Roman theatre. It is protected by a fortress which was added in the 11th-12th Centuries. It's quite wonderful to emerge from the dark tunnels of the Arab fortress into the space and light of the auditorium. This was one of the biggest of its kind in the world, with a capacity of about 15,000 spectators (note: this was a theatre designed for staging dramas and not an amphitheatre, which were often considerably bigger and where more brutal events, like gladiatorial contests, were held).
Then, leaving the theatre/fortress and heading to the Old City, it was interesting to wander for a while amongst the jumbled mix of ancient ruins and buildings still being used as contemporary shops and houses, down Roman colonnaded streets (below) and over crumbled down buildings. 
Within the Old City is the ancient monastery (below) where, according to legend, a young caravan leader called Mohammed met the Christian monk Bohira. This Mohammed went on to become a great Prophet and the founder of Islam, which meant that there were a number of early mosques in Bosra, though the earliest still standing dates back to the 12th Century.
On the way home I struck up a conversation with the man sat next to me. It turned out he was an Ancient History professor from Baghdad University who was on a holiday in Syria with his wife and two young daughters. I started to talk about the Iraq war, and apologise for the behaviour of the idiot Bliar, but he soon changed the subject back to more comfortable territory. I had a moment of realisation that I had been a little insensitive. My clumsy attempt at compassion had actually come across as pity, reducing his dignity, and briefly broken the holiday spell whereby the troubles in his homeland were but a distant, almost forgotten nightmare. Thus the rest of our conversation lingered on our mutual interest in the ancient history of the region.
As we got off at Baramke bus station in Damascus he expressed the hope that one day soon Iraq would be safe enough for me to visit it. Then we parted company with “anta sharif’ – the Iraqi equivalent of best wishes. The encounter had made me feel a little sad. I thought of the contrast between the peace of Syria and the daily bloodbath on the streets of Baghdad and hoped that this learned and courteous man and his family remain safe and well.
This encounter brought to an end our thrilling ten day trip around many of the main sights and places of Syria. Overall we had a fantastic time. Being outside Damascus, and its attendant high number of English speakers helped to consolidate my Arabic skills to date (still pretty limited, but at least able to get us from A to B without too much trouble). Everywhere we went we were greeted by friendly courteous people, many of whom were very keen to chat about a host of topics (but especially politics). If I ever had any doubts, this trip certainly cemented my deep interest in the history, politics and culture of this region.
15 August 2006
And the winner is...
The travel write-up is on its way - watch the space above in the coming days. In the meantime here is a bit of 'political analysis'. It's my attempt to take stock of the situation 50km away in Lebanon now that the smoke is starting to clear after 32 days of war.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
So, the dust is finally beginning to settle in Lebanon, and the refugees are starting to return to their homes. As the ceasefire took hold, both Israeli PM Olmert and Nasrallah, the leader of Hizbu'llah, moved quickly to publicly claim that they had achieved "strategic victory."
Israeli spokesmen (and Sean McCormack, a spokesman for the US State Department) have desperately been trying to spin the current situation to their favour - claiming success against Hizbu'llah when to everyone else it appears as if Israel's assault failed to secure its objectives. The IDF demonstrated, once again, that it has amazing destructive power at its disposal but it has proven to be a blunt instrument. Despite repeated claims to the contrary there is little evidence that Hizbu'llah's missile-launching capabilities were ever severely affected - on the last full day of hostilities a record-breaking 250 missiles were reportedly fired at northern Israel. The drive towards the Litani river floundered in the face of a well organised and dogged resistance. Meanwhile, Israel has now been forced to enter into negotiations to secure the release of its two captured soldiers.
The bitter recriminations amongst the Israeli civilian and military leadership resulting from this long-planned but ultimately counter-productive war have already begun. If Olmert entered this war hoping to look like the tough guy he has failed - unable to defeat a relatively small guerrilla force with what is widely seen to be the strongest military in the Middle East. The Israeli public that was initially so gung ho in calling for Hizbu'llah to be crushed did not respond kindly to seeing 500,000 inhabitants of the north forced to flee or spend four weeks huddled in bomb shelters as the rockets came raining down.
Nevertheless, it is hard to talk of a Lebanese victory when the country has been so devastated - more than 1,000 people have been killed (including several hundred children), and thousands more maimed. The Israeli military bombed 94 roads, 70 bridges, 4 ports, 3 airports and 22 petrol stations. It caused $173 million worth of damage to water and telecommunications infrastructure and $208 million of damages to electrical production and distribution facilities. The damaged power station at Jiyeh leaked 10,000 tonnes of heavy oil into the Mediterranean Sea, polluting some 80 km of coastline – an environmental and financial disaster given the importance of tourism to the Lebanese economy. In total the value of the damage has been estimated at $2.4 billion.
[source: www.lebanonmaps.org]
There is also the often forgotten issue of unexploded munitions. On top of an estimated 400,000 mines laid by Israel between 1978 and 2000, the southern Lebanese landscape is now littered with large numbers of cluster bomblets which have already killed and injured many returning civilians. The fighting may have stopped but the killing continues.
Despite this, Nasrallah can claim to have led Hizbu'llah to a victory - of sorts. Their secrecy precludes a full accounting but it would seem as if the Party of God weathered the IDF's four week onslaught remarkably well. In particular Hizbu’llah’s armed wing has proved that it is a force to be reckoned with, equipped with sophisticated anti-tank and anti-ship missiles that it was able to utilise with devastating effectiveness. The proverbial Arab street now credits Hizbu’llah with achieveing something that the Arab armies and the PLO so conspicuously failed to do – namely humble Israeli military might. Thus, at the end of the conflict Nasrallah and Hizbu'llah are enjoying elevated levels of support, in Lebanon and in the wider Arab world.
In Damascus the current support for Hizbu'llah crosses sectarian and even religious lines. For example, the streets of Bab Touma, the Christian Quarter, are just as adorned with the yellow and green flags of Hizbu'llah as predominantly Muslim areas. When people are asked about why they support Hizbu’llah a common response is “they do what they say,” in marked contrast with the Arab governments who are perceived as talking a lot but delivering very little. The muted response to President Assad’s speech is revealing, contrasting with the enthusiastic reception for Nasrallah’s regular Al Manar broadcasts.
In the last few weeks it has been noticeable that Al Manar, Hizbu'llah's TV station, has supplanted Al Jazeera as the news (or maybe that should be propaganda?) network of choice for many Syrians. To a certain extent this had official backing: for example, the giant TV screens in Aleppo train station were tuned to the station. Nevertheless, this was not just a top-down phenomenon, with many TV sets in shops, cafes and hotels that were previously tuned to Al Jazeera switching to Al Manar. Thus, Hizbu’llah’s TV station has also emerged stronger from the conflict, having successfully defied Israeli attacks on its facilities to continue to broadcast some of the defining images of the conflict.
Maybe this overwhelming support will be a short-term trend, that will fade quickly as the relief at the end of hostilities gives way to the restoration of banal political life. Certainly Nasrallah cannot afford to bask for too long in the glory of this unprecedented reverse for Israel. Instead he must face several challenges. One of the most pressing is the issue of reconstruction. He already began to address this in his first speech after the ceasefire, in which he offered to provide housing and pay compensation to the thousands who have lost their homes. Given that the destruction was concentrated on residential areas where Hizbu'llah support was strongest (south of the Litani river, south Beirut, Baalbek and the Beqa’a valley), most of the recipients are likely to already be Hizbu'llah's constituents for whom the organisation already has a proven record of service provision (Hizbu'llah's annual social services budget is reportedly $1 billion).
However, it remains to be seen how the issue of reconstruction will play out among Lebanese society as a whole, which now finds itself with a devastated infrastructure and economy. Whilst Israeli bombs were raining down criticisms of Hizbu'llah were muted but in the coming days I expect a return to normality. Nevertheless, Washington's conspicuous military and political complicity in the Israeli onslaught has done much to disillusion Lebanon's secular and Westernised middle class and weaken the hand of the pro-American/anti-Syrian pole of Lebanese politics.
A greater challenge that will quickly emerge is the issue of disarmament, called for in the recently passed UN Resolution 1701 (which, following in the footsteps of the Taif Accords which ended the Lebanese Civil War and UN resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), demands "the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon"). Last night Nasrallah said it was "immoral, incorrect and inappropriate" to consider the issue at present. Instead he claimed, with some justification, that his fighters alone, not the Lebanese army or international peacekeepers, could protect southern Lebanon from Israel. This claim, coupled with his refusal to disarm in haste or in the face of "intimidation, pressure or provocation", would seemingly put Hizbu'llah on a collision course with the expanded UN Peacekeeping force that is due to deploy soon. Let us hope the situation does not follow the pattern set in 1983 when the mainly American and French Multinational Force became embroiled in the Civil War and suffered horrendous losses.
Therefore the present moment undoubtedly belongs to Hizbu'llah, but the future remains fraught with difficulties. At best the current ceasefire (which, sporadic firefights aside, has so far been adhered to) will offer only a short respite from the ongoing Lebanese-Israeli conflict. A lasting peace would still seem to be a long, hard journey ahead.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
So, the dust is finally beginning to settle in Lebanon, and the refugees are starting to return to their homes. As the ceasefire took hold, both Israeli PM Olmert and Nasrallah, the leader of Hizbu'llah, moved quickly to publicly claim that they had achieved "strategic victory."
Israeli spokesmen (and Sean McCormack, a spokesman for the US State Department) have desperately been trying to spin the current situation to their favour - claiming success against Hizbu'llah when to everyone else it appears as if Israel's assault failed to secure its objectives. The IDF demonstrated, once again, that it has amazing destructive power at its disposal but it has proven to be a blunt instrument. Despite repeated claims to the contrary there is little evidence that Hizbu'llah's missile-launching capabilities were ever severely affected - on the last full day of hostilities a record-breaking 250 missiles were reportedly fired at northern Israel. The drive towards the Litani river floundered in the face of a well organised and dogged resistance. Meanwhile, Israel has now been forced to enter into negotiations to secure the release of its two captured soldiers.
The bitter recriminations amongst the Israeli civilian and military leadership resulting from this long-planned but ultimately counter-productive war have already begun. If Olmert entered this war hoping to look like the tough guy he has failed - unable to defeat a relatively small guerrilla force with what is widely seen to be the strongest military in the Middle East. The Israeli public that was initially so gung ho in calling for Hizbu'llah to be crushed did not respond kindly to seeing 500,000 inhabitants of the north forced to flee or spend four weeks huddled in bomb shelters as the rockets came raining down.
Nevertheless, it is hard to talk of a Lebanese victory when the country has been so devastated - more than 1,000 people have been killed (including several hundred children), and thousands more maimed. The Israeli military bombed 94 roads, 70 bridges, 4 ports, 3 airports and 22 petrol stations. It caused $173 million worth of damage to water and telecommunications infrastructure and $208 million of damages to electrical production and distribution facilities. The damaged power station at Jiyeh leaked 10,000 tonnes of heavy oil into the Mediterranean Sea, polluting some 80 km of coastline – an environmental and financial disaster given the importance of tourism to the Lebanese economy. In total the value of the damage has been estimated at $2.4 billion.
[source: www.lebanonmaps.org]There is also the often forgotten issue of unexploded munitions. On top of an estimated 400,000 mines laid by Israel between 1978 and 2000, the southern Lebanese landscape is now littered with large numbers of cluster bomblets which have already killed and injured many returning civilians. The fighting may have stopped but the killing continues.
Despite this, Nasrallah can claim to have led Hizbu'llah to a victory - of sorts. Their secrecy precludes a full accounting but it would seem as if the Party of God weathered the IDF's four week onslaught remarkably well. In particular Hizbu’llah’s armed wing has proved that it is a force to be reckoned with, equipped with sophisticated anti-tank and anti-ship missiles that it was able to utilise with devastating effectiveness. The proverbial Arab street now credits Hizbu’llah with achieveing something that the Arab armies and the PLO so conspicuously failed to do – namely humble Israeli military might. Thus, at the end of the conflict Nasrallah and Hizbu'llah are enjoying elevated levels of support, in Lebanon and in the wider Arab world.
In Damascus the current support for Hizbu'llah crosses sectarian and even religious lines. For example, the streets of Bab Touma, the Christian Quarter, are just as adorned with the yellow and green flags of Hizbu'llah as predominantly Muslim areas. When people are asked about why they support Hizbu’llah a common response is “they do what they say,” in marked contrast with the Arab governments who are perceived as talking a lot but delivering very little. The muted response to President Assad’s speech is revealing, contrasting with the enthusiastic reception for Nasrallah’s regular Al Manar broadcasts.
In the last few weeks it has been noticeable that Al Manar, Hizbu'llah's TV station, has supplanted Al Jazeera as the news (or maybe that should be propaganda?) network of choice for many Syrians. To a certain extent this had official backing: for example, the giant TV screens in Aleppo train station were tuned to the station. Nevertheless, this was not just a top-down phenomenon, with many TV sets in shops, cafes and hotels that were previously tuned to Al Jazeera switching to Al Manar. Thus, Hizbu’llah’s TV station has also emerged stronger from the conflict, having successfully defied Israeli attacks on its facilities to continue to broadcast some of the defining images of the conflict.
Maybe this overwhelming support will be a short-term trend, that will fade quickly as the relief at the end of hostilities gives way to the restoration of banal political life. Certainly Nasrallah cannot afford to bask for too long in the glory of this unprecedented reverse for Israel. Instead he must face several challenges. One of the most pressing is the issue of reconstruction. He already began to address this in his first speech after the ceasefire, in which he offered to provide housing and pay compensation to the thousands who have lost their homes. Given that the destruction was concentrated on residential areas where Hizbu'llah support was strongest (south of the Litani river, south Beirut, Baalbek and the Beqa’a valley), most of the recipients are likely to already be Hizbu'llah's constituents for whom the organisation already has a proven record of service provision (Hizbu'llah's annual social services budget is reportedly $1 billion).
However, it remains to be seen how the issue of reconstruction will play out among Lebanese society as a whole, which now finds itself with a devastated infrastructure and economy. Whilst Israeli bombs were raining down criticisms of Hizbu'llah were muted but in the coming days I expect a return to normality. Nevertheless, Washington's conspicuous military and political complicity in the Israeli onslaught has done much to disillusion Lebanon's secular and Westernised middle class and weaken the hand of the pro-American/anti-Syrian pole of Lebanese politics.
A greater challenge that will quickly emerge is the issue of disarmament, called for in the recently passed UN Resolution 1701 (which, following in the footsteps of the Taif Accords which ended the Lebanese Civil War and UN resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), demands "the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon"). Last night Nasrallah said it was "immoral, incorrect and inappropriate" to consider the issue at present. Instead he claimed, with some justification, that his fighters alone, not the Lebanese army or international peacekeepers, could protect southern Lebanon from Israel. This claim, coupled with his refusal to disarm in haste or in the face of "intimidation, pressure or provocation", would seemingly put Hizbu'llah on a collision course with the expanded UN Peacekeeping force that is due to deploy soon. Let us hope the situation does not follow the pattern set in 1983 when the mainly American and French Multinational Force became embroiled in the Civil War and suffered horrendous losses.
Therefore the present moment undoubtedly belongs to Hizbu'llah, but the future remains fraught with difficulties. At best the current ceasefire (which, sporadic firefights aside, has so far been adhered to) will offer only a short respite from the ongoing Lebanese-Israeli conflict. A lasting peace would still seem to be a long, hard journey ahead.
13 August 2006
Home Sweet Damascus
Dear all,
Raf and I are safely back from our mammoth trip around Syria, in which we went to the north (Aleppo and the mountain village of Kassab near the Turkish border), south (Bosra near the Jordanian border), west (Lattakia on the Med coast) and east (Deir Az Zur which is about 60 miles from the Iraqi border). We saw first hand the great diversity of Syria's geography: from desolate deserts to lush, green hills, from huge conurbations to sleepy little villages and from towering mountain ranges to wide rivers. We saw traces of Syria's long and dramatic history: ancient artifacts, Roman ruins, Crusader castles, mosques and madrassas. We also met a wide range of Syrian people - the one common thread was the courtesy and hospitality which we were afforded.
I hope to write it up in greater detail in the coming days.
Regards,
Dave
Raf and I are safely back from our mammoth trip around Syria, in which we went to the north (Aleppo and the mountain village of Kassab near the Turkish border), south (Bosra near the Jordanian border), west (Lattakia on the Med coast) and east (Deir Az Zur which is about 60 miles from the Iraqi border). We saw first hand the great diversity of Syria's geography: from desolate deserts to lush, green hills, from huge conurbations to sleepy little villages and from towering mountain ranges to wide rivers. We saw traces of Syria's long and dramatic history: ancient artifacts, Roman ruins, Crusader castles, mosques and madrassas. We also met a wide range of Syrian people - the one common thread was the courtesy and hospitality which we were afforded.
I hope to write it up in greater detail in the coming days.
Regards,
Dave
01 August 2006
A Tale of Two Cities
Hey folks!
My friend Raf is flying in from London today. He's picked an interesting moment to come to Syria - right when President Bashar has told the Syrian armed forces to increase its readiness. A bit of an ominous development but nevermind, we're not going to let a small thing like an escalating war spoil our fun. We're planning to go on a bit of a Syrian tour, checking out lots of old ruins, Medieval castles, mosques, madrassas and shrines and, inshallah, the Med coast! Therefore I probably won't post much for the next couple of weeks.
In the meantime please check out some of the sites on the left-hand side of the screen to keep abreast of developments.
One article caught my eye today. It's about the friendship that was developing between the editors of Time Out in Beirut and Tel Aviv, and how the war has now caused immense strains between them. However, I still think that there is small cause for optimism in this story, due to the fact that when a young Israeli and a young Lebanese man meet outside the context of conflict they find they have so much in common. It shows that peace and understanding are at least possible (inshallah).
Take care all,
Love,
Dave
My friend Raf is flying in from London today. He's picked an interesting moment to come to Syria - right when President Bashar has told the Syrian armed forces to increase its readiness. A bit of an ominous development but nevermind, we're not going to let a small thing like an escalating war spoil our fun. We're planning to go on a bit of a Syrian tour, checking out lots of old ruins, Medieval castles, mosques, madrassas and shrines and, inshallah, the Med coast! Therefore I probably won't post much for the next couple of weeks.
In the meantime please check out some of the sites on the left-hand side of the screen to keep abreast of developments.
One article caught my eye today. It's about the friendship that was developing between the editors of Time Out in Beirut and Tel Aviv, and how the war has now caused immense strains between them. However, I still think that there is small cause for optimism in this story, due to the fact that when a young Israeli and a young Lebanese man meet outside the context of conflict they find they have so much in common. It shows that peace and understanding are at least possible (inshallah).
Take care all,
Love,
Dave
28 July 2006
Still they come...
Damascus seems to keep on getting fuller and fuller. My initial optimism that this would be over in a couple of weeks - with the ceasefire and international force providing a convenient face-saving measure for Israel to extricate itself from the mess it's largely gotten itself into - has now been shattered.The failure of the Rome conference to secure a ceasefire has raised possibility that the Israeli-Lebanese conflict will become a protracted war. Many Lebanese seem to have reached the same conclusion. Thousands of people who previously thought they would sit it out are now deciding to take the risk and are fleeing. When Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon says that "all those now in south Lebanon are terrorists", I can't say I blame them.
The Old City is now full of parked cars with Lebanese number plates (plus cars from other countries in the region - tourists from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait and the UAE whose holidays in Lebanon have been cut short by the current crisis). Schools, orphanages and other public halls are being used to house the influx of refugees. Last night I passed a mosque in the Old City where volunteers working for an undisclosed religious foundation were unloading supplies from a couple of Suzuki trucks in order to feed the refugees housed within. They said they had been working for 12 hours non-stop in order to provide assistance. It is clear that, although the chaos of last weekend (concentrated in the centre of the New City, around the Syrian Red Crescent office, the foreign money exchanges and the airline offices) has subsided, the scope of this refugee crisis is still very much on the increase, as more and more spaces across the city are commandeered to provide accomodation. Today there were several dozen people from Lebanon who have newly arrived at make-shift shelters on just one street in the Old City. Damascus was a teeming city even before these new arrivals. It looks as if before this tragic mess is resolved it's going to get a whole lot more congested.
Paul Cochrane has a piece in Open Democracy on what he calls the Syria Safety Zone, in which he explores the issue of Lebanese refugees in more detail.
Lebanon Updates have posted this map showing the areas of Lebanon attacked by the Israelis from 12-26 July:
It clearly shows that Israel has attacked targets across Lebanon including all the ports, major roads and border crossings. It also quite clearly shows that the volume of bombing has been greatest in south Beirut and south of the Litani river.
This site also mentions another feature of the conflict that has received no attention from mainstream news: the Israeli attack on the Jiyeh power station has released 10-15,000 tonnes of heavy fuel into the Med - possibly the worst ever environmental disaster in the Med - and it is now ruining the beautiful Lebanese coastline. Given the former importance of tourism to the Lebanese economy, this is both an environmental and an economic disaster (and we haven't even started to talk about Depleted Uranium...).
Meanwhile, Britain is doing all it can to bring about a peaceful resolution of the crisis by acting as a staging post for the delivery of bunker-busting bombs from the US to Israel.
Interesting fact of the day: According to the Lebanese Parliamentary Speaker, since 2000 Hizbu'llah have violated the Blue Line dividing Israel from Lebanon about 100 times. In contrast Israel has violated that line over 11,000 times! (source: The Angry Arab News Service
Interesting fact of the day 2: Hizbu'llah is widely believed to be Lebanon's second biggest employer - aside from a political party and militia they run schools, hospitals, orphanages and other services. The popular TV station al-Manar is also closely linked with Hizbu'llah.
The Old City is now full of parked cars with Lebanese number plates (plus cars from other countries in the region - tourists from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait and the UAE whose holidays in Lebanon have been cut short by the current crisis). Schools, orphanages and other public halls are being used to house the influx of refugees. Last night I passed a mosque in the Old City where volunteers working for an undisclosed religious foundation were unloading supplies from a couple of Suzuki trucks in order to feed the refugees housed within. They said they had been working for 12 hours non-stop in order to provide assistance. It is clear that, although the chaos of last weekend (concentrated in the centre of the New City, around the Syrian Red Crescent office, the foreign money exchanges and the airline offices) has subsided, the scope of this refugee crisis is still very much on the increase, as more and more spaces across the city are commandeered to provide accomodation. Today there were several dozen people from Lebanon who have newly arrived at make-shift shelters on just one street in the Old City. Damascus was a teeming city even before these new arrivals. It looks as if before this tragic mess is resolved it's going to get a whole lot more congested.
Paul Cochrane has a piece in Open Democracy on what he calls the Syria Safety Zone, in which he explores the issue of Lebanese refugees in more detail.
Lebanon Updates have posted this map showing the areas of Lebanon attacked by the Israelis from 12-26 July:
It clearly shows that Israel has attacked targets across Lebanon including all the ports, major roads and border crossings. It also quite clearly shows that the volume of bombing has been greatest in south Beirut and south of the Litani river.
This site also mentions another feature of the conflict that has received no attention from mainstream news: the Israeli attack on the Jiyeh power station has released 10-15,000 tonnes of heavy fuel into the Med - possibly the worst ever environmental disaster in the Med - and it is now ruining the beautiful Lebanese coastline. Given the former importance of tourism to the Lebanese economy, this is both an environmental and an economic disaster (and we haven't even started to talk about Depleted Uranium...).
Meanwhile, Britain is doing all it can to bring about a peaceful resolution of the crisis by acting as a staging post for the delivery of bunker-busting bombs from the US to Israel.
Interesting fact of the day: According to the Lebanese Parliamentary Speaker, since 2000 Hizbu'llah have violated the Blue Line dividing Israel from Lebanon about 100 times. In contrast Israel has violated that line over 11,000 times! (source: The Angry Arab News Service
Interesting fact of the day 2: Hizbu'llah is widely believed to be Lebanon's second biggest employer - aside from a political party and militia they run schools, hospitals, orphanages and other services. The popular TV station al-Manar is also closely linked with Hizbu'llah.
25 July 2006
On The Border
A couple of days ago the Red Crescent finally accepted my offer to volunteer my services. I was taken, along with about 15 other volunteers, to help at the emergency Red Crescent post in the no-man's land inbetween the Syrian and Lebanese borders.
We were there primarily to greet those leaving Lebanon - handing out food, water and information. There were also some first-aiders who were able to provide basic medical help.
A steady flow of cars, taxis and vans came through the Lebanese border crossing: Everything from brand-new Mercs packed with Antler cases and affluent couples to beat-up old vans jammed with entire extended families (30 people including 10-15 kids)! Most people seemed so grateful to see us - after arduous journeys over backroads through the mountains, under the watch of trigger-happy Israeli F-16s, it must've been a relief to see a friendly face waving bottled water and bags of food at you! Mind you, it was probably strange to be greeted by an Englishman saying "Welcome to Syria!"
Thankfully, most of the people in the vehicles travelling through the border crossing whilst I was there were fine. A few children were sick, there were some cases of dehydration but, on the whole nothing too serious. If anything, many were impatient to press on with their journeys.
It was surreal handing out basic supplies in the neon glow of the shiny glass-fronted duty free complex, including an Italian restaurant and a Dunkin' Donuts. In the shadow of this building many people are camped out, wondering what to do and where to go. Several hundred people, mainly Palestinians, are trapped in this no-man's land, allowed to leave Lebanon but prevented from entering Syria. It's a serious problem.
Their situation is now getting quite desperate - many have been there for over a week now. They face a stark choice: either stay put, where they are provided with just enough to survive by the Syrian Red Crescent, and await the end of hostilities or return to the Israeli onslaught. Just the journey back into Lebanon is risky - Israeli jets are patrolling in search of "Hizbu'llah rockets" being transported. I don't know how many they've intercepted but they've certainly caused a lot of collateral damage. For example, several days ago a convoy of some ambulances donated by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were attacked. Fisky has also reported on Lebanese Red Cross ambulances operating in southern Lebanon being attacked.
Al Jazeera have just done a story on the above, you can read it here
I've been tryng to find out who's doing what to help with the estimated 700,000+ displaced/refugees. Not to mention the hundreds of wounded.
I found the following:
-King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has pledged a total of $1.5 billion - of which $500 million will be directly used in reconstruction and the rest will go to prop up the treasury of the Lebanese state.
-The UAE earmarked $20 million to be put toward humanitarian relief in Lebanon. Other members of the Gulf Co-operation Council (i.e. Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) have also pledged a total of over $70 million.
-The US has unveiled a $30 million dollar immediate aid package for Lebanon, consisting of 100,000 medical kits, 2,000 plastic sheets and 20,000 blankets.
-Morocco granted Lebanon $5 million in humanitarian aid.
-Canada will give $1 million to humanitarian efforts, split between the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN.
-The UN representative from Finland pledged 1.5 million euros and, speaking on behalf of the European Union, promised another 10 million euros.
-Spain has pledged 1 million euros in aid and will channel the funds via the International Committee of the Red Cross.
-Greece has sent 20,000 doses of antibiotics, as well as various other medical supplies, accompanied by two doctors from the Health Ministry.
-President Jacques Chirac said France would send an aircraft to Cyprus with humanitarian aid. The plane will carry water, generators for hospitals and medicines as requested by the Lebanese government.
The UN has launched "an appeal" for $150 million to help provide emergency relief to the people displaced by the Israeli bombing. Only $10 million is expected to be assigned to Syria, where 200,000 (about a quarter of those displaced) have reportedly fled. With all due respect it strikes me that this is woefully inadequate, especially when you consider that Syria is already home to large Palestinian and Iraqi refugee populations - possibly as many as 1 million in total.
So, I would urge those of you who feel the need to help to find ways to do so. Here are some links to people taking donations - I can't personally vouch for any, but they've been forwarded to me by a friend. They should be able to put your donations directly to use helping people in Lebanon:
Saveleb.org
Relieflebanon.org
Beirut Spring - How You Can Help
Meanwhile, the fighting continues, with both Hizbu'llah and Amal (Hizbu'llah's slightly eclipsed predecessor and rival, also with strong support among the Lebanese Shi'a), putting up fierce resistance. Despite overwhelming military superiority, Israel is still fighting within 4km of the Lebanese border, in the area of Bint Jbail. At the same time the Israeli military forces bombarded a UN observer post near the infamous Khiam prison, one of the symbols of Israeli's occupation of southern Lebanon. The prison - now a museum run by Hizbu'llah - has also been an Israeli target.
Nasrallah - the Secretary-General of Hizbu'llah - is still making confident public proclaimations. He gave a speech last night, rejecting the imposition of any ceasefire he considered "humiliating", and reaffirming his threats to strike "beyond Haifa".
12 June 2006
Guide To Arabic Music Pt. 1: Pop Tarts
For anyone who spends even the briefest period of time in the Middle East, it quickly becomes apparent that music is hugely important to the people here. Obviously, five times a day there is the songlike call to prayer, but otherwise, wandering through Damascus you are confronted with a whole host of sounds blasting from cars, houses and cafes. Some is familiar (50 Cent, Metallica, Pussycat Dolls) but much of it isn’t.
The single most heard singer in Syria remains, probably, the iconic Fairouz and this is not just among middle-aged people. However, there is far more to the contemporary music scene here than just this classic torch singer. For example, there is a small Arab hip hop scene with groups such as MTM (Egypt), DAM (Palestine), Rayess Bek and Kitaayoun (both Lebanon) growing in popularity, and there is also a small rock/metal scene. However, these homegrown hip hop and metal scenes are still fairly underground, and hard to penetrate for outsiders [the metal scene, in particular, has fallen victim to a clampdown by the state].
Far more visible, and far more popular, are the Arabic pop stars. These are the stars who are dominating the TV screens in cafes and the covers of the showbiz magazines, whose posters are for sale in the souq, and whose hits are filling the dancefloors of the clubs in Damascus.
Many of this industry’s characteristics are familiar from other pop music forms across the world. For example, there is clearly an emphasis on style over substance. Marketing is largely through videos (known as clips), aired on satellite channels which escape censorship and which, to a large degree, tend to present provocative, sexualised images of the stars to promote their songs (after all, sex sells!). There is also a tendency to seek deals with other products (e.g. soft drinks, fashion houses etc).
The industry is dominated by a small number of pan-Arab production houses (e.g. Rotana: based in Dubai, Saudi financed and drawing heavily upon Lebanese creative talent), and has its fair share of svengali figures with a Pygmalion hold over their young starlets.
The music is a mix of traditional Arab instruments (e.g. ney (flute), oud (lute), qanun (zither), darabuka (drum) plus violins which have been a feature of Arabic music since the mid-19th Century), and modern instruments (e.g. electric guitar, programmed beats, synthesisers). It also combines indigenous Arabic rhythms and tones with an array of other influences (e.g. Indian, Carribean, Latin American, Western) to produce a rich blend of fast percussive beats and saccharine layers of melody.
This manufactured sound is matched by the stars' manufactured images: with their surgically enhanced physiques, whitened skin and teams of stylists and make-up artists they represent unattainable levels of physical perfection. This is augmented through the videos portraying the stars in glamourous locations (e.g. Paris or Prague) and in melodramatic and romantic situations.
One of the interesting features of the clips is their postmodern willingness to mix and match from amongst a diverse range of cultural influences (from Fellini to 'Flashdance', from modern R'n'B's bling to the sepia-tinged classiness of the Egyptian cinema of the 1940s and 1950s).
Therefore, this music is clearly uniquely Middle Eastern, yet it happily interacts with, and draws upon developments and traditions from outside its geographical and cultural borders (but this doesn't stop 90% of it from being, to these ears, overproduced and overpackaged nonsense!).
So here, for your information, are some brief profiles of a few of the more noteworthy female stars who are currently ubiquitous in Syria - note the domination of Lebanese stars. My apologies to Amr Diab, Iwan and all the other pop music studs, but for now I'm gonna concentrate on the laydeez: here are the current princesses of Arabic pop...
Elissa (Lebanon) – Elissa Khoury was born in Lebanon in 1972. As with so many Arabic pop stars Elissa graduated to music through singing on TV and, since releasing her debut album in 1998 she has released a series of best-selling albums.
Her big breakthrough came in 2002 with the album 'Ayshalak' (Elissa’s third) which sold almost 3 million copies. The ‘daring’ video of the title track (‘I Live For You’), in which the singer is seen remembering/fantasizing about a sexual liaison, was shot in Paris by the famous French director Fabrice Begotti, whilst Elissa’s wardrobe and make-up were provided by Christian Dior.
Her subsequent albums have all sold in the millions, and since 2004 Elissa has been part of Rotana’s all-conquering roster of artists.
Elissa is an official spokesperson for Pepsi. In 2006 she co-starred in a commercial alongside Christina Aguilera. Her song 'Arrably' was used to advertise Pepsi X. She has also appeared in the first season of the Arabic Star Adademy. A more dubious claim to fame is the fact that she duetted with Chris De Burgh on his 2002 single ‘Lebanese Nights.’
Elissa’s current album, 'Bastanak', which was released earlier this year, is even outselling all her previous efforts (3.7 million and rising), and the videos are on constant rotation proving her status as one of the biggest stars in the region.
Haifa (Lebanon) – Haifa Wehbe is the most popular of a new breed of "bad girl" performers (alongside Nagla, Marwa and others). Her good looks make her unpopular amongst many girls, but this hasn’t stopped her latest video, 'Boos El Wawa', from joining her previous releases at the top of the satellite TV playlists.
Haifa grew up in Beirut and became a model at a very young age, being crowned "Miss South Lebanon" at age sixteen. She got into the music industry largely through her modelling and acting, releasing her debut album in 2003.
In 2005 Haifa starred in the pan-Arab reality TV show El Wadi (‘The Valley’) – kind of like an Arabic Celebrity Big Brother - which featured weekly performances from Ms Wehbe in which she aired material from her second album Baddi A’ish (I Want To Live).
Unsurprisingly, Haifa’s private life has been the subject of much scrutiny: in particular her on-off engagement to Saudi businessman Tariq Al-Jaffali, alleged amateur porn videos with an ex-boyfriend and her troubled relationship with her sister Rola have all been fodder for the Middle Eastern media.
Although she is not widely regarded as a talented singer, she is undoubtedly a popular performer, especially among a young male audience for whom she is widely regarded as the ultimate sex symbol.
On June 10th Haifa was the support act for 50 Cent when he played at the Beirut International Exhibition and Liesure Center (BIEL). She can currently be seen across the Arab world starring alongside Thierry Henry (Arsenal, France) in a World Cup tie-in commercial for Pepsi.
Nancy (Lebanon) – Nancy Ajram is arguably the most popular performer in the Arab world at present. She made her TV debut at the age of 14, when she won a TV talent contest with her performance of a song by the legendary Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum.
In 2003, Nancy hit it big with Akhasmak Ah ('I'm Not Talking To You'), taken from her third album 'Ya Salaam'. In part the song's popularity was due to its video which portrayed the singer as a cafe manager who entertained her male clientele with her singing and dancing (reminiscent of Brigitte Bardot's role in 'And God Created Woman').
This shift from child prodigy to adult star was accompanied by a corresponding change in image involving expert stylists, make-up artists, cinematography and also cosmetic surgery - Ajram has admitted having her nose altered through surgery. Nancy herself is very aware of the importance of the right packaging: "We're in the image age, the first thing people notice are the singer's looks and apparel. They notice the voice second, though I believe it is the most important factor, however you cannot ignore presentation, and this includes hair, makeup and clothes."
Although her image is more innocent and wholesome than the likes of Haifa or Ruby, Nancy has still fallen foul of more conservative elements in the region. Most dramatically, in October 2003, there was a riot outside one of her concerts in Bahrain when protesters from a number of religious opposition parties attacked fans because they objected to such an event being held during the holy month of Ramadan.
Nancy and her management have always been savvy with their commercial deals. For example, she recently appeared in a Coca Cola commercial that employed her song 'Mo'gaba, Moghrama' ('An Admirer, A Lover). Another of Nancy's songs from her new album ('Ana Yalli Bhebbak') features in a diamond jewellery advertisement for Damas. Certainly, these deals have not hindered the success of Nancy's latest album, 'Yatabtab...Wa Dalla', the best seller of 2006 so far, having shifted 5 million copies.
Ruby (Egypt) – Rania Hussein (born in 1981 in Cairo), known as Ruby, is an Egyptian model, actress and singer, famous for her raunchy music videos and sexy image. She is the protégé of the Egyptian director, Sherif Sabri, her manager, who also produced her debut album .
Ruby shot to fame in the summer of 2003, when her song Enta Aref Leih (‘You Know Why’) was a hit on satellite TV. The video featured the singer as a belly dancer gyrating her way through the streets of Prague. Her subsequent hits have all featured similarly provocative videos.
This has led to her having run-ins with conservative authorities across the Middle East, for example, in the summer of 2004 the singer was threatened with legal action by the Egyptian Syndicate of Musical Professions, a dispute only resolved once the singer had made a hefty donation and was accepted as a member. Also in 2004, Ruby faced an unsuccessful campaign by conservatives in Jordan to prevent her from entering the country to perform a couple of sold-out concerts.
Despite (or perhaps because of) her controversial image, a 2005 poll by Al-Hayat concluded that Ruby was more popular than any political or intellectual figure in Egypt.
Ruby: "I'm not writing my own songs yet, but I'm not controlled by anyone. I'm shaping my own style, my look and my music.”
[Thanks to 3arabiavideo.com for the pics and some of the information.]
The single most heard singer in Syria remains, probably, the iconic Fairouz and this is not just among middle-aged people. However, there is far more to the contemporary music scene here than just this classic torch singer. For example, there is a small Arab hip hop scene with groups such as MTM (Egypt), DAM (Palestine), Rayess Bek and Kitaayoun (both Lebanon) growing in popularity, and there is also a small rock/metal scene. However, these homegrown hip hop and metal scenes are still fairly underground, and hard to penetrate for outsiders [the metal scene, in particular, has fallen victim to a clampdown by the state].
Far more visible, and far more popular, are the Arabic pop stars. These are the stars who are dominating the TV screens in cafes and the covers of the showbiz magazines, whose posters are for sale in the souq, and whose hits are filling the dancefloors of the clubs in Damascus.
Many of this industry’s characteristics are familiar from other pop music forms across the world. For example, there is clearly an emphasis on style over substance. Marketing is largely through videos (known as clips), aired on satellite channels which escape censorship and which, to a large degree, tend to present provocative, sexualised images of the stars to promote their songs (after all, sex sells!). There is also a tendency to seek deals with other products (e.g. soft drinks, fashion houses etc).
The industry is dominated by a small number of pan-Arab production houses (e.g. Rotana: based in Dubai, Saudi financed and drawing heavily upon Lebanese creative talent), and has its fair share of svengali figures with a Pygmalion hold over their young starlets.
The music is a mix of traditional Arab instruments (e.g. ney (flute), oud (lute), qanun (zither), darabuka (drum) plus violins which have been a feature of Arabic music since the mid-19th Century), and modern instruments (e.g. electric guitar, programmed beats, synthesisers). It also combines indigenous Arabic rhythms and tones with an array of other influences (e.g. Indian, Carribean, Latin American, Western) to produce a rich blend of fast percussive beats and saccharine layers of melody.
This manufactured sound is matched by the stars' manufactured images: with their surgically enhanced physiques, whitened skin and teams of stylists and make-up artists they represent unattainable levels of physical perfection. This is augmented through the videos portraying the stars in glamourous locations (e.g. Paris or Prague) and in melodramatic and romantic situations.
One of the interesting features of the clips is their postmodern willingness to mix and match from amongst a diverse range of cultural influences (from Fellini to 'Flashdance', from modern R'n'B's bling to the sepia-tinged classiness of the Egyptian cinema of the 1940s and 1950s).
Therefore, this music is clearly uniquely Middle Eastern, yet it happily interacts with, and draws upon developments and traditions from outside its geographical and cultural borders (but this doesn't stop 90% of it from being, to these ears, overproduced and overpackaged nonsense!).
So here, for your information, are some brief profiles of a few of the more noteworthy female stars who are currently ubiquitous in Syria - note the domination of Lebanese stars. My apologies to Amr Diab, Iwan and all the other pop music studs, but for now I'm gonna concentrate on the laydeez: here are the current princesses of Arabic pop...
Elissa (Lebanon) – Elissa Khoury was born in Lebanon in 1972. As with so many Arabic pop stars Elissa graduated to music through singing on TV and, since releasing her debut album in 1998 she has released a series of best-selling albums.Her big breakthrough came in 2002 with the album 'Ayshalak' (Elissa’s third) which sold almost 3 million copies. The ‘daring’ video of the title track (‘I Live For You’), in which the singer is seen remembering/fantasizing about a sexual liaison, was shot in Paris by the famous French director Fabrice Begotti, whilst Elissa’s wardrobe and make-up were provided by Christian Dior.
Her subsequent albums have all sold in the millions, and since 2004 Elissa has been part of Rotana’s all-conquering roster of artists.
Elissa is an official spokesperson for Pepsi. In 2006 she co-starred in a commercial alongside Christina Aguilera. Her song 'Arrably' was used to advertise Pepsi X. She has also appeared in the first season of the Arabic Star Adademy. A more dubious claim to fame is the fact that she duetted with Chris De Burgh on his 2002 single ‘Lebanese Nights.’
Elissa’s current album, 'Bastanak', which was released earlier this year, is even outselling all her previous efforts (3.7 million and rising), and the videos are on constant rotation proving her status as one of the biggest stars in the region.
Haifa (Lebanon) – Haifa Wehbe is the most popular of a new breed of "bad girl" performers (alongside Nagla, Marwa and others). Her good looks make her unpopular amongst many girls, but this hasn’t stopped her latest video, 'Boos El Wawa', from joining her previous releases at the top of the satellite TV playlists.Haifa grew up in Beirut and became a model at a very young age, being crowned "Miss South Lebanon" at age sixteen. She got into the music industry largely through her modelling and acting, releasing her debut album in 2003.
In 2005 Haifa starred in the pan-Arab reality TV show El Wadi (‘The Valley’) – kind of like an Arabic Celebrity Big Brother - which featured weekly performances from Ms Wehbe in which she aired material from her second album Baddi A’ish (I Want To Live).
Unsurprisingly, Haifa’s private life has been the subject of much scrutiny: in particular her on-off engagement to Saudi businessman Tariq Al-Jaffali, alleged amateur porn videos with an ex-boyfriend and her troubled relationship with her sister Rola have all been fodder for the Middle Eastern media.
Although she is not widely regarded as a talented singer, she is undoubtedly a popular performer, especially among a young male audience for whom she is widely regarded as the ultimate sex symbol.
On June 10th Haifa was the support act for 50 Cent when he played at the Beirut International Exhibition and Liesure Center (BIEL). She can currently be seen across the Arab world starring alongside Thierry Henry (Arsenal, France) in a World Cup tie-in commercial for Pepsi.
Nancy (Lebanon) – Nancy Ajram is arguably the most popular performer in the Arab world at present. She made her TV debut at the age of 14, when she won a TV talent contest with her performance of a song by the legendary Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum.In 2003, Nancy hit it big with Akhasmak Ah ('I'm Not Talking To You'), taken from her third album 'Ya Salaam'. In part the song's popularity was due to its video which portrayed the singer as a cafe manager who entertained her male clientele with her singing and dancing (reminiscent of Brigitte Bardot's role in 'And God Created Woman').
This shift from child prodigy to adult star was accompanied by a corresponding change in image involving expert stylists, make-up artists, cinematography and also cosmetic surgery - Ajram has admitted having her nose altered through surgery. Nancy herself is very aware of the importance of the right packaging: "We're in the image age, the first thing people notice are the singer's looks and apparel. They notice the voice second, though I believe it is the most important factor, however you cannot ignore presentation, and this includes hair, makeup and clothes."
Although her image is more innocent and wholesome than the likes of Haifa or Ruby, Nancy has still fallen foul of more conservative elements in the region. Most dramatically, in October 2003, there was a riot outside one of her concerts in Bahrain when protesters from a number of religious opposition parties attacked fans because they objected to such an event being held during the holy month of Ramadan.
Nancy and her management have always been savvy with their commercial deals. For example, she recently appeared in a Coca Cola commercial that employed her song 'Mo'gaba, Moghrama' ('An Admirer, A Lover). Another of Nancy's songs from her new album ('Ana Yalli Bhebbak') features in a diamond jewellery advertisement for Damas. Certainly, these deals have not hindered the success of Nancy's latest album, 'Yatabtab...Wa Dalla', the best seller of 2006 so far, having shifted 5 million copies.
Ruby (Egypt) – Rania Hussein (born in 1981 in Cairo), known as Ruby, is an Egyptian model, actress and singer, famous for her raunchy music videos and sexy image. She is the protégé of the Egyptian director, Sherif Sabri, her manager, who also produced her debut album . Ruby shot to fame in the summer of 2003, when her song Enta Aref Leih (‘You Know Why’) was a hit on satellite TV. The video featured the singer as a belly dancer gyrating her way through the streets of Prague. Her subsequent hits have all featured similarly provocative videos.
This has led to her having run-ins with conservative authorities across the Middle East, for example, in the summer of 2004 the singer was threatened with legal action by the Egyptian Syndicate of Musical Professions, a dispute only resolved once the singer had made a hefty donation and was accepted as a member. Also in 2004, Ruby faced an unsuccessful campaign by conservatives in Jordan to prevent her from entering the country to perform a couple of sold-out concerts.
Despite (or perhaps because of) her controversial image, a 2005 poll by Al-Hayat concluded that Ruby was more popular than any political or intellectual figure in Egypt.
Ruby: "I'm not writing my own songs yet, but I'm not controlled by anyone. I'm shaping my own style, my look and my music.”
[Thanks to 3arabiavideo.com for the pics and some of the information.]
19 May 2006
Palmyra
Last week C-lo and I took a trip out to the desert to visit the ruins of the ancient city of Palmyra. A brief history lesson: Palmyra was an important caravan city, located besides an oasis along one of the main trade routes linking the East (Persia, India, China) with the Roman Empire in the West. It reached a peak of wealth and importance in the 2nd and 3rd Centuries AD, culminating in Queen Zenobia's unsuccessful bid to set up her son as an independent emperor in the East (Syria, Arabia, Egypt). The crushing of this rebellion by Rome in 271 AD ended Palmyra's semi-autonomy, and marks the start of a long fall from grace. By the time of the Muslim conquest in the 7th Century, the city had largely been abandoned to the desert. This abandonment was the key to its survival in its Classical state. In 1678 two English merchants resident in Aleppo came across the site, thus beginning a long and ongoing process of rediscovery - though the first serious survey only took place in the 1920s.
The ruins are a three hour bus-ride north east of Damascus. Its a very dramatic journey. Once you pass through the hinterland of Damascus, it is a journey through the desert. Aside from a couple of petrol stations, the Baghdad Cafe, and a single railway line there is nothing except the rocky landscape stretching out on all sides.
We arrived in Tadmur (the modern town which lies besides the site of the ruins) in the early evening, which gave us just enough time to drop off our stuff at the hotel and to enjoy a tea with the friendly owner. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of football, a strange obsession with the movie Titanic, and was somewhat lovesick, constantly talking about an Italian girl (always Italians!) who had stayed there a few weeks previously. However he wasn't too upset because that day the football team he played for had just won a match, making it into the final of the Palmyra Cup! After a couple of glasses of shay, our driver came to take us to Qalat ibn Maan, the castle on the hill overlooking the ruins, in order to enjoy the sunset. This was our first view of the ruins, and it was very impressive. It was beautiful to see the remains of the ancient city in the pinky-orange light, and then to turn around and say goodbye to the Sun as it disappeared behind the desert hills.
In the evening our driver took us to a Bedouin tent party, which turned out to be adjacent to a restaurant complex catering for tourists. Nevertheless it was a fun evening - the food was excellent, a real feast (as usual!) and, as well as some small groups of tourists (from France and Spain), we were sharing the tent with a party of 40-50 women from Latakia (prosperous city in north-west Syria). They were really enjoying themselves (not least because they were free from their menfolk), especially when the entertainment started - a group of Bedouin musicians and dancers (male). C-lo was one of the first to be dragged up to dance, swiftly followed by the rest of us. The music lasted until well after midnight...
The following morning it was time for an early start to have plenty of time to explore the ruins before travelling back to Damascus in the afternoon. We began in the valley of the tombs - a very eerie place, though home to some Bedouin families who herded goats, but seemed to make most of their living from selling trinkets to tourists, such as traditional Arab headscarves or plastic snakes.
There are several different types of tomb here, but for me the most interesting were the towers, originally three or four storeys high. The larger ones would have contained dozens of bodies. Although they have long since been emptied by tomb robbers many have been excavated from the desert and are in surprisingly good condition, silent sentinels over a bleak landscape.
After walking through the valley of the tombs for a couple of hours, taking our time to explore some of the structures, we reached the edge of the ruins of Palmyra. Coming at the ruins from the desert was a great idea, stimulating the imagination and evoking a sense of awe. Although I had seen the ruins from the hill the night before I was not prepared for the scale of the site - the colonnaded streets stretch for several kilometres. It is easy to get a sense of the grandeur of this place in its heydey.
One of the highlights was the wondrfully preserved theatre (below), which amazingly was only rediscovered in the 1950s!
One of the other things that impressed me the most were the carved details and the amazingly high degree of preservation - delicately carved vine leaves showing little sign of weathering, geometric designs that retain their clarity, and wonderful details of zodiac signs, mythological characters or other scenes.
We concluded our trip at Temple of Bal This was originally a pagan temple built around 50 AD. The outer enclosure (below, with Menno) is huge, it could have housed several thousand people who would have participated in public sacrifices of animals (there is a sacrificial altar and channels for the blood). In the 5th Century the inner sanctum was converted into a church (some frescoes of Christian saints are still visible) and then into a mosque following the Arab conquests, whilst the outer walls were fortified.
The temple afforded some good views of the lush green palm trees of the oasis in the background - a reminder of the water in the desert that made this settlement of an estimated 90,000 people at its peak, possible. Beyond the green only the bleak yet beautiful reds and oranges of the desert...
By now the midday sun was really bearing down upon us, and we had been walking for many hours - we still had a lot left to see (the baths, several smaller temples, a church and a basilica, the agora etc... you get the idea) but it was time to leave in order to catch the afternoon bus back to Damascus. What a magnificent place Palmyra is!
15 May 2006
Ma'a Salaama - With Peace
So far I have tried to avoid going too deeply into political issues on this blog, but as Bush and Ahmadinejad - is it just me, or has anybody else noticed the uncanny 'simian-arity' of the two? – prepare to go head to head, I often think of the effect this might have on this part of the world. I don't want to discuss what I think of the current sabre-rattling and the complexities involved (not least the fact that Iran has a great deal of influence in Iraq, which should hopefully give US hawks some pause for thought before they decide to try to ‘kick some ass’). Nevertheless, I believe that a US air attack or missile strike on Iran remains a possibility (hopefully not yet a probability) and this would undoubtedly further stir up violence and instability across the Middle East, including in Syria.
In the first week that we were here, C-lo and I sat one evening in a cafe overlooking the Citadel, the Barada river and the Old City, and, as we looked out upon the ramshackle array of roofs, green-lit minarets and ancient fortifications we said - 'I hope to God that nothing bad happens to this place'. Damascus, especially the older and poorer parts, is in many ways an ugly city to eyes used to English towns and cities – the streets are strewn with rubbish and often have a buckled, chaotic quality to them, many of the houses are dilapidated, indeed some are literally crumbling apart. Yet, behind this ugliness there is a tarnished beauty in even the most mundane of streets – a beautifully carved door here, some fine stonework there, maybe even a domed shrine quietly tucked away.
Yet, more than a concern that further chaos in the Middle East might bring destruction to the historical wealth represented by Damascus’ buildings is our concern for the people we have met here. As one of the hummus sellers in our neighbourhood, said to us one night, as we were picking up some beautifully prepared moutabbel (smoked aubergine-based dip) for dinner: 'Politics is hard but between people it is easy' - I took what he said to mean that although the governments of our countries might not get along so well, which stirs up all sorts of animosities and distortions on both sides, and despite our different languages, cultures and backgrounds when we meet face to face most of us are able to arrive at some kind of coexistence (though I concede that it’s not always so easy!).
And it is for this reason that I hope that the current crisis is defused. In London or Washington there is little conception that the words ‘Syria’ or ‘Damascus’ contains more than the distorted images of an enemy but for us here it means a whole plethora of people and memories (both bad and good), too rich, complex and precious to be easily caught, categorized and contained. This country undoubtedly has its share of idiots and bigots, but this has to be contrasted with the countless examples of courtesy and hospitality that we have been shown wherever we have been.
As we say when we say goodbye in Arabic: Ma'a Salaama – with peace.
In the first week that we were here, C-lo and I sat one evening in a cafe overlooking the Citadel, the Barada river and the Old City, and, as we looked out upon the ramshackle array of roofs, green-lit minarets and ancient fortifications we said - 'I hope to God that nothing bad happens to this place'. Damascus, especially the older and poorer parts, is in many ways an ugly city to eyes used to English towns and cities – the streets are strewn with rubbish and often have a buckled, chaotic quality to them, many of the houses are dilapidated, indeed some are literally crumbling apart. Yet, behind this ugliness there is a tarnished beauty in even the most mundane of streets – a beautifully carved door here, some fine stonework there, maybe even a domed shrine quietly tucked away.
Yet, more than a concern that further chaos in the Middle East might bring destruction to the historical wealth represented by Damascus’ buildings is our concern for the people we have met here. As one of the hummus sellers in our neighbourhood, said to us one night, as we were picking up some beautifully prepared moutabbel (smoked aubergine-based dip) for dinner: 'Politics is hard but between people it is easy' - I took what he said to mean that although the governments of our countries might not get along so well, which stirs up all sorts of animosities and distortions on both sides, and despite our different languages, cultures and backgrounds when we meet face to face most of us are able to arrive at some kind of coexistence (though I concede that it’s not always so easy!).
And it is for this reason that I hope that the current crisis is defused. In London or Washington there is little conception that the words ‘Syria’ or ‘Damascus’ contains more than the distorted images of an enemy but for us here it means a whole plethora of people and memories (both bad and good), too rich, complex and precious to be easily caught, categorized and contained. This country undoubtedly has its share of idiots and bigots, but this has to be contrasted with the countless examples of courtesy and hospitality that we have been shown wherever we have been.
As we say when we say goodbye in Arabic: Ma'a Salaama – with peace.
04 May 2006
Dance and hammams
Last week we went to see a dance called 'Stillness' - a fusion of contemporary and traditional Arabic dance with a great soundtrack. Now, I'm no expert at dance, but I was impressed by how accomplished and moving the pieces were. It seems to me that it wouldn't have seemed too out of place in London. To cap it all, admission was free!
This was one of those events that, in my ignorance, I would never have dreamed I would find in Damascus. I mean its not "typical" Syria (whatever that means) - it was an obviously middle class audience - but it is still part of this place's make-up and a far cry from the kind of distorted image that even we "interested" people have about this place.
The weather here is starting to really heat up - April was very changeable, but its now sunny and warm every day - and everyone tells us its just gonna get hotter. Strewth! Thankfully my factor 15 is preventing me burning too much, though I'm not changing colour too much - a nice tan for once in my life would be nice :-) (though maybe I'm getting one - just too slow and subtle for me to notice..?)
In this weather its nice to go to one of the many parks that you can find, especially in the western (more affluent) part of central Damascus (below, Tishreen park, now full of cherry blossom).
This was one of those events that, in my ignorance, I would never have dreamed I would find in Damascus. I mean its not "typical" Syria (whatever that means) - it was an obviously middle class audience - but it is still part of this place's make-up and a far cry from the kind of distorted image that even we "interested" people have about this place.
The weather here is starting to really heat up - April was very changeable, but its now sunny and warm every day - and everyone tells us its just gonna get hotter. Strewth! Thankfully my factor 15 is preventing me burning too much, though I'm not changing colour too much - a nice tan for once in my life would be nice :-) (though maybe I'm getting one - just too slow and subtle for me to notice..?)
In this weather its nice to go to one of the many parks that you can find, especially in the western (more affluent) part of central Damascus (below, Tishreen park, now full of cherry blossom).
Speaking of relaxation, on Monday night I went to a hammam (a public bath) - a lad's only excursion, which C-lo was a little disappointed about (some hammams have women-only hours during the day but never at night). It was a great experience - I steamed the dust from my pores before having a scrub and a massage to put my back back in order after 5 weeks sleeping on a rubbishy mattress. So good! To cap off all the relaxation, whilst sitting swathed in towels (like a mummy!) drying off, we had tea and a nargileh (water pipe). When I came home my skin was so soft and I smelled beautiful.
Tuesday we went to check out some live music in a bar in central Damascus, near the posh hotels. It was a swish place, kinda reminded me of the stylish bars in London that I never go to
. The crowd was a little thin and a contrasting mix of rich Arabs (some old man with young girl dynamics going on, plus small groups of young Syrians from wealthy families) and European students there to see their mates play some "Latin" music. It was nice to hear some blues and some Latin (the Arabic pop can be too much sometimes - overproduced and a little sickening y'know), and, though it wasn't the kinda place I'd choose to go to back home, it felt comforting to sit and have a couple of beers in a bar for once.
Oh yeah, and we've been studying hard - I'm getting pretty good at writing simple sentences, but I'm still unable to speak anything but the most rudimentary sentence. Slowly, slowly...
26 April 2006
Jazz, Mystics, Postcards and Curry
Friday 21st April
Still feeling a bit ill so I took it easy. In the evening we managed to wrangle free tickets to the album launch concert of a Syrian singer called Lena Chamamyan. A couple of hundred invited guests - Damascene movers and shakers, probably, though they meant nothing to us - crowded into the courtyard of the house of the artist Mustafa Ali, often checking each other out as much as they were checking out the songs. The music was a little polite at times but her voice was beautiful and the overall effect was often highly evocative. I made a resolution to check out more Syrian music whilst I’m here.
Sat 22nd April
Picked up a CD-Rom of old photographs and postcards of Damascus collected by a guy who works in an Internet Café in Saroujah. Some wonderful images of Damascus in the nineteenth century, including many examples of 'Eastern exoticism' undoubtedly aimed at Europeans.
Still feeling a bit ill so I took it easy. In the evening we managed to wrangle free tickets to the album launch concert of a Syrian singer called Lena Chamamyan. A couple of hundred invited guests - Damascene movers and shakers, probably, though they meant nothing to us - crowded into the courtyard of the house of the artist Mustafa Ali, often checking each other out as much as they were checking out the songs. The music was a little polite at times but her voice was beautiful and the overall effect was often highly evocative. I made a resolution to check out more Syrian music whilst I’m here.
Sat 22nd April
Picked up a CD-Rom of old photographs and postcards of Damascus collected by a guy who works in an Internet Café in Saroujah. Some wonderful images of Damascus in the nineteenth century, including many examples of 'Eastern exoticism' undoubtedly aimed at Europeans.
The depth of the history of this place never fails to move me. Its really getting under my skin, especially given the fact that so much remains relatively unexamined...
Sun 23rd April So, for that unmissable taste of home, we forked out 2500 Syrian lira - that's about 25 UK pounds - for a meal for three, including three beers! What a life... :-)
Walked up to Sahiliya on the lower slopes of Jebel Qasyun, north of the city centre. This area, once a predominatly Kurdish village north of Damascus but long since overtaken by the city's sprawl, is littered with many shrines and madrassas. Tragically they are now mainly neglected, abandoned and boarded up, though if you look through cracks in the doorways some spectacular coloured glass windows and interiors can still be seen.
The main attraction in the area is the tomb of the famed mystic Mohi ad-Din Ibn al-Arabi, one of the great figures in Islamic philosophy, which is located in a pretty but modest mosque in a souq area (below). Its strange that such a big figure in Islam has such a modest resting place. As always, we were welcomed into the chamber containing the tomb, given sweets and a short talk (in Arabic!) about the tomb. Its a shame neither C-lo nor I understood much! 
In the evening we met some friends and had dinner at the top of the hill, where we admired the lights of the city stretching out to the horizon.
Tuesday 25th April
Gave into the urge - went out for a curry in one of the few Indian restaurants in town. Boy, was it good to tuck into a naan and a peshwarma kebab! This was by far the most expensive meal I've had since I been in Syria, perhaps because it was located near the capital of bling - the brand spanking new and Saudi financed Four Seasons hotel (five stars, sweetie).
24 April 2006
Road Trip: Krak-Hama-Aleppo-Musyaf
Tuesday 18th April 2006
In the morning C-lo and I departed Damascus with four friends for a three day trip to the north of Syria. In late morning we arrived in Homs – Syria’s unloved third city – where we hired a taxi and driver for the day. As we departed for the Crusader castle Krak Des Chevaliers we were holding our breaths – partly at anticipation at seeing one of the most majestic and best preserved Medieval castles in the world, and partly because the six of us were crammed into four car seats!
Our first stop was at St George’s Monastery, located on a hilltop opposite Da Krak. Aside from affording us good views of the main attraction, it was an interesting visit in its own right – the site of a 6th Century church, though the existing churches date back to the 13th and 19th Centuries respectively. There were some fine icons and wood carvings.
Then it was time to visit the Krak and none of us were disappointed. It is an impressive piece of military architecture, labyrinthine in its complexity with many passageways tantatisingly leading down into the darkness into who-knows what crypts and catacombs. Above ground there remains a relatively well-preserved mix of Gothic, Romanesque and Arabic building styles (the Crusaders surrendered the castle to the Mamluks in 1271). It was quiet – just a large group of Spaniards and a handful of other tourists - and aside from the T-Shirt hawkers and self-appointed guides we were left alone to explore at our leisure.
On the way up and down to the castle we passed through a small hillside village where the locals were friendly and fascinated by us (some children shouted ‘Come and look at the beautiful foreigners!’). We accepted the inevitable offer of a super sugary tea from a weathered man wearing a kufeyya (traditional black/white or red/white head-dress). He chatted to us in Arabic about the village (‘Muslims and Christians here are like one family’) and the local trails and shrines for about half an hour until the sugar had kicked in and it was time for us to hit the road again.
The pit-stop at Musyaf gave us fuel for an epic oxygen-starved 3 hour bus-ride back to Damascus. It was a relief to be dropped off amongst the noise and dust that is becoming so familiar, not least because my guts were starting to be in full rebellion. After some time glued to the hole in the floor which we optimistically call a toilet I decided to put off the planned trip to Beirut for another occasion.
In the morning C-lo and I departed Damascus with four friends for a three day trip to the north of Syria. In late morning we arrived in Homs – Syria’s unloved third city – where we hired a taxi and driver for the day. As we departed for the Crusader castle Krak Des Chevaliers we were holding our breaths – partly at anticipation at seeing one of the most majestic and best preserved Medieval castles in the world, and partly because the six of us were crammed into four car seats!
Our first stop was at St George’s Monastery, located on a hilltop opposite Da Krak. Aside from affording us good views of the main attraction, it was an interesting visit in its own right – the site of a 6th Century church, though the existing churches date back to the 13th and 19th Centuries respectively. There were some fine icons and wood carvings.
Then it was time to visit the Krak and none of us were disappointed. It is an impressive piece of military architecture, labyrinthine in its complexity with many passageways tantatisingly leading down into the darkness into who-knows what crypts and catacombs. Above ground there remains a relatively well-preserved mix of Gothic, Romanesque and Arabic building styles (the Crusaders surrendered the castle to the Mamluks in 1271). It was quiet – just a large group of Spaniards and a handful of other tourists - and aside from the T-Shirt hawkers and self-appointed guides we were left alone to explore at our leisure.On the way up and down to the castle we passed through a small hillside village where the locals were friendly and fascinated by us (some children shouted ‘Come and look at the beautiful foreigners!’). We accepted the inevitable offer of a super sugary tea from a weathered man wearing a kufeyya (traditional black/white or red/white head-dress). He chatted to us in Arabic about the village (‘Muslims and Christians here are like one family’) and the local trails and shrines for about half an hour until the sugar had kicked in and it was time for us to hit the road again.
We spent the evening in the city of Hama. Compared with Damascus it felt more chilled and airy. This was particularly surprising given the trauma suffered by the city in February 1982 when an insurrection led by the Muslim Brotherhood was crushed, killing thousands. The only clue to this bloody moment in the recent past is the visible lack of old buildings in the heart of the city – during the fighting almost all the Old City was destroyed.
But these events seemed very distant as we dined on the banks of the Orontes, serenaded by scores of frogs, and wandered through the city centre souqs, greeted by abayya-clad ladies and teenaged bicylists alike. 
I got the impression that not many foreigners spent much time here, which is a shame. If we get the chance I’d like to go back.
Wednesday 19th April 2006
Today our road trip moved onto Aleppo – Syria’s second city with a population of about 3 million, and currently Islamic Capital of Culture 2006. The heart of the city is the Citadel which stands on a commanding position atop a tell overlooking the Old City. It is an impressively imposing structure dating back to the 12th Century, and houses 2 mosques, a palace, and a modern facsimile of a Roman amphitheatre. We spent many hours up there enjoying the quiet and calm in the late afternoon sunshine.
The interior of the Citadel was a world away from the heat, smells and bustle of Aleppo’s souqs. The covered markets stretch for miles and are rightly famed throughout the Middle East. We were on the hunt for some fabrics for C-lo but a mixture of fatigue and the onset of Delhi belly put a premature end to our visit.
As I sat over the hole I was able to ponder the ways that Aleppo differed from Damascus - the better condition of the Old City in Aleppo (thanks in part to World Heritage status and German expertise), the fewer numbers of stray cats (there are thousands all over central Damascus), the absence of the Lambada... (when cars reverse in Damascus, chances are that they'll end up emitting a weedy electronic version of the Lambada. But this seems to be a regional preference cos whereas I hear the Lambada dozens of times a day back in Damas, I barely heard it in Aleppo - the drivers there were mainly rocking to an ice-cream van version of 'It's a Small, Small World').
Thursday 20th April 2006
We left Aleppo early on a two and a half hour bus ride down to the town of Musyaf – the location of the legendary mountain stronghold of the Old Man of the Mountains, leader of the Nizari Ismaili sect popularly known as the Assassins. However, the reality proved to be far less mysterious than the myth – whilst the tales of the sect’s drug-fuelled debauchery were undoubtedly the product of overblown Western imaginations, the castle was pretty disappointing – it looked solid enough but hardly impregnable and certainly paled in comparison to the great Krak.
However, the main purpose of our trip here was not to see sights, it was to eat! We enjoyed the hospitality of my housemate’s sister who had called in her mum as reinforcements to help prepare a feast for us. After the umpteenth course of food (‘Kul!’ – ‘Eat!’), the customary session on the nargileh (water pipe), and a shared glass of arak with her husband, we were all feeling ready to pass out, sitting dozily on the balcony looking out over the ugly concrete town and the beautiful green rolling hills behind.
The pit-stop at Musyaf gave us fuel for an epic oxygen-starved 3 hour bus-ride back to Damascus. It was a relief to be dropped off amongst the noise and dust that is becoming so familiar, not least because my guts were starting to be in full rebellion. After some time glued to the hole in the floor which we optimistically call a toilet I decided to put off the planned trip to Beirut for another occasion.
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