"I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart."

My recent stay in Syria has confirmed a long-standing suspicion of mine, a suspicion that anybody who has grown up in Damascus and its byzantine network of family relations will automatically be good at understanding politics. There is a sad tendency amongst families I know, including my own, to foster competition and rivalry based on intense jealousy between themselves. There is something unnerving, and slightly depressing, in knowing that people very close to me may have gone out of their way to sabotage some of my efforts or ambitions. Yet at the same time, appearances must be kept, connections must be maintained. Embraces and polite kisses are carried out whilst we mutter curses beneath our breath and proverbial daggers are raised behind each other's backs. The old ones know of these rivalries, and smile approvingly at us as we kiss their hands and offer our respect. They bestow their favour or wrath upon us like ancient gods while we attempt to strangle each other over resources and livelihoods - exactly like the Arab tribes from time immemorial. I am quickly finding that the old adage, keep your friends close, but your enemies closer, must be adhered to without fail.

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Damascus Blues

Walking along the cobbled streets of old Damascus is always a pleasure during the evenings, after the hot sun has set and more people venture around for a stroll through the markets. As dusk fell the evening call to prayer echoed across the city, but I noticed with some displeasure that the ancient Umayad Mosque's call to prayer was slightly different from the other mosques in the city, and not at all a nice one. The more sombre, drawn out, and spiritual adhan that I know and love is, here, replaced by a strange and unbalanced cacophony underlined by a bizarre chorus. Perhaps the intention was to give the mosque a unique sound, for Damascus and for Syria. If so then its creators succeeded, but only because of how unremarkable and bland they have made it. In a way this is a typically Syrian approach to many things. What can we do to make a good thing even better? Let's have more of it!

The beauty, and potential, that lie unlocked in this previously ignored gem of Damascus (by this I mean the old part of the city) and the surrounding area have been discovered, but, we have gone too far in renovating and preserving it. Rather than preserving the raw edginess of a living district where people work, live and pray, the result in old Damascus has been a bizarre disney-esque commercialisation of the area. It is a good thing that the area has been cleaned up considerably, but one question's the benefit of the many restaurants, hostels and bars which are sprouting throughout it. Fat Western girls in kufiyehs (we call them Suloks in Syria) mingle the streets with trendy Damascene well-to-do's, all feasting on a newly discovered vein of native authenticity that has not been corrupted by modernity. Yet in their voracious feeding frenzy they transform it into what they despise, refusing to see that the purity they are looking for is not in exotic, far-away locations with strange names, but within themselves. I don't know whether that is an accurate observation, but then again who knows what such things mean?

Writing these musings makes me instantly angry with myself for expecting Damascus to remain a quaint holiday destination forever frozen in time just so that some tourists can come and nod politely as they are lampooned yet again with the fact that it is the "oldest continuously inhabited city in the world". And what's wrong with just saying it is the oldest living city in the world? Living is a perfectly acceptable word after all, so why use two words when we can use just one? I guess that just wouldn't be very Syrian of us then, would it?

As a sand-filled fog envelopes this ancient city today, I find myself wondering whether Damascus is punishing us for releasing the dust in her formerly lush green-belt as we race to build more and more dirty monstrosities in our race for development and modernity. Nothing exceeds like excess it seems.

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Some thoughts on Damascus

I have been back in Damascus for almost a week now and I must say things are getting slightly better in the city. There seems to be a concerted effort to plant trees in the surrounding mountains and hills and the effects of this are starting to show, but only just. It is genuinely good to be back, apart from the two hours I had to wait in the airport whilst some mule in a uniform who can't read Arabic let alone English let me through. I missed this place.

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Checkmate in Beirut

I've been extremely busy lately, with Ramadan coming to a close, and unable to blog or read the news with any consistency. Furthermore, it seems like I will be visiting Syria again very soon. Still, there are a few things that have caught my attention recently, such as Saad al Hariri's public announcement that his accusing Syria of assassinating his father (and the former prime minister of Lebanon) as a mistake. This is a wise move to make, and it shows that the man is beginning to recognise the political reality in Lebanon and the wider region. This reality came into effect following the invasion of Iraq, where it was was intended that a kind of domino effect would give birth to a "New Middle East". The linchpin, Lebanon, was next in the equation and in effect, a block of hostile countries from Lebanon to Pakistan would be chopped up into pieces: first Afghanistan; then Iraq; and finally Lebanon. This would have left Syria and Iran surrounded and place considerable pressure on them; especially with regards to a peace-deal with Israel.

This plan did not work. Lebanon today is firmly within the orbit of Tehran and this reality took effect in two stages. In the first, external, stage, Israel attempted to crush Hezbullah in a month-long war that had been intended regardless of the capture of the two Israeli soldiers. The second stage, an internally orchestrated "coup" by Western-backed political figures was ended in roughly 6 hours when Hezbullah took over Beirut in 2008 and destroyed the fledgling militias that were being armed with Saudi and American assistance.

To talk about anything else in those two years is absolute nonsense, especially with regards to the Tribunal concerning Hariri's death. Regardless of who killed Hariri, it was obvious that this highly politicised witch-hunt, directed first at Syria and then shifted to Hezbullah, had fizzled out and one of the first people who recognised this was non-other than Walid Jumblatt. He went from bashing Damascus whilst on a visit to Washington to bashing Washington whilst on a visit to Damascus - all in the space of two years. Checkmate in Beirut, or should we say Shah Maat...

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Ali on first Black American President

Ali the film was on television yesterday, and whilst I couldn't finish the whole thing I did find some interviews on Youtube that were hilarious. Still, he had this to say about being a black president of the United States.

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Fairouz فيروز - Habaytak Bisayf

Woke up this morning and this song was on my mind for some reason. There is always a time for Fairouz.

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Blair on Iran - some thoughts

The ripples from Tony Blair's memoirs continue to spread throughout the news although I am not sure whether I will take the time to read them yet; I have a lot of other books to read and not very much time. Not surprisingly, the latest revelation from Blair's BBC interview is that he supports the use of force against Iran, claiming that it would be unacceptable for the Islamic republic to possess a nuclear weapon. Furthermore, perhaps controversially, he also seems to be equating the Islam of al Qaeda with that of Iran.

Now I understand people's reservation about this very broad generalisation (which is also untrue) but there is a deeper view underpinning the former prime minister's statements. Islam is influencing the world in a way that would have been unthinkable twenty years ago. There is no one country from which this influence is emanating, nor is there one movement or group which speaks for it, it is simply a world view which animates over 1 billion people, and is beginning to overlap with the Western, modernist,narrative that has been dominant for the past two hundred years.

I think Iran in particular is very unsettling for the West and especially Israel. Regardless of the vitriol surrounding it, the Islamic republic is capable, competent and non-superstitious. It is also rational in its behaviour and functions as a society run, albeit imperfectly, under the rule of law. The desperation that Western 'hawks' view such countries is not misplaced - although I don't think anybody seriously considers Israel to be viable in the long term - as it touches on a deeper and more historical paranoia, the beginning of an eclipse for "the triumph of Europe". There are other countries in the region that have similar potential, Egypt being the other example. Although politically the Egyptian government is anything but similar to that governing Iran, the political climate and general disposition of Egypt, also a country operating, even if nominally, under the rule of law, along with its strong Islamic identity, make it another source of worry for the West. In fact some Israeli newspapers and politicians have made no secret of their desire for Mubarak to have a long life, claiming he has been a valuable ally over the last thirty years; better the devil you know and all that.

Yet in spite of all this, I think Mr Blair's fears of some Iranian first strike are unfounded. There will be no Iranian missiles falling over Europe or Tel Aviv unless the latter are stupid enough to start some kind of aggression. I find myself wondering if that is itself what Blair and his co-ideologists fear most; this idea that their countries can no longer bomb the savages without fear of effective and quite destructive retaliation.

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