TravelChick

An Important Night in Damascus

Tonight the president addressed Parliament in a specially scheduled address, something that made Syrians a little nervous and anxious. Certain streets in the city were closed off today and plainclothes policemen, somehow always recognizable here because of their stylish suits, were out in force.

My friend Jan and I were walking through the old city just as his address started and the streets echoed with the speech from the radios and tvs on in the majority of the shops. No one knew exactly what the president would say and the uncertainty and perhaps a bit of anxiety people are feeling was palpable in this part of the old city. Walking down the street, we saw
shopkeepers transfixed by the speech; the guys in my favorite falafel shop had set up a tv, and many other food stand workers had abandoned their stands to go watch the speech in neighboring shops. Jan and I wanted to watch the speech, but as my satellite is currently not working and he doesn't have one and we couldn't think of a place to watch the speech with
subtitles, we didn't have any options to do that.

Partly because we both had work to do and partly because the old city was someone eerily echoing with the president's speech rather than the usual car horns and street vendors, we ended up getting into a cab to go home. Because of the heavy traffic due to barricaded streets, we ended up listening to a good part of the speech in the cab. I unfortunately understood all the less important parts and the points that are already obvious: things like he made 8 or more different points, then asked several questions and called for answers to these questions, and the fact that France and the United States are united on the issue of Syria's involvement in Lebanon.

The cab dropped us off about halfway inbetween parliament and my apartment. I had heard the supporters outside parliament on the radio, so I asked Jan to walk over there with me to see what was going on. After seeing a support rally at school on Wednesday I have been interested in seeing what other expressions about the situation are taking place. Obviously these aren't the types of expressions I'm used to.

A huge screen broadcasting the speech hung on front of Parliament and the street in front of the building was absolutely packed with cheering supporters waving flags; the streets were so crowded that some people had climbed up lampposts to get a view of the scene. The area was dazzlingly bright and full of energy, but still somehow rather orderly. Jan was visibly nervous after a few minutes so we walked back home.

I'm just reading the news now but it looks like the government has announced a gradual pullback. Apparently there were cheers in Martyr's Square in Beirut when this was announced; I'm anxious to read more about the speech and the Lebanese, American, and French reactions to it. I don't know what this means for Syrians; I don't think most of them do, either. We're
just hoping for the best, hoping that this is good enough to prevent sanctions or to continue the diplomatic process, I think.

posted by Travel Chick @ 11:50 PM