Soccer Dad

Apologizing for tyranny

What happens when you apologize for Arab tyrants?

I've been traveling to this lovely city of minarets, nestled between a large mountain and the desert, since 1970. Today, I see Damascus poised on a knife-edge between a palpable sense of new excitement and a strong sense of fear. Much of the excitement stems from the hopes foreconomic and political liberalization sparked by the new-generation president, Bashar al-Assad, inaugurated in 2000 after the passing of his father, the previous president. The fear stems from the prospect that a US-led war on neighboring Iraq would create regional turmoil.

Signs of the nation's renaissance include the adoption of new means of communication by many. There's been a steady growth in Internet access, and Syrian studios now produce a lot of the Arab world's TV programming.

Syrians particularly like watching TV during Ramadan. This year, there was a new series called "Spotlight" that intrigued viewers by poking an unprecedented amount of fun at Mr. Assad. In one episode, he was portrayed as bumbling and wooden at an Arab summit, while his Lebanese counterpart sycophantically agreed with everything he said.

They get disappointed:

After his father's June 2000 death, Bashar announced that he would reform Syria and build a better society for the impoverished residents of his country. Intellectuals, writers, journalists, and the curious took advantage of what has since become known as the Damascus Spring and began to assemble in public halls and private homes to discuss reform and civil society. In retrospect, this may have been a mistake. Many Syrian intellectuals argue today that the Damascus Spring was a trap set up by the new Assad regime to identify those who might not be fully loyal to the next generation of the Assad clan. Nevertheless, these forums catapulted a new generation of Syrian leadership to prominence and provided the latest windows into currents of Syrian reformist thought.

Posted by SoccerDad at February 18, 2005 12:55 AM