I'm fine... thank you.

Sometimes I wish I could teleport a lot of the people I know to Syria. Before departure I was offered advice of all sorts, ranging from pure terror (“you’ll get blown up”) to extreme over-cautiousness (“colour code your letters so that we know if you’re in trouble”).

Now, lookey here guys. I appreciate your concern… really it was touching. But come on now, what the hell kind of rural backwater do you think I’ve come to? Damascus is not some kind of recently pitched tent festival; it is the oldest continually inhabited city. And the last terrorist attack in the country was 1996, a record quite obviously better than the UK.

I kind of understand the reasons for such negative stereotypes and misinformation about Syria. After all it is in the Middle East; an area that usually conjures up a whole range of prejoratives. And when it is in the news it is usually to do with the (former) occupation of Lebanon, standoff with Israel (a large territory of Syria continues to be occupied by the Israelis), Weapons of Mass Destruction (hah, remember that famous lie?) and the recent murder of Rafik Hariri. Of course let’s not beat around the bush here, it seems that, if the Melis report of Hariri’s murder is as expected, Syria has scored one of the hugest own goals in international terrorism; but innocent until proven guilty remember. Now, I know that no news is good news but the general picture of Syria being some backward violent country completely out of touch and easily generalized is a cruel simplification.

Let us start with a few realities. I’m not well read of Syrian history so I’m very open to correction. Firstly, yes, Syria is a dictatorship. No doubts there. But the most brutal part of reign is long gone now, the incumbent Bashar Al-Assad’s father Hafez passed away in 2000. Hafez had some serious flaws, including brutal suppression of an Islamist uprising in Hama in the early Eighties, killing over 20,000. Today it seems to me that the incumbent, Bashar, is a genuine reformer that wants to gradually strengthen the economy in preparation for a very eventual end to oil revenue. But, not surprisingly Bashar is up against a legacy of corruption and a rigid inner circle that is unwilling to concede to reforms that would expose the upper echelons. So reform is going to be s…l…o…w. Too slow, some say. But then if adopting shitty IMF adjustments in modernizing then why even bother modernizing!

So I’ve made a very brief foray into the very complex nature of Syrian politics just to give you an idea that Syria is not going to remain an interminable dictatorship.

As for the general personal security of Westerners, I couldn’t think of a safer country. Strolling down the maze of the old city streets at 3am in the morning is like that Volvo feeling. In the UK you’d have to take nervous glances to the other side of the street every five minutes because some maniac is either shouting abuse at you or wanting your handbag (wallet in my case.. Thank u!). So guys, much as I appreciate your concerns, it is kinda misplaced, I’m probably much safer than you!