Syria

After having posted on the Kefer Soussah square project the other day I felt like I should also pass on some pics I snapped from inside the Tishreen National Sports Complex taken the same evening. The complex has been under construction for at least the past year…trust me, I would know, I work out there. […]

A few interesting links for your weekend consumption. First is a long post on the Syria Comment Blog. The post deals with changing norms surrounding the rights and place of women in Syria. Very interesting reading, especially early on. You can find it here. Second are a pair of articles from the New York Times. […]

One of the main issues on the redevelopment agenda for Syria is transportation infrastructure. Much of the country has no choice but to use outdated roads, bridges, and other forms of transportation. Many of the main transportation resources here are literally crumbling. Thats why the new Kefer Soussah square project is so important, and shows […]

Last April, amid the Scud missile kerfuffle, Blake Hounshell called Syria “The dumbest country in the Middle East” on the Foreign Policy magazine blog. (He didn’t even have the common decency to capitalize Dumbest and Country.) I’ll be curious to see if Blake repeats the claim after the Russian Foreign Minister confirmed this month that […]

One of the reasons I’m writing this blog is to try and give readers a better idea of what Syria is like. Sometimes that means things like discussions of foreign policy, my post on the IAEA for instance. Other times it means we talk about domestic issues like the banning of the Niqab. Well today […]

The issue of Syrian cooperation with the IAEA has returned to the headlines as the UN General Assembly convenes this week. While Barak Obama’s stance on the Israeli-Palestinian front, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s incendiary remarks have garnered the most attention, nuclear proliferation has also come to the fore with Syria right in the middle. In remarks […]

One of the themes that repeatedly pops up when trying to “figure out” Syria is the contrast between where Syria has been, and where it is going. You see this division everyday. Old, decrepit services fighting for space on the road with modern buses. Older, covered women sharing the sidewalks with girls in plunging neck […]

As I return to Syria after a few weeks away I have been suddenly reminded of the many challenges to Internet access here. The slow-as-molasses connections speeds, the months long process to set up home accounts, and of course the censor’s prohibition of using certain sites. As I sit in my local internet cafe I […]

Hello All! I’m sure everyone has been losing sleep over a lack of Syria posts on the FPA wall lately. An evil and cowardly computer issue combined with international bus travel has conspired to keep yours truly away from posting. Well, allow me to put all of you at ease. As of now you can […]

One of the many criticisms of the Syrian government has been it’s Human Rights record. While the current regime is certainly more humane than that of the former president, questions remain regarding the abuse of citizens in a number of cases. One case that has hit the headlines recently has been that of Haitham al-Maleh, […]

So, I realize that when I set out to write this blog I intended to do a lot of writing about Syria’s international position. However, I also wanted to do pieces about domestic issues and things that shed light on what life was like here. Well I haven’t done nearly enough of that so far, […]

Two smaller events happened over the course of the week that seemed worth passing on. The first being the announcement that France has appointed a special mediator in an attempt to get peace negotiations going between Israel and Syria. While George Mitchell is green with envy, I’m not sure this really matters much to the […]