Contrary to my earlier perception of " Axis of Evil" and other stories Damascus was quite peaceful and I manage to roam around quite freely. I have not encountered any problems whatsoever.
Yesterday I was on my way to a travel agency to collect my travel tickets. Yeah..I am going on a small 4 day trip. I saw many young girls and boys some even with school bags standing on either sides of a street in an area called " Bahsa" near victoria bridge. Normally, this is a very busy part of the so called ' Down Town" with shops, husttle busstle, numerous cars, horns, sound and people walking everywhere. To my surprise that busy street was empty and had no traffic except for people standing on both sides as if they were waiting for some thing. I could also see some TV crew with camera and other shooting equipment. I walked my way to the travel agency wondering what all this was about.
As I just crossed a street I could see a group of about 200 people or so (all young..probably.college students) marching down the roads with some syrian flags and shouting some slogans. I gathered from the travel agency guy that it is an protest against the clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians which is happening in Israel. Knwoiing the syrian connection I exclaimed " ohhhh this is an anti Israli rally" The trael guy said NO it is not against Israel. We are just showing our support to palestinians. He proudly claimied " you know we love Palestanians". I liked his idea of putting things positively.
Yesterday I was on my way to a travel agency to collect my travel tickets. Yeah..I am going on a small 4 day trip. I saw many young girls and boys some even with school bags standing on either sides of a street in an area called " Bahsa" near victoria bridge. Normally, this is a very busy part of the so called ' Down Town" with shops, husttle busstle, numerous cars, horns, sound and people walking everywhere. To my surprise that busy street was empty and had no traffic except for people standing on both sides as if they were waiting for some thing. I could also see some TV crew with camera and other shooting equipment. I walked my way to the travel agency wondering what all this was about.
As I just crossed a street I could see a group of about 200 people or so (all young..probably.college students) marching down the roads with some syrian flags and shouting some slogans. I gathered from the travel agency guy that it is an protest against the clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians which is happening in Israel. Knwoiing the syrian connection I exclaimed " ohhhh this is an anti Israli rally" The trael guy said NO it is not against Israel. We are just showing our support to palestinians. He proudly claimied " you know we love Palestanians". I liked his idea of putting things positively.
I was watching the protestors pass by whle my agent was busy getting my ticket ready. I could see that the protest was very simple and peaceful. All the protestors were walking by the roads shouting slogans when all the crowds standing by are watching cheerfully. There was lot of security though. I could also see a group of all girls also coming from the opposite direction. I used my imagination and thought that these two groups will join together and move ahead to a different road.
To my surprise the protestors were very much organised and were peaceful. I could not stop noticing some young people enjoying the whole process walking, talking and smiling at the watchers.( Not to forget shouting slogans too). The shop keepers were doing their business as usual. Every every passer by is just spending a couple of minutes watching the crowd and then going out on their way. I liked this whole idea of a peaceful protest where people do their business at the same time they acknowledge the process of protest and they are proud about it.
I followed suit, collected my ticket and started back to my office. I got delayed by 30 minutes only the traffic is quite heavy as some roads are blocked.While on my back i could hear some Syrian Foreign ministers saying some thing in Arabic......thought it was his istyle of protesting or expressing support..
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