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economic and administrative reforms. For a while, a wave of change swept Syria, the so-called ‘Damascus Spring’ buzzing with a proliferation of private newspapers, internet bloggers, and public debate not seen in the country in decades. Foreign goods flooded into Syria, private banks were allowed to open and mobile phones made a belated but wildly popular appearance. But ‘not so fast’ was the message that came from the old guard that had surrounded Bashar’s father – anything perceived as opposing the government was quickly reined in. Reforming the country’s unwieldy bureaucracy, whose membership depends more on political patronage and nepotism than on merit, also proved a road too far. As a result, while many of the economic reforms were left untouched and political reforms have stalled. Syrians generally agree that there is more freedom and less fear than there was during the rule of Assad senior, provided they don’t become too involved in politics. But Syrians are chafing under low wages and rising prices and, more than political reform, it’s the shackles of a still-stuttering economy that is, for the most part, their primary concern. Despite all the problems, it’s a testament to the young president’s political skill that he remains genuinely popular on the Syrian street. As many Syrians told us, ‘it’s the people around him who are the problem’.

Things are even more complicated in Syria’s relations with the international community. Publicly branded a ‘rogue state’ by former US president, George W Bush, Syria stands accused of fomenting political conflict in Lebanon, most notably through its support for Hezbollah. It has also been criticised by the US for allegedly turning a blind eye to the movements of Iraqi insurgents. In September 2007, Israeli planes bombed a site at Al-Kibar (on the Euphrates River, northwest of Deir ez-Zur), which the Israeli and US governments claimed was a partially completed, secret nuclear reactor and which Syria argued was a disused military facility. But the effect was to heighten tensions even further between Syria and the US.

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ACCESS DENIED

You’re casually surfing the internet and thought you’d update your Facebook profile. ‘Access denied’ flashes up on the screen. Must be the connection, you say to yourself. You try to watch a video on YouTube. Same problem. Before you start accosting the internet café owner about the quality of the connection, remember this: both Facebook and YouTube were banned in Syria in 2007 after the government claimed that Israel had infiltrated the sites. Some of the other banned websites are easy to understand, if not justify: Israeli newspapers, Kurdish and Islamist websites, and any sites which overtly criticise the Syrian government. Some of the other restricted sites are a little less obvious: Hotmail (but not Yahoo! … at least not yet) has been blocked at times, while Amazon.com suffers a similar fate, even as Amazon.co.uk slips through the net. The Arabic-language Wikipedia site is another casualty. Internet-connected phone calls made from internet cafés are technically illegal, although we’ve made Skype-connected calls from a private laptop on a Syrian server. Some internet cafés get around the restrictions using proxy addresses, but these can be extremely slow.

There is, of course, a serious side to internet censorship. Reporters without Borders (www.rsf.org), which places Syria 154th (out of 169) on its Worldwide Press Freedom Index, recently reported that seven so-called ‘cyber dissidents’ were, or have been, imprisoned. The most recent targets have been bloggers locked up for ‘defaming and insulting the administrative bodies of the state’. That’s not to say that Syria doesn’t have a lively blogging community – check it out at Syria Planet ( www.syplanet.com) – it’s just that they have to be very careful what they write.

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SYRIAN PRICES

Don’t be surprised if the prices you find throughout this chapter are out of date by the time you arrive, especially in hotels. Prices have doubled over the past two years,