Deir-Ez Zur and Its Fire

Deir-Er Zur is noteworthy for three things. A French built suspension bridge, being the central HQ for the Syrian oil industry, and for its tourist industry which caters to Syrians (mainly) who want to have drinks on the banks of the Euphrates.

It was nice to have crossed the breadth of Mesopotamia, from Hasankeyf's position on the Tigris 300km to the North. Boys can be seen swimming in the Euphrates, floating on the rapids. I'd thought about joining them, but settled for drinking tea beside the river and puffing from a Nargila (a huge Arabic bong contraption, spewing forth innocuous fruitiness), in the company of some hospitable policemen. It being apparent that conversation would be limited, I took out my copy of the threadbare 'Syria Times'. Actually quite well written sometimes, it is the English language mouthpiece of the Syrian Government's perspective on the world. In this it is like all newspapers in Syria where press freedom doesn't exist. Presumably - I am only guessing - the Government likes its people to enjoy simple, uncomplicated thoughts that will lend a rosy sheen to its power prerogatives and deflect irritating nuicances like opposition. Actually, the conceptual content is not that thin, and the paper can be praised for its attitude of sustained seriousness which one might expect from a newspaper, trivial tricks of salemanship and dumbed down superfifciality not being its forte.

Noteworthy is the presence of a rigid party line that is neither complex nor subtle, yet which uses intelligent sounding thoughts to give it the impression of being open minded and reasonable. Ok, ok, maybe all papers everywhere do this, have an angle. But the Syria Times certainly has one too. But the fact that nobody in Syria can read a paper saying anything contrary makes you wonder if the strength of their arguments even impresses the Government that much, given that if the arguments were thought to be strong they'd have nothing to fear. The truth, after all, does not need to be defended. It's just there, however much you might want to deny it. Insisting that certain particular interpretations must be championed and defended and none other allowed to breathe, can only reasonably raise suspicions that their relationship with truth is somewhat questionable. Yes, yes, this is true of all dogmatists everywhere. All who build their castles in inflexible words.

Certainly, the Syria Times is a good rag to read if you hate Israel. As it happens I don't but it's illuminating to read what Syria has to say about a country it calls its enemy. Well, I suppose it is an enemy, given that there has been no peace treaty since the end of the war in 1974. It believes that Israel is a player in a larger entity called 'Imperialism', spearheaded and funded by the US and assisted by my country. This imperialism wants to control the Middle East for selfish ends and has no genuine interest in helping the Palestinians back to dignity and freedom. Such thoughts are not so far away from those found on the genteel sofas of English Islington Guardian readers, are they? Perhaps, however, The Syria Times' additional opinion that the US and Israel are consciously intending to aggravate and promote Sunni-Shia discord in Iraq, in a policy of divide and rule, might shoot it off into a different orbit of opinion. In the west accusations tend more to stop at the idea that the US just wants to make Iraq a safe place for western business, even if it had been an addditional blessing that Saddam went, and that the real or imagined worry about WMD was laid to rest.

My being an innocent in political affairs, somewhat divested of the facts, my being instinctively suspicious of all media -including my own (I may be wrong in much or else just 'mad', whatever that means) - and being, as I am, incapable of subjecting the main players in the region to my own kindly interrogation under the influence of an efficacious truth drug, I honestly don't know whether all or some of the US administration - in either its outward or secret form - is happy when Shia kill Sunni or vica versa. But I would certainly hope not! Certainly it goes against all one hears about the US desire for the country to be stabilised, for whatever purpose that may be. In any case, one wonders why a country in crisis is any easier to exploit financially than one wherein people can buy more of your stuff.

I was glad in any case not to have read in the Syria Times anything biologically anti-Jewish, the kind of "Jews are Satan's offspring" stuff I'd been told inhabits some of the media of the region.

After my tea, bidding good-day to the authorities in the local vernacular (ma a salaama) I found a local Syrian Swimming pool. As usual when I swim I didn't stay in for long, being more interested in just soaking. Lots of Syrian boys were intrigued to see me and very charming, assailing me with a barrage of welcomes and where are you froms. Above the pool were two images of large benignly gazing gentlemen. I'd seen the image of the older man before, but wasn't sure who he was. As a nearby father of boys told me, I was right. He was Hafez Al-Assad, the former President of Syria and father of the current incumbent, Bashar Al-Assad. Bashar's face I was already familiar with. How could I not be? While not literally everywhere it is everywhere in every other sense. In taxis, above hotel receptions, on billboards, on street posters, his most common pose is a full-frontal, expressionless stare, sometimes with the two Syrian stars behind him. Always in a suit, he's sometimes smiling and raising his hand in a wave or assuming a relaxed, chilled out air, or even looking off to his left or right as if his attention had been momentarily distracted. On one occasion, I have seen him represented praying. Even though a secular-militarist state, it's no doubt wise for him to remind the Islamically sceptical of his piety.

As I walked through the centre of Deir Ez-Zur in search of an internet cafe I happened to turn round and see from an area I'd just been in moments before black smoke billowing from a roof beside a mosque. Gradually, the people in the streets took more and more notice. There having been no explosion, everyone assumed it wasn't that serious, even though it certainly looked dramatic. Along with a few other opportunists I voyeuristically preyed on the scene with my camera and walked closer to the scene, as the streets grew ever more crowded and noisy. Pretty quickly a fire truck arrived. A problem was that the door that led to the scene of the fire was locked and chained so the firemen had to force the door with an axe. The street's chorus exploded into cheers when they succeeded. Oddly enough, however, I'd noticed that by this time the smoke had stopped billowing so I've no idea what happened to the fire.