Comments on: Traffic and Civilization in Damascus

By: Roberta

Roberta — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:52:58 +0000

Oh man your post reminds me of Egypt. I went there after Turkey (thinking Turkish traffic was disorganized), and was shocked. So I guess I can make a blanket statement now that Turkey is far more civilized than Syria, since we do in fact have lanes painted onto the roads (which everyone ignores).

:) Are you coming to Istanbul or what?

By: Brett

Brett — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:09:25 +0000

Europe? ‘Eib ‘aleik! You have never seen Piotrkowska street in downtown ÅÃ³dÅº, Poland, ya habib. Shu akhbarak? I suppose I don’t need to ask… it’s all here.

By: yaman

yaman — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:46:54 +0000

saint, I completely agree with you that the environmental issues are important and are best dealt with systematically. I was not really addressing those issues in my post, though they are indeed relevant to traffic.

By: saint

saint — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:02:00 +0000

The article is stark proof of despair in expecting good thing to come out of the City, the Country, and the System, and all that reflected in cover up for the problem and romanticizing it as folklore. I love to think the same with you Ayman from here from far away across the ocean. But the reality is something else. The number of Cancer cases in Damascus has been skyrocketed; the air quality is at it most worse and it is a direct cause to health problem. Actually, I discovered that the chaotic planning is gradually preventing leaving the minimal bases for support of life as we know it in that part of the world anymore. It is serious and studies need to be done to proof that if we love those left there. The recent import of Diesel green new busses is another proof that they keep missing the marks of changing direction to start cleaning the City at least by replacing the diesel buses with gasoline one, and this only apply to Damascus because of it geographic location where high western mountain prevent wind from cleaning the City.

By: Razan

Razan — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:54:46 +0000

oh :)
hope you’re enjoying yourself in Syria,

see you soon i hope,

By: yaman

yaman — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:59:41 +0000

Razan, I forgot a “not” in my final sentence ;-)

By: GOnads

GOnads — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:35:42 +0000

i once saw a baby die on a deserted road behind a cactus. it may have been in damascus. what say you

By: Wassim

Wassim — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:27:41 +0000

and why the hell does your blog always look so slick…

By: Wassim

Wassim — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:26:28 +0000

Bring on the chaos! I loved the mess, the noise and the disorder when I went there. Damascus is still free in that sense, without the imposition of some sham imported notion of ‘civilization’ that kills the spirit :-)

By: Razan

Razan — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:49:12 +0000

I think if I understood you right, one of the points you made is your disapprovement on the way people see the traffic problem as a lack of “civilization”, and i agree with you on that- I think “civilization” in this context is used in the western syntax of the word than in the local one.
Then you talked on how you see the traffic problem as drivers coming about the rules and the driving system (which is a point that discusses the “reaction” of people to the problem than the “problem” itself). and here’s where i disagree with you: i think the system in Syria (in general) is the no-system (not in the anarchic meaning of the word though ;-) and when there is one, it is on the expense of both of the drivers and the police officers -not to mention it is also on the street/road traffic. and this is not due to the lack of “civilization” of a culture or of society or any of the sort, it is part of the state’s structure itself, where a lot of its domestic policies lack tactics and strategies, that this decentralized policy is what produces such way of life that becomes a consciousness; be it in schools, universities, and the rest of Syrian institutions.
i think while i disapprove how some people look at from elitist/Western concerns, i think also we should recognize it is a problem that needs to be solved, to say it is not a problem i think it is a romantic way of seeing things hence it is also a western way of seeing it.
i think law is where we should start to solve this problem or any other problem in syria.
welcome to syria by the way :)and sorry for the long comment.