This could easily be mistaken for the Four Seasons in Chicago except it’s Damascus and the man in the gray suit is waving a bomb detector around our taxi before letting us up to the entrance. The hotel cars are Mercedes, but Chinese made cars are very popular among the local population.
Rich Syrians are driving European cars and consuming European goods. At Villa Modern, a luxury boutique department store housed in a 450 year old house on Straight St. in the Old City, there is a profusion of labels straight out of any upscale department store in Paris or Milan – Fendi, Ferragamo, Dior. The chic saleswoman in a white hijab informs me the top seller there by far is Roberto Cavalli, followed by Gucci. “Arabic women like sexy” she says.
Syrians are overwhelmingly friendly in general and, it seems, very concerned about what Americans think of them. This despite the fact that real estate costs in Damascus has risen with demand from Iraqi refugees, both rich and poor, that have flooded the city over the years and strained the city’s services and infrastructure.
Also sadly, censorship appears to be very strong, especially on the internet. Attempts to log onto Facebook, Blogger and the like were blocked by SCS-Net. Further investigation reveals SCS stands for Syria Computer Society, a friendly looking website.





