Malls

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A few days ago Baba took me to a couple of malls. This is a new phenomenon in Syria. Apparently, after 9/11, when countries in the west penalized all Arabs by freezing their private bank accounts, Arabs looked for more hospitable places to invest. They found that Bashar’s Syria had become trade friendly. Add the fact that the local middle and upper classes were hungry for products and that many wealthy Gulf Arabs frequently vacation in Syria, and investors had the perfect recipe for a booming economy.

The malls vary from clusters of stores that were already located in one spot to full scale western style malls complete with food courts, game arcades, and escalators. Keep in mind that Damascus has been a center for trade for over two millennia. Souk Hamidiyyeh, and Straight Street are part of a labyrinth of markets that could easily be called the ancestors of malls. Of course there’s a difference. The old markets are adjacent to or inside khans (caravanserais), and therefore the street beneath your feet is dirty even if it is paved and you share it with whatever livestock was used to haul the goods to and from market. In today’s malls, the floors and walls are marble or look like it, and they usually have a parking garage too. Something most Americans will find unusual is that many malls here feature a supermarket (grocery store), some more super than others.

Cham City Center, a five story mall, is the nicest mall I've seen, here. Old Navy and Gap are out at another mall, and Kickers (mostly for kids) seems to pop up a lot. If you have the money, you can dress nicely and pretty fashionably without hitting the boutiques near Abou Roummaneh, or the comparative downmarket of Salhiyeh. It’s a big change from the plastic slippers and double knit polyester of my childhood, when quality “ready-to wear” clothing was hard to find.

I was tempted to Syrianize my look with this suit, but ankle-length skirts in 100º weather was too much for me to contemplate.

This is more my style.

Lost in translation, considering 99% of the people in the mall speak Arabic.

 

The other mall that is popular with my family is Towncenter, ironically located outside of town. It houses a giant supermarket and some clothing, electronics, and bedding stores. There is also a car dealership, and then an Arab style bakery named “Apple” in an adjacent lot.  

On cooler days, the shades in the windows of the bakery can go up, allowing patrons a view of the city.

That’s an elevator for cars! It’s a little creepy if you know the unreliability of regular people elevators in Syria.

 

Wow, can you tell it’s an election year?

 

By the way, there is no p or ch in Arabic. Vowels are different too. The Arabic equivalent of u, called wow, sounds like oo or w. The schwa sound is usually represented by a (alef). So, Punch translates to Arabic as "Bansh."

 In case you start to think everything in the west has been duplicated for your convenience, look closer. The Dairy case isn’t turned on; it’s just lit.

The freezers are turned on, but the boxes aren’t all labeled, so you won’t really know what you’ve baked until you bite into it.

This isn’t your typical corner market. So, rather than cartons or flats of eggs – flats are the norm in Syria – you can buy baskets of eggs. Really swank, but so expensive that they are likely to be rather old.

But, it wouldn’t be a SUPER market if it didn’t have everything, including things you can’t identify.

This is supposed to be for wine, or maybe tea? It would make for an interesting conversation piece, but if I bought this, I’d have to think for the rest of my life that I had better things to do with my money.

So, Syrians have put their own twist on the super market and the mall. I’m glad. As much as I like my western comforts, I’d feel robbed if I stepped into a real American grocery store in the middle of Damascus.

Saha!

[Cheers!]

 5/20/2007

My Old Neighborhood: Midan

I grew up in a conservative Muslim district of Damascus, Syria. On my last few visits to Syria, I've filmed interviews and scenery for documentary projects that are still in the works.

One time, strangely without my camera (probably because it was after dark and after 10 PM), my father drove me through the old neighborhood to satisfy my craving for real falafel. He told me that our old street (we've moved across town) has become known as "the kitchen of Damascus."

Like all of Damascus, the street comes to life after sundown when the air cools down. So all the stores open too. Late in the evening, expecting truckers and other late diners, the local vendors take over part of the street with tables for their patrons. We drove through one part of the street that had always been a fairly busy market, but now is teeming with eateries.

I realized as we passed that my Canon Powershot could shoot movies. Not being confident in its ability to shoot in low light, I only shot one minute and thirteen seconds, in the brightest part of the street. Of course I wish I had more and higher quality footage, but this is what I have and I'm sharing it with you. This is Damascus nightlife in an old neighborhood taken on November 8, 2010, before all the trouble began.

If you watch closely, you will see a candy store, a baker with hareesa and milk pudding out on a table, a nut roaster (see the metal drum on a pedestal?), a falafel and hummus maker, chicken roasters, an olive merchant, a small grocery store with sacks of rice outside, and several shawarma shops.

If you try to find this video on youtube you need to use the keywords Midan and food. If you only use Midan, the video is buried under loads of other videos. The title is "Midan: Kitchen of Damascus."

Enjoy!

http://youtu.be/6bd8e6wJ0n4

"The Syrian Bride"

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I had a wonderful surprise a while back, when I found the film The Syrian Bride. It's an Israeli-Arab collaboration, from director Eran Riklis, written with Suha Arraf. Its very existence is a testament to how common people feel about politics dictating their lives. All of the same issues that were present in Paradise Now are also in this film. In fact one of the lead actors, Hiam Abbass, was in Paradise Now. But this is a story of how people have come to deal with large scale adversities infiltrating their lives from ordinary daily moments to monumental events. It blew me away with its subtlety. I strongly recommend it.

My IMDb review is below:
As an Arab-American who spent her childhood in the shadow of the Israeli occupied Golan Heights, I found many memories from my childhood coming back as I watched The Syrian Bride. How ridiculously difficult the most simple task can become when politics enters the picture! Anyone who wants personal insight into the Israeli-Arab conflict, should watch this. It's about as realistic as it can get.

This seemingly simple tale is fraught with all the obvious and subtle problems of a family and a community living under the restrictions of international politics. Whenever it starts to seem trite, it will surprise you with some detail or twist that reveals a depth that is never allowed to show on the surface. The premise is simple: a bride gets ready for her wedding... Not so simple, apparently.

Is the policeman a heartless occupying force? Is the father an iceberg? Is a border officer capable of setting policy for his entire Nation? Can the hopes of one woman survive this emotional day? You'll explore these questions while you become attached to the characters engaged in this drama. The acting is seamless. The scripting is spare. The story is unique.

The bottom line is that you should see this movie. If you watch it on DVD, be sure to watch the extras. The film was shot in Arabic and Hebrew (with a smattering of French and English), with English subtitles. It seems like an unusual choice, but it is realistic for the region and gives the film an extra layer of reality. Sometimes the subtitles flash by too quickly, but that's my only complaint.

For an interesting article about a real Syrian Bride follow this link :
http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2007/03/just_like_syria_1.php

10/28/2011