No question about it, the world is becoming increasingly homogenised — not only, indeed not so much, in big things such as democracy and free trade as in small.
No question about it, the world is becoming increasingly homogenised — not only, indeed not so much, in big things such as democracy and free trade as in small. No snippet of news illustrates this more clearly than the ban on smoking in public places introduced last month in Syria. A few years ago, it seemed exotically health-conscious to legislate against the cigarette in Britain, let alone in nations across the Channel traditionally addicted to café society and dangling Gauloises. Now clearly it is only a matter of time before al-Qa’eda start putting up ‘Smoke Free Zone’ notices around their training camps in the wastes of Waziristan.
In Damascus, which we visited a matter of days before the new law came into force, this is going to have quite an impact. In local restaurants, it was still common to observe diners puffing away on a nargile (or hubble-bubble pipe) not just after a meal, but actually while they were eating. Mind you, such customs alter rapidly. When I was at university, a certain professor was noted for smoking between courses at college feasts, sometimes before other diners had finished their food. She was fond of a cigar.
Syria abounds in wonderfully preserved ancient ruins and crumbly Ottoman cities — but is doubtless not such a good place for opponents of the regime. The more sinister activities of the government internally and externally, however, don’t deter travellers. Though scarcely crowded with tourists, it is not unvisited either. We twice bumped into one group of British friends, meeting them again on the last day at the airport check-in queue.
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