Editorial

Did it really need 17 killed in Damascus and anywhere between 14 to 40 injured for the West to realize that Syria was not bluffing when it repeatedly warned that it was under threat of Islamic fundamentalism?

All the terrorist attacks that failed in Syria since 2003 were not hoaxes invented by the Syrians to create a common enemy in “Islamic” fundamentalists with the United States. The blast took place just before 8 am on September 27, 2008, at the Sidi Miqdad neighborhood on the road to Damascus International Airport. Preliminary investigations proved that the blast was conducted by a suicide bomber, described as a “takfiri” through a GMC Sedan with a non-Syrian license plate (coming either from Iraq or Lebanon). If anything, it also proved that Syria had been right all along.

In the 1950s, the legendary Louis Armstrong the giant of American jazz music performed at the Damascus International Fair. The Damascenes swayed to the unforgettable melody
of his trumpet, welcoming him, then sending him off-stage, with a standing ovation. They liked the America of the 1950s, and nothing mirrored it more brilliantly than Amstrong’s charisma and talent.

Shortly afterwards, the director of the US Information Office in Syria, Harris Peel, came up with a brilliant idea. He decided to send Cinerama, which had never been shown outside the US, to the Damascus Fair, “to show America to the world.” The Cinerama gave a three-panel ultra-wide screen projection of motion pictures, all in panoramic view.
People did not watch it; they experienced it. The Damascenes were always hungry for American films, preferring action-filled Western thrillers of Hollywood to the mushy romantic flicks of French cinema. The Damascus Fair was just opening and slated as the biggest in the Midlde East.
A large outdoor theatre was built at the fairgrounds, and Cinerama opened on September 2, 1954, attended by 1,500 notables from Damascus, including then President of the Republic, Hashem al-Atasi. Those who could not get tickets to the show would climb trees and nearby rooftops to get a glimpse of this amazing American large screen spectacle. Injuries were a nightly event as un-ticketed fans fell from snapped branches to break arms and legs.

I can understand and fully sympathize with those who speak English with an Arabic accent, replacing their “P” with a “B.” The “P” after all does not exist in Arabic so from where they come from, it’s perfectly safe to say “combuter, Baris, and Eurobe.” A store near my office has a big sign saying any women’s hand-bag for “200 SB” (Syrian Bounds). Funny as it may sound, I both respect and accept that. They are speaking English with an Arabic accent, just like the Pakistanis, the Indians, or the French do when speaking English.

I claim to have no effectual bias in life, except one that favors entrepreneurs. It does not apply to business entrepreneurs only, but to everyone that has the unwavering spirit to start anything that can lead to positive change. Good intentions alone never clothed anyone. When asked to define entrepreneurship, I tend to avoid all the business language about market, opportunity, and risk, and the confusion of the many definitions of the originally French word. My answer has always made sense: entrepreneurship is the “art of the start,” and entrepreneurs are artists that see only a seed but draw a tree. Their vision and belief make them feel safe to commit the act of the start.