FW: Guest

Honey al-Sayed, the inspirational host of Syria’s number one morning show “Good morning Syria,” is one of the most recognizable voices nowadays, in Damascus. Every morning, she charges the airwaves with enthusiasm and energy that last for an entire day.  As one of her fans says, “I listen to Good Morning Syria because it makes me feel behoneyd!”  Dedicated and enthusiastic about her work with al-Madina FM, Honey gives us an inside look at her life.

Peter Ford: I have never seen a people as welcoming as the Syrians

Peter Ford, the senior fundraising executive for the United Nations Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) based in Amman, is better known among Damascenes for being the former British ambassador to Syria. A seasoned diplomat with plenty of friends left behind in Syria, he lived in Damascus during the difficult years of 2003-2006, when Syria’s relations with the United States collapsed, and briefly with Europe as well. Never for a moment did Ambassador Ford lose faith in Syria or the Syrian people. He stood out in the diplomatic community as a European gentleman who was always willing to conduct dialogue and exchange ideas, no matter how seemingly outrageous they were to the West. An eternal optimist, he always spoke of better days for Syria, and promised that light always prevails over darkness, claiming that Syria shall overcome. Ford is currently responsible for UNRWA’s relations with Arab donors, working impassionedly for another people whom he greatly respects, the Palestinians. His bond to the Arab world dates back to the early 1970s, when he held diplomatic posts in Cairo and Beirut. Prior to his appointment in Syria in 2003, Ford was Britain’s Ambassador to Bahrain.

A Syrian businessman and civil engineer who worked in Kuwait for more 20 years, Walid Malas returned to Syria to become the owner of a successful wire and metal fabric manufacturing company, and an influential figure in the Chamber of Industry.
FW: spoke to Malas about the state of the Syrian market, some of his more controversial decisions, and the importance of quality as a measure ensuring the viability of Syrian products.
Walid Malas, an industrialist with vision who wants to see Syria move forward.

AUB graduates helped co-found Damascus University in 1923, and in the 1950s, its distinguished professor Constantine Zurayk became President of Damascus University. Zurayk also became president of AUB in 1954, and in 1988, another distinguished graduate, George Toemeh, became President of Balamand University in Lebanon. During World War I, Syrian students at AUB triggered and co-founded the early movement of Arab nationalism that strove to liberate Syria from Ottoman rule. One of the martyrs of May 6, 1916, hanged by Jamal Pasha, was an AUB graduate. Two AUB graduates had headed the underground movement against the Ottoman Empire in 1914-1918 and went on to head the underground movement under the French Mandate in 1920. In 1925, they co-founded the _first political party in post-Otto-man Syria. It was called the People’s Party and its founders were Faris al-Khury and Abdul-Rahman Shahbandar. Khury had studied mathematics at AUB; Shahbandar had studied medicine. Both had been instructors at AUB. Shahbandar became the leading anti-French politician of his generation in the 1920s and 1930s. Ten years later, Khury became the _first AUB Alumni to become Speaker of the Syrian Parliament, then Prime Minister of Syria. That same year, in 1945, another AUB Alumni became Syria’s _first Ambassador to the USA. Syrian AUB graduates worked at the White House with US Presidents like Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy. AUB graduates from Syria also engaged actively with 10 Downing Street, working with British Prime Ministers Clement Attlee, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, and Tony Blair. On the other side of the Cold War, they worked with Joseph Stalin and later Nikita Khruchev in the USSR, and Emperor Hirohito in Japan. On May 29, 1945, as Damascus was being air raided by the French, busloads of Syrian students from AUB came to Syria to meet with President Shukri al-Quwatli and offered their solidarity. Some AUB students even offered to take up arms against the French.

Sami Moubayed

When Daniel Bliss sailed to present-day Lebanon from Boston, Massachusetts, in December of 1855, he probably did not realize that for generations to come, he was about to re-shape the entire Middle East. He first founded a small school in Aley, then headed a boarding school in Souk al-Garb, finally establishing the Syrian Prostant College, which was later renamed the American University of Beirut (AUB), in 1866. The pioneering institute of higher education did wonders to the Arab World and had a profound effect on nearby Syria. Generations of leaders from throughout the Arab World, in politics, medicine, art, and business, studied at AUB. The Syrian AUB list includes Prime Minister Faris al-Khury, President Nazim al-Qudsi, and nationalists like Abdul-Rahman Shahabandar. The success story of AUB was made possible through the dedication and vision of its consecutive presidents, starting with Bliss and ending with outgoing President John Waterbury, under whose guidance, AUB was re-born after the devastating Lebanese Civil War. Among the list of AUB presidents are Malcom Kerr, who was assassinated on campus during the war, and the Syrian scholar Constantine Zurayk, who also served as Rector of Damascus University and contributed volumes of literature on Arab nationalism. Marching in the footsteps of towering academics like these is Peter F. Dorman, the new president of the American University of Beirut.

Growing up in Beirut, I was confronted with the realities of our civil war and the heated debates that accompanied it. I was far too young to make any sense of the chaos, the destruction, and the tensions that marred the city during that period. I asked many questions only to be told repeatedly “you’ll find out when you grow up.” These lingering memories and unanswered questions piqued my curiosity and made me always want to learn more about the complexities of the Middle East. As the war did not give any sign of letting up, and as I started spending more days in bomb shelters that in classrooms, my parents eventually sent me to a small school in Europe. I was uprooted and yet extremely privileged to escape the violence. When I arrived in Switzerland, I remember the stark difference between the two countries and wondered why there was war when peace seemed so easy, so natural. I went on to attend university in England, where I studied international relations. It was in the early nineties, when the first Gulf War was being waged, and for the first time, a war was being broadcast live on television. That is when I decided to pursue a journalistic career. And upon graduation, I landed my first job with a major Arabic-language newspaper.