I asked Akrarm, the Angry Arab correspondent in Syria, to give me an update on the feel of Damascus. He wrote:
"I do not know how to express it accurately. But Let me tell you the following: Damascus residents live on a day-by-day basis. If the day went well, it's fine and tomorrow would take care of itself. We, all, know that the worst hasn't come yet but no one dare to talk about his expectations, in what seems to be a magical self-defense: If you didn't mention it, it, simply, doesn't exist. When someone hears an explosion, something very common these days, his immediate reaction would be: It's OK...It's just an artillery and It's so far. If Kofi Annan resigned, you would find someone saying: Never mind... It's nothing... Someone else will be appointed. People are stuck on the news tickers of the Syrian TV channels hoping that what they read about the achievements of the Syrian army in this city or that town is true and that Bahsar Al-Assad is still their president and not a commander of a criminal militia. Everyone says it's over, but in our deepest hearts we know it hasn't started yet."
"I do not know how to express it accurately. But Let me tell you the following: Damascus residents live on a day-by-day basis. If the day went well, it's fine and tomorrow would take care of itself. We, all, know that the worst hasn't come yet but no one dare to talk about his expectations, in what seems to be a magical self-defense: If you didn't mention it, it, simply, doesn't exist. When someone hears an explosion, something very common these days, his immediate reaction would be: It's OK...It's just an artillery and It's so far. If Kofi Annan resigned, you would find someone saying: Never mind... It's nothing... Someone else will be appointed. People are stuck on the news tickers of the Syrian TV channels hoping that what they read about the achievements of the Syrian army in this city or that town is true and that Bahsar Al-Assad is still their president and not a commander of a criminal militia. Everyone says it's over, but in our deepest hearts we know it hasn't started yet."
