Satellite dishes blossom like daisies on apartment blocks, mobile phones pop up everywhere like weeds and an Internet restaurant has sprouted in a 1775 Arab house in the old city.
Germinated by the Syrian Computer Society, founded by the President, Dr Bashar alAssad, the "Damascus Spring" of political ferment and debate is in full flood. Seven months after Dr Bashar took power, it appears that Syria may be the first country where political and economic change has been launched by the World Wide Web, the mobile phone and satellite-beamed global television. Syria has shed its 6,000-yearold "oasis mentality". The country is now embracing outside influences and reacting with the world instead of rejecting it. As the Oxford-educated chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dr Rateb Shallah, told The Irish Times: "The era of negativism is over."
Although reform and anti-corruption campaigns were initiated during the rule of the late president, Hafez al-Assad, it was his son, the 35-year-old Dr Bashar, who gave impetus to the flowering of democratic dialogue in his inaugural address last June. Since then, opposition politicians and intellectuals have founded "forums" in every town and city where lectures, discussions and debates on pluralism and a free society are held. In November a group of 99 intellectuals published in the foreign Arabic press an open letter to the President calling for the release of political prisoners.
Shortly thereafter 600 such prisoners were released and Dr Bashar ordered that Mezze prison be shut down and converted into a museum. In January 1,000 prominent figures signed a manifesto demanding the abolition of martial law, imposed in 1963 when the Baath Party took power. A few days later the Minister of Information, Dr Adnan Umran, announced that while the law remained on the books, it was "frozen".
At the end of the month, the veteran opposition parliamentary deputy, Mr Riad Seif, declared that he would establish his own political party. Meanwhile, the President's anti-corruption campaign moved forward with the investigation of three Baathist deputies and the replacement of three provincial governors. A sudden frost tinged the blossoms of dissent and dialogue three weeks ago when Dr Bashar warned the reformists against "any action threatening the country's stability". Dr Umran accused them of having contacts with foreign embassies, and 17 senior party officials toured the country to respond to the dissidents. In mid-February the forums were asked to notify the authorities when they intended to meet, the names of lecturers and the topics they would cover. Then, having somewhat chilled the atmosphere, the government stepped back again. Last Sunday leading members of the Friends of Civil Society group issued a second, moderate manifesto calling for human rights, the rule of law and transparency and debate. During an interview with this correspondent, Mr Seif, a burly businessman, stated categorically that the "forums" will not be disrupted by the government's attempt to regulate them. A new weekly satirical newspaper, al-Dumari, (the Lantern Carrier), which appeared on Monday sold out within the hour. It is the first independent paper in Syria since 1963. Meanwhile, businessmen watch things develop before deciding whether to repatriate the $80-100 billion held abroad, money which could make an economic miracle to accompany the "Damascus Spring".
