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By Brian Stoddart
As Syria confronts an doubtful destiny, a home in Damascus seeks to stability the Western view with the lives and perspectives of the typical humans dwelling within the world’s oldest carrying on with capital urban
Drawn from the author's reports happening instantly sooner than the 2011-2012 social and political upheaval, every one tale strains the previous urban of Damascus and its people's current throughout the earlier, shooting the common human aspect frequently lacking from the strategic and political debts.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brian Stoddart is an Emeritus Professor of los angeles Trobe college in Melbourne. expert as a social historian, he now works as a world larger schooling reform advisor in international locations similar to Lao PDR, Cambodia, Jordan and Syria.
www.professorbrianstoddart.com
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Additional resources for A House in Damascus - Before the Fall
Example text
And there was the smell of coffee. For once, the booking engine-identified boutique hotel outmatched its online promise. As it would turn out, most such establishments did in Damascus. This one had a small number of mostly small rooms apart from the one to which I was directed, up in the top corner looking out onto a little patio. Its interior was entirely Damascene with painted poles supporting the roof, with the cupboards and furniture done in similarly distinctive style. The stairs were steep, the absent bags an unexpected blessing.
For the most part, though, she held everything together back home while I lived this latest dream. I can never thank her enough for allowing me all my adventures while she sacrifices many of her own interests. Our daughters Kirsten and Laura, film producer/writer and international relations specialist respectively, themselves global citizens and travellers, were also great supporters of what became one of the best experiences I have had anywhere in the world. For that very reason and memory, it has been both difficult and sad to complete this book against the backdrop of the unfolding Syrian horrors of 2011 into 2012.
Somewhere around the Four Seasons hotel, however, a boy racer cut across in front of us, spurted forward then back out again in front of another car. His Kia had a throaty roar. For some reason Mr Sensible took immediate offence. He floored the accelerator, also slipped between two cars and set off in pursuit. Follow that car. He caught the racer near what was then still called the Dedeman Hotel but the boy spotted him in the mirror. We were jammed in on all sides, panels close to panels on either side, noses to tails front and back.