This was the day when President Assad gave a speech and several thousand of his supporters came bearing flags. Of course it was a heavily organised march. Those employed by the government (many people in this deeply beaurocratised country, where you can't so much as sneeze without getting a set of stamps and a form "to be filled out in triplicate") were out in force, as we’ll as schoolchildren, who had needless to say been bussed in from their schools by teachers.

Much as crowds might hustle and bustle in Leicester Square on the night of a film premiere, hoping to catch a glimpse of the latest film-star, it was clear that a view of President Bashar was the sole aim of many. Indeed, after his speech began, at one of the buildings of the University of Damascus, many people began to leave. I caught a glimpse of him, waving as he walked up the steps into the building. His speech, long but relatively simple to understand if you were in a place with decent sound (I was listening to it on my portable radio), went through the main issues currently facing Syria. I won't bore you with the details; you can easily find the full text in Arabic and English online (try the Syrian News Agency website).

Part of what was interesting, though, was the fact that so many people were there out of conviction, at the same time. I was reading Amin Maalouf's book On Identity at the time (started well, but eventual disappointment) so partly my thoughts reflect that stimulus. Those demonstrating out of personal conviction weren't (at least this is what I drew from my own conversations with demonstrators) doing so out of deep love for their President (we needn't go into why there might be antipathy here...) but merely as a reaction to a perceived (and it's not just perceived for sure) western aggression against their country. People who wouldn't normally spare it a second thought - such essentially nationalist beliefs - are now being forced into this view.

And it's their right to it, certainly. However the same ugly thoughts reared their heads in class a couple of days after the demonstration. One of our teachers, in an effort to get us to speak I tell myself, got very defensive (the image of a goat or ram backed against a corner is appropriate) about Syria: "take your freedom and democracy"; "we don't want it here"; "we're happy as we are" etc. Anyway, we eventually got talking about Hama (and the 1982 massacre by Syrian forces of some 10-20000 inhabitants of the city) and the teacher said in response to some comment or other: "I give thanks for those that died in Hama so that we don't now suffer their actions" (this in the context of the conversation that the teacher had previously alleged that many terrorists and bad people were living there). I don't really have any constructive comment in reaction to that, save to say that I think the teacher's previous comments must be viewed in the context of an imposed defence of ones country. People who wouldn't normally need or want to express such opinions...you know the rest.