The Question: Is Christmas a bigger event in your country than it was ten years ago? Is this a sign of Westernization or just commercialization?

I come from a particular country that is non-Christian, but where Christmas has been—and hopefully forever will be—a national holiday, celebrated freely by Christians and respected universally by Syrian Muslims. Bigger celebrations of Christmas—in my book—do not mean Westernization. Christmas came from over here after all, from the East.

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The Current Discussion: Australians are voting online for a "Word of the Year" from a list of new words to be included in the dictionary: among the frontrunners, "Chindia", "globesity," and "password fatigue." Create your favorite new word of the year that tells us something about trends in your country.

If it were up to me, I would promote the word “Syrianism!”

Some people, however, cannot even pronounce it—let alone promote it.

This word—the S-Word—runs contradictory to popular rhetoric in Damascus that dates back to 1916. For years, Syrians have been studying the elementary and high school curriculum of the veteran academic Sati al-Husari, an Arab nationalist who introduced the theme: Arabism First! For years “Syrianism” was taboo in Syria.

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The Current Discussion: For Valentine’s Day, this question: What is the future of love?

There are 12 marriages per 1,000 citizens every month in Damascus, according to official statistics. Yet the Syrian capital also has a staggering 40% divorce rate. That means that out of every 1,000 people who get married, 400 of them then get divorced. The divorce rate is much lower in outside Damascus, in Latakia (9%), Aleppo (8%), Hama (7%) and Raqqa (3%). This shows that the Damascenes are the first ‘to fall in love’ and the first to get an early divorce.

Why is that?

My argument always has been that Damascus is a city that does not celebrate real love, or lovers, despite the grand commercial celebrations we have copied—with zero understanding—from the West on Valentine’s Day. It champions a variety of other ideals, like chivalry, nationalism, Arabism, and entrepreneurship—but not love. At a grassroots level, and with few notable exceptions, people do not get married because ‘they are in love.’ They do it to settle down—because it is expected by family and society—or as some people say, only to have children. That argument, I believe, does the institution of marriage—and love—a great injustice. It dwarfs both and reduces marriage to a robotic sexual activity with one clear and defined objective: making babies.

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