Day 41 Mohammed’s Birthday

SYNOPSIS:  Today is a national holiday – Mohammed’s birthday.  The blog is about nothing much.  Laundry.  Visiting Hassan’s building site.  A day of rest and some thoughts about pricing.GLOBAL ECONOMY – A MYSTERY TO THE LAY PERSONOn the occasion of Mohammed’s birthday, flags went up outside of mosques and in the souq areas.  But that was it.  I was disappointed.  I had hoped for some extra special events, a parade perhaps, I don’t know.  Ali told me that in very religious areas such as Aleppo and Damascus a lot of extra prayers would be said.  But in Tartus, there was none of it.  So, this is another blog about nothing much.  I will just share a few thoughts I have had over time on cost of living and pricing.Measured on salaries that are ½ or ¼ of what they are in the US, many things are still priced internationally.  For example, the notebook I bought for this trip for about $350, I found in a Syrian store also for $350.  Cars cost about the same here as back in the U.S.  Hassan said that about ¼ of a price of a car is “luxury tax” the government imposes.  That makes cars extremely expensive for locals.  But many people have cars.  Why?  Prestige, as Hassan explains.  He himself feels under pressure from neighbors, friends and family to have a car.  He hates the traffic, is a nervous man and does not want to drive, but soon he will get a car…  Go figure.   The same goes for furniture in homes.  Hassan pointed to most of his living room, well stacked with beautiful furniture.  I never use it – he said.  It’s just for show.Other things – for example cosmetic articles, packaged food, and clothes are so much cheaper than in Europe or the US even though the brand names are identical in some cases.  How can that be?   Why would the same bar of soap be 4-5 times more expensive depending on the place where it is sold?  What is the real production cost?  Who is making the profit?  What does that tell us about the international economy?  And then I look at the public transportation.  Microbuses here are even cheaper than anywhere else I have seen.  20 cents for a ride in town, 50 cents gets you 50 km outside of town.  That does not even pay for the gas, not to mention the driver, or the wear and tear of the car.  Who can operate such a system?  It’s baffling to say the least, at least for someone like me who has never had an economy class in her life.Today I went with Hassan.  We took the microbus to a nearby village to see his building site.  For three years he has been building a four story home – just for himself and a few guests.  For prestige?   It is way, way too big for him.  He has no family of his own.  Extended family yes, but no wife or children.  A bed and breakfast he said, if he can figure out how to have nice people visiting; not just anyone.  But definitely a place for all of his Lebanese relatives who are only a few miles away in Tripoli.  His lot is a good 3500 square meteres.  The house is built to last – construction principles completely unheard of in the US:  The core of the house is not wood but heavy clinker stones.  Over the clinkers go one to three layers of cement which ultimately will be painted.  The corners of the house as well as the window frames are accented with white polished sandstone.  All the floors will be polished stone as well.  A solid stone house of this size – I don’t even want to estimate the cost in the U.S.  Unaffordable, most likely.  His estimate:  $400,000.  That is high for Syrian standards, but completely amazing given the construction materials, the size, and the amenities.  Every room has a balcony and a spectacular view across the valley, all the way down to the Mediterranean cost, but most importantly – all the way to Lebanon, his home.  Each level has its own kitchen and bath.  And the house will have a central elevator as well.I caught up with sorting photographs at his place as he was directing and instructing the workers.  His neighbor is his cousin and before long, the place was crawling with children, his nephews.  He also has a puppy at the place which kept chewing on my pants.Since the originally sunny day turned into a cloudy, cold, and rainy one, I did not feel motivated to do more sightseeing.  There is an island off the shores of Tartus I was going to visit mainly to observe the ship building industry.  But today is a national holiday and most likely not much ship building would have been going on.  So, there was a slow day.  The laundry got done – most importantly, for a happy continuation of my trip.  Only three days are left in Syria.Good night.