Support of moneyed merchants to Syrian gov't still

[Wallacee]

DAMASCUS, June 6 () -- Betting on a shift in the position of wealthy merchants in Syria to topple the administration has been strong since the outbreak of protests in the country. But, now and after 16 months, the idea has turned out to be pointless.Following the recent Houla massacre in central Syria that claimed the lives of more than 100, half of them children, and which the UN Security Council has partially blamed on the Syrian rulers, merchants in a number of remarkable markets declared a general strike to sketchily protest against the appalling event.The strike, despite unconfirmed reports that it was done under duress and coercion by some oppositional armed groups, was welcomed by the rebels and considered as an encouraging step on the road of a total breakup between the government and the moneyed classes.Footage posted on local websites showed shops having their metal blinds pulled down at al-Hamidya, Medhat Basha,discount true religion, al-Hariqa, al-Souf and Sarouja souks, which are considered among Damascus' top markets.However, the strike did not hold too long and most shops reopened after three days.Observers said that ahead of the crisis, the ranks of the working poor were affected dramatically as wealth increasingly became concentrated among a small group of tycoons who have had intermarriages with the ruling class.During the crisis, the middle class has specifically been hit hard,Christion Louboutin Evening, with rising unemployment and salaries that have not kept pace with climbing consumer prices.A report issued by the online Syria Politics Website said that the strike was, as a matter of fact, more of a reflection of the merchants' frustration about the general economic outlook, and that it had nothing to do with what happened in Houla.The report said that the well-off merchants of Damascus had announced a general strike in the 1960s to protest against nationalization but stopped short of doing the same thing when the mosques of the central city of Hama were bombarded in 1964 after the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood tried to ignite a revolution against the Syrian rule back then and attacked every vestige of Baath party.History repeats itself, the report said, adding that the economic crisis the country is experiencing and the sharp recession in the markets have led to a steep decline in the business of the shops in Damascus. Some other shops closed due to losses, not because of the strike, it said.The report said Syrian merchants are known to be pragmatic, noting that photos of late Egyptian President Jamal Abdel Nasser were hung in the heart of Damascus during the Syrian-Egyptian unity, but the photos were burnt when the unity broke up -- a move interpreted then by observers as reflecting the merchants' anger with drowning the Syrian markets with Egyptian goods.The report said those who participated in the strike were merchants "from the second and third degree," adding that the first-class Damascus businessmen, who had complained of the sparkling economic activities of Rami Makhlouf, the cousin of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, had soon accepted to be his partners at the Cham Holding Company, and none of them has taken part in the strike so far."They will not change their position despite their disapproval of the stagnant market," the report concluded.The Syrian opposition activists have long wooed merchants in Damascus and Aleppo, the two major Syrian cities,MBT Tunisha Womens Shoes, to turn against the administration and raised prospects that once their own interests are directly hit by the sputtering economy,www.louboutinshoestrade.com, they will not hesitate to do so.Observers, however, believe that the merchants' interests have actually been affected by the crisis, but their fears and uncertainties over what might come if the administration is toppled, are tantamount to their care about their own business.The economic outlook in the country after 16 months seems to be dimmer as Syrians experience a sharp shortage in fuel and cooking gas. Prices of consumer items skyrocketed and salaries did not follow suit.Yet, it is not expected that the moneyed class would repel against the current rulers,www.truereligionjeanstrade.net, at least in the short run, as they care about their own interest first and foremost, and the government is still able to soothe their concerns as of now.
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