Dear John,

In our last email, Adam shared how the first day of our trip was dedicated to seeing first hand how the people of Damascus are responding to the fall of Assad’s dictatorship.

We spent the whole day focused on filming and interviewing because the remaining days of our trip involved important meetings with advocate for freedom in Syria.

Today, I’d like to share with you some details about those meetings and the change leaders involved.

The Damascus Chamber of Commerce and the Damascus Chamber of Industry were the sites of many of those meetings with entrepreneurs, journalists, and government leaders.

Our friend, Dr. Mazen Derawan (the Syrian-American businessman Adam introduced you to in the last email), arranged for me to speak at the Chambers and to meet with their leaders. Mazen is a remarkable entrepreneur and has started wealth-creating companies in many countries. He practices and he preaches free enterprise everywhere.

We were also joined by some regional friends.

Dr. Nouh El Harmouzi joined us from Rabat, Morocco, where he’s the director of the Arab Center for Research (an Atlas Network partner) and Professor of Economics at Ibn Tufail University.

Dr. Patrick Mardini joined from Beirut, where he’s the founder and director of another Atlas Network partner, the Lebanese Institute for Market Studies (LIMS).

We were also fortunate to have with us Professor Mohamed Tamaldou, a former deputy prime minister of Morocco and a respected authority on freedom in the Muslim world and on the legacy of Ibn Khaldun, who discovered the "Laffer Curve" long before Art Laffer. (Higher taxes can so discourage economic activity that they generate lower, rather than higher, taxes.)

Each of us presented before the Chambers, making the case for limited government, pluralism, and free-market policies.

Numerous entrepreneurs were in attendance and contributed to a very spirited discussion on the issue of free markets. Mazen Derawan was especially impressive, as a Syrian businessman who was able to debunk one socialist and interventionist fallacy after another and leave the audience smiling and chuckling at his deft and diplomatic use of humor and good will to make the case for freeing enterprise and limiting state power.

It was extraordinary to see a free and civil discussion where such a thing would have been punished severely only two months earlier.

Many entrepreneurs stepped up on the spot to join the cause for limited government and free markets, which was vital to achieving our goal of establishing an independent, pro-liberty Atlas Network partner in Damascus.

Our team also met with local civil society and non-governmental organizations and student leaders.

Plus, we met with researchers who are publishing policy papers about Syrian economic challenges that are being commissioned by LIMS.

I’m proud to report that our meetings were highly productive, and we and our partners have a plan in place for the next steps.

I’ll share those details in the next email of our Journey to Syria series.

In Liberty,

Dr. Tom G. Palmer
Executive Vice President for International Programs
Atlas Network