Syria takes cold comfort from crisis

In one of the swanky luxury goods stores that have sprung up in Damascus, otherwise-idle shop assistants pass their days arranging and re-arranging $500 pairs of shoes and $600 handbags.

Even economic isolation is not shielding “rogue states” such as Syria from fear of the global financial crisis.

“I worry about it [the crisis],” says one of the shop girls, although she adds that it is not unusual for the store to be almost empty even during normal times, given that its goods are out of the price range of almost all Syrians. “Maybe our sales will go down and maybe some of us will lose our jobs,” she shrugs.