New Year’s Eve in a Damascus Nightclub

By ⋅ December 31, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment
A view of buildings damaged by what activists said were missiles fired by a Syrian Air Force fighter jet loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in Daraya, near Damascus, December 29, 2012. (Photo: REUTERS/Kenan Al-Derani)

A view of buildings damaged by what activists said were missiles fired by a Syrian Air Force fighter jet loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in Daraya, near Damascus, December 29, 2012. (Photo: REUTERS/Kenan Al-Derani)

Through 21 months of fighting in Syria, a French ex-pat has refused to leave the country.

Instead, he runs a night club in Damascus.

Bar-owner Jean Pierre Duthion explains to host Marco Werman why he will host a New Year’s celebration there in spite of the dangers and sadness of war.

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Marco Werman: As we head into the new year, there isn’t a whole lot to celebrate in Syria, even in the country’s capital. Amateur video posted online today shows civilians desperately fleeing what appear to be air strikes on the outskirts of Damascus. Anti-regime activists say more than 45,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar Al-Assad began in March 2011. The fighting has evolved into a full scale civil war, with scores of armed groups across the country fighting the regime. Rebels have made gains in recent months, but few expect the war is going to end soon. Naturally, most ex-pats have left the country, but a few remain. Among them is Jean Pierre Duthion. Among other activities, the Frenchman also owns a nightclub and lounge. Not only does Duthion refuse to leave the country, he’s keeping his place open for business, and he’s on the line with us from Damascus. So what are you offering at your nightclub, Pure Lounge, tonight for New Year’s Eve?

Jean Pierre Duthion: Today, you have to understand, like most of the bourgeoisie and the elite of Damascus left the country, so definitely we adapt our offers. For $25 you have an open bar, and for something like 15 bucks you can have like four alcoholic drinks. We have a deejay, like every night, and we got some special champagne bottles and stuff like that.

Werman: So you’ll be heading into work shortly. If it’s not the elites who you expect exclusively at Pure Lounge tonight, who will be there?

Duthion: I will tell you something, like I am always answering the same thing. The people who are suffering during the day time are the same who are going out at night to have fun. We don’t talk about two different kinds of population. Of course, the people who are going out, they are mostly living in the downtown or in suburbs where they are now not so much suffering from the attacks and from the [xx] and from the bombings. But people who are going out, they are trying to, to try to escape from the reality, and they are trying to send a message that they are still alive.

Werman: So sort of having a New Year’s Eve party is not kind of contradictory to what’s happening in Syria right now for many of your clients, it sounds like.

Duthion: I will tell you something, my child. The people who are coming tonight are mostly like workers, employees, middle-class people, so you can’t deny them the right of going out and having fun. They have suffered so much this year. So some people that are criticizing the fact that people are going out and they are like, we all have to suffer and stay at home. But at the end of the day, that is not a solution. Because we talk about a New Year’s Eve party, eh? It’s like five, six hours maximum, so during five hours in one month, or maybe for some of them in one year, it’s their right to decide like, enough pain, and it’s time just like to see each other, to feel like they are alive and to have fun.

Werman: Aren’t people afraid to stay out late these days in Damascus? I mean, especially tonight, you want to stay up past midnight, don’t you?

Duthion: I will tell you something, we will be open at midnight and we will celebrate the new year at midnight and people who are going out, they are really courageous, because you have a lot of checkpoints, you have sometimes some fights on the road, so they are really taking the risk of getting hurt, of maybe being killed. But at the end of the day, it’s not the solution to stay at home, because you can’t imagine the fact of having a lack of fuel, of electricity, maybe losing your job. And if you have to stay at home and not have the right even to go out, people really go crazy.

Werman: Right. So I’ve got to ask you, Jean Pierre, what keeps you going? You have to go to Pure Lounge every night and open it up and stay till the last customers leave. I mean, you’re taking a pretty big risk there yourself.

Duthion: I will tell you something. We opened the lounge between 10 months ago, 11 months ago, so we [xx]. Almost since beginning I didn’t make cash out of it. If we talk about the investment and the assets we put at the beginning, no way in hell, with what we are doing for months are we going to get back the cash that we put in this place. I’m working with [xx] on the [xx] lately, like one of my main jobs, but this lounge is for me a symbol. Like I’m sure people are really glad to have a place they find open every single night, offering them the feeling like things are still normal. When everything around you is becoming a tragedy and everything is becoming complicated and a drama, having a place that you feel like life is still normal there, it’s priceless.

Werman: Jean Pierre Duthion, who runs a night club in Damascus called Pure Lounge. He’ll be live tweeting the ringing in of the new year there. You can see his tweets and join the conversation at TheWorld.org. Jean Pierre, very nice to speak with you. Thanks for your time.

Duthion: Any time, it was a pleasure.

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