Beirut blog

let's not say adieu but rather aurie vorie

2005-06-11T21:15:00.000+03:00

I'm done with one of my papers and still working on the other, which I'll e-mail from France. Today I bummed around town with some friends and ended up spending the afternoon on AUB's campus, watching cats and eating cake.

I'm leaving Beirut tomorrow morning, which hardly seems fair. I feel like the last 2 weeks I've been here have been completely stolen from me by paper obsessed professors. I guess I should have said goodbye a half month ago, but you can't look back. The last, most constested round of elections are tomorrow, so I'm kinda leaving right as things are heating up. Typical, I guess. I spent last night doing a girl's henna, so my hands are completely brown. Which is funny.

I'm looking forward to seeing my family in France and my brother in New York, but it's difficult to leave a city where you've lived for the last 5 months. Everyone here says that they'll see you again, but aside from a handful of people I think it's mostly goodbye forever. It's sometimes frustrating that that's not acknowledged by those around me, but I can understand it.

I'll be sad to leave my 9th floor (8th in Beirut, they don't count the ground floor) apartment (except, of course, for the nasty kitchen and bathroom), the cats, the nuts and orange juice, the balmy nights and the blistering days, the ocean, the fashionistas and fashionistos strutting down Hamra, the middle aged guy I buy my Almaza beer from, my Almaza beer, George and Jared next door, Naira and Elaine, Saed and company, everyone, the countryside, the cities and whatever else crossed my path.

I'll be in Los Angeles starting on the 22nd or the 26th or something and staying until the end(ish) of summer. So I'll be around.

I've flip flopped ending this with a Khalil Gibran (Lebanon's favorite literary son) poem for a while. I suppose, despite the cliche, I'll do it. Here goes:

"How shall I go in peace and without sorrow? Nay, not without a wound in the spirit shall I leave this city.

Long were the days of pain I have spent within its walls, and long were the nights of aloneness; and who can depart from his pain and his aloneness without regret?

Too many fragments of the spirit have I scatterd in these streets, and too many are the children of my longing that walk naked among these hills, and I cannot withdraw from them without a burden and an ache.

It is not a garment I cast off this day, but a skin that I tear with my own hands.

Nor is it a thought I leave behind me, but a heart made sweet with hunger and with thirst."

..//Over and out.

The prodigal blogger (semi) returns

2005-06-07T18:53:00.000+03:00

Syria was amazingly beautiful. I bought a carpet and got food poisoning. We started off in Damascus for a few days, wandered around the souks (markets for all you ignints), saw the Grand Mosque, partied at the nightclubs in the Christian Quarter (where dress and dancing was requisitely scandalous), went to the National Museum and enjoyed narguila and tea in the Old City. After two days in the capital we hopped a night train to Aleppo, cruised around its souks (which are small, warren-like, the size of 8 or 9 city blocks and hellishly easy to get lost in. Confusing, but in a really beautiful way) and the enormous crusader castle that towers above the city. We hit up the hammams (arab bath houses) in Aleppo due to the fact that we were not, in fact, staying in a hotel (we took the next night train back to Damascus). Half of us ended up in Jordan, I threw my guts up on the train and we argued with an old one legged Syrian man in the bus station who spoke perfect, curse-riddled English and kept saying that I needed to be more "fresh." In other words the trip was a roaring success.

In the meantime a prominent member of the press here got assassinated (probably for his anti-Syrian views), the Opposition officially cast Aoun out, the Hizbollah/Amal coalition completely swept the South despite still being labeled a terrorist organization by the United States, scattered violence is breaking out in contested electoral quarters, motorcycle parades are everywhere and just about everyone except the General seems to be calling for Lahoud's immediate resignation.

Oh, and I have a HUGE paper on Nasserism's rise and fall due in 2 days. And another due as soon as possible after that. And I'm leaving in five days. And I need to pack.

Life! Is! Exciting!

Syria!

2005-06-01T21:49:00.000+03:00

I'm going to Syria tomorrow. I'll be gone until Sunday. Because I CAN.

bleagh

2005-05-31T20:18:00.000+03:00

No updating despite historic elections is due to massive papers. Sorry.

As for the elections... hm. By the time they actually rolled around everyone seemed pretty well sick of them, aside from the people driving around with loudspeakers and handing out buttons, of course. They're staged, so this is only the first round. Saad Hariri's victory, however, was pretty much a given from the start. Most of the Beirut seats his coalition won were unopposed.

The difficult thing to swallow in these elections is the lack of platform of most of the politicians and coalitions. Hariri's campaigning on a kind of vague "get rid of [Syrian] corruption and punish whoever killed my father" ticket and he's definitely got the most coherent statement of the bunch. There's really no... issues at stake. Somehow this makes all the trumpeting of these free elections somehow sound kind of to me.

Aoun, meanwhile, is blaming Hariri's sweep on the "petrodollar." More fun as the rolling elections just keep on rolling.

craaazy!

2005-05-28T13:26:00.000+03:00

The beginning of the elections are tomorrow! Aoun's alliance with Arslan leaves Chamoun out! Chamoun shifts sides to the Jumblatt-Hariri alliance! I'm getting very little sleep!

countdown

2005-05-26T21:59:00.000+03:00

Liberation Day came and went in Lebanon. In the course of his speech, Nasrallah revealed that Hizbollah has "12,000" long range missiles ready to fire on northern Israel if that country undertakes large aggressive military action in Lebanon again.

He also told his audience that he had met with Hariri a week before his assassination and that the former PM had told him that he was firm in his support of Hizbollah's continued possession of arms. This, of course, is a move to legitimize Hizbollah's defiance of UN Resolution 1559. Hariri's name carries a lot of weight these days.

Lastly, Nasrallah declared that Hizbollah had entered into an electoral pact with Jumblatt, Hariri and Amal Movement. This leaves the General, who'd been courting Hizbollah recently, out in the cold. Accordingly, Aoun has turned to Arslan and Chamoun for support. Fight! Fight! Fight!

Slugging it out

2005-05-25T18:08:00.000+03:00

The Aoun-Jumblatt rift is looking permanent. Jumblatt and Hariri, meanwhile, are fielding a joint ticket. Aley-Baadba district is becoming a focal point for the schism in the opposition as both sides gear up for making it the key electoral battleground. Aoun himself is running in Kesrouan-Jbeil.

Aoun also just managed to get on the cover of more than a few newspapers by comparing himself to Alexander the Great. Hooray for megalomaniac ex-generals. Whoo. Election posters of Saad Hariri frequently have him standing in exactly the same pose as a few of his father's pictures. The message is clear: Saad Hariri is the same man as his father, except with a rakish beard.

Elections are fun!!!! Papers and finals? Not so much.

Los Bros Warneros

2005-05-24T14:50:00.000+03:00

Toby came, Toby went. We saw Sour, Sidon, Baab Fatima (the border with Israel, The red roofed settlements on the other side are easily within a 5 minute walk... except for the huge fence and wall), Chateau Beaufort (an IMMENSE crusader castle perched on a cliff that the Israelis, then Hizbollah used as a base) and the notorious SLA torture prison in the South. We saw the Jeita Grotto (something like the second biggest cave complex in the world), the Telefrique (gondolas that take you from the Jounieh coast up into the mountains), Jbail and the markets of Tripoli in the North. We went through the Kadisha valley into the Bekaa and saw Baalbeck, the famous "Heliopolis", city of the sun. The ruins there are massive, supposedly bigger than those in Italy itself, and very extensive. We hit up the Beirut nightlife and we hung out at the Hamra house parties. The amount of stuff you can pack into a week here is staggering. Of course now that he's winging back to the states, I have to actually start working again. Finals are closing in on me like a pack of hungry tigers.

Meanwhile in politics land things are going to pieces. What was formerly considered the "Opposition" has fragmented into three groups. The first are the Aounists, the Free Patriotic Movement. Second, there's those still loyal to the Opposition's former leader, Walid Jumblatt. The last faction is led by Saad Hariri, Rafik Hariri's son.

Aoun's got the image of the returning leader. Jumblatt still speaks for the Druze. Almost every single election poster for Saad Hariri has his father's image on it, photoshopped to stand behind his son. The three of them met recently to try to hammer out some sort of alliance, but it seems doubtful that any of them would be willing to budge too much.

Saad Hariri is set to sweep Beirut outright since it's political suicide to run against the ghost of his father. Jumblatt and Aoun are squaring off over Baabda-Aley district and Amal movement and Hizbollah are allying to form a Shi'ite block. The elections are days away. Madness.

Tigers also don't actually live in packs.

a day from hell

2005-05-16T22:16:00.000+03:00

So my brother is actually not coming in tonight. He's LEAVING tonight. He's ARRIVING tomorrow. This would have made a big difference if I'd made that distinction. Today I had the awesome pleasure of:

1. Nearly vomiting all morning because I took two vitamin pills instead of one.
2. Having the printer eat my printing card when I try to print some comics.
3. Losing my driver's card (found).
4. Dropping my keys down the elevator shaft, never again to be seen by the eyes of men (luckily George had a spare "I'm a doofus and lock myself out of my own apartment" key that I'd given him.
5. Opening a bag of nuts to have it explode all over my kitchen.
6. Getting ripped off by taxis to and from the airport.
7. Waiting for Toby for 4 hours. Freaking out. Having communication problems with security guards. Buying an internet card to check his flights ($11), having said internet card die after I send one frantic e-mail to my parents. Calling friends in a frenzy and forcing them to deal with yours truly in full super freak out mode.
8. Developing massive headache from not eating or drinking because of a crippling fear that my brother is drowning somewhere in the ocean.
9. Having the lights go off in the elevator, forcing me to make the already creepy 8 floor ascention with complete strangers who have a bizarre armpit stench even worse by making it pitch black.
10. Being attacked by giant bugs as I write this. GIANT.

Arg.

So. Toby's coming tomorrow, then. woo.

Mi Bruddah

2005-05-16T10:26:00.000+03:00

Toby's coming tonight. Sorry for the lack of updates over the past few days, I've been working working working.

The plan of attack is to stay in Beirut for a few days. We can go to the nightclubs and bars that put this city on the map, stroll along the Corniche and act snooty in cafes. Thursday night or Friday morning we rent a car and go south to Sidon, Sour and Bab Fatima. Friday night we go back to Beirut to sleep. Saturday we head north, possibly going to the grotto and the gondolas on the way, spend some time in Tripoli and then sleep in Kfar Hezzir at George's house. Early the next morning we drive up through the mountains, see the Cedars, come down on the other side into Bekaa and go to Baalbeck. That night we head back to Beirut directly through the mountain pass. Monday is "chill out day."

So I won't be updating this until next Tuesday unless something major happens that absolutely needs my expert commentary. In other words, the chances are slim. For now, the brothers Warner take on Lebanon.

tick tock

2005-05-12T09:29:00.000+03:00

Time, in general, is running out. Papers are piling up, my brother is flying into town and I'm leaving the country within the space of roughly a month. The elections are racing closer and, it seems more and more, nothing has been resolved. The Lebanese Unity that was being praised to the skies a month and a half ago has eroded into an atmosphere of infighting and sectarian lines once again. Geagea's supporters are some of the only ones left in the Tent Village. They want their leader. The Aounists got their man back, so they figure it'll even things out. They talk about uniting the two once the old boy gets out, but I'm really not so sure anymore. Geagea and Aoun fought a bloody, bloody battle for control back at the end of the war and I'm not positive anybody's quite as forgiving as they seemed to be.

Yesterday, the Maronite bishops issued a public statement violently attacking the 2000 election laws, which are looking more and more concrete every day. Many people are beginning to call for a delay in elections before groups begin boycotting them. Jumblatt's pretty much fallen from grace due to his support of the 2000 laws (Aoun didn't even mention him in his returning speech. But he also didn't mention Hariri. He mentioned himself though) and the General's getting pretty close with Hizbollah, despite enormous differences in just about everything.

Lebanese politics. Oh man.

I ain't got no tailpipe

2005-05-09T15:39:00.000+03:00

Too much work, too many people, too little sleep. Aoun managed to not get himself assassinated, despite the apparent attempts by two or three gun toteing (toting?) madmen in the crowds. There's about equal measure Aoun and Hariri posters plastering everything at this point, although the Hariri ones are starting to show their age a bit. A lot of very excited people really liked talking a lot about how much this all was like the return of DeGaul to France. Not so much. Maybe I'm just cranky though.

High points:

1. The color of Aoun's old party is a day glow orange, the same color as the organizers of Outdoors festival were wearing. People got very confused. Never mix rock and exiled Lebanese strongmen.

2. When he first appeared, people went so batshit with the cheering and singing that the General's first words on Lebanese soil were, according to a few people, "Shut up!" Tee hee.

Geagea's status: Still, in fact, in prison.

Days in May

2005-05-07T15:08:00.000+03:00

The trend of bombs exploding in Christian suburbs whenever I attend dinner parties continued last night. The bomb in Jounieh marks the first break in a long, pretty peaceful period. At this point the toll is one dead and six wounded. I'm not sure whether to interpret this as a warning shot against Aoun's return or not, but security is supposed to be top notch today. Aoun is new blood (well, old new blood) in a political system that thrives on grudges, continuity and alliances. No matter what happens, his coming back in-country is gonna give things a little shake-up.

Today is also "Outdoors Fest" which is AUB's equivalent of Slope Day for all of you Cornellians and a giant outdoors concert for all of you who ain't. Thus, I've been reading late 60's critiques of Nasser's Arab Socialism to the blaring background of Lebanese student rock bands. My friend's singing at 3:45, so I've gotta wrap this up rather soon and get outta the library.

the woodwork

2005-05-06T14:10:00.000+03:00

Aoun's back tomorrow. The warrant on him has been called off by the Criminal Court. The General is, indeed, coming back to town. People are flipping out.

Also, the elections are going to be held on time, probably under 2000 election law. That's a pretty problematic thing, since those conditions are seen as favoring the loyalist pro-Syrian camp. There's been some vague talk about a boycott of elections, but nothing concrete yet. The problems with the standing elections law is basically an issue of jerrymandering. As it is, the voting districts are large, which marginalizes the mostly anti-Syrian Christian parties. The changes called for in the electoral law would shrink the existing voting districts, but nobody can quite agree how. Jumblatt's moving towards accepting the 2000 law, which would constitute a major break with the rest of the Opposition.

In Geagea news, his release is still being negotiated along with the usual massive downtown protests. My friend Munir thinks that there's no way that they'll get him out before the election, but I'm not so sure. I tried to make him bet me on it at a party Wednesday night, but he wouldn't commit. The conclusion, as always, is who the hell knows.

Toby's coming soon, which means super Lebanon road trip.

Sorry for using the word "prison" and its derivatives so much last entry. Oops.

Petra et cetera

2005-05-04T17:15:00.000+03:00

Jordan was amazing. Petra broke my heart. If you ever get the chance to go there in your life, do so. Damn the tourists, damn the kitschy donkey carts and damn the Indiana Jones movie, it's one of the most amazingly beautiful things I've ever seen in my life.

In local news, today's the last day that electoral law can be passed if the elections take place on the 29th. By tomorrow we'll see whether this happens or not. I have to go to Arabic tutoring right now, but in other news, Jumblatt's falling from grace in the Opposition, the tent city in Martyr's Square has split (the Druze and the Sunnis left, saying that they consider their demands to have been met. Those who remain are mostly assorted Maronite factions) and Geagea (former leader of the disbanded Lebanese Forces, widely either intensely hated or loved and responsible for quite a few atrocities during the civil war) is probably going to be freed from prison before the election. He's pretty much the only militia leader/warlord from the civil war left in prison and it's a complicated reason why. Everyone was being tried and pardoned while Karami, the former PM who just resigned again, was serving his first term as Prime Minister. Karami accuses Geagea of personally murdering his brother and, out of revenge, kept him imprisoned while everyone else flew the coop.

Oh, and Aoun's still coming back. Sometime.

One piece at a time

2005-05-03T18:29:00.000+03:00

I'm back from Jordan. I'm alive. I have stories. I also have a paper to write for tomorrow so they aren't going up here for a little bit.

...I stole a pen from the Syrians at the Jordinian border. I hope this doesn't put me on any international death lists.

scattered news

2005-04-27T13:27:00.000+03:00

Syria completed its withdrawal from the Bekaa valley, which means its army is now out of Lebanon.

George bought me some Arabic comic books in Tripoli while he was getting his visa renewed.

I'm going to Jordan tomorrow morning at 5:30am. More stamps on my passport.

staying in the city

2005-04-25T12:58:00.000+03:00

I didn't end up going to Syria this weekend because my friend Jared, who I was planning on travelling with, was going to take the foreign service exam. Only later did he realize that he'd comprimised himself already in the background check for long and complicated reasons. So instead I spent the weekend flitting about in the city. A good time and little sleep was definitely had. On sunday I went to the National Museum (the only museum, Beirut is a city of ONE park and ONE museum), which was very cool. I bought a comic history of Lebanon in french in the gift store, which I consider to be an amazing find.

The Armenian Genocide remembrance events are going on here. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go learn about one of the biggest unrecognized genocides in history. While the holocaust was immense, there were atrocities that preceeded it that don't get the attention they deserve.

Tonight I'm going to a lecture on lesbianism in the Arab world. It sounds fascinating. I'm leaving for Jordan on Thursday. I still need to come up with research for about five hundred papers or so, but whatever. Who actually DOES work anyway?

new cabinent

2005-04-19T12:46:00.000+03:00

Najib Mikati, the Prime Minister elect replacing Karami, just issued a statement that he has formed a cabinent. This could mean that the elections will actually be held in May. Aside from that, and the fact that the bombings seem to have stopped (although I don't want to jinx anything), there's nothing much else goin' on.

Rambling

2005-04-18T16:03:00.000+03:00

I was up in the Koura again over the weekend for a party at George's house in Kfar Hezzir. If the mark of a good party is several people voluntarily shaving their heads down to the skin then this one was great. I kept my 'do though and the next day George, Jared, Anya and I went up into a valley near the mountains. The waterfall there was immense due to the melting snow and George and I chased a herd of goats around a campsite for a while. After taking about 30 pictures of goats (goats are so cool, you have no idea) we booked it back to Beirut.

News of the day is that Bassel Fleihan, the MP injured in the explosion that killed Hariri, died from his wounds today. This has energized the people that were lagging a bit, but it doesn't have immense immediate political importance. Everybody's putting pressure on Lahoud to hold elections on time (which might mean that they're held when my brother Toby visits me, which would be... exciting for him).

I'm planning on probably going to Syria next weekend if things work out, and then almost certainly to Jordan the weekend after that, for the second spring break (since both Maronites [who count themselves Catholic] and Orthodox have a strong presence in Lebanon, and celebrate different Easters, there's two breaks). Coupled with going up to the Koura at the drop of a hat, I think this makes me something of a jetsetter. I'm not actually taking jets to any of these places though, so maybe I can be a carsetter instead.

meltdown!

2005-04-14T10:21:00.000+03:00

For a country without a government, we ain't doin' half bad. Karami, the Prime Minister, once again resigned. This is the third time he's resigned from the government and the second time in 2nd time in 3 months. He doesn't exactly have a stellar track record at this point.

Despite the Daily Star's calling this a "step closer to political meltdown" nothing seems to be all that different. Karami wasn't getting anything done during the time he was reappointed. He failed to form a cabinent and pretty much everyone just kind of forgot he was even there. Most of his time in office was spent dealing with the dogfight the various pro-Syrian/Loyalist MPs had gotten into over cabinent posts. This bodes ill for timely elections next month, but given the international outcry that's waiting in the wings if they're delayed, I can't really see them being put off too much.

Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War. It's one of, if not the, biggest holidays in Lebanon and represented the culmination of "National Unity Week." Ahmed and I caught a taxi downtown to check out the festivities, which were a lot like Sunday night, only with more fog machines, more people and a hell of a lot more street vendors selling Lebanon buttons, hats and t-shirts. I resisted the urge to buy some and turn the country's struggle for independence into stateside kitschy accessories. After a coffee, Ahmed and I parted ways and I zipped back to Hamra to watch French New Wave films and drink beer.

oops.

2005-04-12T10:58:00.000+03:00

I really do mean to update more than twice a week. Midterms and papers are here, however, and a student's gotta work despite domestic turmoil.

Went downtown on Sunday night for the enormous Take Back the Night festival that's been going on in Solidaire. All stores and cafes have slashed prices from 15% to 50% in an effort to draw Beirut's residents back out into the streets at night. If the crowds were any indication, the plan worked. There were more people there than I'd ever seen downtown, even before the Hariri assassination. This proves, I guess, that bargain hunting totally wins out over the threat of explosive death any day. Sarcasm aside, it was really good to see the commercial areas of this city really bustling again. The businesses there have been hit pretty hard over the past 2 months and I'm glad that they were able to recoup some of their losses. There was an enormous festival in Martyr's square with pop singers, smoke machines, flashing lights and even a photo exhibit to top it all off. At 11pm on a Sunday night the experience was more than a little surreal.

There hasn't been a major explosion here for quite a while at this point, which is certainly making people more comfortable. Syria's talking more and more seriously about withdrawing and quite a few analysts are predicting the collapse or reform of the regime there as a result of this. The loss of revenue from Lebanon and the redeployment of all of those troops has got to lead to some sort of change, whatever it actually is.

holy international investigations, batman!

2005-04-08T12:41:00.000+03:00

The UN Security Council has authorized an international investigation into the assassination of Hariri. I suppose this means that all those "Al-Haqiqa" (The Truth) stickers and shirts everyone's been sporting might actually lead to some much needed Haqiqa in Lebanon.

There's been no bombs for a few days which either means that we're due or that they've stopped. Regardless, people have been noticable calming down. The general situation remains tense, but nowhere near any kind of breaking point.

I went to my friend George's art opening at the UNESCO Palace yesterday. I'd seen all of his photography before (it's good), but hadn't really studied his paintings in detail. He's a talented guy and it was nice to see a large turnout there. He was showing work that was inspired by his stay in Yemen last year filtered through his lingering indentity questions about being an Arab-American in the Arab world. The Yemeni ambassador and the president of Yemen Airlines showed up at the function, which was really great. A tad too much wine was consumed, but I met some fascinating people in the process. The event was a blast and hopefully he'll be able to parlay this into other shows either in Lebanon or in the states (I was in the tiny 9 point type list of people thanked too! Fame!).

A quick update

2005-04-05T15:11:00.000+03:00

I spent an interesting Sunday interviewing one of the 10 or so people who held a PhD in Lebanon in the 50's. He told me a wonderful story about the Allied troops stationed near his village during World War 2 and then he, George's uncle and I talked politics, religion and sectarianism. It was fascinating.

George and I came back to Beirut via the most frightening taxi-bus I could imagine. It was raining torrents outside the car and he was switching lanes, tailgating and actually zooming between cars like his life depended on it. Meanwhile, however, our lives depended on him and he managed to get us to central Beirut in one piece. He refused to give us change, though, and zoomed off when we objected.

Monday passed quietly except for a police roadblock set up below my apartment, which made the evening interesting. George came over with pictures from the trip, most of which turned out really well. Of course, he's a photographer with a show this thursday, so that shouldn't really be surprising. Had dinner with Saed, but everyone, including me, is beginning to be bombarded with work.

april fools

2005-04-03T13:30:00.000+03:00

The biggest prank this april fool's day was convincing people that there had been another bombing. I even fell for one that planes had been blown up on the tarmac. Then there was a bombing in Broumanna, another Christian suburb. Black humor sometimes bites back at you. At least seven people were injured, but none killed. It was the smallest bomb so far, but it was also in a mainy residential area (although it actually went off in a shopping center). So far the explosions have been in commercial sectors and it's a very worrisome development if that shifts. The attack was followed by the now routine calls for solidarity and non-factionalism in the face of these attempts to destabilize the country.

I'm back in Kfar Hezzir, interviewing old Orthodox people and hanging out with George's mother (in from Boston to visit family here and go to George's art show next week), so I'm worlds away from Beirut right now. Internet time is limited to a dingy netcafe here, but I'll be back in the 'root by tonight.

Also the Pope passed on in case you managed to not hear the news.

hmph

2005-03-31T13:53:00.000+03:00

Haven't updated in a while because of internet problems. Hopefully this post'll go through and they'll be solved. Sorry to leave you with that last melodramatic post, but what can I do? I was peeved.

There hasn't been another bomb since the last post, although Beirutis cynically have been saying that they've been separated by 3 to 4 days, so we're coming due. Karami, the Prime Minister, is resigning again after failing to form a coalition cabinent, which is once again exciting the Opposition. One of the smartest professors I know is predicting that Hizbollah will disarm before the year is out and completely throw their weight into the political ring. I'm not taking any bets, but it'll be interesting to see whether his statements are proved true or not.

Things are once again tense, but calm here. I'm in the middle of drawing another comic and growing a beard that makes me look like the sherrif of nottingham. I might shave soon depending on the reviews it gets (positive so far).

events

2005-03-27T13:58:00.000+03:00

I'm back in Beirut briefly before heading up to Tripoli and then to the Bekaa tomorrow. On friday George, Jared and I drove down to Sidon and Tyre (which is gorgeous, although the amount of Hizbollah and Amal posters around is vaguely unsettling). We tried to get to Baab Fatima, the furthest civilians can get in the south of Lebanon (you can see Israel, etc.), but we would have had to go back to Sidon to get permission. It was late, so we spent some more time in Tyre, then headed back up to the Chouf for a while, stopped in Beirut to grab some clothes and our friend Athena and went to George's village in the North. His house (empty, since his family lives in the states) is really nice and we had a fantastic sleepover/danceparty.

The next day, George and I interviewed an old Greek Orthodox woman from his village and then grabbed Jared and drove up into the mountains, leaving Athena with Amir and his Saudi employer, Abu Khaled, in a really pretty hotel by the beach. We wound up tiny mountain roads through some of the most devastatingly beautiful scenery I've ever seen. We stopped in a few Maronite villages, extrememly "pittioresque" of course (and, for my family, very, very reminiscent of those tiny mountain villages in Corsica) and ate an amazing lunch in a small restaurant clining to the side of a huge cliff. I took pictures of the mountains, the valley, the churches, the shrines and whatever else I could lay my lens on, so I'll have them to show when I get back. We headed through Bcharre and eventually got past the snow line to the Cedars themselves which are very impressive, despite being so talked up. We drove back down through more tiny mountain villages and finally got back to George's village where we hung out for a while, before going over to Abu Khaled's hotel. We taught him a few cards games, hung out on the beach, and watched TV. It was watching TV, of course, that made us realize there'd been another bombing.

A bomb went off in East Beirut last night, injuring at least 8 people. Frankly, this is an attempt to destabilize Lebanon and render the peaceful demonstrations and uprisings that had been happening impotent. Nobody is taking credit for these attacks, which is even more suspect. Someone always takes credit. I don't know what this means, but every Lebanese person you ask is dead convinced that these last three bombs weren't planted by their own people. Why? Because the ghost of the civil war still haunts the minds of everyone in this country, young or old. No group, no sect, no religion won that war. Massacres happened to everyone and the group that an outside army would be protecting one week would be against them the next. That war scarred people and their greatest fear is of it breaking out again. They learned that there are no victors in civil conflict and they aren't willing to repeat what happened. Even now, whenever the bombings happen (and they've happened exclusively in Christian quarters so far), rather than painting themselves as the victims of another group within Lebanon, those affected stress that they are Lebanese, and that everyone is Lebanese. 20 years ago these would have been blamed immediately on Islamic fundamentalists and there would have been revenge attacks in the Muslim quarters.

For those of you worried, I'm not in any kind of danger. I live in Hamra, which is in West Beirut and, although the most diverse, still a Muslim neighborhood. I'm not going out to nightclubs right now, since they are in the Christina quarters and the bombings have happened at night. I'm not actually scared at all, just sad and angry.

How dare someone do this? For the first time in many years Lebanon was carving out its own history without outside forces manipulating it (of course, that depends on who you ask, but I can be as subjective as I want). People were inspired and people were hopeful. Students demonstrated and organized vigils. Young men and women crowded into packed parking lots to listen to each other speak at a juryrigged pulpit in the middle of Marty's square. Diehards lived in tents for weeks to send a simple but determined message to the government they did not feel represented them. And now someone has begun setting off bombs in the suburbs of the capital. Just like that, Lebanon is back in the World News as a place of danger, violence and hate, the image that it was trying so hard to destroy. If nothing else, driving around this tiny country has allowed me to see past the image of Lebanon that the international audience is fed. I cannot communicate how sad it made me feel when I met another student who, a week ago, had been flush with excitement at the monumental turnout in the protests tell me "welcome to Lebanon" in an exhausted voice after the second bombing.

I hope that this does not end the momentum here as it is so blatantly trying to. I hope that those young men and women do not leave their tents in Martyr's square. Now, however, I need to bring this immense post to a close and head North. Let tonight be peaceful.

Bombs, Trips and Frustrations

2005-03-23T13:08:00.000+02:00

Another bomb exploded in another Beirut suburb this morning. Two people were killed and five injured in an explosion in a shopping mall near Jounieh. It's being blamed on outside agitators trying to destabilize the country. On Tuesday armed guards fired in the air to end an argument between pro-Government students and an Opposition MP during a lecture at the Arab University. Nobody was injured. Things are tense here. Most people are calling for increased solidarity in the face of what they see as non-Lebanese or fringe elements trying to bring down the country. People are scared, but they're also, amazingly, hopeful. The blast today hasn't sunk in, but the incidents during this past week did not lead to a breakdown. Lebanon's young and delicate unity is managing to hold fast. Let's hope it stays this way and that whoever keeps bombing these suburbs in the early hours of the morning gives up.

Spring break is here (in two days) and George, Jared and I are renting a car and taking to the roads of Lebanon. Since I've spent almost all my time in the City here (aside from a trip to Bekaa and Jbeil), I don't really have a picture of the entire country. I'm really excited to be able to go to the North and South, especially around Tripoli, where George's village is. Hopefully we'll be able to survive Lebanese driving and make it back in one piece. This means that, come thursday, I won't be updating since I won't be in Beirut.

Lastly, for some reason the firewall here has now blocked access to my cornell e-mail. I'm going to talk to the computer people and try and get that changed, but for the next few days I'll only have occasional access to my account and won't be able to reply to messages sent to me.

Never saw the good side of the city

2005-03-20T20:44:00.000+02:00

I spent a wonderful morning having brunch with some friends in a restaurant along the edge of the Corniche. We talked politics, people, Palestine, Israel, Iraq, US policy and everything in between. Two or so hours later when we were finished with our meal we went for a walk along the ocean's edge, passing by nut vendors, old ladies and their grandchildren, young men lounging around the rocks without their shirts, groups of schoolgirls chasing pigeons and old men with long spindly fishing poles. It's good to be reminded sometimes that, despite political turmoil, scattered violence and everyone's fears of further unrest, this is a beautiful city. The Mediterranean sea still reminds me of my childhood in Corsica and the salt water spray still cools my face in the Sunday afternoon sun.

Car bomb

2005-03-19T11:26:00.000+02:00

It's 2am, some friends and I are sitting around in my apartment (which, by the way, looks like a batchelor pad from the 60's. Carpet everywhere and strangely patterned couches lining every wall), shooting the shit and listening to music. Suddenly two of them get calls on their phones. There's been a bomb, some people say two bombs (I'm always amazed at the speed that rumor flies) somewhere around Beirut. One hears that it's downtown. They leave to go watch the news, I go to bed.

So. This is what happened. Apparently there was a car bomb that went off in Jdeideh, a Christian suburb of Beirut. There were some injured, but nobody was apparently killed by it. Some people are claiming that it's an attempt to divide people along sectarian lines again, but I don't know. It's kind of bizarre to, if you want to cause damage and create divisions, set off a bomb at 2am. Nobody's on the streets. My guess would be that it's a warning, but I'm not putting down any money.

It's an isolated incident without precedent in the last month, nobody's claimed responsibility for it and it didn't seem to have caused that much damage, but the real shame of it all is that it's a violent act. The protest movement managed to get this far with the only violence being what began it. I cannot understate my contempt for whoever did this, as I believe that it cheapens what was otherwise (to me at least) an inspirational display of dedication by both sides to peaceful demonstration. I hope that this will be taken in stride and seen as simply a blind attempt to destroy this commitment or radicalize the factions. People here (as of 11:41 am) don't seem to be reacting to it much, which, I imagine, is a good thing (so many commas!).

Best and Brightest

2005-03-16T18:05:00.000+02:00

People are excited around here. With the massive turnouts of the protest rallies despite all attempts, save violence, to stop them, Beirutis, especially the youth, feel that they are changing their country. I've been seeing, and writing, about the demonstrations and flag waving on campus, but this was, for the first time, truly brought home to me this evening.

As my Political Science class on Great Power foreign policy ended, all the Lebanese students in the class (which was all of them except me and another American girl) jumped up, mobbed the professor and proceeded to try to convince him to run for elections in Beirut. I've really never seen anything like it. The students, right there and then, were trying to become kingmakers.

Their arguments were sound too; he's an academic, intelligent, progressive, in nobody's pocket, outside of the usual tribal/familial politics which plague this country and, for a professor (hi dad), pretty charismatic and well-spoken. Three of the students are very, very involved with the campus side of organizing protests, so these weren't just wet behind the ears kids, but honest to god student radicals. They also aren't just going around asking any professor to run, but specifically are after this fellow. He declined after much discussion, but after class they told me they were going to keep at it because "this country needs new political blood rooted in academia." You'll know they succeeded if you ever hear the name of Dr. Nawaf Salam again. Hell, even if he decides he values teaching more than the political zoo, at least they were up there at his desk trying.

Political turmoil, threats and old people in a park

2005-03-15T18:28:00.000+02:00

Jumblatt and President Lahoud have, of course, been taking swipes at each other. Jumblatt, at the rally yesterday, reportedly said that Lahoud "should resign and leave onboard the last Syrian truck leaving Lebanon." Lahoud has been talking about banning future demonstrations, a tactic which was employed the day the government dissolved and completely failed. The army simply let the demonstrators through the road blocks rather than try to stop them. General Aoun has also said, again from Paris, that he probably will not run in the upcoming elections, but that he will return to the country nonetheless, dismissing any notion that he might, in fact, be arrested when the moment he steps off the plane.

Meanwhile, different sources are putting yesterday's turnout at anywhere between 800,000 and 1 million. Go look up the population size of Lebanon in your encyclopedia and do the math to figure out what percentage of the country was in the streets of Beirut yesterday afternoon. Yowza, my friends. Yowza. There's various aerial photos of the rally floating around too, definitely worth checking out to get an idea of the enormity of this thing.

Despite the turmoil the country's in, you wouldn't know it by how I spent my afternoon. With tape recorder in hand, Rudy (a friend of mine's boyfriend and Greek Orthodox resident of Ashrafiya [sorry that my spelling of these places isn't really standardized. Many of them are in arabic]), and I ambled down to a local park to interview old Beirut Christians about the Second World War. Rudy translated, I recorded and we had a great time. I realized as we were leaving that the park had the preserved foundations of a Roman house in its center. The tilework was still impeccable, despite the children playing between the columns. It was the first time I'd really been to East Beirut (the Christian half of the city) during the day and it was a nice experience. Much of Hamra has been rebuilt since the war, as is most of the rest of West Beirut. The bombardment of various armies and milities, most notably during the Israeli seige when Arafat famously told the PLO to make West Beirut into "the Palestinian Stalingrad," reduced much of it to rubble. East Beirut definitely suffered during the war, but not on the same scale and its buildings have an older feel to them.

Gawd Daym

2005-03-14T16:50:00.000+02:00

First off, my last post was pretty terrible to reread. I was tired. I can't really structure paragraphs when I'm tired. It's a problem.

So. Lebanon just had the largest gathering of people in its history. They were going for a million to double Hizbollah's turnout and word is they got 800,000 packed in like sardines. For a country Lebanon's size (go get out a map and look at just how small this place is) that's insane. I was in the thick of it. The entire of martyr's square was so packed that you literally could not move an inch in any direction and just had to keep your arms pinned to your sides and let the crowds move you from place to place. Martyr's square is big. It's really big. It was full. There are a lot of streets around martyr's square (it's a square... duh). They were suffocatingly packed four city blocks back from the mosque and when you finally got out of the throngs of people, there were still more scattered around in small groups throughout the downtown area, sitting in circles, singing and waving flags. The flags. If there's one group that has profited from these events like none other, it's the manufacturers of Lebanese flags. Everyone had one. It was completely awe-inspiring.

The only other time I've seen that many people was as a young boy during a festival in Venice when my family was visiting Italy. The sheer number of people is difficult to convey, as is the feeling that you get of being an individual in the middle of something that seems almost organic in the way that it moves and reacts. Songs blared out of loudspeakers, old ladies waved flags, young men shouted and children screamed in terror. It was chaos, but it was a strangely ordered chaos.

And hell, you can't start off a week on a more interesting note.

Protests, counter protests and counter counter protests, oh my!

2005-03-14T11:36:00.000+02:00

In retaliation to the massive Hizbollah protest staged last week, the Opposition has called for the mother of all protests in Martyr's square today. Haven't gone down there yet, but I plan to later this afternoon. Already over the weekend the grand mosque was crazy with people and cars with megaphones strapped to the top have filled the streets. The Opposition seems to have realized that you need to get the bodies packed into the square to really command attention in these parts. Thus there've been shebab handing out flyers for the protest from Hamra to Ashrafieh. AUB's campus, where the majority of the student body is strongly in favor of a Syrian pullout is a sea of red and white. Every third person has at least a headband or a neck scarf and the more hardcore students are dressed completely in Lebanese flags.

Not to say that the flag is the symbol of only one side of the movement. Unlike the US, where displaying an American flag puts you squarely in one ideological camp, the Lebanese flag and colors are being waved by both sides. The Opposition is using them more, especially as fashion accessories (being mainly city-dwellers, they love their fashion accessories), but you can't pinpoint someone's political sympathies by the colors they're sporting.

Hizbollah just may have shot itself in the foot over last week's protests as well. It's energized the true loyalists and given them a cause to commit themselves to, but it has also alienated the rest of the Lebanese who, until the anti-Opposition protests, tended to strongly sympathize with the Party. To many non-Southerners who supported Hizbollah for its role in forcing Israel out of Southern Lebanon in the early aughts, last weeks events demonstrated just how much it's beholden to Syria. It's yet to be seen what the effect, if any, of this shift is, but it's an interesting side effect of the political mayhem here.

The plan for today is to read some more of Aziz Al-Azmeh's Islam and Modernities, which is excellent aside from his incredibly dense writing, memorize a few more arabic verbs, check out the action downtown and interview an old Maronite woman about her experiences during World War 2 in Beirut. Gotta brush up on my understanding of Arabic-accented French.

Back in the saddle

2005-03-11T15:41:00.000+02:00

The winner of the most likely to incite more angry city dwellers to protest goes to... President Lahoud and the pro-Syrian MPs for reinstating the same Prime Minister, Karami who resigned a week and a half ago! Despite his promises of forming a neutral cabinent this time, the Oposition has already been calling this "the second murder of Hariri." Both camps have been louder since the pro-government rallies a few days ago. The pro-government side claims that it now has a popular mandate to stay in power, while the Opposition is saying that the numbers of the people from the south were inflated by large numbers of Syrians and Palestinians, both of whom are not Lebanese citizens, and are therefor not legitimate. There've been rumors of pictures of convoys bringing people across the border for Tuesday, but everything is a Plot here, so I'm not entirely ready to believe them.

There's been some talk of organizing even larger anti-government protests in responce, but I've not heard anything about finalized plans. The reappointment of Karami, however, has added a hell of a lot of fuel to their fire. His resignation was the major achievement of the so-called "Cedar Revolution" (it's only called that outside of Lebanon, by the way. It's not thought of as a revolution here... and it's kind of a stupid name) and bringing him back is a major slap in the face. To get across the general shadiness of this guy, it's also the second time he's resigned over a scandal and then been reappointed due to a vacuum in leadership. He also dissolved his cabinent back in the early 90's, before Hariri was Prime Minister.

One of the reasons cited for bringing the guy back is that there's not a whole lot of powerful Sunni politicians left. Since Lebanon's democracy rests on the fragile idea of reserving different posts for different sects, the Prime Minister must be Sunni, just as the President must be Maronite. With Hariri's untimely death, the Sunni's really don't have a political superstar anymore.

In personal news, the pipes in my kitchen broke so now my kitchen floor, which is carpet (who carpets a kitchen... I mean seriously?) is constantly soaked. I live in fear that one day the floor will collapse and I will tumble down into the apartment below me. Plus it gets my socks wet. Totally lame.

The Empire Strikes Back

2005-03-09T13:15:00.000+02:00

Well not really the empire, just the last of the Lebanese militias. So the pro-Syrian rally was enormous, completely dwarfing the anti-government protests. Does this mean that Lebanon is, in fact, overwhelmingly pro-Syrian? No, not necessarily. See here's the thing, the anti-government protests were merely a kind of gathering place in downtown Beirut, where the city's inhabitants would congregate throughout the day. The pro-Syrian protest was organized by Hizbollah, the organization which basically controls the mostly Shi'ite south of Lebanon. Busses upon busses of people, including an enormous number of families, were brought into the city the night before and the day of the protest, and then directed to Martyr's square. Does this mean that they don't believe in their cause? Of course not, they were just as commited as the Beirutis protesting earlier. However, it does mean that they've got a hell of a lot more organization, and organization, my friends, is what gets out the vote. Lebanon may indeed be, as Nasrallah said, in favor of continued Syrian involvement, but the number of bodies in the downtown area doesn't say everything.

Contrary to what everyone was shaking about, there was no violence yesterday as well. My friend Andrew, who went to the Hizbollah organized protest to check it out, did say that the old Shi'a women there were like human tanks in their ability to push through the crowd, but that seems to be the extent of it. There've been some tensions on campus, even between friends of mine, about the opposing sides. My Palestinian friend is furious that the US is pressuring Syria to abide by UN resolutions for pullout, but ignoring similar ones levied at Israel, while several American friends of mine are frightened at Hizbollah's verbal attacks on US foreign policy last night. Some people aren't even speaking to each other. I myself am for the Syrian pullout, but for different reasons than the US or Israel might wish. Still, I ain't gonna let that come between me n' mine who happen to politely disagree.

Went out to a movie last night with some friends. We ended up seeing "Closer" which caused life changing revelations in Saed, sitting next to me, but was nothing jaw-dropping for yours truly. We then proceeded to nearly die at least five times in the taxi on the way home. Lema, a very pretty Lebanese-Australian girl, was sitting in the front seat and the driver wanted to impress her. His method of impressing her, limited by the fact that he was currently driving a taxi, consisted of hurtling down tiny roads at breakneck speeds, swerving into oncoming traffic, dodging cars, dodging motorbikes, shifting paths at the last possible second and generally being the kind of taxi driver mentioned in bad movies and stand up comedy. We couldn't, however, fault him for his efficiency.

Fight the power or "Back in the Headlines"

2005-03-07T14:49:00.000+02:00

The computers in the men's dorms stole two entries I tried to post yesterday, which concerned my goings on in Hamra, the fact that the Lebanese president is in Damascus meeting with Assad right now, that Jumblatt has called for expansion to the protests and that Hizbollah has called for an anti-opposition, pro-government rally on tuesday.

I had also posted that things had kind of seemed, despite these things, to be calming down. Not true anymore. There's an ENORMOUS protest downtown right now. It began in marty's square, where people have been camped out (the tent city has expanded) and is now heading past the Phonecian hotel and might actually hit Hamra soon. If it does, I'll go to the streets, but I unfortunately don't have time to leave the district today. I spent the morning drinking coffee and watching the throngs of people on television in my friends apartment, which gave me a bizarre sense of detachment from the whole affair.

There was also a man wounded (although rumors immediately after the event had it that 5 had been killed) by gunshot in a pro-government rally on Sunday. People flipped out a bit and there were all kinds of car and motorcycle trains going outside my window until late that night. The president is in Syria negotiating a potential withdrawal, but there won't be a statement until wednesday.

Meanwhile, tomorrow is looking more and more bleak. After Hizbollah's announcement yesterday, carloads and carloads of young men drove to Beirut to prepare for the marches. If it, in fact, happens, they'll be rallying right near the anti-government protests, which, although peaceful so far, might be slightly more dangerous with crowds of young, angry southerners next to them. Here's hoping everything stays calm, but check your newspapers.

Bush apparently commented two days ago that Lebanon's nonviolent protest movement was an example of the Lebanese seeing democracy working in Iraq and emulating it themselves. This is, to put it bluntly, completely ridiculous. Lebanon's democracy may not have always functioned as the Lebanese might have wished, but they've been holding elections for quite a bloody while now. Also, he might note that the Lebanese anti-government, anti-occupation movement is NON-violent. Emulating Iraqis indeed. The US itself has had nothing to do with the popular uprising here.

This brings me to a larger point. The US and Israel have come out strongly against the Syrian presence in Lebanon. This is a problem. Why? Because it puts the Opposition in between a rock and a hard place. They're currently being accused by their opponents of supporting Israeli policy and aims within Lebanon, not something to be taken lightly in Lebanon. Israel was directly responsible for the brutal massacres of the Palestinians at Sabra and Chatila, indiscriminately bombed civilians in west Beirut during their invasion, fired on UN troops, supported a brutal Phalangist regime and then pulled out of the country abruptly, leaving the Druze to massacre the Christian villagers in the areas they had promised to protect and eventually drawing the Multinational Forces in Beirut into the civil war. Israel does not, needless to say, have a good name around these parts, no matter what ethnic or religious group you talk to. Being linked to them is not something a legitimate cause wants to happen.

In the meantime, I'm nearly finished with the comic and have started to get my first letters here. I'm posting a few today to various people whose adresses I have. It feels really good to both get and send letters, although I've been stopped by plenty of people wondering at the fact that people still use actual mail these days.

mice stealing swine

2005-03-05T11:28:00.000+02:00

Things have been quiet here for the past few days. My lack of posting is due to a combination of computer related problems, the most bizarre being that an unidentified deadbeat keeps stealing the track balls from the mice in the computer lab I was using. I mean really, who steals the balls from mice? What would you use them for? What kind of deranged sub-human mind could possibly think that it would be a good idea?

When I finally managed to find a computer that had a functioning mouse yesterday, it promptly crashed twice, first eating my post about the mice, then eating my post about being frustrated about it eating my post. Needless to say, I am now using the computers in the library. Yesterday was especially frustrating, beginning with the fact that the orange juice I bought was rotten, and following me through waiting hours at the French consulate needlessly, being cheated by taxi drivers and the clothes dryer I was using malfunctioning and spitting out damp laundry. Cooking an excellent meal for myself (plum chicken with noodles or something like that. I don't use cookbooks so much as do things that I think might taste good and guess at measurements), watching "Catch Me if You Can" and going to hang out with George, Jared and some of their friends calmed me down a bit. Me and two others acted like complete music dorks for a while, even down to making top five lists which was especially fun since it's hard to find international students here who like anything other than really terrible hip hop or lebanese students who like anything other than really terrible lebanese dance music (well... not that terrible, but still). I then went out to see some friends at a bar, stepped in paint, couldn't find a taxi and arrived just as they were leaving. But hey, you can't win 'em all.

I'm thinking of going out of town next weekend. Maybe to see the Cedars or Baalbek or Tripoli or something.... I need to get out of this city every once in a while.

The shores of Tripoli

2005-03-02T12:17:00.000+02:00

Tripoli, the home of the just-resigned Prime Minister, is apparently in total chaos. Pro-gov't protestors have taken to the streets and apparently a supporter of the Prime Minister was killed on Monday, possibly an accident due to the amount of gunshots being fired in the air.

Meanwhile in Beirut, things have been relatively calm. There's a heck of a lot more sirens and guys with loudspeakers on their cars, but the protests all remain non-violent and the police have abandoned most of their containment strategies downtown. The protesters are still occupying Martyr's square and demanding the resignation of the President and the retreat of the Syrian troops. Jumblatt too is continuing his call for the President to step down, but has softened up his statements a bit. Black helicopters are back in the skies, but things are pretty peaceful, considering.

throw the rascals out

2005-02-28T23:22:00.000+02:00

For those of you that haven't heard yet, Lebanon's Prime Minister just resigned and dissolved his cabinent. The demonstration earlier today was tense, with huge numbers of soldiers surrounding it with an enormous amount of weaponry. As soon as news of the PM's resignation (he was pro-Syrian) hit the streets, however, it turned into an enormous celebration. By this point I'd left the demonstration to go cook some dinner and work on the comic. Automatic gunfire (into the sky, but I didn't know that at first) and car loads of young guys honking up and down the streets made me immediately realize that something was up.

I ran over to Chorti's apartment, where he'd just heard the news, and we grabbed a cab to Solidare. The road blocks were down and the soldiers sitting around chatting with each other. Nearby the mosque, where there had been the rallies earlier in the day, it was a zoo. The only way to describe it is something like the bastard child of Apocalypse Now, a fascist youth rally, a night club, a campsite from hell and a protest march. Arabic pop tunes and the voices of loud, angry men alternated out of the loudspeakers and the people in turn danced, waves flags and chanted. The entire area was lit by enormous floodlights cut with the smoke from countless campfires (some of the shebab had been there since the week before, camping in numerous small tents). Practically everyone had a flag and was waving it. Those that didn't were dressed in red and white, Lebanon's national colors. Chorti and I hung around the edges of the crowd for a while before pushing right into the center, where he had a small Lebanese woman translate the slogans for us. It was an experience I'm not likely to ever repeat in my life and it's almost impossible to describe. The entire event was pushing deeply into the territory of the surreal and the two of us got caught up along with it.

After some time dancing and clapping along with the youths, we headed over to the tents to figure out what all the different flags meant. We hung out with the Chamounists for a while, then moseyed over to chat with the Lebanese Forces (militia, not army) and eventually decided to head back to AUB. We looked for, but couldn't find a taxi, so we ended up wandering the completely deserted streets, talking to the occasional soldier. The army is still stubbornly guarding various streets that they had blocked off to prevent demonstrations, but their resolve was pretty thin. The guys we talked to all wanted to know how many people were at the celebration (press estimates are around 50,000) and when the hell they were going to leave, so they could stop guarding the road blocks.

A few yards out of the downtown district, Chorti and I decided that the age-old method of hitch-hiking would be a good idea. We eventually got picked up by a group of Lebanese intellectuals who claimed they were Hizbollah and kidnapping us to scare us. When that didn't work, I had a long conversation with one in French about US foreign policy, while Chorti chatted up another in Arabic about his studies. Eventually we got back to Hamra and split from our gracious hosts.

We'll see what tomorrow will bring. The PM's resignation was completely unexpected and word on the street is he didn't even tell the President. The vote of no confidence that was supposed to happen today did not because of the wrench this threw in the works. This also means that, unless the rest of the government is dissolved, a new PM will have to be chosen before the elections.

Hitting the streets

2005-02-28T12:25:00.000+02:00

Yesterday, Saed, Chorti and I went downtown to eat dinner only to find the streets crawling with the army. They closed down the entire downtown district, so we headed over to achrafiye instead. There were cars with Lebanese flags and young guys hanging out the windows everywhere. Chorti said that it reminded him of the mood in Bangkok right before the coup there. There's another enormous protest today, which I'm thinking of going to. It's the first one where there will supposedly be a pro-government counter protest, but that may have just been my taxi driver blowing hot air.

Parliament is holding a session today and from what I see on the TV set, it's pretty intense. Meanwhile, all the stores have closed down in a general strike today and the streets are deserted. If I do go to the protest, I'll update later on what happened.

That's where the beef comes from.

2005-02-27T16:05:00.000+02:00

Lack of updates is due to school actually starting for real and going to the Bekaa valley on saturday. School's good, but my classes are all 2 and a half hours long, which is a difficult thing to sit through sometimes. Two of them are really interesting though.

I went to the valley on a wine tasting tour, which was cheap and fun and had an enormous lunch at the end in an Orthodox town sandwiched in an enormous gorge. The wine was excellent and my friend Chorti got completely trashed, which made the lunch and bus ride home pretty funny. There's parts of this country that are incredibly gorgeous in a way that you can't really find in the states. I visited the only lake in lebanon, which was really nice. The experience, however, was slightly marred by the bloated corpse of a dead cow floating in the water nearby. I thought it was rather scenic, but then another guy in the group started throwing rocks at it and it began to stink. There's always the dude who throws rocks at the dead cow. Don't be that dude.

The situation here's strange. There's marches and demonstrations almost every day and there's a group of students and young people that have camped out by Hariri's grave in tents in a kind of sit-in. The other day I went downtown with some friends only to find the police had barricaded the entire heart of downtown off and were only letting certain people through. We pretended we were rich Lebanese and managed to slip by, but the place was like a ghost town so we soon left. Nobody quite knows why they did this, as downtown's the main tourist section of a town who's economy is based on tourism. There were rumors of a demonstration, but unless the police feared looting, there'd be no reason to shut it down.

Downtime

2005-02-23T12:29:00.000+02:00

Things have been relatively quiet here. Of course, that's relative to the past week, which needn't be actually all that quiet.

In Lebanese news the government has declared that the US and France's calls for Syrian withdrawal are meaningless and General Aoun, the former Commander of the Lebanese Army who declared war on Syria in the very early 90's and is now in France in exile, is coming back to Lebanon. He's supposedly being tried by the Lebanese government either in absentia or in person on Mauy 5th, mostly for testifying in front of the US Congress, I believe. He's said that he might even run in the election if he thought his presence was needed.

There also is a giant tunnel under the Saint George hotel that may or may not exist and may or may not have been the place from which the bomb that killed Hariri exploded. You'd think it'd be hard to lose a tunnel, but certain MPs are convinced it exists, while Saint George's owners and most of the government denies it was ever built. I mean... it's a 3 and a half meter high and 6 meter wide tunnel under a major intersection in the most developed area of Beirut. Something's really, really fishy there.

The professor for my grad course on ideological trends in the Middle East believes, and he's a very smart man, that it was either other Lebanese politicians or an offcially unauthorized group of Syrian operatives that killed the man, not the Syrian government itself. This does make sense, as the reaction to the murder proves. Killing Hariri, if the Syrian government was behind it, was the equivalent of political suicide.

As for myself, I've finally actually started classes, which is an enormous step forward. The one class I've had was amazing and I look forward to the one I've got today. A few days ago the lights in my living room burned out and the ceiling's too high for me to change them on my own. So I bought candles. Lots of candles. Last night I watched Being John Malkovich and then worked like a maniac on the comic I'm doing, completing almost all of the pencil work and starting a bit on the inking. It's depressing stuff though, so after about 3 hours of being bent over my sketchpad, drawing by the light of candles, I was completely wigging out. I went over to George's to get some form of human contact and from there ended up going to the house he's housesitting to watch bad Sci-Fi movies with some of his friends.

Left Right

2005-02-21T15:22:00.000+02:00

George and I went to the massive anti-Syrian demonstrations today. My camera was out of batteries and I haven't bought an adaptor yet, so I'll try to get the photos that George took when I see him later tonight.

It was awe-inspiring. People were flooding the streets and sidewalks. You didn't walk so much as get swept along with the crowd. Flags, banners and posters were everywhere. There were drummers, chanters and singers mixed in with stuffy old businessmen and their wives. The army, lining the streets, watched tensely, but the march stayed completely non-violent. I have never seen a march this large, especially when you consider how small Lebanon actually is.

It ended at Hariri's grave and another rally ensued. I split halfway through to head back to campus, but it was really, really an inspiring thing to be at. Sure there were the anti-war demonstrations in the US before the Iraq invasion, but I got the feeling that most of the people there were just imitating their parents, trying to see what was going on or simply jumping on the bandwagon. I doubt most of those crowds actually cared more than the cost of a bus ticket to New York City and back. After the war actually started, the entire movement dried up. Nobody actually had any stake in what was happening aside from a kind of vague morality. Here however, it's their own country that's being affected. Those young kids with the lebanese flag tied around their heads in the streets really do give a shit whether the Syrians leave or not because it directly affects them. It gives me some sort of hope that, although it may not actually get anyone anyplace in the end, there is still some sort of idealism in the world.

In other news, Hunter Thompson shot himself in the head. True poets can't live forever, and it's just as well he went out like a Hemmingway. I'll miss his screeds and insight. I hope you've gone to the big Circus Circus in the sky, HST. Adios.

Also, I nearly gassed myself to death on saturday by leaving my stove on and then watching Naked Lunch. I'm back to normal now, but once again, I escape death by a hair. My hot water heater is fixed and I've been working like crazy on a comic about my dreams as a child. Over n' out.

Demonstrations

2005-02-20T12:58:00.000+02:00

The strangest things happen when you're looking for food.

I was downtown at a cafe with some friends eating donuts and drinking coffee at around 8pm last night. I got up to go scrounge up some dinner because I hadn't had a chance to eat since breakfast. I reached the main square just in time to run headfirst into the beginnings fof Jumblatt's promised intifada. Crowds of people, mostly young and many with Lebanese flags either waving in their hands or tied around various body parts, were being led by a young guy with a megaphone down the street. It was a full blown march with coordinated calls and callbacks, chants, songs and everything you'd expect. I ran back to get my friends and we followed the throngs of people all the way to Hariri's grave.

About 20 yards away from the grave they, and other demonstrators from different parts of town, crowded around a platform in front of the statue. There were lights, screens, flags and videocameras everywhere. As far as protests went, it was a very professional affair. The guys on the platform riled up the crowds and people of every stripe were there. I even saw a "Che" flag waving at one point so the dream hasn't died quite yet I guess.

Strikes have been called for monday and more are probably to come. The protest was, however you feel about the actual situation, one of the more inspiring things I've been to recently. That kind and scale of social activism has been dying out in the States over the past few decades and it's reassuring to see that it's going strong in this part of the world.

Intifada

2005-02-19T17:37:00.000+02:00

Walid Jumblatt has apparently called for a 'non-violent intifada' to drive the Syrians from Lebanon. The exact quote is as follows: "In response to the criminal and terrorist policy of the Lebanese and Syrian authorities, the opposition declares a democratic and peaceful intifada for independence." (Intifada, by the way, means uprising [lit. 'shaking off']).

The Government has responded to this with accusations that Jumblatt and the Opposition are trying to topple the government. A few cabinent members have resigned and there's some vague talk about the elections being delayed due to the governments refusal to discuss electoral law. The Government is still denying an international investigation into the murder, and insiting on conducting their own, despite the overwhelming shadiness of that plan of action.

Hizbollah again voiced its support of Syrian presence and taunts and insults are being traded back and forth between the Opposition and the Government. Jumblatt is directly blaming the Syrians and the Government for Hariri's assassination and the Government has made it clear that they won't hesitate to use the army if the Opposition tries to start anything. Hence the "non-violent" nature of Jumblatt's intifada, I would imagine.

In better news, I'm once again able to buy meat at supermarkets. Things are coming up in roses.

Tense and calm

2005-02-19T11:23:00.000+02:00

The stores are reopened and the girls sporting the Hijab and nosejob look are back on the streets. As is the army. Young men with enormous guns and grey and white camo are everywhere. They were around quite a bit before the bombing, as Lebanon doesn't really have that much of a difference between its police force and its armed services. Now they're on every street corner, rattling down the roads in open-backed trucks and loafing around the houses of important figures.

I went down to the memorial again to see the long petition for Syrian withdrawal there. Two days ago, I believe, someone brought a long sheet of paper for people to sign demanding the government resign, the Syrians withdraw and an interim gov't be put in place 'till elections. It's since turned into quite a few long sheets of paper (newspaper roll sized) with writing in Arabic, French and English. Comments range from a simple signature to "Fuck you Assad!!!" in enormous letters. Apparently the blast site turned into an impromptu anti-Syrian demonstration a few nights ago as well.

The US is now demanding that Syria comply with the UN resolutions calling for its withdrawal from Lebanon. We haven't officially blamed them for the tragedy, yet. Still, aggressively demanding a country comply with resolutions it seems to have no intention of complying with brings back memories of another country not too far from here. That same country, I am told, is actually one of the reasons why Syria is dragging its feet so much. Faced with a vaguely restabilizing Iraq (and not restabilizing in the way Syria would like) on one side and Israel on another, Syria sees not letting Lebanon fall into anti-Syrian hands as pretty important. I truly have no idea where this will all lead as US military is not in a strong position. The entire situation is actually being used to strengthen US-French relations, but let's just hope that bombs don't start falling anytime soon.

Last night I went to a night club with some friends. There was still broken glass on the ground, under the feet of the young people boogie-ing down. Part of Hariri's almost obsessive building scheme in the downtown area was to erase any evidence that there had once been a war in Beirut. His violent and destructive murder was right on the edge of the area that he'd spent so much money reconstructing and served as a terrible reminder to many people. The Lebanese are masters at the return to normalcy, but after 15 bloody years of civil war, I guess you have to be.

Pictures

2005-02-17T22:18:00.000+02:00

Some of the wreckage, from today

The mosque at which the funeral was held. It's HUGE. A friend described it as "like one of those 'wonders' you could build in Civilization." It just dwarfs everything else in the downtown landscape. It was also Hariri's pet project. Yesterday.

Young guys climbing up the construction siding on the mosque during the funeral, yesterday.

The crowds of people at the funeral. Yesterday.

The coffin passing by. Apparently after he was taken out and buried, the coffin was paraded around downtown for hours and hours. The red flag with the two crossed things is, I am told, Jumblatt's flag. He's the leader of the Druze and the Opposition.

There's also apparently a sit-in happening right now in front of the Parliament building. They plan on not leaving for seven days at least. This is according to my friend Michael, a sometime reporter for the Daily Star (I think he's putting out an article tomorrow). He said they're calling for the government to resign and an interim body to be put in its place until the elections. Non-violent protest is always a big, big plus....

Pity the Nation

2005-02-17T15:54:00.000+02:00

I'm also reading Robert Fisk's "Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War", which is the definitive account of the 15 years leading up to 1990 and the end of the wars. I've been going at it for about a week, and it's a good 694 pages long. It is, however, one of the most gripping and well-written books I've run into for a while. Fisk was in Lebanon as a journalist for the entirety of the conflict and writes from a very personal, yet objective perspective. Anyone who has a large chunk of time and wants a great story and excellent understanding of the tangled webs of the conflict should pick it up.

Note: I've also allowed anonymous posts now. Sorry that it was members only for a while, it had come like that and I hadn't realized it.

Mourning

2005-02-17T15:34:00.001+02:00

I woke up this morning to my floormate, George, banging on my apartment door. He'd heard that there was a large crowd of mourners downtown at Hariri's grave and he wanted to take pictures, making up for his missing the funeral itself. We hopped down to campus to pick up a bag I'd left in Saed's room the night before and grabbed Saed as well.

It was one of the most beautiful days I've seen in Beirut yet, the snow was glistening on the mountains, the sea was a wonderful shade of blue, hot breezes were blowin through the streets and the broken glass was twinkling in the gutters. As we neared hotel where the blast went off, almost every window was blown out. The mosque area itself was crowded with locals and the famous elite of Beirut. Saed said he saw a well known Lebanese singer, but, not being exactly keyed into that scene, he didn't register for me.

The grave was covered with flowers, candles and wreaths and surrounded by people in black. Saed and I managed to squeeze in and get a couple of good shots right before they cordoned it off. The graves of the others who died in the attack were close by. Apparently Hariri is buried in exactly the same way and position relating to the mosque that Saladin is buried in Cairo, which is pretty symbolic. Saed, having lived in Cairo last semester, verified this.

From there we went over to the victory statue, which has not been changed since the war and still bears bullet holes and a few torn off limbs. It was covered in candles and posters of Hariri and, as one of the few reminders of Lebanon's war-torn past, was a powerful image. We wandered through the Roman and Greek ruins in the area a bit, and then headed over to the blast site itself.

The damage is immense. Whole buildings are twisted and torn like pretzels and cars are tossed about the scene like toys. The army, unlike the memorial, where Hariri's family has not allowed them, were everywhere, surveying the clean-up. They're still supposedly trying to figure out who did it and how it was done, so most of the blast area itself is relatively untouched. George and I got a few more pictures and then headed back with Saed along the Corniche (water's edge) back to AUB.

The situation here is still relatively tense, but beginning to calm down. Nothing has happened to aggravate it, but the people seem to be waiting with an almost fatalistic outlook for the situation to worsen. If the governement or Syria is, in fact, proven to have had a hand in this, it very well might mean another war. For now, however, the stores are slowly reopening and the streets are once again filling with people and honking taxis.

No pictures

2005-02-16T18:46:00.000+02:00

Originally I was going to post pictures from Hariri's funeral, but the formatting is on the fritz, so they'll go up later.

Immediately after the last post, a friend called me to say that he was at Harir's funeral in the downtown district. I ran outside, grabbed the last cab on Hamra street (which was otherwise completely devoid of cars) and tore off towards Solidaire. The cabbie and I talked in broken arabic about how terrible the situation was, how great it was that France's Chirac had come to show solidarity and how destructive the bomb's blast was. We detoured briefly to the actual blast site which was a moonscape of twisted metal and crushed automobiles.

I arrived at the grand mosque at around 12:30. The body had originally planned to arrive at 12, but the incredible masses of people everywhere slowed down its procession. The Hariri family had denied the government a state funeral, reasoning, probably correctly, that they had had a hand in the assassination. Because of this, however, the place was total chaos. No cordons, no police. The army was about 50 yards away from the demonstrators, mostly guarding the nervous Ba'athists hanging out in the Party Headquarters. This allowed young men to climb all over the mosque and people to throng everywhere. It was probably the most amount of people in one place I'd seen in my life. Men were fainting right and left from emotion and the coffin itself passed so close to me that I could almost touch it. Instead, I got a picture which you would be seeing were it not for AUB's computer system.

I was in no danger from the crowds themselves. They represented almost every single religious and ethnic faction within the nation (I was right next to an enormous group of Druze, dressed in their huge pants and white hats) and were more angry at the Syrians and the government than any westerners. The only possible source of harm were the very same ones that took out Hariri himself.

On my way back I stopped into a store to buy some mushrooms and heard the radio station angrily denouncing the Syrians, something which would have been impossible a month ago. There is significant violence in the south, mainly the town of Sidon, directed against Syrians. Sidon was the birthplace of Hariri and has also always been in economic competition with Syria for fruit and vegetable production. The looting of Syrian-owned shops and scattered attacks there is an expression of both anger at the occupation and a longer grudge at being out-competed by Syrian agriculture.

There's been some kicking-in of Syrian-owned shop windows in Hamra district, but nothing big. I'm not at all a target and hopefully this will blow over soon.

Wednesday Morning

2005-02-16T11:15:00.000+02:00

Things were kind of crazy last night. There was motor-parade after motor parade (consisting of 20-30 young guys on motorcycles followed by a few cars with Hariri's picture on them all honking their horns) and a few military vehicles with soldiers hanging out the back. Throughout the late afternoon some individual cars with loudspeakers strapped to them were prowling Hamra district giving eulogies.

I didn't have much food in my apartment, so I decided to venture out. The streets, while deserted, are safe and I wasn't in any danger. As I passed one of the larger, more opulent hotels, I ran into a crowd of young men unfurling a giant poster of Hariri over the 2nd to 4th story. I grabbed a chicken kabob and some chips and headed home.

Most of the Syrians I know here are pretty scared. A guy a few doors down from a friend of mine in the dorms had a picture of Assad that he had on his door torn and scratched up. There hasn't been really any actual violence against them yet though.

This morning I awoke to the sound of helicopters and flipped out. We are not, however, at war. There were about 4 or 5 black attack helicopters circling around Hamra and other parts of the city. I don't exactly know why, but possibly to keep an eye on the funeral demonstrations and marches being held today. The streets of downtown are filled with mourners and the loudspeakers on the mosques are never quiet. I got a few good pictures of the helicopter that was circling right outside my apartment window and then headed to campus to get online. There are now posters of Hariri EVERYWHERE.

In other news, the US has pulled its ambassador from Syria, which is never a good thing. When we pull ambassadors from places, shit gets bad real quick. This has galvanized the Opposition and more and more people are calling for Syrian withdrawal in Lebanon. It still has the support of the actual government, though, so the troops are staying, at least for now.

A man has claimed responsibility for the attacks, representing a previously unknown Syrian militant group and saying the attack came to punish Hariri's close ties with the Sauds. This attack, however, was amazingly precise and well planned. If this group was, in fact, responsible, then they've got somebody powerful backing them.

School's been closed for two days now, which, with the holiday last week, makes me feel like I haven't actually started here yet. Hopefully the situation will improve and I'll actually be able to take classes. Until then, I'm doing fine.

Second E-Mail

2005-02-16T11:13:00.000+02:00

The posters are going up on the walls. As I walked down Hamra street today to get to the AUB campus and use my e-mail I passed giant poster after giant poster of Hariri's face staring down at me, as well as the young men putting them up. No slogans, which is a good thing, as it means this is staying relatively stable for now.

All the shops are closed and most of the streets empty, which creates an eerie feeling. This is in part the traditional period of mourning and in part because of the 3 day strike the Opposition called to protest the assassination. Most of the international community as well as many Beirutis are directly blaming the Syrians for this. The Syrians, Iranians and certain of my more conspiracy minded friends (although in this area, no conspiracy is ever TOO far fetched) are blaming the Mossad, with the belief that Israel is attempting to destabilize Syria's presence, forcing them to pull their support of Hizbollah and the various Palestinian groups in the south. We'll see with time who, if any of them, are right.

It's relatively calm here for now, and most of the people seem in shock. There's been eulogies blaring from the minarets all day and I've heard second-hand of some scattered reprisal anti-Syrian violence (a friend told me he saw a Syrian grocery store's windows broken). None of that's been in today's papers though, so it could be simply rumors.

The two spookiest parts of last night were walking home an hour or so afterwards, as the stores began to close. Hamra district's closings began with the McDonalds and Burger King (the US-run stores always close first, I'm told) right on Bliss street (the street the university is on), and spread from there like dominoes. I happened to be walking pretty much on the edge of the wave, so every store I walked by on the four blocks home was beginning to roll down its front grates.

The other was going over to a friend's house near the downtown district last night with some other students to discuss the situation and talk politics. As I and the three friends I was with neared their home (which is about 2 or 3 blocks away from the blast) we passed more and more broken glass piled in the streets, shattered from the blast. Their apartment had some of its windows blown out as well and a few of them had been down to the blast site. Apparently the bomb exploded with such force that it hurled a car three stories up into an unfinished hotel.

If it's any comfort, this was a very well planned and carefully executed attack, and one which many people say was aided by an inside man in Hariri's entourage. It's not random shooting in the streets or blowing up storefronts. So far, I'll stay away from any important figures just to be safe, but it doesn't seem like I'm in too much danger.
-Andy

First E-mail

2005-02-16T11:10:00.000+02:00

To all my nearest n' dearest,If you haven't heard yet, there was a car bomb assassination a few blocks away from me today, in downtown Beirut, right by the water front.Here's the story:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/02/14/beirut.explosion/index.html

I am completely fine, if a bit shaken. This is still a very, very safe place, and this violence has surprised everyone. At this point if I were to actually take a guess at who did it, I would say the Syrians or someone somehow affiliated with them. Their aim is probably to delay the elections here, in which the opposition party, which opposes Syrian presence in Lebanon, is growing stronger. I don't know whether this will happen or not (the elections being delayed).

I was in a netcafe at the time and the entire place shook, and all the dust fell from the ceiling. The man assassinated was a prominent figure in the opposition party, a former prime minister and one of the richest (if not the richest) men in lebanon. He was the man behind Solidaire, the group rebuilding downtown Beirut. I don't know how much this will hurt the reconstruction. Lebanon is still, in all probability a safe place to live and visit, like Corsica was after the assassination of the French governor or the US was after 9/11. Hopefully it's an isolated incident and won't arouse sectarian violence. I am remaining safe and careful, so don't worry too much.One of the most common things said to me right after the incident, and with a heavy dose of cynicism and sarcasm, was "welcome to Lebanon."
More to come.
Love,
Andy