Beware: Champagnista talking politics!
I wanted to go to Damas but it turned out it would take me 4 hours to get there and 4 hours to get back by bus, and I can't quite afford the $150 taxi trip. I have been dying to go to Syria for as long as I can remember, but maybe it is better this way: only one day to visit the oldest capital of Middle-East would be frustrating at best. Not to mention that people do not talk as many languages than in Lebanon, where a typical phone call would go something like this: 'Hi, ki fak? Tu es a la maison? Should we meet up at Dragonfly tonight? He, he, Masa el kheir, talk alter'. So since I don't speak a word of Arabic, I would probably end up lost in a souk without being able to find the way to the bus station.
Relations between the two countries are still strained: oddly enough, there are mini-buses that go from Beirut to Damas, and there is an Egyptian company that does Damas-Beirut, but there is no exchange and the two companies are not working together. As it is, the bus that comes from Syria has to go back empty from Beirut to Damas before doing the trip again.
There is a strong anti-Syrian feeling in Lebanon, at least in the community I have been staying with so far. Two main political movements here: the right wing movement, pro-American, very liberal, led by Hariri until he got assassinated in the 2005 murder wave. The other party is the Hezbollah: pro-Syrian, they have their own military militia and weapons and they pretty much control the South of the country, where they have been fighting against Israel from 1983. Whereas the right wing movement is ultra-capitalist and operates a system through which money is supposed to trickle from top to bottom, the Hezbollah is in immediate touch with lower-class people, building hospitals and schools and trying to provide them with the education the government is not giving them. I am not sure where the Christians are positioned exactly: if I dare a wild generalization, it looks like a majority of the Christian community were for calling the Syrian into the country when Israeli and Palestinians moved into the Southern border, in the hope to fight them off the fronteer. There are so many Christian communities though that a lot of people would probably scream at that. Most religious dissidences have their own militia, so that it is not rare to see civilians walking in the street with machine guns at their arm, in a demonstration of power to the rest of the population.
While the rest of the world was celebrating Valentine's day, today Lebanon commemorated the death of Hariri on the place des Martyrs next to the Grande Mosquee. The former prime minister was a businessman before he went into politics, and the people love him because unlike most political leaders he did not have blood on his hands from civil war times. Although the murder was never elucidated, it is common knowledge that his murder was commissioned by the Syrian secret services becaue he started to hold anti-Syrian talks. When I say the community I am staying with is very anti-Syrian, it is because although the murder theory seems to be common knowledge, Syrians are hold responsible for a lot more issues here: like the civil war (which took western and internal conflicts of interests as well), and diverse other issues, creating from an outsider's point of view the myth of a Syrian conspiracy in Lebanon. For certain people, Syrians are behind pretty much everything that goes wrong in the country from political murders to typing mistakes on restaurant menus.
Today was the 5th anniversary of Hariri's death, and while Loulou was giving an interview from a studio for a TV channel, I went to the place des Martyrs where hundreds of thousands of people were demonstrating, demanding the truth on Hariri's murder. 7 people were arrested so far. None has been charged with anything, and the international trial is going to begin in March. Hariri's son, who is now head of the Parti du Futur, arrived with pomp and circumstances on the platform from where he sent kisses to the crowd as if he were a rockstar... Not quite as charismatic as his father. There were families, Sunnis, Chiites, Christians, Druzes, and many more people who seemed to celebrate their former prime minister in a rather bon enfant atmosphere. Parents had three year-old-kids on their shoulders waving Lebanese flags in the air: political education starts early here, and it helps understanding why the Lebanese youths define themselves through their adherence to a political party and to a specific religious group. Towards the end of the demonstration, conflicts burst out between Hariri partisans and demonstration detractors, and apparently some people got rocket-launchers out but fortunately did not use them. I did not see that, but saw a few ambulances, and cohorts of tanks, and soldiers with machine guns and ribbons and ribbons of cartridges hanging from truch ceilings. The political heart of the city where the Grand Serail is (the Lebanese parliament), was completely locked out.
When I joined Loulou at the end of the day she told me that there were bombings in other cities. This country is always on edge. In the mean time it was 25 degrees outside and some people were bathing in the Mediterranean and sun bathing on the Beirut corniche, a bare 15 minute walk from the confrontations.
Should I feel ashamed to find this place so fascinating?
I am going to Baalbek tomorrow and taking the plane back at 3am on Monday morning, so it is likely this will be my last post from Lebanon. I will update you on the rest of the trip from London. Right now I cannot believe I am going back to grey, cold and humidity after all this colour, human warmth and blinding Mediterranean light.
Time goes at another pace here... There is always time.
Champagnista V
I wanted to go to Damas but it turned out it would take me 4 hours to get there and 4 hours to get back by bus, and I can't quite afford the $150 taxi trip. I have been dying to go to Syria for as long as I can remember, but maybe it is better this way: only one day to visit the oldest capital of Middle-East would be frustrating at best. Not to mention that people do not talk as many languages than in Lebanon, where a typical phone call would go something like this: 'Hi, ki fak? Tu es a la maison? Should we meet up at Dragonfly tonight? He, he, Masa el kheir, talk alter'. So since I don't speak a word of Arabic, I would probably end up lost in a souk without being able to find the way to the bus station.
Relations between the two countries are still strained: oddly enough, there are mini-buses that go from Beirut to Damas, and there is an Egyptian company that does Damas-Beirut, but there is no exchange and the two companies are not working together. As it is, the bus that comes from Syria has to go back empty from Beirut to Damas before doing the trip again.
There is a strong anti-Syrian feeling in Lebanon, at least in the community I have been staying with so far. Two main political movements here: the right wing movement, pro-American, very liberal, led by Hariri until he got assassinated in the 2005 murder wave. The other party is the Hezbollah: pro-Syrian, they have their own military militia and weapons and they pretty much control the South of the country, where they have been fighting against Israel from 1983. Whereas the right wing movement is ultra-capitalist and operates a system through which money is supposed to trickle from top to bottom, the Hezbollah is in immediate touch with lower-class people, building hospitals and schools and trying to provide them with the education the government is not giving them. I am not sure where the Christians are positioned exactly: if I dare a wild generalization, it looks like a majority of the Christian community were for calling the Syrian into the country when Israeli and Palestinians moved into the Southern border, in the hope to fight them off the fronteer. There are so many Christian communities though that a lot of people would probably scream at that. Most religious dissidences have their own militia, so that it is not rare to see civilians walking in the street with machine guns at their arm, in a demonstration of power to the rest of the population.
While the rest of the world was celebrating Valentine's day, today Lebanon commemorated the death of Hariri on the place des Martyrs next to the Grande Mosquee. The former prime minister was a businessman before he went into politics, and the people love him because unlike most political leaders he did not have blood on his hands from civil war times. Although the murder was never elucidated, it is common knowledge that his murder was commissioned by the Syrian secret services becaue he started to hold anti-Syrian talks. When I say the community I am staying with is very anti-Syrian, it is because although the murder theory seems to be common knowledge, Syrians are hold responsible for a lot more issues here: like the civil war (which took western and internal conflicts of interests as well), and diverse other issues, creating from an outsider's point of view the myth of a Syrian conspiracy in Lebanon. For certain people, Syrians are behind pretty much everything that goes wrong in the country from political murders to typing mistakes on restaurant menus.
Today was the 5th anniversary of Hariri's death, and while Loulou was giving an interview from a studio for a TV channel, I went to the place des Martyrs where hundreds of thousands of people were demonstrating, demanding the truth on Hariri's murder. 7 people were arrested so far. None has been charged with anything, and the international trial is going to begin in March. Hariri's son, who is now head of the Parti du Futur, arrived with pomp and circumstances on the platform from where he sent kisses to the crowd as if he were a rockstar... Not quite as charismatic as his father. There were families, Sunnis, Chiites, Christians, Druzes, and many more people who seemed to celebrate their former prime minister in a rather bon enfant atmosphere. Parents had three year-old-kids on their shoulders waving Lebanese flags in the air: political education starts early here, and it helps understanding why the Lebanese youths define themselves through their adherence to a political party and to a specific religious group. Towards the end of the demonstration, conflicts burst out between Hariri partisans and demonstration detractors, and apparently some people got rocket-launchers out but fortunately did not use them. I did not see that, but saw a few ambulances, and cohorts of tanks, and soldiers with machine guns and ribbons and ribbons of cartridges hanging from truch ceilings. The political heart of the city where the Grand Serail is (the Lebanese parliament), was completely locked out.
When I joined Loulou at the end of the day she told me that there were bombings in other cities. This country is always on edge. In the mean time it was 25 degrees outside and some people were bathing in the Mediterranean and sun bathing on the Beirut corniche, a bare 15 minute walk from the confrontations.
Should I feel ashamed to find this place so fascinating?
I am going to Baalbek tomorrow and taking the plane back at 3am on Monday morning, so it is likely this will be my last post from Lebanon. I will update you on the rest of the trip from London. Right now I cannot believe I am going back to grey, cold and humidity after all this colour, human warmth and blinding Mediterranean light.
Time goes at another pace here... There is always time.
Champagnista V
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