The Beirut Daily Star front page headline makes me a bit happier. I woke up this afternoon with a feeling I'm not gonna get to Lebanon next week as I'm supposed to. I got my plane ticket just two days before the fighting began. I see the things started to settle down, people are getting back to work in Beirut which is a good sign. The road to the airport is still blocked, though, but I'm sure they'll clear the way by next Tuesday when I'm supposed to leave.
I hope it's not gonna get worse. Actually at the beginning I thought it was just a one day thing, as it usually is. And it seems quite unreal to see what's happening.
I've been in Lebanon the week Emile Lahoud left the presidency. Everybody was, of course, worried. Army filters every 100 meters on the highway, people being cautious, watching the news and stuff like that. Lahoud left the office on a Friday evening, tried to declare a state of emergency so that the army could take control of the country. Five minutes afterwards on LBC Siniora almost told him "Fuck off! What state of emergency? Get real and get lost!". And it all calmed down.
The second time I were in Lebanon, in February, I found myself on a Sunday afternoon in Saint Michael square in Beirut, in the middle of a protest. I was looking for a Hezbollah flag, a present for Tote, one of my friends. I was stunned to actually find a.... HEZBOLLAH SHOP where they sold coffee cups with Nasrrallah's picture and cheep rose perfume the seller pretended it's Nasrallah's scent.
Anyway, on our way to the shop - cause I was with two friends crazy enough to give me a lift to the southern Beirut - we ran into the protest. The army had just shot a protester a few yards away. And I looked around and I only saw 14-15 year old laughing, jumping around and shouting a lot. My friends translated to me what they were saying. " They're swearing, shouting slogans against the LBC , Lebanese television, and they're also shouting "Jaja has AIDS, Jaja has AIDS!", Bassem told me. "See? This is Lebanese fun at it's best". And at some point the children started jumping again and laughing. "Let's have some fun, let's burn tires!" 8 people were killed that day as far as i remember now. 11 army officers were punished for the shooting. And that was it. People got back to they work.
They didn't even fight on Hariri assassination anniversary. Maybe because Hezbollah was busy burying Imad Moughniyah, the military chief assassinated in Syria.
Until now. I was just thinking the other day. Isn't it funny that the Hezbollah suddenly got very busy on Israel's 60th anniversary?
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"it seems quite unreal to see what's happening."
It seems even more unreal when I watch the news here. This is happening... here? do you know the feeling you get when something huge is happening to you.. the feeling that you're outside, watching it happen to you? that's how I feel when i watch news about this. "This isn't happening HERE."
That protest sure was interesting, by the way, huh? we *did* have fun, oddly!
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