THIRD TIME IN LEBANON

The post is a bit late, cause I couldn't connect to the Internet in Beirut.

I’m back in Lebanon. It took me a while. 4 months actually. Seems like ages to me now. And I found it different this time. Third time. Well, not the country. All that was changed about it when I got off the plane were a few dark circles on the road – from the burned tires. But the people… The people felt different. I got off the plane on Wednesday at about 2 in the morning. They double checked my passport this time. Never happened the first two times. They even “sounded” the alarm when the saw on my entrance card that I am a journalist. The airport security guys started to ask questions. Who do I work for, what station, and as they’ve never heard of Antena3 before, as I expected, they were really confused. The guy at the counter didn’t know what to do, so he called the boss. I gave him my press card, he looked at it carefully. It looks official enough although the guys who made it forgot to write “PRESS” on it. They only wrote a small “Ştiri” instead of it. The security chef only said a “hm” and then asked if I knew English and asked what my beat was. Hehe. I told him I cover international affairs and he went like “Ohhhh, NEWS! Ok, let her pass.” “WELCOME TO LEBANON!”
Well, thank you very much. What kind of journalist would you think would come to Lebanon at a time like this? Maybe a Children’s Show producer? Geez!

(UPDATE. I was told later that a few Israeli journalists had got into Lebanon with foreign passports under the Hezbollah nose and they were bragging about it on TV. "Hey, look, we're in Lebanon!")

As Ramy drove on the highway, I looked around to see at least a trace of the fighting that had been going on. Had seen a picture a friend had taken during the fighting. The usually crowded highway to the airport all deserted. Nothing alive on it but a small bird. I expected to see at least traces of the dirt they used to barricade the road.
But there was nothing. No barricades, not even a hint that they were there 4 days before. All clean and wiped. I am always amazed by the Lebanese capacity of regeneration. I remember the bridges bombed by the Israelis in the summer of 2006. I remember all the footage that came in on Reuters and AP at the time and the destroyed roads and the bridges. The Lebanese are amazing. The roads are now all rebuilt. (One more reason for those politicians bullshitting the Romanians after 20 years of so called democracy to visit Lebanon more often. Lebanon has highways, and bridges and everything a civilized country needs. Well, they are not satisfied with their roads, that's for sure. But, they are definetly better than the Romanian ones, trust me. AND THEY HAVE BEEN THROUGH DECADES OF INTERNAL FIGHTING.)

I arrived into a quiet Beirut. Hamra, where my hotel is, is now as full of people as ever. They had it closed last week after the Hezbollah fighters moved in. It was around 3 am on Wednesday morning. A few hours later I was watching on Al Jazeera that the Lebanese politicians had made up and they agreed on a national unity government in Doha. And I saw the people of Lebanon smiling at each other for the first time.