Amy’s Journal

This is from early afternoon on Friday.

This is from early afternoon today.

These are photos from Friday, when Katy and I walked the Corniche and then went up on the balloon. It was my 3rd time up, but they recently moved it several blocks away, so I was able to have a different view, mainly of downtown. The third picture shows Solidere and the still razed Martyr’s Square. The weather was glorious, as it had been since we returned from Greece. Ethan and I have decided that if we are going to go skiing, we absolutely must go next weekend.

Yesterday, we were sort of amazed by the interesting warm fog that descended on the city, but I just read that it is actually the beginning of the khamseen winds. These are duststorm winds from Egypt and Libya, and luckily they are not supposed to linger for too long here in Lebanon (khamseen means 50 in Arabic, and the winds last for about 50 days every year in North Africa).

Last night we had our friend, Bjorn, over for dinner and we were able to eat out on the terrace- finally. Afterward, we went to our local and had a few Almazas. Our bartender friend discussed the political situation with us for some time. He thinks that civil war is almost impossible, partly because he says no one has tanks or stockpiled weapons. Of course, there is Hezbollah, the PFLP, and the Lebanese Army (who are all armed), plus Syria and Iran would have no difficulty introducing more weapons. He believes that the situation now is very different from the one in 1975, the year the civil war began.

And it does seem impossible that war could start again here. Everyone is against it, the protests and rallies are peaceful, and people go about their daily business– shopping, strolling on the corniche, taking kids to the park, sipping coffee in cafes and on balconies, chatting with neighbors.

Katy is our 9th friend to visit us in Beirut (we have the coolest friends in the world). Her trip here is to be short; she leaves late tonight after only about 4 days. So far we have mostly been hanging around in Beirut- the Corniche, the beach, a little shopping, dinner in the evening. Yesterday we went to Tripoli and to Byblos, which was fun. Today she has requested that we go on either the hot air balloon or the teleferique so I guess she wants to get airborne. The weather has been glorious and warm all week and we are finally able to sit out on the terrace again.

Athens has a lot of great grafitti around, though I think this one is actually an advertisement.

Oneida rocks the Greek goths.

The view toward Lycabettus Hill from the Acropolis.

Most of the gang poses with the Parthenon in the distance.

The little town of Nafplio as seen from partway up to a castle on the hill (913 steps and my calves still hurt). We wanted to go to an island, but there was a ferry strike on the whole time we were there.

We had such a great time and exploring Athens exceeded my expectations in every way. It’s not dirty and congested (okay, it’s a little grungy, but I like my cities that way) as most people seem to say. The food is great, lots of marinated pork things and I’m in love with tzatziki. Athenians seem to spend all of their free time having cold cappucinos and wine in cafes, so we were in heaven. It was so great to hang out with the Oneida gang. They had a handler assigned to them who was truly accomodating and took us to restaurants late at night and showed us the best place to have kebab. We went to a huge flea market with all sorts of old junk and antiques, and I bought an old Ottoman door knocker of the sort that I have been obsessed with for months. The people we met (including a girl called Aphrodite) were friendly and seemed unjaded by tourism. I certainly look forward to spending more time in Greece someday.

We are off to Greece..but first to the airport for our (sigh) 3:55 AM flight. We’ll be in Athens for 5 days roaming the city and a few ancient sites, as well as taking in a rock show. It seems to be taking place at a goth club and the cover is 26 euro. I sure hope we are on the list.

We’ll be returning next week with Katy in tow. We’re going to test her devotion to us by subjecting her to our freezing apartment.

When Ethan and I decided to move to Lebanon, it was well before Rafiq Hariri was assassinated. We knew him as the controversial billionaire Prime Minister who had formed a company to rebuild the gutted downtown after 15 years of civil war and therefore saved/raped Beirut, depending on your take on the outcome. Three months before our arrival, he and 20 others were blown up in a seaside blast. We watched the aftermath on TV and read all we could about the outpouring of unity, excitement, and hope that followed. Activism helped force the Syrian soldiers out a month before we arrived. We fully expected to be living in a place with a sort of revolutionary spirit, a place that was recreating itself and electing new leaders brimming with ideas.

We quickly realized that we were wrong. We arrived just before the elections, which turned out to be a farce. The voting laws are a mess, and most people didn’t vote, as a form of protest or out of apathy (so soon). Nothing has changed since the Syrian Army left, except that there is more political bickering between the leaders- the same leaders who were around during the war, or their progeny. There are 3 major leaders who were not around this time last year- Saad Hariri, son of slain Rafiq, who returned to Lebanon for the first time in over 6 months (he’s living abroad because he is afraid he will be killed), Samir Geagea, former Christian warlord released from prison where he’d been sent on war crimes charges, and General Michel Aoun, another civil war throwback who boycotted yesterday’s commemoration because he has now joined forces with Hezbollah. Lahoud, the President/Syrian puppet, who may have been involved in Hariri’s murder, is still in “power”. Hezbollah is still armed. Telecommunications is still abominable – the 2 cell phone companies are government owned and the rates are among the highest in the world, and the internet situation is absurd, with years of infighting preventing the arrival of DSL.

Yesterday, something like 500,000 people came to Martyr’s Square in Beirut, to honor Rafiq Hariri and to express support for Lebanon as a free, sovereign country. The event yesterday still seemed to be lacking ; somehow it felt forced. It felt like people only came because it was better than the alternative, which was to stay home, meaning to give up. At least people came, which was not a forgone conclusion. The country is extremely divided right now- some are saying more than at any time since the war. Hezbollah’s pro-Syria rally was probably bigger last week, but they also co-opted an extremely important religious holiday and involved the cartoon drama – a lot of those people would have been out anyhow.

Yesterday showed that there are at least half a million people in this country who are willing to come together under one national flag (though the event was not without a few Christian militia flags here and there) for a common goal. Let’s hope that is enough.

This afternoon, Ethan and I walked down to Martyr’s Square to drop off some books. There was a call for book donations, which would be built into a pyramid, and then later donated to the Beirut Public Library. This is absolutely the first I had ever heard of Beirut having a library. Wherever it is, it is not well advertised. In fact, Beirut lacking a public library is something I have heard more than one Lebanese complain about. Anyhow, this book stacking and library donation are all a part of the anniversary festivities, the first anniversary of Rafiq Hariri’s assassination, which is Tuesday.

Somewhere in this pyramidal pile are 6 or so previously read books of ours, including a couple of tour guides to Cyprus and a movie tie-in copy of the short story “Brokeback Mountain”. We are relatively certain that the subject matter of the latter will ensure that it never makes it onto the library shelf (if such a place exists) but we are hopeful that it will get picked up by some young festival organizer who might read it and pass it around to all of their friends. Maybe I will make a passive-observer type post in the future on homosexuality in Lebanon, but for now, suffice it to say that it is strongly discouraged.

It seemed that a majority of the books that had been donated were old textbooks- not a lot of interesting reading material to be found.

There is already a fair amount of flag waving and car honking (for interesting detail on said honking, read this post by a friend of ours about public disturbance as art). There are plenty of cars decorated with Hariri posters racing around town. We weren’t here for the whole Beirut Spring/Cedar Revolution thing, since we didn’t move here until May, so I am pretty curious about the next few days here. The new slogan is “Freedom 2006”, which follows “Independence 2005”. Many have predicted that people will stay away from the gatherings planned in Martyr’s Square either because they have beome cynical or are afraid. It’s hard for me to imagine 1 million people showing up, as they did on March 14, one month after Hariri’s murder.

I actually took these photos on Thursday, but just got around to putting them up. There was a big storm on Wednesday, with lots of wind, thunder, and hail. The storms here can be quite fantastic. Anyhow, I guess these waves aren’t huge, but compared to how docile the Med usually seems, I was impressed. It have really enjoyed living near the ocean, which I have never experienced before (taking the subway to Coney Island 3 times a year doesn’t count). It’s as if you have this whole other weather gauge and presence that is some how different every day. I’ll be landlocked again soon, which I don’t really mind, but it’s nice to think of having 3 more months of being near the sea.

The Shi’a holiday, Ashura, has been partially appropriated for another cartoon protest here in Beirut. According to news reports, there are at least 250,000 gathered. Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, is giving a fiery speech supposedly focusing on the Mohammed cartoons (I am watching it on TV) and the crowd looks massive.

Ashura is the commemoration of the killing of Hussein ibn Ali at Kerbala in the 7th century, which led to the Sunni-Shi’a split. Self-flagellation and bloodletting are engaged in by some on this day. Usually, it is just symbolic chest beating in order to emulate the suffering of Hussein, but some actually cut their foreheads open. On a day like today, maybe standing out in the driving wind and rain is enough suffering for some.

And if I change the channel, I can see the Maronite Patriarch giving a religious performance of some kind. Today is the feast day of St. Maron, the founder of the Maronite church (also) in the 7th century.

Yesterday, I wandered over to Achrafiyeh and looked around. It seemed very quiet out, though a lot of people were slowing in their cars as they passed the embassy in order to have a look. According to news reports, the embassy itself sustained no damage- it was really only the first 3 floors that were gutted. $18 million in damage and whole (Lebanese) businesses wiped out.

I watched some men repair the gate to a Greek Orthodox church; I think the cross which topped it had been torn down and the guard booth next to it had been smashed and battered. I read a lot of blogs written by people here in Lebanon. The writers were universally horrified, and several of them claimed to have gone out to buy Danish products.

In case anyone is interested, I found this site which shows many instances of Mohammed depicted in art throughout the ages. I think it goes without saying that much of the current uproar has little to do with the cartoons themselves.