Postscript (another one)

Oh, almost forgot.

Three cheers for finally getting rid of Tony Blair. So happy am I...

"I've got the power!" Or not...

Yet another power cut leaving me typing this on my balcony by the light of the street lamp just opposite my flat. They’ve been happening literally daily for the last couple of weeks – each normally 1 to 2 hours and apparently everywhere in Beirut.

I seem to have pretty badly as my block of flats doesn’t appear to have a generator so it’s really REALLY annoying. Especially during a bloody heat wave when the only time you feel like you’re not in a sauna and about to melt in a puddle of sticky sweat is when the AC is working. And even more especially after just having bought some rather expensive imported French cheese from the local Monoprix as a treat only to watch (or rather, smell) it going definitively off. Oh yes, and having invited a friend for a DVD night which become more of a game of watch the screens grow smaller with us graduating from my TV, to my computer screen to my tiny portable DVD player. Forget bloody global warming, I WANT MY ELECTRICITY. WAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!
Yess!!! It’s back on again. And off ten mins later. And then on. Can’t really seem to be making up its mind this evening – maybe it’ll shake it all about. It’s rather getting in the way of watching my latest rental: “The Lost World”. Even the bloody Victorians had electricity. OK, not when sailing up the Amazon and running from dinosaurs but still…

Well, at least I can look forward to another gossip session in the office tomorrow about the latest conspiracy theories. Whereas other countries have people gossiping about celebrity lives and who’s shagging who in the office, here we talk conspiracy theories and play the blame game (rule no 1: everything that’s wrong with Lebanon is the fault of some other country. Even the weather.). According to the last one I heard, the ones most hit by the power cuts are opposition supporters. Hmm – now wondering if waving Lebanese Forces flags would actually help the situation. Although, it would probably get me lynched by either my neighbours and, if they don’t finish the job, my colleagues. So probably not the most constructive solution.

In other news, did plenty of shopping yesterday and spent an obscene amount of money (on my rather limited budget anyways). Bought a Nike top which apparently can be worn eight different ways but is only really comfortable in one. But the advertising was pretty. Also a white hoodie and some faux wooden wedge sandals which I can only walk in for about ten minutes at a time. Sensible choices. This was along with the very expensive French cheese. And my geeky purchase of the week: series one of “Highlander, the series” – mostly getting for the very cool Queen theme song, the very sexy Adrian Paul and the nostalgia factor of French 1990s late night viewing. I rock so so hard.

For those of you still interested in visiting (come on – there hasn’t been anything scary on Lebanon the BBC for almost a week…), security situation remains as always. As one of my colleagues said, I’d much rather be here than in South Africa which appears to have been a free for all over the last couple of weeks with the public sector strike. Don’t see how, by any measure, South Africa is safer than Egypt for the next World Cup but hey, welcome to the world where the rare targeted bombing trumps ubiquitous car-jacking.

One last thing – finally did some tourism last week and went to the Jeita grotto: mostly because my camera was still being fixed and I knew I couldn’t take pictures there anyway. That place is f**king gorgeous. The upper grotto is huge and like some magical mystery world with these alien-like tites and mites (as I call them) and other weird and wonderful rock formations. The lower grotto was basically an underground lake that we took a far too quick spin in a boat. Although the rock formations weren’t nearly as impressive, come on – it’s an underground lake with electrical lights placed strategically under the water. Have to go back. Strange to think that militias used to keep armaments there during the civil war. I’d never get out of the store room, if only for the mild temperature of the place.

Right, back to Victorian dinosaurs and here’s hoping the electricity manages to hold out.

A couple of good articles

Just a quick note - found a great editorial in the Daily Star which just says exactly what I feel about politics here in Lebanon. Have a read:
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&article_id=82502&categ_id=17

Also, I just stumbled upon a good article about health care in Liberia. Liberia will always have a special place in my heart and this article is heart-breaking if not at all surprising:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2578486.ece

Happy Liberation Day!

New day, new bomb.

Not exactly having much luck concentrating on my assignment on voter registration in Sierra Leone at the moment. And spending far too much time in the office playing “who’s the bomber” – a singularly useless pastime but as we’re all currently leading such boring lives, need to chat about something during our coffee breaks...

Results being; we’ve pretty much concluded that it can’t be Fatah al-Islam – from all the evidence, their style is more throat-slashing and decapitation than carefully targeted yet largely symbolic bombings. So far, we’ve had two bombs in affluent Christian and Sunni neighbourhoods, and one in an up-scale Sunni/Druze holiday resort town. Easy conclusion is that Syria is behind it: the targets have been those groups who are typically anti-Syrian, and the attacks appear to have been designed to destabilize without going too far. Or else it could be anti-Syrians trying to frame the Syrians. Either of those would explain why no responsibility/demands have been made.

Me however – I go for latter day Marxist terrorists targeting the symbols of globalised capitalist consumerist culture ie shopping malls and luxury holiday resorts. Did I mention I like to go against the flow?

What’s more of a punch to the gut is hearing about the conditions in Nahr el Bared. You know those really manipulative “human interest” stories that the media uses shamelessly: well, they work. I was reading this article in The Daily Star, the Lebanese English language paper, and was practically in tears. ‘"They said we were brothers, then they bombed us. The Jews are better than them," said one man. "At least give us a chance to get out."’ A telling statement, that...

And of course, there’s the small detail of destroying yet again what lives the beleaguered Palestinians have managed scrape out for themselves in a country which doesn’t want them and largely blames them for the 15 year civil war. Not without some justification, mind – there are few, if any, whiter than white innocent victims in the Middle East. However, the Palestinians have more right than most to be a mite pissed off at the cards they’ve been dealt over the last 60 years. Seeing the exodus out of the camps reminds me of that line in that Kipling poem about watching “the things you gave your life to, broken,/ And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools.” Except times two. And they’re the lucky ones.

God, that line just gets me every time. The sad thing is that it’s true of so many people in the world – hell, it was true of my parents and my family. Profound thought of the day: this world can be such a shitty place. [Wow, no red line on “shitty” – what an open minded spell check.]

Robert Fisk gives his usual opinionated but, IMO, spot on analysis of the situation here:
http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/article2573297.ece
I like what he said about there being in the Middle East “no such thing as responsibility – only a commonality of interests”. Not that this message has got across to those [ahem] running the country [or any other for that matter]. After a brief hiatus, Lebanese politicians are back to their favourite pastime: just heard that Qassem (Hizbollah) and Geagea (latter day Phalangists/prototype Nazis) are once again at each other’s throats with rusty daggers. Come on guys, you could at least have waited until the conflict was more or less resolved before exploiting the situation for your own gains. Oh I’m sorry, I forget that the termites on dung hills on Mount Lebanon give more of a shit about this country than you do. And I haven’t even started on the trio who are actually in power…

On that note of sterling confidence in the abilities of the Lebanese political class to sort themselves out, I’ll sign out. Be safe and remember to report any unknown vehicles on your street. Just don’t blame me if you end up being rather unpopular with your neighbours. And the police.

BTW, Liberation Day tomorrow (day marking the anniversary of Israeli withdrawal from the South).

Fighting and shelling and bombs. Oh my.

Just a couple of days ago, I thought the most scintillating thing I would be writing about here would be some real-life examples of how driving licenses in Lebanon are something that you buy rather than pass, or how much difficulty I was having in getting myself motivated to finish an assignment for my masters course (due next Wednesday, I may add).

But then, round midnight Sunday, a massive sound rudely interrupted my procrastination. It’s difficult to really describe it – almost like a “sonic boom” that you get in video combat games if you can take a very geeky simile. It felt like just the force of the sound itself was straining the windows and bashing car alarms. Anyway, not content with waking up the whole neighbourhood in a panic, the power cut off completely about ten mins later. Rather disconcerting as you can imagine. I was by no means the only one – I saw that my street was out and a number of my neighbours were gathering on their balconies and in the street. In their pyjamas.

Of course, it was the bomb that had exploded just behind the ABC mall just opposite my office – a mere ten minutes walk away from where I live. Responsibility was claimed by Fateh al-Islam – a Palestinian splinter group based in a refugee camp near Tripoli which had been involved in clashes with the Lebanese army after they had tried to arrest suspects in a bank robbery. This had quickly escalated and this is now the third day of fighting between the army and the militia with pictures plastered all over the BBC and CNN. Meanwhile, another bomb went off in Verdun, a Muslim version of my own relatively affluent Christian neighbourhood. Either this group has a serious grudge against up-scale and overpriced shopping malls or there’s something else going on…

I won’t go into the complexities and history of Lebanese politics – mostly because I hardly understand it myself, and also because it’s almost impossible to summarise without tilting considerably one way or another. So to just concentrate on the current situation: as you’ve probably all heard on the news, Palestinian refugees number around 10% of the Lebanese population but are denied citizenship and are basically shut up in largely autonomous camps and ignored by the rest of the country. Their basic needs are catered by UNRWA but that’s about it. The Lebanese government do not have jurisdiction in the camps – the army guards the entrance and exits but does not go in (although recent events may change this). Mix up all those ingredients, and it’ll be enormously surprising if you did not get a breeding ground for extremism.

This makes me extremely ambiguous about what’s currently going on and especially the way it’s been reported in the news. There’s a part of me which feels reassured: as long as most Lebanese politicians of all stripes are blaming the conflict and bombings on “outsiders” who may or may not be even Palestinian, there’s little danger that this will escalate the already precarious political divide in the country. However, this is just too easy and I feel, given the history of the place, that there’s another story here that isn’t being told – for one thing, how a militia numbering only a couple of hundred can keep an army occupied for so long and still have the resources to bomb civilian targets as “warnings”. Certainly, the two bombings so far were not designed to cause civilian casualties being late at night in relatively unpopulated areas – unlike the apparent indiscriminate shelling of the Lebanese army.

Of course the government points its finger at Syria – just like it does when anything goes wrong in this country – if a plague of locusts descended upon Lebanon, I’m sure March 14th coalition would somehow pin it on the Syrians. And if it continues to pin the blame for this on Syria, then it risks turning this into yet another internal political issue that would notch tensions with the Hizbollah-led opposition even tighter. Not that that is something that they’ve shown any reluctance to do in the past. Although I’m fairly certain that Syria is no saint and was most definitely involved in the Hariri assassination, I can’t see how destabilising Lebanon and pushing it again on the slippery slide to civil would really help matters for them – especially given what had happened during the civil war. But then, the cliché comes to mind about how the only thing that you can learn from the past is that people don’t learn from the past. On the other hand, it’s ignoring the elephant in the room: the untenable situation of the refugee camps. But to be fair, the issue of the camps is a much much larger issue than just Lebanon.

See what I mean - I just really have no idea. It really frustrates me to know so little about the situation: I find it just so difficult to really judge political tensions here. I’m living and working mostly with Christians – all rabidly anti-Syrian, so it’s difficult to get a really clear picture of what’s going on. Also, what scares is that I don’t know when politics will pass the point from talk to violence. Due to its past, the taboo against political violence is just not there – and nor is the idea of political compromise. There are no middle parties – especially with the appalling confessional system that has been set up by the French as Independence. Every single day, there would be something on the news racketing up the tension between the government and the opposition with accusations and counter-accusations – perfect game of brinksmanship. But I just can’t tell how far from the breaking point everything is. I feel like I’m in this little cocoon with no real understanding of how the world outside works. Not a feeling I particularly relish...

Oh well – need to just see what the next few days bring. Hopefully, there won’t be anymore bombings: would rather not have to sweep up glass for one thing. Alternatively, might try and find a job with some window repair company – my, they must be raking it in...

A third of my way through. [Sigh].

More than 2 months in and this is only my second entry…

I’ve been reading through my first entry and, apart from a rather cynical chuckle on the initial “lack of work” impression I had, I’ve been struck by how little I have to add to it: completely my own fault here – complete pure laziness. Of course, I have a better (although still criminally low) understanding of local history and politics, and know my way round Beirut at least. But I’ve haven’t ventured out of Beirut or tried to meet locals outside my work.

Hence my kick-start to my blog: I’m hoping that if I force myself to write something say, every other day (let's go for complete fantasy to start with), I’d be so depressed by my lack of interesting things to say that I’d be forced to get off my arse to correct this sad state of affairs. What I’m trying to say is that my blog here is more for personal reasons than anything else and is likely to be incredibly rambly with rather random and abrupt changes in subject matter. Not to mention being mind-numbingly self-indulgent. If it all gets too much, you have my permission to completely ignore it and consign it to the legions of unread blogs on the internet. However, I do promise to try to keep my flights of fancy to a minimum and make it as amusing as I can. And I’ll randomly sprinkle in surprising and completely useless tidbits here and there.

For example, just heard a theory that a huge influence on old “negro spirituals” sung by plantation slaves in the Southern states was Islamic music – you know, that “bluesy” slide that, come to think of it, I hear every day during the call to prayer. It makes a great deal of sense thinking about it as many slaves were from Islamic West Africa and it’s very probable that, while working the fields, they would sing the call to prayer and those hearing them, whether Muslim or no, would appropriate the style into their music. Isn’t that just the coolest idea!!! Well, it got me excited and I then proceeded to tell the whole office about it with the usual response of “Yeah sure, Caroline. How’s the report getting on?” Philistines...

Anyway, back to this century/continent: I’ve got a flat just 10 mins walk from my work which I’m very fond of: it’s got all the usual amenities and I spend far too much time vegging out in my living room or my large balcony/patio reading, day-dreaming or watching the huge no of DVDs I shipped over. As I’ve lived practically all my life in one flat, it’s actually quite fun having a completely different place with its own quirks to get used to and to decorate – not that I’ve done much of the latter apart from two gorgeous rugs that I bought from Syria. I could go on about these rugs at exhaustive detail but don’t want to alienate you all at this early stage – will save it to later. Suffice to say that I spent far too much time in the evenings staring at and gloating over my purchases. Yep, the excitement of aid work in the field...

Talking about work, my initial impression was a mite incorrect – there’s actually quite a lot of work to do but not particularly challenging work unfortunately. I do tend to work fairly long hours but the work is not particularly varied and there isn’t the same buzz that my previous job had with its ludicrous amount of things to do and the daily unexpected panic to sort out. On the plus side, it’s a pretty easy introduction to all the things to think about while being in charge of an office and of line-management. And I still love my colleagues. If I stay at this career, and I probably will, it can only get “more challenging”.

Anyway, will keep this short and sweet for the mo – will save my story on my one (and only) date I’ve had since I got here for next time. Comedy is the word.

First week in Beirut...

It’s been over a week since I arrived here in Beirut and my, not entirely sure what I think. My initial impression is that it’s a city with a definite personality dysfunction: huge shopping malls and ultra sophisticated cafe/clubbing culture runs side by side with ruined shells of building riddled with bullet holes and heavily armed soldiers in tanks. The only comparison I can think of is to a French Tel Aviv – probably a comparison that would get me lynched by both sides.

Charming, it is not – indeed, if I was travelling, I would probably get out of the city as soon as I could. That said, I haven’t exactly seen it at its best, or at mine for that matter. I haven’t visited the more touristy parts of Beirut or the Corniche (the road along the beachfront) which is apparently meant to be spectacular. The only parts I have visited are the more residential/party areas which aren’t loads of fun by yourself, when rather tired, and in the rain. Yep, it’s rainy. And cold. Thinking about getting my money back as it’s not the Mediterranean climate I signed up for...

To say a few words to combat a fairly negative first impression, I do think this has a potential to be great city for living once you find your niche – very similar to London in that respect. Whereas Paris is more immediately gorgeous, London has more of that “alive” feeling: a feeling of energy and possibilities. It has all the amenities you could wish for – far too many clothes shop (all shipped over from London or Paris), and in terms of my own particular interests, a huge 5 floor Virgin Megastore (one of several) and at least 3 multiplex cinemas within walking distance. Haven’t checked out the bookshops (one thing that huge nearby mall is lacking in, like most malls in the world) but I’ve been told that there are a few near the American University. And did I mention a number of DVD rentals? In terms of less geeky amenities, I’m near a huge supermarket which looks like it’s been imported directly from France (crappy selection of crisps but good for everything else) and there are roads where every building appears to be a restaurant or club or cafe.

People in Beirut obviously like the good life. Or shall we say the good commercial life. But hey, should have realised this from the huge number of Lebanese businessmen I’ve met all over the world – including war zones.

I’m currently staying in a four star hotel until I can get a place for myself, and actually getting rather sick of the place. I know, strange. It’s just very impersonal – one of those anonymous corporate hotel places where you have to pay through the nose for everything (3 quid to launder one pair of trousers – no thank you). And I’ve become far more conversant with CNN than anyone really should have to. My fault for being lazy in the evenings but haven’t really mustered up the energy to explore the city – especially when it’s been rainy and cold. Also, most of last week was basically sleeping and recovering from my marathon 72 hours sans sleep due to last minute arrangements and packing. I don’t know how I did it either. When I got here, I was told that they were astonished that I could get out here in less than a month. Oh well, lesson for the future – don’t rush your departure.
That brings me to work. That’s a bit mixed actually. As some of you probably know, I’m working for an NGO which apparently has more brand recognition in the States than Nike!! Nice to work for an organisation that people have heard of... I love my boss – he’s really sweet and we really get on, and the other people seem all friendly and easy to work with. The main issue is the actual work. There’s quite a lot of initial set up and organisational stuff to do in terms of formulating policy and setting up proper controls and a proper accounting system – this place doesn’t even have a security policy! But that would probably take 3 months at the very most and I’m not sure what use I’d be after that. Also, there’s only one project to look after and my department (all two of them) seems rather overstaffed for the work there is to do. I think I’m just used to having three times the workload and half the staff to do it.

In some ways, this is a pretty good situation to be in – what work there is not hugely challenging but still things which are new to me, and there’s always the fact that it looks like I’ll be having a great “work-life” balance for the next 6 months so that I can concentrate on learning Arabic and finishing my MSc. And Dan has promised to give me more programmatic stuff to do if I’m at a loss. Leaving on time would be good for me, if rather strange. This is probably Fate’s way to tell me to get a life outside work. Not sure if I can do it but really should try. And knowing my luck, something will change and I’ll be complaining here about the impossible workload and demands being made on me...
That’s all for now. I’d better go and see if I can understand Lebanese politics. For a country of a mere 4 million, they have a lot of politics. Flat hunting tomorrow – wish me luck!