... but it's not yet out of control

Well, you read it here first! The Presidential election is indeed going down to the wire. Talks have been going on for the last 48 hours - a combination of telephone calls from European Foreign Ministers to various faction leaders here, faction leaders speaking to each other on the phone and faction leaders popping round to each others' houses for chit chats and negotiations. It's been a real social whirl!

So, the latest seems to be that no one has agreed on a list of candidates from which a President can be chosen. In fact, the MPs seem to be bypassing the list stage now, and are just focusing on who will be President. Just as well, as at the time of writing it's only 13.5 hours until Lahoud has to step down. Naturally he's been making noises as well about how he'll do 'something extraordinary' if he doesn't have a replacement.

Aoun, one of the candidates for President (biggest fan, himself), tried to engineer a breakthrough last night by issuing a compromise set of proposals which would have him nominate a President (not himself) and Hariri nominate a PM (not Hariri). There were other demands in this list, some reasonable, some less so to the majority in government, and the proposals were unceremoniously thrown out. So we wait. The opposition aren't going to Parliament today to elect a new President, but the majority are, although without any candidates in the frame at the moment, goodness knows what will happen.

One possibility is that in the absence of any agreement, General Michel Suleiman, head of the army, will step in as President temporarily. The army does enjoy support from both sides, and is generally well respected by the Lebanese population. Although not ideal, this measure might buy some time and stability.

Finally, in my last post, I referred to an RPG being outside the local coffee shop. Obviously I didn't mean that there was a Rocket Propelled Grenade in the vicinity, I meant to write Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC). Slight mistype there!!

The tension is rising...

It all seems to be going down to the wire here at the moment. The various factions are seemingly unable to agree on a list of candidates for MPs to vote on, and at present it looks like the Parliamentary session scheduled for tomorrow will be postponed until Friday, the really, really, really last day before Lahoud has to step down. There are about 10,000 soldiers on duty in Beirut to prevent civil disorder. A lot of them seemed to think it was a good idea to drive their tanks underneath our bedroom window at about midnight last night, making sleep pretty hard to come by as we then had a huge electical storm for a couple of hours (the one that has caused all the flooding in Greece - we seem to be getting the tail end of it though, thankfully). Then this morning I noticed that a large RPG seemed to have taken up residence outside Costa Coffee at Sassine Square. Thankfully though its extended stay seemed to be more due to a traffic jam rather than a concern that mild-mannered coffee drinkers might suddenly start rioting.

Personally though, and for what it's worth, I would carry on with the session as planned tomorrow, the weather forecast is atrocious, and in my opinion and experience, people are less likely to riot in the rain. However, seeing as the politicians have had two months to come to some sort of agreement, and have completely failed to do so, any sort of solution may be sadly lacking come tomorrow or Friday (it is Lebanon's national day on Thursday so it's a holiday - the only one of two in a year that businesses have to observe).

Watch this (and many other internet sites') space...

The race for President, and the 10k

Hello Dom here,
I am recovering from a night of excess and preparing for the Beirut marathon (well the 10k) so it is a Saturday night in with pasta and not even a wee glass of wine. Italy beating Scottyland in the football, so I thought I would quickly blog - as I write Scotland have equalised - come on the Jocks!

Not that you would know it from the international media which seems to completely ignore Lebanon, this is an absolutely massive week for the country coming up. After 9 long years of President Emile Lahoud he will hopefully step down on Friday, to be replaced by...well who knows? The debate has been quite nasty, to have a pro-government (ie pro-western) President, an anti-government (pro-Syrian) one, or most likely a consensus one. Mostly it boils down to many of the politicians hating each other with scars going back to the civil war and beyond, and having refused to talk for nearly a year they are now forced to start dealing with each other because nobody wants the place to fall apart. So there is a list of names now with the leaders of the government and opposition - the list has been selected following working meetings of all sides with the leader of the Maronite church as the President has to be Christian under the constitution. Strangely the leaders of the pro/anti government are Sunni and Shia respectively, but that doesn't seem to matter. After weeks and months of doom and gloom, there are some glimmers of optimism that this might at last be sorted out. And maybe the happy campers in the tent city who have been there for 353 days and paralysed the centre of town might go home! It's about time. If all goes well Parliament meets on Wednesday to do the deed!

In more interesting news Fiona and I are running the Beirut 10k tomorrow. Everyone I know who is Lebanese and doing the 10k says they are running the marathon - which they are not! There is a marathon tomorrow but it starts at 7 am and is a very long way, so nobody in their right mind/that I know is doing it. We have been doing a bit of training though. Last year I did it in just over an hour with a mixture of running and walking so I hope to break the hour mark.

The weather is cooler now but still lovely in the day around 20 degrees. But the first big rains came last weekend - briefly - and more is forecast for this week. So hopefully some snow will arrive on the mountains and we can turn our minds to skiing again.

Watch this space for news this week on both important races!

Pics

Katy at Baalbek

Simon enjoying a fruit cocktail!



Dom, Phil and Simon at the Cedar Reserve in the Chouf Mountains


Jo in front of the Seven Pillars of Wisdom at Wadi Rum in Jordan


Mum and Dad in front of the tallest self-supporting flagpole (127m) in the world! (No, really, the Jordanians are really proud of it!)


A group of Jordanian Cadets we met at Petra

Visitors and Holidays

We've waved goodbye to our visitors, and just returned from a great holiday in Jordan when my parents and sister Jo and her husband James came over to see one of our near neighbours and what it has to offer. Other sister Siobhan unfortunately couldn't come owing to a small matter of exams. Good Luck to her!

We had a great time with all our guests. Katy has done Beirut proud and written a couple of great pieces about the place here and about a new bar, 961, here. 961 is a great bar, second only in my heart to the wonderful, stuck-in-the-1970s-with-an-owner-who-prefers-the-bar-to-only-have-a-few-customers Captain's Cabin. Indeed, people are so keen to get to 961 that it appeared that one girl had, in her haste, forgotten to get dressed properly on the night we were there, and turned up wearing something that was best described as a top that just covered her bottom. Clearly, we are getting old.

Simon and Phil indulged in wine-tasting, as promised, and we also saw the sights of Baalbeck, Byblos, Faqra and Beirut's sea front where I, the native, got completely eaten alive by mozzies where they, the foreigners, emerged unscathed. There is no justice. We also went to Dom's favourite bar, Cocktails and Dreams, where Simon unfortunately got 3 vodka cranberry drinks poured over him by a dozy and new barman. Phil had an absolutely revolting Long Island cocktail and swiftly switched to beer. I was quite surprised, as were all my friends, when Dom announced that C&D was his favourite bar, as we all thought it would be one with karaoke in, but he assures me that he likes the music, and it's not so loud that you can't hold a conversation, like many bars here. Also, it has a big open window allowing people-watching (and tented city watching, it's right on the edge).

And, as I said, we've had a great week in Jordan, seeing the sights, and taking it nice and easy. We visited Petra, Karak (crusader castle, very complete and loads to explore), the Citadel in Amman (amazing museum with parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls and some of the earliest statues, strangely reminiscent of Rugrats, ever found), and the Baptism Site, where you are no more than 10 metres away from Israel!

A great few weeks! And now I take up my Lady of Leisure post, continue to do a bit of freelance editing, and bask in the glorious sunshine that is still beaming on these parts.