Walking in the Lebanese countryside - June 07

(Guest blogger) It aint all bad here

Me again. Fi is still in the UK enjoying the rain and I will be off to in a few days to join her - we will both be back in Beirut after 2 weeks, following a wedding in Yorkshire, seeing various family members and friends and hopefully a few pints of real ale - it will be nice to have a change from al-Mazaa!

More of the same in Lebanon, but the country is starting to shrug off the problems and gradually - very gradually - getting back to something like normal.

What is interesting is that people's habits have changed very quickly. If I was an investor in Lebanese nightlife I think I would need quite a lot of tranquilisers as fashions and trends move incredibly quickly. 1 year ago (pre-war) everyone was in Monot street, after the war they moved to Gemmayzeh, but now the sun is out and it is warm, they have started to go to a place called Sky Bar (which has a 1500 capacity and is on a peninsula of reclaimed land out at sea) or to the various rooftop bars. The clue to all of this is in security - these places have all got electronic scanners and body searches and cant be attacked with a car bomb - so people feel safe. Meanwhile the little bars in town which are on streets are half full at best as people avoid them instinctivly - there is a rumour going round that Gemmayzeh Street is going to be pedestrianised. And 'Downtown' which is already pedestrianised, is usually avoided at this time of year by the Lebanese because the Khalijis (the Gulf tourists) monopolise it. Except there are hardly any tourists so that is also fairly quiet, and is now starting to get a bit more popular with the locals. But one way or another people are still enjoying the summer and praying that nobody wants another war of any kind!

And although it is not what it was this time last year, it is still a very glamourous city for the Haves. I always feel very underdressed, especially out and about in the evenings. Given half a chance this place will really take off as a tourist destination. The weather is just stunning at the moment, clear blue skies, green mountains and golden sunsets which somehow lull you in to thinking that everything is alright here.

Except it isnt alright. Anything could happen at any time, either good or bad, and people remain on edge, but as always here what seemed scary a month ago now seems normal. I will miss it for a couple of weeks but think I could use the break. And just hearing that a UNIFIL convoy (Spanish I think) has been attacked in the south - more bad news.
I will try to add some photos of my walk last weekend (although I am not as technically accomplished as Fi).

(Guest blogger) A Lebanese paradise - but THE SITUATION intrudes

Fi left on Friday but I am here for another week, so I thought I should keep this blog going.

Important things first: the 2 baby birds grew up very fast and flew the nest on Friday, meaning from 4 living beings in (and just outside) the flat it is now just me on my ownsome. Also I can report that I have not yet tried the washing machine and therefore all my clothes are still ok but it is a matter of time before I put them on at
- too high/low a temperature
- the wrong setting
- or just the wrong clothes together so everything goes pink!

Work has been incredibly frustrating. We have been planning for various events and last week was the culmination of the summer in many respects. But everything was cancelled so weeks of hard work has gone down the drain. I very nearly took Friday off altogether to hit the beach and drown my sorrows but went in as usual...

The politics and the general SITUATION remains incredibly precarious. Everyone is talking about the SITUATION in shocked terms but to be honest I have started to get a bit fed up with it. Why not just cancel the whole summer and fast-forward to Christmas - I think sometimes the lovely Lebanese people need to stop worrying so much and get on with life. It isnt fun when you are worrying about getting blown up - god knows we had enough of it in London - but you still go to the cafe, pub, cinema, work (you can see my priorities in life) and just kind of hope it doesn't happen to you. Here everything is operating at half pace at best. Although this weekend there were some signs of life in the pubs on Friday. But when the local cinema hasn't changed its programme for 3 weeks (and yes I have already seen Spiderman 3 thank you) becuase they are worried nobody will come it becomes a self-fulfilling catastrophe. Ah well apparently not only Oceans 13 but Die Hard is coming next week (maybe we should put Bruce Willis in charge of sorting out this country as he seems to be able to take on all comers and come out well in the end).

I will try to summaries the SITUATION:

Nahr al-Bared: the Lebanese army is winning and won some major victories today. Hopefully it will be over this week. This is a VERY GOOD thing and frankly after hearing about what they did to the Lebanese conscripts they captured on the first day (the Lebanese Red Cross has some horrible photos), a quick death will be more than these fanatics deserve. Then there is only the worry of rehousing the poor Palestinians who have been kicked out of their homes (in 1948, 1967, and now in 2007), and hoping no other nutters are in the country waiting to start this all somewhere else.
Politics: the murder of the pro-government MP last week means only 3 more need to be killed or resign to get rid of the Majority. So the government has called 2 by-elections. But the (pro-Syrian) president has refused to sign the decree so who knows what will happen (elections will be early August). People are now talking about 2 governments here by end of July, as the President chooses his own. This seems unlikely and there have been some whiffs of willingness to negotiate on both sides prior to the assassination, so hopefully when tempers cool there might be some forward movement.
Bombs: Touch wood nothing of the random bomb variety for nearly a week now. Long may it last.
Israel: A catastrophe in Gaza, and we saw 2 rockets fired into Israel from Lebanon today, first time since the war last summer. Bad news, but they did not kill anyone, it was not Hizbullah (probably a Palestinian group) and Israeli retaliation was measured (5 artillery shells into open countryside - Israel perhaps learning from last year?).
Syria: Arming on the Golan Heights. Will it be peace or war this summer? Well I dont think either side is ready yet, but unless there is some forward movement on the 'Syrian track' at some point there will probably be a nasty war in the next 2 years.
The wider SITUATION is also dreadful. Bush is looking to do something about Iran, as possibly is Israel. Iran is playing the usual awkward and aggressive child. I have been studying the Middle East for 20 years and never felt things are as bad as they are today.

We all feel we are living on the front line of history at the moment. Lebanon is a little leaky dam holding back the seemingly unstoppable tidal wave of fanaticism, made worse by the Iraq fiasco. The leaks are getting bigger and the fingers in the dyke are getting very tired.

Anyway, I needed to get out of town this weekend so joined a group going up to Ehden, a resort town 1500 metres up in the northern mountains. A few drinkies last night and a read by the pool which was great - I am reading a book called Bad Lands - by the founder of Lonely Planet - which is a funny but depressing saunter through all the 'bad lands' in2006 (Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Cuba (?), North Korea, Libya, Saudi etc) - it has actually inspired me to go to Iran!
This morning though we went on a walk through the Ehden Nature Reserve which is a beautiful forest full of rare plants and trees high above the town. The weather is just stunning at that height - cool breeze, no humidity but hot sun. We did a 3 and a half hour walk and sometimes you felt as though you were on a real holiday, it smelt of wild herbs and flowers, it was green and verdant, the views were amazing, and the cedars were looking as wonderful as ever.
But in the distance you could hear distinctly the shelling from Nahr al-Bared - 155mm shells just make a slight shudder in the air along with a deep boom. A long way , perhaps 20 miles, away, but definitely an ominous tone to the morning. I never thought when I went for this job that I would have experienced the sound of Lebanese army artillery, Israeli bombs, and terrorist bombs all within a year!
That's it for now - I am about to crack open a beer and watch some rubbish on TV. Fi is at Wembley Stadium watching Muse tonight...alright for some!

Another Assassination

I didn't hear the bomb yesterday - it was about 2.5 miles away from us, along the corniche, near where I go running (and walking) a couple of times a week. An MP, his son, his bodyguards and a few passers-by were killed. The MP, Walid Eido, was an outspoken Anti-Syrian MP and a member of the March 14 Future Movement, headed by Rafik Hariri's son, Saad.

Lebanon is in a real state. As a result of the recent bombs and the fighting in the north, and even before yesterday's assassination, the majority of people were not going out, or, were going out for an early meal, and then back home. Economically, this is crippling bars and restaurants and the tourist season looks set to take another battering this year. In a country where dining out and going out for drinks until late in the evening is part of the cultural fabric, the recent attacks have left many businesses in dire straits. Schools are also affected. Many parents have taken their children out of school early, and some schools have already closed for the summer (most usually finish next week, I think). This, of course, affects the children, who don't have the stability of a full school term, or the company of their peers.

The fighting in the north still continues, and probably will for a few more days, although the Lebanese army seems to be making progress. The protestors are in Downtown, although their position looks increasingly untenable (they are associated, in the minds of most people and in reality, with the Syrian regime), but to leave now would be an admission of failure, and there is no way that they would do that, so some sort of compromise needs to be brokered.

So it's all a bit of a mess. I am off back to London for a few weeks tomorrow - we've got a trip to Scotland, a wedding, and general family catch-ups to do. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone, but am worried about what I may or may not come back to. I can't say it enough times, this is a fantastic country, with a warm, generous, fun-loving population. It seems so unfair that some people are determined to wreck all of this.

Another Bomb

Beirut is quite a small city, area-wise. About an hour ago, just as Dom and I were preparing to go out, we heard a boom from some way off. Of course, after a gap of about 2 weeks, it turned out to be a bomb, very near to where I used to work for Time Out Beirut (so about a mile away). Of course, this came just as things had been returning to some sort of normality here. Thankfully, not many were hurt, and no fatalities have yet been reported, but it looked like a pretty big bomb from the TV pictures we can see now.

Just as an aside, it is incredible how close the TV cameras are allowed to get here. They literally walk right up to the bombed bus/car and have a peek inside. Surely that is likely to contaminate any forensics? And with army/residents/internal security forces swarming all over the place, I am amazed that anyone will be able to collect any evidence after about 10 minutes.

So our evening is to be spent indoors. And we were going to meet famous Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram tonight! (picture follows below - the lovely Ms Ajram is a friend of a friend). Obviously Dom is rather annoyed about not meeting her...

It's ironic, but I was going to blog tonight about how the troubles in the camps (or "The Situation" as it is now called) seemed to be quite far removed from life here in Beirut - I think because the camps are not really the domain of Lebanese, and obviously the Army, or other forces connected with the Lebanese authorities, cannot enter them. Although it's obviously worrying that there is now trouble in Ain El Helweh near Sidon, normally considered to be the most dangerous camp in Lebanon, and that the fighting continues near Tripoli. Friends of mine in Tripoli report that although they can hear the fighting, it is really confined to the camp, and the city, although quiet, remains quite safe for them.

The twins remain well, however, and are growing by the day. I need names so get those suggestions coming in!!!