14 March

This past Sunday, 13 March, I went to the rally for the 14 March coalition. I went merely as an observer since I do not have enough of a handle on Lebanese politics to support either 8 March or 14 March. All I can say is that the energy at this gathering was unbelievable. I have never seen such a large group of people rallying for a political cause. It was like a huge party. I wish people in the US could get excited about political issues the way people over here are. It was an exhilarating experience.

At first I didn't want to because I was afraid the rally might be targeted by Hezbollah or one of their supporters. However, 14 March coalition must have also anticipated this because they funded signs all over Beirut (and perhaps Lebanon) that criticized Hezbollah's arms stockpile. These billboards tied Hezbollah's hands because if they used their weapons they would be proving 14 March right and thus losing a large group of middle ground Lebanese. To counter the 14 March signs, Hezbollah put up signs that said "Israel also wants a demilitarized Hezbollah." This alludes to the fact that Hezbollah is the only force in Lebanon capable of defending the country. The Lebanese army is poorly equipped to respond to any Israeli offensive.

Lebanon is a country that relies heavily on coalitions for a functioning government. As such, there are many questionable alliances and a lot of hypocrisy. For example, Saad Hariri and his political party, the Future party, have allied themselves with the Lebanese Forces party, which is headed by Samir GeaGea. Their main rallying point is the Special Tribunal to Lebanon, which is charged with investigating the death of Rafic Hariri. They relentlessly criticize Hezbollah for being a part of the assassination. What's interesting in this is that GeaGea is no saint himself. He was imprisoned and sentenced to death after the Civil War for ordering several political assassinations, including the assassination of Prime Minister Rashid Karami. So while he's now supporting international law and investigations into Hezbollah's actions, I bet he wouldn't be too keen on reciprocal investigations into his past. From talking with a few people at AUB, I sense that this is the reason many people are disillusioned with politics. Politicians are only interested in their own power, and will act as the moment requires in order to retain their power.

Flag of the Special Tribunal to Lebanon

Conversations with Lebanese

I've made a few Lebanese friends in my dorm and in my classes over the past few weeks. Almost everyone here is a science or business major. At first I thought it was just because those departments were strong at AUB, but now I think it's something else. Against my guidebook's warning, I always tend to bring up politics in conversation. The responses I get always start the same, "I don't know much about politics and I don't want to know anything. I'm Lebanese. Our system is very messed up." Then whoever I'm talking with will go on a rant about what they think of the political system. Most of them are so fed up with Lebanese politics and think the politicians are just corrupt demagogues who lie to the people. It's interesting that a country with so many political problems can claim so many young inhabitants who hate politics. I wonder what this spells for the future of the country.

Wasta

A big thing in the Middle East is "wasta," or connections. You have to have wasta to get anything. It ranges from a small bribe at a border to securing a job at the biggest business in the country. It's funny to think that a whole region can run on this. How unfair, how dysfunctional! But, as one girl in my dorm pointed out, maybe the wasta is just exacerbated because the country is so small. Don't connections like this exist throughout the US? I kind of agreed with her, but the US also has a fully functioning bureaucracy and system where things do get done, for the most part.

Saida

On Saturday I went to Saida and I took pictures! Saida is a city about 40 minutes south of Beirut on the water. There is an old Crusader castle built on an island about 100 yards off the coast. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but the inside was just fantastic! I still can't fathom how they built those huge halls with high ceilings out of just stone and some adhesive stuff (forgive my ancient castle knowledge). After exploring the castle for a bit, I walked around the Old City of Saida. It was great. We ate lunch for about two hours at this popular restaurant that was such an ordeal to order at. When we asked for the check, the guy shouted out "46,000" (approximately $30, which for 4 people is pretty good) without consulting any receipts or even looking at what we had ordered. I had quite a sweet tooth that day (not dissimilar from most days) so we went in search of kanafeh in the Old City. Kanafeh is boiled cheese with tons of sugar and flour. Sounds disgusting but with a bit of sugary syrup it's quite tasty. We found our kanafeh at a little shop, and once we started talking to the guy, he invited us to sit down so we ate a huge plate of kanafeh in a dirty, unlit little shop and it was great. It seemed like everyone we met that day was Palestinian. Whether it was the boy who brought us coals for the argileh, or our taxi driver in Beirut, or the man who sold us kanafeh, everyone seemed to be Palestinian! It made me think that Lebanon probably has a more sizable number of Palestinians than is actually reported. Or maybe we were just in a popular spot.

This Sunday there are protests being staged by the March 14 coalition, the supporters of Hariri and the Special Tribunal, in Beirut. I'm not sure if I'll attend since I don't know much about them and it seems like quite the targetable location that everyone has warned me to avoid. I think Sunday will be a real test to see what the future of Lebanon holds. As a girl on my hall said today, "things only get resolved when they get really big, so for Lebanon that means war."

In kind of related news, we've been having tremendous thunderstorms here. It must be a mixture between the Mediterranean and the mountains. Today there was one clap of thunder that was so loud that most of the international kids thought it was a bomb. I ran to the window as soon as I heard it, but since no one outside seemed to notice, I went back to my work.

I've been trying to observe the relationships between Muslim and Christian students here. Lebanon has such a horrific history of fighting along religious lines, that I wondered how much of it has changed today. It's really hard to tell how much people hang out with people from different religious backgrounds. Beirut, and the western coast of Lebanon in general, is so liberal that many times you can't even tell who is Muslim and who is Christian (at least for the women). One Christian girl told my friend that for every 10 students accepted into AUB, 7 are always Muslim. So there's definitely a bit of tension, kind of like our affirmative action. Also, Lebanese Christians don't consider themselves Arab, but rather Lebanese, or even Phoenician. My friend and I were discussing last night where the definition of Arab ends, and a person can just be described by their country of origin. I've always thought that if you speak Arabic, you're Arab, but as she pointed out, it gets kind of fuzzy when you hit North Africa. It's tricky and I'd welcome anyone who knows the answer to please tell me.

Finally, just a personal update, I have decided to spend the summer working as a coordinator for the program I did last summer in Palestine. I am looking forward to the opportunity to return to the West Bank and see how much has changed, for better or worse, in a year.

AUB Campus

Sea Castle, Saida

Man treating the cotton as another sews it into a quilt in the background

Knockturn Alley of Saida

Sea Castle, Saida

Proof of life!!

Skiing at Faraya

An assortment of things

I haven't been up to too much recently, just hanging around Beirut and taking classes. I did go to the farmer's market last Saturday and it was quite enjoyable. No pictures though because I'm always afraid of standing out as a tourist. I'll try to go again on Saturday.

Dorm life at AUB is very different than in the US. For one thing, dorms are single sex and they are very strict about it. For example, my friend was helping me move all my suitcases in a couple weeks ago and was walking towards the elevator when this lady came charging after us and made him drop my bags immediately and go outside. Also, there is no meal plan here. AUB has a dining hall, but the food isn't great and it closes at 5h00 on the weekdays and isn't even open on the weekend! I've been experimenting with cooking, and I supplement that with a few meals out during the week. So far nothing traumatic has happened, but I did melt a plastic bag on my frying pan.

The perspective in my Political Science classes is really fascinating. Never did I think I'd hear a professor say "it goes without saying that Israel does not want peace" or other such candid utterances. Some of the things I hear are just ridiculous, but then I begin to think that maybe they only sound ridiculous because I have been hearing a very one-sided account of history in my academic career. It's hard to tell, and I'm always wary of outlandish statements. My Palestinian-Israeli politics professor is particularly funny since every time we discuss a Hebrew word, like Likud or Kadima, he says something like "and of course those words all come from Arabic." I am not an expert on linguistics, but I didn't think one language necessarily inspired the other, so him taking credit for that word seems a little iffy. But please correct me if I'm wrong. Finally, I've always thought it natural to think from West to East. But here, the professors and Lebanese students talk from East to West. So when a professor asks you where the Ottoman empire stretched from, the appropriate response is Saudi Arabic to Algeria/Tunisia, not the other way around, as myself and the other American and European students mistakenly said.

I watched the Academy Awards last night in my common room with a bunch of girls from my dorm. It was amazing that they knew more about the actors on stage than I did. I barely know anything about Lebanese/Arab stars except the music of Amr Diab and Nancy Ajram (both of which you should check out). Also, this was weird (and just proves my ignorance and stereotyping) but I was talking to these two girls about the band Florence + the Machine and saying how much I love them, and one responded, "I feel like their concert would be such an out of body experience, but you have to be, you know, totally high to go. That would make it incredible." Uhhhh. I just kind of laughed and continued to eat my dinner.

The Ambassadors (people who have to help lost international students like myself) showed a movie on Lebanon last week called "Caramel." It's on Netflix watch instantly, so definitely check it out. It shows the side of Lebanon that we don't get in the West: the normal, easy-going, modern life that actually exists here.

Finally, on Saturday I went to Jeita Grotto. I couldn't take pictures, but it was one of the most fantastic places I've ever been. Jeita Grotto is a series of caves in the mountains of Lebanon that are HUGE!! I felt like I was underwater. Here's a link to some photos: Jeita Grotto.

That's all for now! This weekend I'm planning a trip to Seida, a really neat coastal town with a castle!