GAZA

Dear Friends,
I am not going to be diplomatic here; there is no space to mince words.
In Gaza, right now, the israelis have gone beyond apartheid, and are now pursuing genocide. (What irony!)
I think the only reason that America is not on fire with rage over this is that you just don't know the truth.

American news outlets are not telling you what is happening.
Your only chance is to go to Aljazeera, or at least BBC.

http://english.aljazeera.net/ If you doubt Aljazeera's veracity, watch "Control Room," a documentary about the early years of Aljazeera. Note that David Frost is now one of their main commentators.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/ (You can always trust the Beeb.)

You will learn that before Hamas sent their rockets into Israel, the Israelis had turned Gaza into a classic Psych 101 experiment, where subjects are trapped in a confined space with scant resources. You know the outcome.
You will learn about the hundreds of dead Palestinian children and civilians.
You will learn that the Israelis have shelled and set afire, the main UN Relief agency.
You will learn that they shelled the Red Crescent HQ.

How is it that a people who were trapped in the Warsaw ghetto can turn around and do the same thing to another people? And, Americans, YOU HAVE HELPED THE ISRAELIS DO THAT.

It is no longer possible to be quiet; we have to stand up and tell the Israelis that they must STOP! We cannot let them use cluster bombs, DIME, and phosphorus (all supplied by the USA) in our name.

If you have a souvenir Palestinian scarf (keffiyeh), dig it out and wear it. If you want one, donate $20 to the International REd Cross/Crescent, and I will send you one. America needs to know that Palestinians have friends.

I'm sorry to have been such a lazy blogger. I've been more interested in posting photographs to Flickr. You can se the results here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/13968680@N07/

More Soon,

R




It looks like the Israelis are trying to gain as much ground as they can before Obama takes office, fearing that they will no longer have carte blanche as they have had for the past eight years.

Snow Day in July

Well, a Beirut snow day, that is. Most of you know that when it snows a lot in New England, schools close because of the danger of putting students and teachers on the road trying to get to school. When we left Worcester and moved to Istanbul, I remember thinking that I probably wouldn’t see any more snow days. Was I wrong! It was one of the snowiest winters on record for Istanbul, and there were several days off. (On one of them, I spent the afternoon inching up and down the steps of Rumeli Husari, happily photographing a snowy 1400’s Ottoman castle on the edge of the Bosphorus.)

But I digress… When I moved to Beirut, again I assumed that I had left snow days behind me. I’ve often described a snow day as God’s way of saying "Thank you for being a teacher.” Because, after all, it is rare for anyone to get an early morning message on the radio that says they don’t have to go to work. Overlooking the negative aspects of a major snowstorm (shoveling comes to mind) I think many teachers share their student’s delight at an unexpected day off from school. In Beirut, it seems, the snow day has an evil twin.

There are a number of reasons why the Ministry of Education will decide to close schools. Any sort of a major disruption in traffic can do it, tire-burning demonstrations, for example, or flag-waving demonstratons downtown. Scheduled visits of heads of state can do it, if their security apparatus threatens traffic. (We were stopped at an intersection for 30 minutes, until a 15 car motorcade hurtled past; we learned later that Nuri AlMaliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister was in town.) Sadly, assassinations will usually create a day or two of mourning. And I suppose you could include the invasion of one’s neighborhood by armed gunmen as another reason, but that week was so fraught with tension, that I don’t think it counts. Today, we can add prisoner exchange to the odd list of reasons for Beirut snow days.

After long and cautious negotiations, Hizbollah has returned the bodies of the two soldiers whose kidnapping sparked the Summer War of 06. At the same time, the Israelis gave Hizbollah some of the prisoners and remains that they had been holding. One of the prisoners was Samir Khantir, who was serving multiple consecutive life sentences for the brutal murder of Israeli women and children several years ago. He is being hailed as a hero here, and his dead comrades commemorated as martyrs. The government has shut down everything, schools, banks, shops, even Carol’s AmidEast office

I’m sure the Israelis are honoring their soldiers, perhaps more quietly.

In The New Apartment

I have started several posts, and none seem to have caught the spirit of the moment here, so I have not published them. We are starting a new chapter in our Beirut adventure, but I’m having a hard time defining when it actually begins. Did it start when we left the old apartment and camped out in the little “half-way house” for six weeks? Or when the movers took all our stuff out of storage and brought it here to the new place? Does it start when AbouDanny and his helper finish painting? Or when we have unpacked? Or do we simply have to sit out on the balcony with a martini, ignore the utter chaos behind us, toast the sun as it sinks quietly over the horizon of the western Mediterranean, and say “New Chapter!”?

That’s just what we did.

Sunday Afternoon

For most of us, Sunday afternoon is a quiet peaceful time. In the US, you gather together for a cookout or an afternoon picnic. In Lebanon, it is usually spent with family and friends, either at home or at a restaurant that lets you keep your table until it starts to get dark. Food comes to the table in stages, starting with the cold mezzeh. Hummous, baba ganoush, tabbouleh, fattoush, or if you are very lucky, Kibbee naye (OK for my American friends, raw lamb with cracked wheat and spices). That's just for starters

The hot mezzes are : french fries (I will never forget the french fries made by Fawaz ElKhoury's mother n Balamand) kibbee, foul, sojouk sausage, fillo cheese rolls, chicken livers in pomegranate (well, not for me), and my most favorite, patata harrah (that's fried potatoes with so much garlic that they are hot and spicy). Then, when you feel totally stuffed, the hot meal arrives! Shish kebab (which for me growing up was always beef, but here is is lamb. Keftah, hot little meat patties, chicken kabob , grilled sausage.. All of it so good!

For the afternoon, you should probably be drinking Arak. ( for sure with Kibbee haye). I have an astonishing supply of arak at home. Thoughtful gifts from parents and departing teachers have left me with a tasty array of commercial and homemade arak. Thank you all! The Lebanese wineries of the Bekaa also supply a good selection of red and white wines that do not disappoint!

For our afternoon, we are at home and then on our way out to meet Phillip, Carol's Albanian cousin (they are all cousins) for a light dinner in Hamra.

The political situation here continues to be fraught with uncertainty and partisanship. Remember, this is a country ruled by an ancient feudal system of patronage and tribalism. George Bush (GWB=WFPE) once described this as a "fragile democracy." Perhaps that was an overstatement (for once in his life). The current deliberations to select the ministers for the new government have been protracted and detailed. If you get Defense and Education

Through all this, we are set up in our little temporary apartment, getting ready to move to the good one. Now that Carol is home, the apartment has gotten a little smaller, but it is good to have her home.

Stay tuned.

TW3

Who remembers "That Was the Week That Was"?
You can probably google it if you don't.
This was, actually is, the week that will be.....
There is something wrong with those tenses, but I hope you get the idea.

We have three more weeks of school, and this was going to be a busy week.
Then Mrs Branch, the Principal, was called away for a week.
Since I am the principal-in-waiting (aka Assistant Principal) much of her schedule became mine.
So it's been a really busy week.
Add to that the two concerts (and a party) of the Balamand University Chorus, in which I am a tenor, and you have a very busy week!

But I am not writing to tell you all that.
I am really writing to tell you how the news of Barak Obama's nomination is regarded overseas.
Look at Huffingtonpost.com and see the headlines from all over the world.
GWB (WFPE) has already receded to the vanishing point.
The US has already begun to regain some of the credibility it lost.
Even if McCain wins (I think not) the US has gained by Obama's true candidacy of hope.
Do my American readers feel the change in the wind?
There's a stiff breeze over here!

OK, I will be late for the concert if I go on any longer, and there aren't many tenors!

A Week Has Passed

You could probably plot a graph that shows the political tension in Lebanon and the time between my posts here, and notice that the more trouble there is, the more often I post. So, it has been a week since I wrote last... what does that tell you?

Downtown Beirut is in permanent party mode (although I have not attended). All of the big popular stars, Haifa Webhe et al, have been performing, fireworks, free drinks, literally dancing in the streets. Some people are happy.

But some people are still angry, and there are still outbursts in the mixed neighborhoods. Both Sunni and Shia died in the brief takeover, and that pain does not subside quickly. The Army, at least, is now stepping in to quell the outbursts, but even soldiers have been killed.

The question of Hizbollah's status as a state within a state is being questioned. Can we really refer to them as the "Opposition" when they took over much of Beirut by force? Isn't that a political term, not a tactical one? It would be as if the Democrats had M-16's and the Republicans didn't. There really isn't any political paradigm in the US that fits this bizarre situation. Maybe back in the run-up to the Civil War, but let's not go there. (John Woodward, my American History teacher in high school, where are you when I need you?)

But my tension/posting graph leaves out one important variable. This is the end of the school year, and a nutty time in any school. Performances, celebrations, report cards, achievement tests, committees, and end-of-year summatives all whirl together in a perfect storm. This has been a non-stop week, although Mrs Branch (my boss) and I have managed to find time to tend to a very small street kitten who is quite needy. Food and water twice a day. This little creature, alone, tiny, how can we not?

Oh, and did I mention the dress rehearsal and two concerts next week?

So I don't ask your forgivenss for this sparse posting, just your patience.

Carol is bringing me a Flip Ultra digital video recorder when she comes back from D.C.
Stay tuned for video. (Would that make this a VLOG?)

Change

One of the little pleasures of living in Lebanon is that when the gardenias bloom, people share the blossoms from the plants they have at home. I have at least a dozen in my office, and on the way home today, I will get a gardenia lei for the new apartment. The sweet aroma matches the smiles that have appeared on everyone's face. When the "Dialog in Doha" reached an agreement, I think the whole country breathed a sigh of relief. I'm sure this weekend will be one long party downtown.


We are moved in to the new apartment and comfortable. The cats gave us a scare but they emerged from their hiding place just when we were about to give up. Carol heads to the US tomorrow for some conference work for AmidEast. The school year is widing up, so I am busy! Until we get internet at home, blogging will be sparse, but I promise not to be silent for too long.