The Lebanese Lebowski

(Click on the picture to fully enlarge.)

This picture was taken in the Shia slums on my way back from surfing in Jiyeh, Lebanon. I was sitting in the back of a mini bus, with my surfboard, casually gazing out the window at March 8 street propaganda, when this homeless dude came into sight. Unleashing an abrupt guffaw, I scrambled to take a picture of this crisp moment of hilarity.

See, the family structure in Lebanon is much stronger than in the U.S. or Europe. Very rarely do you see homeless people just "chillin' out." Either his family hates him, or he is lavishly taking in the street in the most profoundly relaxing way possible. If you ask me, I'd just say he's the Lebanese Lebowski.


Update: In case you get bored this weekend, check out this great article by Michael Young, opinion editor of The Daily Star: Jumblatt, or the burden of reinvention.

How to fix the West Bank? With Nablus kunafa of course!

Wait, what? Yeah, the best way to fix the place is to relax IDF checkpoints so that Jewish and Palestinian Israelis' can buy Nablus kunafa and continue to boost the West Bank economy! (In fact, Nablus has recently taken the world record for the largest batch ever made.)

Crazy, right? Well, just look what Ivan Karkashian--an Armenian--had to say about this issue in his article today in the Daily Star:

JERUSALEM: The West Bank economy could strengthen significantly this year if Israel continues to ease its restrictions on all Palestinian trade and movement in the territory, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Wednesday. The forecast was the latest sign of an improvement in security and economic conditions in the Occupied West Bank that could bolster Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and US-sponsored peace efforts with Israel.

A Summary of Findings by the IMF Mission to the West Bank and Gaza said the economy in the West Bank could grow by as much as 7 percent in 2009. It predicted a 3 percent inflation rate. “This would represent the first significant improvement in living standards in the West Bank since 2006,” said Oussama Kanaan, the IMF’s representative in the Palestinian territories.

So this weekend, while your casually standing at your cocktail party, tryin' to impress whoever, why not drop this casual rant:

"Sure. Why not let the Israelis onto the West Bank to buy a piece of that divinely sweet Nablus kunafa. Not only is it better than the stuff in Haifa, Israel, but it could foster up to 7 percent in growth for these West Bankers. I mean say what you like about the tenants of Palestinian sweets, this kind of groth might be the most plauseible thing to establishing a Palestinian state!"

UPDATE: In my opinion my mother just took the "quote of the week" award for an email regarding the previous post:

"Cool pics! It doesn't look like Hezbollah was patrolling your surfing."

Surfing South Lebanon (finally!)

And on July 15, 2009 at 6:05AM, Abu G surfed the southern shore of Lebanon. He is one of the first waves:








Get ready for a bunch of pictures and political commentary in the coming week! (And in case you are new to this blog and have no idea what I am talking about, click here and here.)

Anyone remember Baitullah Mehsud?

I know I have focused a lot on travel of late, but check out the new Foreign Policy profile on Pakistani Islamist, Baitullah Mehsud. Though he is considered to be very dangerous--and he is--I'm not sure how much the Pakistani Taliban would suffer if the U.S sent a Predator drone his way. Remember the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq (AIQ), Abu Musab al-Zarqawi? Well, he was assassinated and it seemed to have little affect on AIQ's ability to carry out attacks in the second half of 2006. All in all, I think the hunt for Baitullah has been on for a while and it is only a matter of time untill a Hellfire missile comes raining down on his hut:

(OK, I took this picture in Syria last weekend, about 100km from the Iraqi boarder. Perhaps it was the soft colors that reminded me of Central Asia. Nevertheless, I think most Westerners have this fantasy that Baitullah sips tea a similar-looking mud house. Can anyone confirm?)

Not tolerating intolerance (Women in the Middle East)

A horrible thing happened today where I was put into a significant morel/travelers dilemma…

Does anyone remember the Christopher Hitchens ass-whoopin that took place in Beirut a few months ago? Well, to summarize, old Chris had just arrived in the country and went for a stroll along the world famous Hamra Street. He saw a political poster (SSNP), which has a version of the Nazi swastika on it, and decided to bluntly deface it. Long story short, he got beat up for his deeds and then wrote an article in which he proclaimed that “swastikas exist to be defaced.” Bold, especially in the post-warring streets of Beirut. You follow?

How this tale relates to me is that a close friend—a 17-year-old Palestinian girl from England with whom I study Arabic with—was choked in a shop down the street from our student housing because she refused to go out for drinks with the owner. (You can always tell when a victim is sincere when they downplay such traumatic events because it often makes them less painful.) Nevertheless, I talked with her about the event, along with other friends at a café, and decided that we must confront the man for his gross violation. Truly, there is not a single culture on earth that promotes such random choking of women.

This shop is unfortunately unavoidable and is on the route to our student lodging. So, I walked with my friend, the victim, into this haggard shop and made her identify the man who was behind the deed. Sure enough, he was working, alone.

I got in his face. “Did you choke this girl yesterday? Don’t fu*king lie to me! Did you?” The man, terrified by my 6’2 frame and my friends on the sidewalk, tried to get out of it by saying, “no, no, I was just trying to show her something.” I smelled the cheep liquor on his breath and could feel him tremble in his small store of knick-knack tourist crap. After a few more accusatory rounds I left the man and decided that some sort of justice had been served.

Just around the corner was the owner of one of the outsourced dorms for our university’s Arabic program. He is a rich man and likes hanging out with foreigners so much so that he decided to take a vacation and become the manager of the place—mostly, I think, to practice his English.

He saw that my friend was profoundly blue and asked what was wrong. After hearing the story, he stormed out of the dorm, dragging my friend and I with him, and went to confront the shop owner.

After a few more rounds of “I did not do it,” we went back to our dorm lobby and the rich Druze man said, “Look, we have two options. 1) I can call the police. 2) I can call some “friends.” (Let's put it this way, if a Druze man owns a giant building a block away from Saad Hariri’s house, he is well connected to what is left of the 1975-90 civil war Druze militia.) In any event, we opted to call the local policeman—who our Druze friend also knew—and who is still likely “teaching him a lesson.”

So here is the issue: We are in the middle of West Beirut, a place that has become famous for civil war and confrontation. People have guns; people are willing to use them. Thus, the moral dilemma: Should I have confronted this man? What would risking myself to prove a point do in the long run? Sure this man choking my friend emotionally scared her, but did it give me a mandate to pull a verbal Rambo? Tough one…

Perhaps, according to Hitchens, violent molesters and sexual offenders only exist to be made examples of (like swastikas). But in Beirut of all places? The Middle East? Chris thought so; and he was lucky to escape with his life!

In the end, I chose to make a daring move by confronting this man and then going back with the Druze owner of our building. I would not say with certainly that I would do it again, but I would say that I’m glad that this horrifying situation has been dealt with it.

If Christopher Hitchens was right about anything, it is that you cannot tolerate intolerance—especially towards women. Unfortunately, however, it seems that the most needed places for this kind of moral courage are also the most daring places to practice it.

The bombed bridge of development between Lebanon and Syria

As much as I enjoy Lebanon, I could have stayed in Syria for longer than this weekend trip permitted. For example, it was interesting to observe that Syria, unlike Lebanon, has had functioning government for the last half-decade and has such public luxuries as parks, trash collection and basic traffic laws. Simply put, Syria has had steady attentions from its public ministers that have worked to protect the country. I mean, it seemed like the kind of place that enjoys many of the benefits of an authoritarian trademark: a capable government that can implement policy, just don’t ask about human rights, freedom of the press or equal opportunity.

So why is Syria, a country that somehow dodged the "Axis of Evil" brand by the Bush Administration, really not such a backward place? Or, perhaps what I’m really asking, why is Lebanon such a public policy nightmare in comparison? Look at this picture:

(I took this picture en route to Damascus, Syria. Now, however, there is a narrow road down though the Lebanese valley. The guy sitting next to me said to me: "See that bridge? Bombed with American bombs, rebuilt with American contractors.")

Here is one version of the answer. This picture is of the biggest bridge in Lebanon and one of 78 bridges that was bombed in the 2006 War between Israel and Hezbollah. Though I'm not placing the sole blame on anyone for any of Lebanon’s past conflicts--Lord knows there is enough of that to go around--all I'm saying is that because of past conflict, the country has not been able to attend to public projects that its relatively peaceful neighbor has.

More to come on Syria later. I just wanted to share this observation and perhaps informally challenge Lebanese politicians to think about investing into a new generation of public servants to care for Lebanon in a way which they cannot. So rally-round all you Lebanese-based Casbahites in the readership, it’s time to defend your cedars!


Update-- Thank you Qifa Nabki for finding this hilarious quote by Interior Minister Ziad Baroud, who has kindly asked Lebanese drivers not to honk their horns while in traffic:

“If you look at most cities in Europe and the United States, you see that there are severe fines for honking your car horn if there is no urgent need to do so,” said Baroud spokesman Fadi Antabli. “In Lebanon, people honk their horn while they are sitting in traffic, just out of frustration. And then others join in, and pretty soon the entire avenue is honking. This is a very bad habit that the Interior Ministry is trying to change.”