february 2007
this was the half of the bridge that survived the bombings last summer. it's having trouble, as you can see. i try my best to promote a more positive image of what i have even started calling the middle easy, but i also want to be honest about the state of affairs, especially in recent conflict zones like beirut and southern lebanon, iraq, gaza and the west bank (of this list, i have only visited beirut).
alongside beirut's beauty are some post-war images that make sleeping soundly harder. at the same time, there are some great political changes happening in the streets after a heavily symbolic assisination and subsequent protests/strike/riots. so beirut is tense (at the time of this webpage's creation) but it is not currently a conflict zone. still, there was something that smelled end-of-days in the air. beirut is a first world city, almost european, so the beauty and wealth of place is perpetually displayed along scenes of wreckage and demonstrations.
i had seen enough walking human tragedies during my time in west philadelphia to be jaded, but that doesn't mean i don't still hope for something better. it's hard for a visitor, whatever your political affiliation, to see how bombing could ever be an effective or efficient way of international communication or negotiation. in fact, one is tempted to draw the conclusion that it was the goal was to exacerbate differences rather than resolve them -- the mutually conscious or subconscious collaboration in a shared nightmare -- no other explanation satisfies the emergence of such an obvious public relations disaster of gruesome and wasteful destruction. if this was goal, than it was achieved successfully.
the world can't be perfect or emptied of violence and suffering, nor should it be. passion, tearing apart, sorrow are part of what it means to be human. but people suffer enough because of poverty, disease or even romance -- and still we want new ways to produce more violence. this is gratuitous, this is extravagant, this is disappointing. it's an addiction. to hope for a world without it is not to dream of a utopia, it's to ask only for the bare minimum. and politicians and their supporters, us all, are smart enough and informed enough to choose among a number of simpler alternatives.
actually, i think it's sick that i took these pictures and posted them on the internet.
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this is along the corniche, next to the beach.
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rue hamra near AUB.
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near martyrs square. formerly a 14 story building.
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close the shia opposition tents in martyrs' square.
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they are holding sticks with nails hammered into them. a lot of the opposition are hezbollah supporters trucked in from the south.
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"no financial help without political conditions."
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near the arabiyaa university where students and opposition protesters were recently killed in riots during the wildcat strike that was staged the week before.
on the left: push-ups, excercises, preperations. on the right, a protester with a lead pipe. i don't know why, but i have this on video.
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