Ramzi's Blah Blah

Screw. You.

2006-08-16T19:04:00.000+03:00

You worthless talking pile of human excrement.

The only reason Israel hasn't toppled your palace over your head is because they know you are too spineless to ask for anything but to be left at the helm of a rotting regime of fear and death.

I will watch your own countrymen drag you into the street and stomp your cowardly corpse into a pulp.

That day of reckoning is near.

Until then you can carry on being this guy...

Thank You

2006-08-15T19:06:00.000+03:00

For everyone who kept reading this (or other Lebanese) blogs during this war, thank you.
For every kind comment or email, for every hateful one, thank you.
For every warm wish or sentiment, thank you.

Cease Fire, Blow Smoke

2006-08-15T19:02:00.000+03:00

Well the boys playing war over the carcass of this battered nation have decided that the fighting was getting pretty tedious and agreed to cool it off.

And why not? March a mile in their boots and you would probably feel the same way. I fire rockets, you flatten a village, I destroy a tank, you pulverize a bridge. I call you murderer, you call me terrorist. Do that for a month and you'll find the novelty fades away quickly.

Besides, a ceasefire brings with it that exquisite pleasure of claiming victory.

So who won?

Well both. And they've both lost too.

Hezbollah won: Israel's declared objectives of destroying Hezbollah and decapitating its leadership have both failed to materialize. Rockets kept being fired till the final hour. Praise allah, we are victorious.

Israel won: The IDF knew it could never achieve either of those goals. What it really set out to do was destroy what it could get away with (i.e. mostly infrastructure and Hezbollah sympathizers) in order to get a UN resolution that would be more hostile to Hezbollah than 1559. It did.

Hezbollah lost: Yes the leadership is still alive and the rockets kept raining on Haifa, but what Israel brutally destroyed is very dear, and the loss is incalculable. And no, it's not all "fida sirmeyt el-sayyed" (translation: for the sake of Nasrallah's slipper) as some say. You'll miss that roof over your head. And that son or daughter too by the way.

Israel lost: Yes it huffed and puffed and blew the house down, but no "self-defense" argument can justify the manic stomping of a country, innocents dying needlessly on both sides. The whole world sympathized with the cause of rescuing 2 kidnapped soldiers (even some Arab ones), and Israel managed to turn all that sympathetic capital into indignant rage in just 30 days. Why punish all the Lebanese for not disarming Hezbollah when your own 'legendary' IDF was unable to do so, and then only make them look like heroes in the end. Disarming Hezbollah is going to be much harder now. And you have sowed seeds of hate that will blossom well into the future.

So who won? Both did. Who lost? Both did.

But who lost everything and gained nothing? Lebanon. And the moderate, peace-seeking Lebanese.

And that is why our Prime Minister wept.
And I wept with him.

Could it be over?

2006-08-15T19:00:00.000+03:00

Is this it?

No more rushing to the TV live feed to see the smoke plumes?
Or seeing the reporter try to figure out if it was a fighter or warship that fired?
No more breaking-news ribbons on the bottom of the screen?
Or that cute Saliba reporter on LBCI?

I've come to expect the casuality report every morning.
I get anxious when the power cuts out, as if the massacres can't happen if I'm watching the news.
And I've come to recognize the Haifa skyline like I've actually been there.

I never expected this war and it took me by surprise.
I got angry, I cried out for peace, I had countless debates and arguments.
And now it's over just as abruptly as it started.

How can I ever trust in peace again?

It just got (more) personal

2006-08-07T00:18:00.000+03:00

My second cousin is in the army. Or was.
He was stationed in Tyre, to man a prehistoric anti-aircraft gun that could only intimidate migrating birds.
He heard Israeli choppers flying in to drop commandos in a civilian area.

We don't know if he actually managed to get a round fired off or not.
Moments later he became a charred body in a destroyed vehicle.

In my heart, I know his death served no purpose.
He is fodder to the raging inferno of death and hate sweeping Lebanon, leaving ash and dust in its wake.

But when his toddler kids grow up, and ask me what happened in 2006, I will say he died a hero.

Would they understand the truth? Would they forgive us if they did?

شرف تضحية وفاء

BBC Interview

2006-08-07T00:08:00.000+03:00

I was interviewed on BBC Five Live's pods and blogs show.

Have a listen.

(RealPlayer required)

Bi Beyrut

2006-08-06T23:54:00.000+03:00

A very touching post written by fellow blogger Eve, read out by fellow blogger Jooj.

Have a fellow listen.

powered by ODEO

NB. It's in arabic. And I hate pink.

This is Lebanon - part 2

2006-08-03T01:13:00.000+03:00

The famous Beirut theater, Masrah Al Madina, is producing a show called "Laughter under fire" (my translation) that is a comedy based on improvisation and audience participation.

It will be held on Thursday and Friday 6th and 7th of this month. 7.30 pm. Free Entrance.

Seems I'm not the only one trying to smile through this.

Candles in Lebanon

2006-08-03T00:35:00.000+03:00

Candles are being lit all over Lebanon these evenings.
Not to complement romantic dinners, or fill rooms with heady scents.

To stave off the dark,

to garner hope,

and mourn the dead.

Everything is different in war, even candles.

To Speak Faerlie

2006-08-02T23:10:00.000+03:00

In a post a few days ago, I suggested that you read an excellent article written by an American living in Lebanon that refused to evacuate despite the violence.

Now meet the author, Faerlie Wilson.

Sitting in Starbucks waiting for her to show up (she loves to walk everywhere, admittedly not Beiruti-like), I expected to have a cup of coffee with a wide-eyed tree-hugging bundle of excitement that in some misguided effort to express her love for the Beirut she barely knew had bitten off more than she could chew. Sure her words were really touching, but would she still feel the same way when the war caught up with her? When the reality of what she signed on for made her doubt the wisdom of an impulsive decision?

I was very mistaken.

She is certainly a stubbornly optimistic person, but not naive in the least. She definitely decided to stay because she felt compelled to, but it was a decision she made with reason and forethought, not on impulse. Listening to her speak of Lebanon, the conflict, her concerns and her anguish at what was happening, you would never for a moment think she were anything but Lebanese, born and raised. When she says "we", she means us Lebanese. She didn't end up here by chance. Everything about her stay here is deliberate and intentional. Once you realize that, it makes perfect sense that she would stay.

At several points in the conversation, I would feel as if I were the foreign inquisitor feeling for the pulse of a local Lebanese. It is then that I would suspect she may even love this place more than I do. She asked why all the Lebanese flags paraded so proudly in the past year are conspicuously absent. I had no answer. I felt ashamed.

You just know she will be there with a flag in hand when this violence is finally over.

Smart, ambitious and passionate, Faerlie is disarmingly charming, with a genuine love for this country and its people.

She is however gravely mistaken in her article when she says: "I'm not crazy, and I harbor no death wish."
Faerlie, you're just as crazy as the rest of us.

Qana Carnage

2006-08-02T18:36:00.000+03:00

Lebanon awoke Sunday to another massacre in Qana.
56 dead, mostly women and children.
The same village had been hit in 1996, killing 100 civilians sheltering in a UN base.

The grizzly scenes of bodies being pulled out of the rubble was played again and again on almost every news channel worldwide.
The world was outraged.
Calls for an immediate ceasefire echoed around the globe.

Yes, now we deserve a ceasefire, don't we?
You see, the 650 civilians killed since July 12th were killed over the span of 3 weeks, in different attacks. That's not an outrage.

But 56 killed all at once?!
That is terrible.
Here you go Lebanon, you've 'earned' your calls for a ceasefire now.

What's that? Israel needs another 2 weeks to wrap it up?
Ah well, ermmm, okay. But just 2 weeks.

And for the love of God don't kill them all at once this time.
It looks bad.

Update: I didn't get to post this yesterday due to Internet access. In this time, the Israeli media has made several claims to justify this massacre from claiming this was a building where rockets were being fired into Israel to the suggestion that Hezbollah may have staged the whole thing.

I strongly dismiss both of these 'justifications'. There was no photographic evidence presented by the IDF showing rockets being fired from this building. And the town was being continuously shelled 80 times that night by Israeli artillery fire making it impossible for anyone to stage anything.

Did the Israeli gunner know that there were 56 civilians in that building and aimed for it intentionally? Doubtful.
Does the IDF find it much easier to practice a 'scorched earth' policy than to avoid hitting civilians? There are 650 souls that would testify that this is very often the case.

"Death solves all problems - no man, no problem." - Joseph Stalin

Godot

2006-07-29T02:06:00.000+03:00

It's been a while since I'd enjoyed a Black Label, long glass, full ice over a crowded bar top while unfamiliar jazzy music accompanied the hubbub of beautiful people.

17 days of bombing and death.

I hate counting the days.
Partly because it somehow brings acceptance, as if I expect more days to come.
And secondly because the counter on the right has been running for 530 days and we still didn't put the murderers in jail.

I'd passed through the once bustling street of Gemmayzeh a few days ago and found that most of the pubs were still open. So I found myself tonight at Godot, a cozy pub with a name supposed to invoke the famous tale of waiting. Yes, the irony.

The bartenders were decorated with "No War" stickers and handed them out to the patrons. A group of foreign expats walked in halfway through the evening. This would have been normal 2 weeks ago, but now everyone turned around and stared. TV crew? Relief workers? 10 minutes later they were already in conversation with a group of Lebanese singles, and you hardly noticed they were there anymore.

My friend and I debated love, destiny and astrology signs. Anything would do other than what was currently happening. I was tired of saying the same things over and over again, and she didn't really care for politics anyway.

How long did that bubble last? Not long.
On the street, an army checkpoint. Good job boys, this is where the action is.

I got home, the power was out and the street was dark. Ah yes, the war.
Half an hour later the power came back and the candles were extinguished.

Turned on the TV. Every single news channel was covering Lebanon. How flattering.

Jordanian and Dubai TV had telethons to raise money to aid the Lebanese civilians. One man was reading out a poem about Lebanon by Nizar Kabbani that my father would always recite to me.

I'm not sure if it was that poem, everything I mentioned above, or the 17 days of violence that finally made my tears run.

I cried. But then quickly checked myself. I still had a home, loved ones and a future. Many Lebanese sleep tonight without any of these.

"The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh. Let us not then speak ill of our generation, it is not any unhappier than its predecessors. Let us not speak well of it either. Let us not speak of it at all." - Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett

Cartoon Collection

2006-07-29T02:00:00.000+03:00

Here are a few cartoons I've clipped from the media over the past few days...

Swearing to Success

2006-07-29T01:03:00.000+03:00

Below is a link to a Flash animation done by a master many many times my superior.
It is not only hillarious, it is very true.

Enjoy!

Swearing to Success by MarkFiore.com

How disgusting!

2006-07-27T00:17:00.000+03:00

I just watched a Lebanese TV show that hosted around 16 youths from different parts of the Lebanese spectrum, and I am disgusted by most of the defiant, accusatory hogwash that was spewing from the pro-Hezbollah/ pro-Syria/pro-Iran camp. They are not in the slightest sense apologetic or willing to understand my views or the views whom I consider were representing me on the panel.

Screw you! I seriously cannot care less now what your fate will be so far as it doesn't affect me. And seeing as how that is impossible I am truly sick to my stomach right now.

I don't want anyone telling me what Israel/Hezbollah/Lebanon/Arabs should do anymore.
Stuff your political analyses, screw your agendas and damn your experts.

I'm gonna hunker down, try to keep alive, and see where this time warp ends.

Amnesty Petition

2006-07-26T22:19:00.000+03:00

All Israeli (and non-Israeli) readers.

Some of you have read my blog and vented your hate for my country, my people and mocked the dead. I have let you speak because I was raised to believe in freedom of speech, not because I agree with you or because I am unable to delete what you've said.

As for the majority of the readers, you have expressed great solidarity with my country and its innocent victims. I now ask you to sign this electronic petition set up by Amnesty International addressed to Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister. This is how you can make a difference.

Excerpt:

"I urge you to take urgent steps to put an immediate end to deliberate attacks by Israeli forces against civilian and civilian property and infrastructure in Lebanon. These attacks constitute collective punishment. I call on you to end the use of excessive and disproportionate force, and to ensure that Israeli forces respect the principle of proportionality when targeting any military objective or civilian objective that may be used for military purposes."

I heart Beirut

2006-07-26T21:56:00.000+03:00

Peace protest in Prague

This is Lebanon

2006-07-26T02:16:00.000+03:00

(click to enlarge)
This is a billboard being seen all over Beirut these past few days. How they managed to get it printed and posted in all of this fighting I have no idea.

It's an ad for a local bank, and it says: "No matter how cloudy the sky gets, Lebanon's sun shall return".

This is our defiant spirit. This is our will to overcome.

This is what makes us Lebanese. This is Lebanon.

Cycle of Violence

2006-07-26T02:00:00.000+03:00

To the Israeli warmongers:

Kid fleeing the South with family.
Kid and family car hit by a rocket.
Kid barely survives.
Kid's brother gives him a toy gun.
Kid promises to avenge his attackers.
This kid will fight your kids.

STOP VIOLENCE NOW!

2 excellent articles

2006-07-26T01:37:00.000+03:00

1) And Then They Paid Dearly. By Tom McCarthy

"Did the Shaito family have reason, when those leaflets came fluttering onto their rooftop and into their hands, to expect better treatment out on the naked roads from the Israeli helicopters than had been shown the 15 children and 7 adults who were killed in the so-called “Marwahine massacre” of July 15, when the victims’ open truck was attacked just after having been turned away from a South Lebanon UN encampment?"

2) Why I'm not evacuating Beirut. By Faerlie Wilson

"So although I'm not Lebanese by blood, I have become Beiruti. There are plenty of us who fit that description, foreigners who fell in love with the place and its people. One friend, an American college student interning for the summer with a member of the Lebanese parliament, called in tears en route to the northern border to tell me her parents had forced her to leave."

Call for Hezbollah

2006-07-26T01:17:00.000+03:00

I call hezbollah to end the rocket launching into Israel as of this minute.

If these rockets were targeted at the Israeli army, very well. That would be a legitimate defence right now.

But what use is it to launch these rockets haphazardly at the civilian populations of Northern Israel? Is it to scare them into stopping the war? Do you know that Haifa is one of the most pro-peace cities in Israel? These rockets land blindly. Those that don't kill innocent civilians land in empty fields or kill a cow.

Can't you see that this only makes the IDF's argument stronger?
How can we cheer for innocent Israeli deaths and then ask the world to mourn ours?

I'm not saying we should be passive. Fight the IDF to the death.
But don't do what you know is wrong just because it is being done to you.

Israeli peace protestors today in Haifa

Germaphobe Street Sweeper

2006-07-26T00:40:00.000+03:00

On a lighter note, a personal story that you may find amusing.

A friend of mine, bless her, is obsessed with hygiene. The disinfectant bottle by the bedside, the disinfectant gel in her purse, etc. I would always give her a hard time over this, trying to see how far the rabbit hole goes. I would come up with freakishly unlikely situations involving muck, dirt and bugs and gauge her reaction (and blood pressure). I believe the last one I conjured up was: "What if you were caught in a war and there was no soap or running water?" to which she cringed then falsely pretended it would be tolerable.

Well well, guess what. War.

There is still running water (at the time I write this) in Beirut. But with the exodus of all laborers due to the violence, the private company contracted to sweep the streets and dispose of Beirut's trash has understandably not been doing a great job of keeping the place clean. So, in order to mantain the company reputation and as a positive publicity stunt, the CEO donned the green overalls, grabbed a broom, and hit the streets to sweep the trash. With him, a group of the company's employees stuck in offices with no work to do.

Guess who joined in? She claims she did it willingly, but knowing her visceral loathing to anything dirty, I think she was 'persuaded'.

Ain't life grand?

Note: Dear Lebanese, if each one of us would sweep his doorstep then my friend wouldn't need to do this. If not for your country, do it for the phobicaly-challenged.

The Italian Job

2006-07-23T19:54:00.000+03:00

Italy, the largest trade partner for Lebanon and a country with historical ties to Lebanon that span back to the Roman Empire, is making great gestures of support in this conflict.

Rome will be the venue for an international conference to discuss aid to Lebanon.
Italian ships full of humanitarian supplies are also on the way.
The Italian foreign minister is pressuring Syria to get a dialogue going.
Italians marched in peace demonstrations in Rome
Pope Benedict led a international day of prayer on Sunday for peace in 'destroyed' Lebanon (hey, I'm agnostic but it's the thought that counts).

And yet, a friend of mine alerted me the other day to an alarming finding that can be described at best as an eerie coincidence and at worst an outright conspiracy.

Israel has invaded Lebanon twice, once in the summer of 1982 and now in 2006.

Guess who won the World Cup both times?

Quad Erat Demonstrandum.

How many times must the cannonballs fly?

2006-07-23T19:35:00.000+03:00

This was the July 21st front page of The Independent.

(Hat tip: Kottke)

Notable posts

2006-07-23T19:23:00.000+03:00

To get an answer to every cliche being thrown around, read Maya's excellent post.

To get another perspective from a Lebanese abroad, read overandout's heart-felt post.