كيف أن تكون إمرة آسوية في لبنان

A must-read piece by Hayeon Lee on how it is to be an Asian woman in Lebanon. Not easy at the moment, unfortunately, as you can tell from her story: prevailing stereotypes about Asian women being either housemaids or prostitutes inform many Lebanese’s attitudes, who not seldom manifests themself as sexual and racial harassment.

What’s encouraging about the article however, is the many comments at the bottom from Lebanese men (and others) feeling ashamed and angry from this behavior. I hope to see more pieces like this, as the whole issue of the treatment and attitudes towards Asian migrant workers is in dire need of serious discussion.

وين الثلج؟

Karim left Beirut early this morning, after having been here for five weeks or so. He’s heading back to Sweden and the cold and snowy winter I’ve seen lots of pictures about, but nevertheless feels very distant and surreal as Lebanon is experiencing a very mild winter.

Too mild according to some, especially the ones running the country’s ski resorts in Faraya, the Cedars and Laklouk. The lack of snow in these mountainous resorts is an economic disaster, as Lebanese as well as foreign visitors cancel or postpone their reservations.

Quite a different story in Scandinavia this year, I understand. As far as Beirut goes, it’s already empty without Karim. Woke up this morning and opened the cupboard only to not find his stuff in there.

Hopefully, he’ll start longing for the Levant in no time, and comes back to Beirut soon. Myself, I’ve got three weeks of non stop studying ahead of me now, as the end of the semester draws near and we have lots of work due the next couple of weeks. So, goodbye life, hello library.

Also, if you’re in Beirut today any of you, As’ad AbuKhalil, more known as the Angry Arab, is speaking tonight at seven o’clock about Palestine in the Lebanese context. Will be interesting for sure.

السنة الماضية في لبنان

2009 in Lebanon: Now Lebanon! looking back at the past 12 months in the country.

الدولة اللبنانية

An interesting piece from Now Lebanon on the bomb that killed two in Haret Hreik, south Beirut, last week. This part of the city is not only the strongholds of Hezbollah, but also largely out of reach of Lebanese authorities. According to a deal with Hezbollah, police have restricted access to the area and are allowed in to investigate routine crime like car theft and robbery only, not incidents like the one on the eve of Ashura. Thus, the police like all Lebanese mainly gets their information from the press.

Now Lebanon also writes about how authorities don’t even have access to updated maps of the area, which was rebuilt by Hezbollah after the 2006 war. The labeling by many of Hezbollah as “a state within the state” for sure seems very accurate in the light of such facts, but it also highlights other crucial issues, like the (absence of) control and strength of the Lebanese state, and, the ever so important future shape Lebanese domestic politics. Recently, both president Michel Suleiman and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, have voiced calls for an abandonment of sectarianism, putting the issue on the table. And with Hariri off to Damascus before Christmas, anything could happen, right?

غرقت سفينة من ساحل طرابلس

The failure in Copenhagen to reach an agreement that actually has some kind of potential for change (Greenpeace describes the “deal” as something more like a 24 hour Head of State tourist brochure of Copenhagen than a climate trety) is not the only weather-related story of concern this weekend. The crazy storms here have now caused something more serious than soaked feet and flooded streets: Thursday the Panamanian-flagged cargo ship Danny F II went down off the Tripoli coast in northern Lebanon. Some 30 of the ship’s 83 crew members are still missing and 11 have been found dead. Danny F II also carried 10 000 sheep and 18 000 cattle, all of whom went down with the ship. The search for survivors has been extremely hard due to the heavy winds and rainfalls, but today finally, alhamdulillah, the weather has eased a bit – I’m actually writing this sitting outside with a cup of tea for the first time in two weeks – so I hope they will be able to speed up the search now.

كل عام و انتم بخير

Weekend started early this week, due to the Eid el Adha, a three day holiday which together with Eid el Fitr, at the end of Ramadan, make up the main Islamic holidays. The university is closed of course, and the city is wonderfully quiet and calm. Unlike most mornings, I didn’t wake up today to the noise of honking cars trying to make their way through the morning traffic.

The holiday is a major family event of course, and the Lebanese that I know are all heading to see their families today. Not an option for someone thousands of kilometers away from her relatives like me. But I have something else to look forward to, dear Caroline is coming to Beirut for the weekend, and I look forward to spending time with her. She’ll be my pseudo family for the weekend.

Eid el Adha takes place on the tenth day of the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The people over at Al Jazeera have been writing easily accessible and interesting about this year’s Hajj on their Middle East blog, making a nice complement to the prevailing images in much of Western media showing little less than the masses of pilgrims jammed around the kaaba.

Omar Chatriwala for instance, tells us about the railway being laid as we speek by thousands of Chinese guest workers – the Chinese have for quite some time now been investing massively in both Middle Eastern and African countries – to facilitating the three or so millions of pilgrims doing the Hajj every year. Also interesting is the huge facelift of Mecca that Ayman Mohyeldin writes about, where modernizing and expanding the Grand Mosque is the biggest of some forty construction ongoing projects in the holy city

I’ll leave you with that for now. Eid mubarak and have a nice weekend – even if it’s just your normal Saturday and Sunday off, which is not too bad either.

الرعب

“Reliving the terror, once again” is a little piece written by Najla Said, daughter to Edward Said, about violence, war, and people getting caught in it. It’s from a couple of years back, just after the 2006 conflict with Israel, but very very beautiful in a timeless way. Do read it, you really should. It’s real and true and might bring you just a little little bit close to understanding that which can’t be understood.

كيف الازدهار؟

The Legatum Prosperity Index, an annual development assessment ranking the world’s nations according to a number of indicators such as wealth and social and political situation, was published the other day. Not surprisingly, Sweden makes an honorable appearance, finishing third after Finland and Switzerland. My second home at the moment, Lebanon, is to be found  considerably further down, making 86th place just behind Morocco, Senegal and Belarus, and ahead of regional fellows Egypt, Iran and Algeria. The Lebanon index can be found here and illustrated by the figure below.

This of course means that most things in Lebanese society need major reform. Equality and liberty within the country – especially in regards to the some 400 000 Palestinians (or 10% of the population) living in Lebanon – desperately must improve to meet at least some sort of decent standard, as must most things when it comes to governance and political participation.

Economy wise, a lot of fronts need be worked on as well. Inescapably trapped between the interests of major powers in and out of the region, this tiny little country has seen some crazy tumultuous years, which have hurt the economy severely. After the civil war, infrastructure was a joke, Beirut’s entire city centre (and much of the rest of the city as well) was smashed to pieces and foreign as well as domestic investors were nowhere to be seen. Add to that your regular stupid political infighting and corruption and there you have Lebanese economic reality.

However, the picture’s not all gloomy. Things are changing for the better, and the economy has been catching up during the last couple of years. Actually, Lebanon is one of few places that has fared pretty well during the financial crisis. Also, I’ve read in I don’t know how many articles about how Beirut is regaining it’s old repute as “the pearl of the Middle East”. There’s a lot of truth in that for sure; the night life is as vibrant as ever and restaurants and hotels are busy as tourists start finding their way back to the country.

Thing is though, Lebanon is one of those places where things change literary over night, and you might well wake up to a completely different reality than yesterday. Here, this usually has not been in the good way. Rather, Lebanese have gotten used to waking up to the sound of car explosions or low flying airplanes dropping bombs over their cities. But hey, life’s unpredictable right? That pleasant surprise, that good turn, that enduring positive development has gotta come some time, yeah? And maybe, maybe now’s the time. Who knows. Maybe we’ll see Lebanon climb that Prosperity Index next year?

Finally, for anyone interested in looking at more numbers and reports on global development, the World Bank is a major source for this, and keeps an extensive research data base here.

المدينة جبيل

Went for a very nice trip out of Beirut yesterday to the city of Byblos, or Jbeil in Arabic. Byblos is one of the world’s oldest cities still inhabited, and walking the streets of this little picturesque place is a perfect break away from busy Beirut.

Sanna and I took the bus from Beirut in the morning and arrived in Byblos some 45 minutes later. We started of with a beautiful Lebanese brunch: bread with labneh and vegetables, some of those delicious Lebanses olives that come with every occasion, omelette and the very best spinache fatayer (bread or pastry filled with spinache, onions and spices) I’ve had so far.

The old part of Byblos is very small, and after wandering the little streets, stunned by the pretty stone houses but a bit turned off as well by the obligatory souvenirs and touristy stuff sold in every alley corner, we headed down to the port and the adjacent little beach.

After a quick swim, we went back up the hill and wandered the ancient ruins before returning to Beirut. All in all, a very nice little trip and a well deserved break from the big city noise.