Things in Beirut are still ok
Things in Beirut are still ok (central beirut, not the southern suburbs). I dont know if that will remain or not. No one really knows how this situation can turn. I spent the last two days and nights hearing and feeling the impact from the Israeli bombs. Last night watched a nighttime sound and light show of jets and anti-aircraft fire. Ive seen that spectacle before, but I have never felt this degree of foreboding and fear before.
I have been chatting with some other friends of mine that are also stuck in the country. We are all calm, but dumbfounded by the absurdity of this situation we, and the region, seems to be sinking into. Its a real dinner of the absurd. What makes it stranger is, across the board, our parents seem to be taking this in stride. One friend's mother went up to the mountains yesterday evening just for a dinner. Yesterday afternoon, another friend of mine's mother went to see her friends for a game of bridge. The older generation had the war to train them to be calm under extreme conditions. I don't know if that training has left them sage and wise with a keen sense of timing, or whether it has only desensitized them to dangerous and risky situations. All of them, my parents included, seem to think the best and safest option is to wait this out. But as we wait, things do not seem to be getting either better or safer. Unfortunately they seem to be going the other way towards escalation. It seems to me that things are only going to get worse before they get better. I am afraid that people's bridge playing and dinner parties are giving them a false sense of security and normalcy, when instead they should be more focused on exit strategies and contingency plans. We will see if our strategies change as things progress.
How things can get flipped right round literally overnight, I am having difficulty stomaching. Its Saturday morning. If you'd asked me on Monday what I thought I would be doing at this time today, I would have said waking up with a slight hang-over after a long fun night out to have brunch with the family before heading to the beach. Instead I feel like the whole country is held hostage with no way out. The airport is completey decimated. It has now suffered several rounds of Israeli jet attacks, despite the fact they had already rendered it inoperable from the first attack on the runways. They went back to bomb the fuel tanks yesterday and then bombed the main structure last night apparently, just adding insult to injury. I am so mad...the only purpose the additonal attacks on the airport serve is to prolong its reconstruction and to leave Lebanon in ruins again. Our infrastructure is already devastated, with major roads, bridges and power plants attacked by the Israelis. We are already starting to see internal refugees come up from the South whose towns have been bombarded day and night leaving over 60 dead and scores injured. There has been a huge displacement of people around the country, people trying to get to safer locations. I am not sure what the safer locations will be in the near future considering what I am hearing on the news.
I've always maintained that Lebanon as a whole, and Beirut in particular is a place of radical contrasts. You will see things that are at both edges of the spectrum and everywhere in between. You can witness in the same glance a covered woman all in black with only her face and hands peaking out then two steps behind would be another woman wearing a skirt as long as some belts are wide, with 10cm heels, hair perfectly coiffed, face shining from all the work she's done to it. Contrast is alive and well and that aspect of Lebanon is no different now. While some are fleeing their homes and trying to survive bombings, others are playing backgammon and smoking arguileh (shisha) on their balconies not more than 10 km aways, silently contemplating their futures and praying for a fate different than their neighbours.
Anyway dear, I will try to keep you informed of whats going on here. I've registered with the british and american embassies, so hopefully I will be kept additionally informed by them. My cell number here is ---. The house number is ---. Call me if you get the chance.
xx always,
Reem
I have been chatting with some other friends of mine that are also stuck in the country. We are all calm, but dumbfounded by the absurdity of this situation we, and the region, seems to be sinking into. Its a real dinner of the absurd. What makes it stranger is, across the board, our parents seem to be taking this in stride. One friend's mother went up to the mountains yesterday evening just for a dinner. Yesterday afternoon, another friend of mine's mother went to see her friends for a game of bridge. The older generation had the war to train them to be calm under extreme conditions. I don't know if that training has left them sage and wise with a keen sense of timing, or whether it has only desensitized them to dangerous and risky situations. All of them, my parents included, seem to think the best and safest option is to wait this out. But as we wait, things do not seem to be getting either better or safer. Unfortunately they seem to be going the other way towards escalation. It seems to me that things are only going to get worse before they get better. I am afraid that people's bridge playing and dinner parties are giving them a false sense of security and normalcy, when instead they should be more focused on exit strategies and contingency plans. We will see if our strategies change as things progress.
How things can get flipped right round literally overnight, I am having difficulty stomaching. Its Saturday morning. If you'd asked me on Monday what I thought I would be doing at this time today, I would have said waking up with a slight hang-over after a long fun night out to have brunch with the family before heading to the beach. Instead I feel like the whole country is held hostage with no way out. The airport is completey decimated. It has now suffered several rounds of Israeli jet attacks, despite the fact they had already rendered it inoperable from the first attack on the runways. They went back to bomb the fuel tanks yesterday and then bombed the main structure last night apparently, just adding insult to injury. I am so mad...the only purpose the additonal attacks on the airport serve is to prolong its reconstruction and to leave Lebanon in ruins again. Our infrastructure is already devastated, with major roads, bridges and power plants attacked by the Israelis. We are already starting to see internal refugees come up from the South whose towns have been bombarded day and night leaving over 60 dead and scores injured. There has been a huge displacement of people around the country, people trying to get to safer locations. I am not sure what the safer locations will be in the near future considering what I am hearing on the news.
I've always maintained that Lebanon as a whole, and Beirut in particular is a place of radical contrasts. You will see things that are at both edges of the spectrum and everywhere in between. You can witness in the same glance a covered woman all in black with only her face and hands peaking out then two steps behind would be another woman wearing a skirt as long as some belts are wide, with 10cm heels, hair perfectly coiffed, face shining from all the work she's done to it. Contrast is alive and well and that aspect of Lebanon is no different now. While some are fleeing their homes and trying to survive bombings, others are playing backgammon and smoking arguileh (shisha) on their balconies not more than 10 km aways, silently contemplating their futures and praying for a fate different than their neighbours.
Anyway dear, I will try to keep you informed of whats going on here. I've registered with the british and american embassies, so hopefully I will be kept additionally informed by them. My cell number here is ---. The house number is ---. Call me if you get the chance.
xx always,
Reem
posted by Reem at 2:19 AM
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