September 17, 2005

Yet another bomb

What does it tell you about a town when I have to read on CNN.com that there was a powerful explosion last night in a neighborhood not that far from mine? I don’t know. Ashrafieh (a Christian neighborhood east of my neighborhood) is about a 5 minute drive from here. With heavy traffic it may take you 10 minutes. The bomb exploded in the Jeitawi region, but I am not familiar with that name. Anyway, I didn’t hear about it last night (it exploded around 10 P.M. local time), nor did anyone bother to tell me today while I was out in the town. I guess we take these things for granted now.
Reminds me of the time when I was sitting on my balcony, late summer, with a beer in hand, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea when the phone rang. It was my editor from Holland. “How are you guys? Are you guys alright, is everything okay? How’s the situation now?” she asked frantically. Huh? I’m sitting here on my balcony having a beer. Did anything happen? It turned out the Israelis had bombed either a (supposedly) Palestinian base 5 kilometers south of Beirut, or the power plant nearby. Whatever the case was, I hadn’t heard a thing nor noticed a thing. When I told my husband that night, his reply was “Oh, did they bomb something today?” It sure beats boredom.

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