Ramadan

Ramadan is a nice time of the year. Although it does not (for me at least) approach Christmas or Sinterklaas (Dutch festivity), there is this sense of 'hurrying home in time for dinner'. Another nice thing is that for once, the Lebanese dine at a 'Christian' hour. This is a very Dutch idiom, and it falls somewhere between being 'civilized' , 'decent' (according to Dutch standards, that is) and ‘burgerlijk’. Burgerlijk could be translated as ‘common’ or ‘conventional’. Being burgerlijk in Holland is not a good thing to be. Being 'Christian' in Lebanon also has a rather heavy - at times - connotation, and I don't even want to go there. But by 'dinner at a Christian hour', I mean that dinner is served at 6 o’clock (or around), and you get home around 7, which leaves you with enough family time/play time, and you even get to bed at an hour which will enable you to function halfway properly the next day. Non-Ramadan dinner hours means dinner will be served anywhere between 8:30 (if you're on the early side) to 11:30 (my mother-in-law's favorite dining time). And I can tell you, dropping into bed feeling like a hippo is not a helpful provision for rising and shining early the next morning.

Ramadan is also the time for lots of Iftar (the dinner served in the evening to brake the fast) invitations, and these are fun occasions. Pity they don’t serve alcohol though.
Another nice thing is that between 6:00 and 7:00 P.M., the streets of West-Beirut are virtually deserted, which is great for getting around town fast. An empty West-Beirut seldom happens, unless it is after 12:00 midnight, or during air-raids, and we don’t have those these days.
Beirut is a great place to live if there weren’t that many cars on the road, because then you can get around really fast in your car. Unfortunately every car owner thinks the same.
Taxi cab drivers are a particular despicable sort. Let me rephrase that; The service drivers are a despicable sort. They can pick up to 5 passengers, and have a sort of regular route through town. If you would have to go to a certain place in Beirut, you just stand on the side of the road, and you wait for the ‘service’, a rather shabby Mercedes, who will honk his horn and stop near you. You call out a landmark close to your destination (as street names are virtually unknown here), and he will either tilt his head right side backwards, indicating “hop in, I am going in that direction”, or just pull up, meaning “get another cab.” And as you are in this service, this process will repeat itself because he needs as many rides as possible, but they’d have to be near the destination of the other service riders. So you may sit with four other people, and one might get off, another one might get on, very much like a bus.

But the point I was getting to is that these service drivers will stop for any person standing by the side of the road, whether these people want to take a service, or whether they are just standing there, or whether these people might want to cross the road, or even walking on the sidewalk. And they’ll stop. Regardless of the fact that they are blocking other people. Actually, it seems they prefer to block the entire street. Much to the chagrin of me. A side effect of these early dinners is that the roads are vitually ‘service’ free. It’s just for an hour, but still, that one hour is a pleasure to get around time.
Enough venting. I’ve got a shitload of work, have to go to the Palestinian camps to talk about the fact that they ‘supposedly’ are importing weapons from Syria these days (in an attempt to destabilize the situation in Lebanon, since the Syrians can’t do that themselves anymore now that they are booted out.), I have to go to Syria t see how the atmosphere in Damascus is now that Kanaan shot himself, and I am waiting for the Mehlis report to see who is implicated, and what the implications (yes, repeat) are for Lebanon.
I’m posting some pictures today. Hana finally started talking halfway legibly. I was getting worried. But no, everything is alright.
Ah, and I almost forget; Ramadan is great for downloading big files, because between 6 and 7, there's not a soul online.