Funeral of Gebran Tueni

I went downtown today to bury Gebran Tueni. I had another five million other things to do, but the way it looks now is that the Syrians will eliminate just about anyone who speaks up against the Syrian regime and its interference in Lebanon, and in the end no one will be left to speak out or fight the Syrians. So I had my priorities; I chose the funeral. Lebanese tend to be a little passive about active involvement in politics. I am no different, I should add, and attend only the major demonstrations. The so-called ‘Cedar’ revolution - at its height during the ‘one million march’ on March 14 - ended for me the moment I saw party flags appearing on Martyr’s square again. It started with the Lebanese Forces, and their Nazi-like arm salute. Well, that fits them pretty good, this salute. Then came the Druze and the orange of Aoun. Hezbollah and Amal – very intelligently – stayed away; they probably would have gotten lynched of they’d shown up, after the extremely pro-Syrian staunch they’ve taking up, and are still taking up.

It was not a very moving event; too massive probably, besides, I didn’t really know the guy other than that he was vehemently anti-Syrian. But I guess the power is in the numbers. We walked from the church, in downtown Beirut, and almost wall to wall to the mosque that Hariri had built, and where he is buried, to the graveyard in Ashrafiye, which is the Christian part of town. Anyone who will tell you that there no longer is an East and West Beirut is dead-wrong. Physically there may not be any signs, but psychologically there is an East and a West. It doesn’t bother me much, I like both sides; each one has a different charm. It does, however, not help the unity of the country very much. Right now it’s the Christians and the Sunni Muslims against the Shia Muslims. Actually, it does not really have much to do with religion, but rather who they support. The first group is against the Syrians, the latter for. They are financially dependent on the outside (Syria, and to a greater extend, Iran), and it's the paymaster that dictates, after all.

My sister in-law and I are great believers in the fact that out there should be people like us; for whom religion is such a non-entity that it is almost a joke. We think someone should start a United Lebanese Party; non religious and with an actual political agenda, an not some organ that is set up to gather goodies for their confederates.

We hope that the next demonstration will be in the direction of Baabda; the Presidential Palace, in order to evict the current president of Lebanon. Talk on the town is that this might happen on Christmas Eve. Could they not have picked another day? Why Christmas Eve? If you want a low-turn out, do it on Christmas Eve. Why not this Friday night? Or Saturday night; most people don’t work on Sunday so it’s okay to stay out late. Anyone with me on this?