What I Like About Beirut

What’s so nice about living in Beirut, someone asked me the other day. Well, it’s hard to define, but I guess it is the little things you see.

Spotting a soldier, with an M-16 slung over his shoulder, slouching in a phone booth having a conversation with – probably – a girl he’s trying to conquer.

Seeing a little old man, in striped pajamas and a white knitted skullcap, crossing the streets in Basta at dusk, to go and play backgammon on the sidewalk with a couple of friends.

Walking past a barber shop, and getting invited for a cup of coffee because there the coffee is ready and you shouldn’t hurry too much in life, according to the barber, who gives you his take on life while telling a customer with that typical Lebanese hand gesture just to wait a minute until he’s finished talking to the lady.

Dropping by the pet store – who only sells birds and fish - where you are told that since bird flu appeared, business has been down, that it is all an American conspiracy, and ending with the remark “But I love Americans.”

Having the cashier at the supermarket tell you that “It’s okay, just come by and pay tomorrow,” when you buy groceries for $200, and then you notice you forgot your wallet at home.

Meeting your neighbor in the elevator who invites you for a cup of coffee at her place as we are both leaving the building, and being told that maybe I should think about Botox and that she knows this doctor who is really excellent and will do it for only $50.

That's what's nice about Beirut.

On another note; this thing about the Prophet Mohammed is getting blown out of proportion.
‘Cartoon fever is getting out of hand now’, I read in a blog, and boy, isn’t that right on the mark! It’s the talk of the town, even my husband was undignified about it, and I have never ever seen him interested into anything even remotely connected to religion. It kind of surprised me.
If you are not too much bothered by the fact that certain people of a certain religion blow themselves up in other people’s countries, or that women are not allowed to drive a car by law, or that stoning of women seems to be the acceptable thing to do, or that it is condoned that you can get away with the murder of your sister because there is a suspicion that she might be doing things that you do not agree with, then what is the big deal with this? It doesn’t look like these two cultures are compatible, as long as fundamentalism is accepted within Islamic society. I don’t see anyone in the Arab world touching this subject too enthusiastically. There are many good reads about this on the Lebanese blogs. None of the bloggers really seem to think that it is worth all this commotion, but then again, those are the ones that are bi-lingual or even tri-lingual, that have had an education, that have access to the Internet, so they are – if not open to the West - at least aware of Western points of view. So much for a multi-cultural society.

And I just noticed that Microsoft does not recognize words such as ‘blog’ and ‘bloggers’.