Hassan the Super Hero

The much-anticipated Hezbollah ‘Divine Victory’ rally took place today. My newspaper asked me to check it out. It was busy, but not that busy. They definitely did not reach their March 8th numbers (2005). With all Hezbollah events, there is always a male and a female section, as proper Islamic behavior stipulates that the genders be separated. And it is always a lot of fun in the women’s section.

For a female journalist, the female department is a bit of a relief. No hassle from ogling men, nobody touching you, no “are you Russia” remarks, and no “I am so important behavior’ either. It is also much easier talking to women in this part of the world, then men, and you get better information as well. The men in general tend to pull up a sheet, and tell you what they think is expected of them to say to a foreign journalist. So you usually get this aggressive shouting of how Israel this, America that and I don’t know what else. All kinds of stuff that may look good on the camera of CNN, but that is basically useless in a newspaper article.
The women are very curious, and find it perfectly normal that you are curious too.

Talking with the women is much more informative. They are in general much more sincere in their answers. And what I understood is that Hassan (Nasrallah) is pretty much a super hero for these ladies. According to one, ‘he lights up our lives’. They await him like groupies await Mick Jagger (Well, that may be my generation).

They were pretty convinced that the guy was going to appear in person. I was not so sure, he was last seen in public on uly12th, and since then the Israelis have pretty much bombed anything where he possibly might have been, but without much luck.
So when he finally did show his face on a large screen, the noise was overwhelming. I did not think he was actually there, but when I went down to the stage area in the evening (to look for a lost wallet, yup), I saw that he had actually been there. There was a nice glass cubicle. He could not be seen from the field, yet he could see the field from where he was standing.

And what did he say? Nothing really. He insulted some politicians, who, I am sure, all deserve it. But he is not calling for a revolution. A bit of a non-event really.

Hezbollah embracing Zen?

Curious thing was the zen-like approach to their bill boards. Fire, water, earth and air; all the elements are there.