On Traffic Jams and 'Normal' Conversations

A view of just 9 of the 253 traffic jams I spent half of this week in. I do not know what is happening (a conspiracy?), but this is the worst traffic I have experienced in Beirut in 16 years. I think from now on I am going to walk.

Conversations We Have
The situation in Lebanon is rather odd at the moment. There is this sense of impending catastrophe. Something is in the air, we just don’t know what it is. But it is something. Something is brewing. Something is about to happen. It reflects in the conversations people have.

6:35 AM this morning, the housekeeper:
“Madam, I think you should buy some extra gas bottles. There were so many choppers last night; it looks like we are going to get bombed again.”

11:20 AM at work, the math coordinator:
“Check out this math web site, it has good interactive exercises for students to do at home. Excellent in case the war starts again.”

For a Lebanese, there may be nothing strange about conversations like this, but just now and then, as a foreigner, I catch myself thinking “Jesus, just imaging talking like this in the cheese section of the Albert Hein (Dutch supermarket chain)!