August 31, 2006
Southern Suburbs; Picking through the Rubble
This was the ‘most-blogged-about-war’ they say. The 43 days of fighting caused many Lebanese, both inside and outside the country, to start blogging. The blogsphere has mushroomed.
Some Lebanese have been blogging for a number of years, but the first real influx of bloggers started in February 2005, when former prime-minister Rafic Hariri was blown up. I believe it was the indignation of most Lebanese with such blatant act that got them going (me included). And now the Israeli bombings got the rest on the high-horse. Anyone with a computer started a blog.
Some interesting ones are:
Electronic Lebanon (A collection of war bloggers)
Open Lebanon (Has both headlines and blogger updates of some of the main bloggers. It also has a section of ‘Helping Lebanon’ links.)
For a really good view as to the destruction of the Southern suburbs (Hezbolland), check out this before and after picture, and this is the Google satellite site, which indicates some landmarks.
I went to the southern suburbs yesterday for a story, am going back today for some more on the reconstruction efforts, this time from Hezbollah’s perspective. Their Information Office has been relocated, as the former one was ‘a little damaged’, the guy said. Hussein Nabulsi, their very eloquent, elegant and friendly spokesman was ‘on a holiday’, I was informed. He probably needed one.
People were climbing all over the massive piles of rubble, trying to locate where their home was, and see if anything can be saved. They are now mainly looking for papers; passports, official documents, home-ownership papers, ID cards etc. A girl was looking for her report cards from school, another for the hard disk of her computer (both were found). It seems that pretty much anything is destroyed, but that textiles (clothes, carpets and blankets) can sometimes be recovered, and paperwork as well. Sometimes photo albums are recovered. I've been trying to upload some pictures, but it is not working well.
Some Lebanese have been blogging for a number of years, but the first real influx of bloggers started in February 2005, when former prime-minister Rafic Hariri was blown up. I believe it was the indignation of most Lebanese with such blatant act that got them going (me included). And now the Israeli bombings got the rest on the high-horse. Anyone with a computer started a blog.
Some interesting ones are:
Electronic Lebanon (A collection of war bloggers)
Open Lebanon (Has both headlines and blogger updates of some of the main bloggers. It also has a section of ‘Helping Lebanon’ links.)
For a really good view as to the destruction of the Southern suburbs (Hezbolland), check out this before and after picture, and this is the Google satellite site, which indicates some landmarks.
I went to the southern suburbs yesterday for a story, am going back today for some more on the reconstruction efforts, this time from Hezbollah’s perspective. Their Information Office has been relocated, as the former one was ‘a little damaged’, the guy said. Hussein Nabulsi, their very eloquent, elegant and friendly spokesman was ‘on a holiday’, I was informed. He probably needed one.
People were climbing all over the massive piles of rubble, trying to locate where their home was, and see if anything can be saved. They are now mainly looking for papers; passports, official documents, home-ownership papers, ID cards etc. A girl was looking for her report cards from school, another for the hard disk of her computer (both were found). It seems that pretty much anything is destroyed, but that textiles (clothes, carpets and blankets) can sometimes be recovered, and paperwork as well. Sometimes photo albums are recovered. I've been trying to upload some pictures, but it is not working well.
In the meantime, the government has engaged itself in a bidding war with Hezbollah. Hezbollah hands out 12,000 $ in cash? They will give $40,000! Comes with a condition though. $15,000 up front, $15,000 when they start building, and another $10,000 in the end for furnishing the place. It’s a good thing. However, Hezbollah can trust its employees with large piles of cash, which it then hands out to civilians, because Hezbollah has a reputation of not being corrupt. Maybe this is instilled by fear, but who cares? The government however, is going to run into problems as government employees are in general notoriously corrupt. Are they actually going to hand out that amount? Are they going to hand it out to the ‘right’ people, or to family and friends? It’s a tricky business. The idea is nice, but I have to see it materialize.
August 29, 2006
Honey, I'm home!
Well, I’ve made it! And the cartoon explains it all; although I am glad to be back, I do not sense any feelings of relief, happiness or jubilation in town. The atmosphere is odd. People are shell-shocked, anxious, and otherwise disturbed of what happened, and what may come.Just about everyone seems to be bankrupt. And I am not talking about the ones that lost homes, businesses and/or family members. These are people that got through the war relatively intact, but now find themselves in situation where jobs suddenly no longer exist, where salaries have been cut down (to 50% is some cases), and everyone is wondering how they are going to get through this.
Strange times indeed. The newspaper asked me, as I was 5 minutes in country, on a news analysis on Nasrallah’s position, what the Sunday interview meant (in colloquial Arabic, I might add), and whether the criticism of Sayyed el-Amin from Tyre is a sign of things to come his way.
But it is good to be back home.
August 22, 2006
Eat My Words
Have a Great Summer, I said in my last post, almost two months ago. And I left Beirut. Regrets regrets regrets. Oh well. I'm due back in town on Monday.
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