Burning Barricades

Tayoune Roundabout

Well, I’ve driven all over town today. When my one job is cancelled, it automatically implies that my other job requires work. Good balance. I must have crossed something like 30 barricades. They came in all shapes and sizes. Burned tires, burned cars, heaps of rubble, overturned (and burning) dumpsters, cement blocks, stones and rocks, potted plants, household refuse (burning too) and a variety of construction material, or all of the above in one.

Near the Parc les Pins

Maybe it is because I am a woman, or maybe it is because I am a foreigner, or maybe it is because I am blonde, or maybe it is because I am 25 (NOT), or maybe it is all of the above, but whatever the reason was, I got helped at every single one of them.

Highway to the Airport

In some places the ‘shebab’ (youngsters) helped me find an alternate route to get to the other side. In other places they moved the burning ties or trash containers aside to let me pass (“You have a sister?”). A couple of kids helped me get over a barricade made up of stones. “Ya aib, its’a woman, you animals, how can you block a woman”? said a little 6 year old street kid, as they pushed the stones away. At the Tayoune roundabout the burning cars and heaps of rubble were piled too high for me to cross, so they advised me to go over the sidewalk, and near the Hezbollah mosque a Hezbollah official gave me directions into the southern suburbs where roads were not blocked.

Hezbollah leader Nasrallah engulfed in his own smoke on the Airport Highway

The atmosphere was surprisingly relaxed. I had expected tensions to be quite high, and was kind of worried that they might use my car (looks like a UN vehicle after all. All the more reason for the protestors) as a barricade, but even that was not the case. At one barricade, near the Airport Bridge, the tires were almost done burning, and next to it was a guy who sells plastic vegetable crates. They were stacked up 20 high. He must have had thousands of them. Now that burns really well, I can tell you . The demonstrators were ogling them, but they didn’t touch them. At least they hadn’t when I left. We’ll see if that guy’s business did not end up on the barricades tomorrow.

The old Airport Road (Tariq al-Matar) near Gobeireh

I got almost all over town, although towards the afternoon I got stuck between Basta and Mar Elias, and it was extremely difficult to get across. I tried and tried, got cramps in my legs from reversing all the time. Eventually a couple of guys moved some containers, and I was on my way home. And what do you know? They (pro and anti-government protestors) start this fight right in front of my house! The army had to intervene. And then they got upset. Very entertaining, made some wonderful movies of them. One can be seen here. There is an even funnier one, that involves a very angry tank commander. I might share that with you, but I think the situation should quiet down first, people might use it for a wrong purpose. I don’t want to be the one to fuel the fire.
All in all, an exciting day. The newspaper wanted 600 words. I just finished with it. It’s in Dutch. I’ll link it tomorrow.