Beirut is an Onion

To quote Shrek, Lebanon is like an onion; ‘it has many layers’.

Read today’s headline:
Lebanon Police defuses bomb at American University of Beirut

This was the explanation in the local paper:
Police sappers on Thursday dismantled a bomb at the American University of Beirut, the latest in a series of explosives discovered in Lebanon, security officials said.

This is what I got through my e-mail:

At 9.30am on March 22, an American University of Beirut janitor found 200 grams of TNT in a paper bag that was left in the courtyard in front of Issam Fares Hall, where an AUB workers' syndicate meeting was scheduled to take place at 11am.

And this is what my colleague tells me:

"Ya habibti (My darling), 200 gram TNT, that’s one stupid stick of dynamite. Fishermen fish with more than that. And it didn’t explode because it wasn’t supposed to explode. There is an argument going on at AUB between the guards and the university. The university is about to fire a batch of them over some issues, and the guards are just showing that they are not happy with this. They are showing what they can do if they are not getting what they want. It’s nothing. Boy, you foreigners are so ignorant. "