The Arab Connection

The sky turned absolutely yellow yesterday afternoon. It is an eerie sight, very unusual, and disconcerting. The sun disappeared, but the sky turned very bright, and quite unnatural. Friends that are more familiar with the weather in other parts of this region glanced up and announced ‘sandstorm’.

Beirut seen (or unseen) from Debaye; blocked by the Sahara sand in the atmosphere.

We are not actually getting a sandstorm here in Beirut; we’re too far away from the deserts in Saudi and Egypt. But every now and then the sand of the Sahara does get caught up in the upper regions of the atmosphere, and lands in Beirut. Everything is then covered by a fine layer of yellow powder. This usually happens one day after I have washed my car.
Egyptian Sahara sand in Beirut. Mind you, last week we had a cloud of Libyan mosquitoes annoying us (I kid you not). I find it quite exotic; this foreign desert sand from the Sahara. It is a reminder (for me) that we are surrounded by all these exotic and foreign places.

When I was young, and growing up in Holland, the only time I’d ever see foreigners was during the summer holiday. We’d drive to France, and on the way you’d see cars with French license plates, and Belgian, or German. Part of the ‘exotic-ness’ of a holiday was the spotting of foreign license plates. You might see an occasional Brit, or someone from Spain, but that was about it. Of course this is all many years ago.

The sky over Beirut

Here in Beirut, the exotic license plates are from the Arab countries. Syrian and Jordanian plates are relatively common, and you may see an occasional Gulf Arab or Saudi plate. But even here, certain plates are rare. I’ve never seen an Iraqi plate, for instance, or a car from Turkey.

Every time I see a foreign license plate however, I am reminded of how connected everything and everyone seems to be with the rest of the Arab world. One of the big differences between Europe and the Arab World is that in the Arab world the traffic between the countries seems to be much more intensive. People move from country to country without giving it much thought. It may be because the language barrier is much lower; Arabic – although not exactly the same dialect – is spoken all over the Arab world.
Religion is a common denominator as well. But marriages between different Arab nationalities is rather common, much more so than in Europe. Lebanese have aunts and uncles in Dubai or Jordan, cousins in Qatar, fathers from Saudi Arabia, and mothers from Palestine or Iran. It seems like they are constantly on the move. It does give this place a very ‘worldly’ feel. It flows over into politics (unfortunately). The entire region is connected, and if there is a major development in one country, you know there will be fall-out in other parts of the region.

So when they have a major sandstorm in Egypt, we get the sand as well.

UPDATE:
This is the result of the Egyptian desert sand after it comes down in Beirut with a little bit of rain. The window washers at work on a glass ceiling covering a court yard of a hotel in Hamra.