I’ve got to write a piece about the upcoming presidential elections. I don't think I have ever been as uninspired by a topic in Lebanon as this one.
I was supposed to do it last week, but could not get myself to even talk to people about it. The Lebanese president is elected by the parliament. The new man was supposed to be elected September 25, but that election got postponed because the two opposing movements cannot even face each other anymore in parliament. Now we’re set for October 24. Hezbollah & Co insist on a presidential vote by consensus, but as neither side can reach that 2/3 majority, most people assume it will be postponed again. The current guy still has till November 24 of this year. How do we find a candidate that both sides can have peace with? The options are next to non-existing. And so we will end up with no president. This in return will result in two governments, because neither side will accept the other.
This particular picture is not my work, but found on Flickr (click on it for the link)
The kids on a Roman road, some 1800 years or more old.
The kids on a Roman road, some 1800 years or more old.All that was supposed to be done last weekend.
Instead I took the kids out to Tyre to play in one of the largest Roman hippodrome ever found in the Roman Empire. They ran around on a Roman road dating from 200 AD (yep, some 1,800 years old and still in pristine condition. Better than the current road system), and frolicked trough the graves of a Phoenician necropolis from the first millennium BC. I don’t know how recently this grave yard was being used, but these graves have bones stuffed up to the ceiling.
Going for bones in a sarcophagus. All very unethical, I am aware of that, so you don't have to mail me about it. We didn't bring any home.
I doubt the kids realized how old this stuff really is. And how unique it is they can just play on it. In it, even. People passed by on their scooters, joggers went out a run around the arena. And if you think about all this, then the fact whether we will have a president or not; does it really matter?
We ended up on the beach. Fall has started, so we were the only ones. But that did not really solve my problem. I've still got to produce that piece, so no beach this weekend.
4 comments:
Elections?? Lebonon needs a type like Angela Merckel. She brought the people of E & W Germany closer together, maybe even joined the two "different type of people".
Play around in history is one thing, but cool down by a swim is another.
And in the end …… each human being needs a motherly warmth like sticking plasters and handle the towel.
Or a free HUG, Sietske, please take a look at~:
http://www.youtube.com/user/freehugsLebanon
This one is for you: BIG HUG from us!!
These pictures bring back memories of my own visit to Tyre. My Lebanese boyfriend and I were driving south and listening to an Israeli radio station, because that was the only one we could find with decent music. Next to the archaeological site is a Palestian refugee camp and the entrance roads to the site and the camp are right next to each other. You guessed it: we almost took the wrong turn, listening to Israeli music and all! We were stopped and pointed in the right direction by the Lebanese soldier standing guard at the entrance of the camp.
At the archaeological site there were lots of families from the refugee camp having picknicks, letting their kids run around. They had made stairs over the wall separating the camp from the hippodrome.
Looking for inspiration, Sietske? Well, I get a feeling inspiration about politics in this country left, little by little, with all the plane loads of Lebanese filing out to jobs and futures elsewhere. Maybe they're the only ones with any kind of inspiration; the rest of us just sit and wait for the inevitable. Sometimes I just get the feeling that I'm in the dentist's waiting room, hearing someone else going under the drill and realizing that it's me next!
It looks like "The beauty and the beast".
Two opposites which love the same!!
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