Several colleagues left work early today. “The situation,” they said, and they packed their bags and went. When I picked up my daughter from school this afternoon, there were only four kids left in her class of twenty-two. Her teacher hadn’t made it to class that morning either in anticipation of ‘things to come.’
My son already got a message from his school last night; they were closing their doors for the day. When I walk past a couple of taxi drivers gathered on a corner; they’re listening to a speech of Hezbollah’s Nasrallah on the car radio. “March 14 will give a conference at 4:30,” they tell me. So everybody’s speeching today, it seems.
The streets that are usually absolutely packed around this time of day are absolutely empty. When I get home, I read his speech. Not too pretty . (Note, it is a web site of the opposition). And March 14 calls for Martyrs Square demonstration at 6 p.m.
Will there be school today? We don’t know. Should I go to work tomorrow? Let’s wait and see what’s going the happen tonight. Maybe I should go and check out what’s happening in the town. The plot is definitely thickening.
5 comments:
Hi Sietske
I`ve been following your blog for some weeks now, going through older posts. I'm currently living in Montreal, but you inputs really give me a sense of what the locals are living..It's also nice to have a foreigner-turned-local point of view on the domestic issues and I can really relate to these.
Great job and keep writing!
Sami
So did you go yesterday? Not the expected crowd !
@ Sami: Well, after 20 years in Beirut, I've lived here longer than many Lebanese, so I don't know about the foreign perspective anymore. Anyway, enjoy it.
@ Marillion. No, I didn't, and for the exact reasons that you brought up in your post. 'say NO to all of them!'
Sietske
I very much doubt that things will be changing (for the better) anytime soon.
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