Politics or Pleasure?

Lift line scenery

Valentine’s Day has somewhat of a tarnished image here in Beirut. A bit like it must have been in Chicago in the early thirties. Everyone here remembers where they were and what they were doing when Hariri was blown up that day.

More lift line scenery

Valentine’s Day gave us two options: politics or pleasure. I opted for pleasure, as I have totally given up on politics in this place. I think we were meant for doom anyway. It’s not like it is anything new, just look at the history of this area.

I was obviously not the only one in that mindset; I haven’t seen the ski slopes this busy in some 4 years. We had loooong line-ups. But the weather was first-class, the mood fantastic and the company fine.

The company

We had Terror Theo with us, well-known for his verbal assaults on people not lining-up properly, shop assistants not doing their job and lift-operators who fail to notice people losing their skis, (Sorry Theo, couldn’t resist. As a sign of goodwill I will not display your yesterday’s ski outfit here) and so we had great fun. We missed the last lift, and got stuck (just for a moment) somewhere in the middle. Good for a retake next weekend. If it snows in the meantime. Slopes of Feraya, with the sea in the background

And so I cannot tell you anything about what happened during the political ralley downtown this weekend. It is a distinctly different mood from what is was a number of years ago here in Lebanon. Just like the Americans, now with Obama, all see this as a moment of change, and everyone is in a hopeful mood, we had this moment right after Hariri died. The spring of 2005 was exhilarating! Everyone was talking about change and how this place was going to be a real democracy and how we’d be free from everyone.

From the highest point (Mzaar; 33°58’55.72”N & 35°51’20.82”E 2287 meters (7504 ft), looking over Baskinta and Qanaat Bakish

What happened?

We missed our moment (like we missed our lift). And so we go skiing instead of trying to be involved in the future of our children’s country. Go figure.