tidbits.

it's good to be back. especially when the highways are littered with "i love life" signs. i love life too, but it's easier to pay for "i love life" signs when a large part of the national debt has gone towards your personal life. dora highway is under renovation, so i guess all the war reconstruction efforts are finished and there were some funds left over. i hope it doesn't take the three plus years the antelias bridge took. today there were two main demonstrations, and i had a chance to pass by the one in beirut. i missed qassem's speech (watched it on TV though), and saw a really original sign (not really) with the phrase "Aoun Propose, Dieu Depose." out of all the signs i did see however, the only one that remotely made any sense wasn't found in either demostration - it was pasted on a building in jal eddib, with the words "to all colors: feel christmas," or something like that. next time i'm in the area i'll have my camera with me. i had the chance of watching aoun, who was dressed fully in orange, and looked like one too, although my friend likened him to a chick, a description i agreed with. she also thought he looked cute, but who am i to judge. i didn't find his speech cute though. i missed saad hariri's speech, and all the wisdom that came with it, but i did watch ahmad fatfat enjoy his fifteen minutes of glory. i won't pick on him though, especially in light of all the recent references to fatfatism, and will just say that almost all the recent rhetoric i have heard has threads of immaturity, although stating that they are soaked with immaturity may be more correct. it's all very entertaining of course, but the proposed end goals of both are slightly idiotic. if both sides really gave a shit about the country, they would actively seek dialogue, and the ensuing negotiations. if they were two companies enacting a merger, regardless of which one would gain the larger piece of the pie (a merger does not denote equality in representation), such negotiations would last for months. not the two or three sessions like previous hiwar episodes. and not by shouting puerile accusations. taking the analogy further, there does seem to be a slight chance, depending on certain factors, for a third group to provide a slightly differentiated product in order to eventually gain the upper hand, taking advantage of the current standoff by these two gorillas, both of which are wasting energy and time focusing on the other. my mother summed up everything with just two words describing all the political players, which could have been used to replace the above: "niswen elfurun". speaking of my mother, the school she works in had some sports competitions, and the teams were given colored t-shirts. some of the parents didn't like that their children had to wear blue. my brother's friend works in future TV news, and she once went to work wearing orange. now, she hasn't lived in lebanon for long, so i can imagine that was an innocent move on her part, but it suffices to say that her boss was not very happy. this does however mean that i now have a limited wardrobe which i can choose my clothes from. by the way, has anyone counted the number of times "democracy" was used in today's speeches? you'll get a prize. i promise.

posted by Lazarus, 12:05 PM