Beirut, wed 22 Nov 2006

Just landed, the expected sunny day was waiting for me.
I come back to Beirut after 3 years, last time i spent there Xmas holidays and it has been love at first sight ...
Many changes this time.
First, i didn't remember so many photos on the road from the airport of this guy



After a richly blessed lunch with lebanese mezzeh (finally!so yummy!!!), walking along the Corniche, i found again the place where i lived 3y ago



the Moschea with muezzin early every morning asking to pray (and, for us, to wake up), the bombed building in fron of us, the sea at background, and the Hard Rock's guitar still there...what a Nostalgia!



But i shockly noticed, while enjoying walking, something really strange...Downtown is empty! I know what is happened only 2 days ago, and not so far from here, but it's still so unusual for me to remember the Centre so crowded of tourists and locals...and now? empty.

I visit the Rafiq Hariri Mausoleum with the other victims assassinated...some people is enthusiast of this symbol, someone other say it's exagerated and the lebanese flag has been over-used that time to involve in a "national" case who was just a politic, a member of a party and not the symbol-man of Lebanon. I.e. they were against the initiative of Hariri jr. to "use" the photo of Martyrs Square crowded of Lebanese during the elections, to promote his candidature: lot of those lebanese were participating as lebanese and not pro-his party.

I immediately realize that lebanese, in a certain sense, are like italians: as much as we love footbal and we all are coachs, lebanese are all politics fond and experts self-defined. I just can report a sentence about Rafiq Hariri, The most loved and hated politician man of Lebanon



Easy to feel the tension in the air. Noises of clacson and arousing voices getting close to the Mausoleum. A demonstration of falangistes just starting and moving, between shouts and slogans, parties (a lot) and lebanese (few) flags, and cars, camions, scooters...It seems they are rather young, but not for that less fierce and "over-excited". Someone tells me they are shouting against Aoun and HA. That's the problem: what would happen if they move just through Beirut, maybe in Achrafieh or in the schiite area? what if they will bump into a similar group of the opposition? what if someone has a weapon and "accidentally" shoots? Not so weird as thought, not so far as risk. Unfortunately...