Every year, in Spring, my brother, who lives and works in Beirut, comes to the United States for a professional meeting then swings by to spend a few days with us. This year his visit coincided with the latest spasm of violence in Lebanon and so he was stuck here for an extra week.
He was, of course, worried about his family back in Beirut; but the upside was that I and the kids got to spend more time with him. There was however, palpable tension between us whenever we discussed the politics of Lebanon. My brother got quickly wound up and passionate during these discussions especially when I disagreed with him. Once an admirer of Rafik Hariri, he has, over the past few years, come to unconditionally support the opposition; and that is where we defer. My brother's politics are gut level and emotional and are molded mostly by his visceral reactions to a certain segment of Lebanese society.
He hated the way the Beirut Spring demonstrations of 2005 turned into an open ended slur of everything Syrian as, once again, the Lebanese blame someone else for all their shortcomings. But what gets my brother really angry is the deep seated arrogance, hypocrisy and hateful sectarianism manifested by a not insignificant number of Lebanese. Add to the mix a screwed up sense of identity, and you get the psychopathology encapsulated by this statement he overheard recently at a dinner party: "Ya'ni moi, je ne peu pas vivre avec les Shiites". Mind you, this statement, in perfect Franbanais, was uttered by a Sunni from Ras Beirut! Go figure!
Although I share his revulsion of certain -many- aspects of Lebanese society, I fail to understand his complete and uncritical support of the opposition. I listened and learned from him but failed to alter his views. It is easy for me to dispassionately analyze Lebanese politics from a distance. But for him, stuck in the middle of the overheated and poisonous cauldron of Lebanese politics, he feels forced to take sides.
His departure yesterday left me a little sad as we were unable able to bridge our differences. But overnight, our differences have become irrelevant. Before he landed back in Beirut, the Lebanese politicians had finally managed to do the right thing for their people and not only themselves. Moreover, and the timing is hardly a coincidence, Syria and Israel announce that they have been talking peace.
May 21, 2008 is a day to savor. I will, for the moment, purge any last vestige of skepticism and cynicism from my being to enjoy a day when sanity and hope, commodities nearly extinct in our corner of the world, seem to have taken hold... at least for a day.
2 comments:
I agree, I noticed that visitors from middle east( even I do not have many) mostly speak with their emotion and we the expats speak with our romantic ideal. I noticed that when I meet with newer generation from Syria for example, I find huge gap in perception and in dreams, however I keep telling myself those people can not dare to speak their minds and what they say is limited to their allowed sphere of thinking. I think the case of Syrians is dramatic with a very broken personality.
Anyway, I came to your blog to put this link which I heard it on NPR this afternoon, since you introduced me to nice music and musicians through your blog and I liked your choices of selection on your blog and on the “About me” area, I felt I should mention it to you.
The site is: http://web.mac.com/jamshied.sharifi/Site/Home.html
Jamshied is doing great job in brining the sound of the middle eastern music and voices without using words, and bundle it together from China to West Africa. Once I was admirer of Yanni, and hoped for similar tone to middle east music and theme and this guy brought this sound in a wider range of geographical space than I could imagine.
Hope I mention something you do not know of yet.
Saint,
Thanks for the link, I like the music.
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