Ce monde qu'est le notre

Thanks to you Camille for recommending the book, here's part of my reaction to it

Tout comme le monde dévasté de Ludvik et Lucie dans "La Plaisanterie" de Kundera, même plus, car notre monde est aussi dévasté litéralement, humainement dévasté, économiquement dévasté. Un monde dévasté à l'image de ces immeubles dechiquetés de la banlieue sud, à l'image de ces ponts dont il n'en reste plus que le souvenir, et la nostalgie des embouteillages d'avant ...

Mais encore ....

Une autre devastation, une des plus dangereuses, comme l'a exprimé Broch: "C’est l’élévation de systèmes politiques au rang de valeurs suprêmes dans le monde moderne qui constitue un des nombreux exemples funestes de l’« absolutisation du relatif » à laquelle a conduit le processus de dégradation des valeurs." Cette absolutisation du relatif qui rend sourd et aveugle, qui encourage la rigidité tout en effaçant la tolérance, qui excise la conviction de chacun dans "sa vérité" telle qu'il la voit, sans laisser une possibilité d'envisager cette même vérité vue d'un autre angle, ou une autre "vérité" dont d'autres sont convaincus ....

Pourtant ...

Ludvik encore dans La Plaisanterie de Kundera, dit qu'il y a une beauté dans cela même qui est devasté, il n'y a même que celle la, et cette beauté est forcément "dernière", comme un sillage qui s'efface, comme l'echo nostalgique de ce qui s'est tu, les pauvres débris qui restent une fois la dévastation accomplie. Francois Ricard conclut donc, que la beauté n'advient que dans la suspension des signifcations, et donc dans l'impossibilité de toute erreur comme de toute parodie; alors seulement, la vérité peut resplendir, et l'essence de cette vérité est de demeurer, à jamais voilé ....

De ces pauvres débris qui restent...
vivement que la vérité resplendisse
vivement que toute parodie, toute erreur disparaisse
vivement que nous arrivions a distinguer à travers ce voile, au moins les contours de notre vérité, de notre Libanité comme tu l'as appelée Islander

Laissons cet oubli réparer tous les torts de la guerre d'avant comme l'appelle nadche, sans pour autant lui donner le pouvoir absolu, afin que nous puissions renaître de nos cendres, renaître Libanais avant tout, et aller de l'avant, tout en nous rappelant ce qui a causé notre dévastation, justement afin de ne pas y retourner à nouveau. Portrait si bien exprimé dans "Le progrès" de Rania, post du 14 Aout, 2006.

No Can Do

I can't settle for 1701 just because it stops the shelling
I can't settle for half measures after a lifetime at war
I can't be asked to survive anymore, I want to live
I can't accept Lebanese people who do not stand in utter solidarity against Israeli crimes in Lebanon - Through that I can sort of understand why Lebanese blood is considered "cheap" when it's "cheap" to certain Lebanese people themselves
I can't understand how the Association for Civil Rights in Israel condemned some of Dan Halutz's acts in Lebanon, while some Lebanese sort of try to justify them (http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE180072006) (part 2 Deliberate destruction or collateral damage)
I can't understand how throughout the war whoever mentions Syrian occupation is a Sionist and now whoever revolts against Israeli attacks is Syrian
I can't understand how we haven't managed to grasp that whoever so much as throws a stone at our country could not be an ally
I can't understand how some parents insist on transmitting the past war hatreds to their offsprings
I can't understand how still nowadays, when a political leader says it's bad, his followers echo it's baaaaaad
I can't understand fanaticism
I can't bear to see other countries settling their accounts at our expense
I can't stop all those revolting thoughts from eating me up
I can't just idly stand by
I can't bring myself to leave this country
So much I can't do eih? :(

Oh and one more can't

I can't lose the faith and hope that somehow we'll come through, that our dawn will break and the sun will shine for all Lebanese.

Beware! Landmine area!

"Let us be true
To one another!
For the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night."

Stanzas from Mathew Arnold that seem to voice an ultimate cry for unity in Lebanon,
Unity so that we may be heard as Mr. Ghassan Tueini expressed in yesterday's editorial, so that the shadows cast by the 1701's ambiguities as he said, don't engulf us all.
Lebanon seems like a huge landmine area, where leftover souvenir bombs of Israeli aggression shred people to pieces on a daily basis, where failure to unite is another enormous landmine that could lead us all to our doom as Mr. Tueini put it.

Everyone seems to agree that it is impossible that Lebanese people fight each other again,
Yet we don't seem to have found the adequate formula whose major component is tolerance.
So we are, again as Mathew Arnold put it in his Grand Chartreuse

"Wandering between two worlds
One dead and the other powerless to be born"

Let us give our new world (by no means the new M.E. promoted by the US) the power to see the light. Our hope, and God knows hope there is, it expressed itself in the solidarity demonstrated by the people for the people, our hope is then that we base the foundation of the new Lebanon on this genuine reaching out movement. Let it be our pass to a safe harbor.

As Ghassan Rahbani put it, "Only forgiveness will build a nation". Let us forgive so that we can rise above the ruins and debris, above political and ideological affiliations, above religious beliefs to be just Lebanese.

Creative silence .....relentless persistence

Silence is often more expressive than words
A public square with a crane in the background, but in germany this time.
(pics of the germany manifestation (lebanese people lying on the ground covered with lebanese flags, in public square, in train stations, I sure hope they'll upload this time, otherwise till a future blog)

To all of you silent workers of the Lebanese Diaspora,
To all of you people who make a difference, who don't give up
To that person on his faraway island who refused to sit idly, who refused to give up when all means seemed impossible for the medical aid he had gathered to reach lebanon, who had phones ringing in France, Switzerland ... until there was light, until his ship came through
To that person in Belgium whose ton of medical supplies came through despite all obstacles
To all of you Lebanese people who are suffering from being away, perhaps even more than we suffer from being here at times
To all of you bloggers who communicate and promote a beautiful image of our country
To those of you who express in writing, in poetry, in prose, in graphic arts rania, ostfen, leba-none, poetryinthewar and am sure there are so many more
To all of you who have felt the same as Camille who wrote in his blog:
"Durant ce long mois, plus que jamais, j’ai habité Beyrouth tout en vivant ailleurs" www.stroobia.blogspot.com (blog that I came across by an unfortioutous stroobia this morn ;) )

I just wish to say

Thank You

So often someone's word someone's act makes a difference, brightens a day, lights up a smile on a sad face
I know for certain that many of you have been the cause of many a smile, may this be a happy thought when ur frustration at being away becomes overwhelming.

Grim reality in rhyme

A cry of revolt a message of hope

Decaying bodies by the tens are still being extracted
The post-devastation era has already started
Human solidarity and reaching out
In all of Lebanon's whereabouts
Israel however still confines our country in its grip
For fuel and aid we need a permission slip
Our 1200 deaths vs. 2 alive is still the equation
Revolting, shocking, disgusting, but there is no comdemnation
A "triumph of diplomacy" would be at least to get that
And from Syria, that elusive and essential tract
Our prayers is that tolerance will continue to reign
Justice and humanity with no room for disdain
"No Violence" for creed and above all tolerance
Human death is human death regardless of "moral equivalence"*
No peace without justice and no war can be named good
How many more deaths before this is understood??
Might makes right but only for an interim
Until this is learnt our times remain grim
A verse of hope that this we all acquire
For a solid peace in the world entire

* In reference to Bolton's line on lack of moral equivalence between Israeli and Lebanese death.

Myth or Miracle?!

News on the Future TV, nowhere else yet saying that not a single Israeli soldier remains on Lebanese soil...

Miracle?

If yes

will miracle two happen soon?

Hoping for the best, God knows we've seen the worst.

Let's keep those fingers crossed.

Lose - Lose

The war in during the past 34 days was definitely and par excellence a
Lose - Lose situation

Israel didn't stop the katyouchas
Israel didn't (at least not yet) guarantee the security of its North
Israel lost over 100 of its people
Israeli army sort of lost it's aura of invincibility
Israeli government lost it's popularity within its own country

Lebanon lost over 1000 of its people
Lebanon is now facing massive destruction
Shebaa farms as well as other Lebanese regions in the South are currently under Israeli control
The Lebanese detainees in Israel are still detained
The Lebanese economy will further dwindle

And as to the triumph of diplomacy .... the 1701 ... my reserves remain entire.

People massively returning home over handmade bridges and bumpy roads have been subject to unexploded bombs and Lebanon mourns more victims.

First time I hear of a war that stops upon schedule, war ends at 5:00 am GMT. If it hadn't been for the suffocating sorrow and revolt, it would have been a matter of ironic laughter ....

Yet the hope still persists, it still does, ever lingering, the Lebanese people who have been too busy with survival to seek greener pastures have at least managed to excel at that. As people return passionately to their land I say, the Phoenix shall rise again, I just hope it rises wiser.

1701 ... another number?

PP1. Recalling all its previous resolutions on Lebanon, in particular resolutions 425 (1978), 426 (1978), 520 (1982), 1559 (2004), 1655 (2006), 1680 (2006) and 1697 (2006), as well as the statements of its president on the situation in Lebanon, in particular the statements of 18 June, 2000, of 19 October, 2004, of 4 May 2005, of 23 January 2006 and of 30 July 2006;

And now the 1701 .... another number in a long series taken each punctuated by a peridoic wave of death, terror and massive destruction

PP2. Expressing its utmost concern at the continuing escalation of hostilities in Lebanon and in Israel since Hezbollah's attack on Israel on 12 July 2006, which has already caused hundreds of deaths and injuries on both sides, extensive damage to civilian infrastructure and hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons;

formulated in a way that is elusive, ambiguous as to where the damage is ....

PP3. Emphasizing the need for an end of violence, but at the same time emphasizing the need to address urgently the causes that have given rise to the current crisis, including by the unconditional release of the abducted Israeli soldiers

no mention of the fundamental reasons prior to the abduction ... thus giving the impression that the over 1000 deaths were for the release of the two prisoners ... of course in tune with Bolton's word on the inequity of a Lebanese death as compared to an Israeli death

PP4: Mindful of the sensitivity of the issue of prisoners and encouraging the efforts aimed at urgently settling the issue of the Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel;

Of course where it comes to Lebanese issues the tone gets milder and the urgency of issues seems less relevant. Not even an equivalent decision regarding prisoners, knowing that most lebanese prisoners were abducted in the same way the Israeli soldiers were, they never were on trial or otherwise ....

PP5. Welcoming the efforts of the Lebanese prime minister and the commitment of the government of Lebanon, in its seven-point plan, to extend its authority over its territory, through its own legitimate armed forces, such that there will be no weapons without the consent of the government of Lebanon and no authority other than that of the government of Lebanon, welcoming also its commitment to a UN force that is supplemented and enhanced in numbers, equipment, mandate and scope of operation, and bearing in mind its request in this plan for an immediate withdrawal of the Israeli forces from Southern Lebanon

I wonder what does Bearing in mind mean? how is it executed or implemented??

PP6. Determined to act for this withdrawal to happen at the earliest

At the earliest? i.e.????

PP7. Taking due note of the proposals made in the seven-point plan regarding the Shebaa farms area

Who would be kind enough to explain to me what this point means?

PP8. Welcoming the unanimous decision by the government of Lebanon on 7 August 2006 to deploy a Lebanese armed force of 15,000 troops in south Lebanon as the Israeli army withdraws behind the Blue Line and to request the assistance of additional forces from UNIFIL as needed, to facilitate the entry of the Lebanese armed forces into the region and to restate its intention to strengthen the Lebanese armed forces with material as needed to enable it to perform its duties

No comment

PP9. Aware of its responsibilities to help secure a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution to the conflict;

PP10. Determining that the situation in Lebanon constitutes a threat to international peace and security;

OP1. Calls for a full cessation of hostilities based upon, in particular, the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations;

OP2. Upon full cessation of hostilities, calls upon the government of Lebanon and UNIFIL as authorized by paragraph 11 to deploy their forces together throughout the South and calls upon the government of Israel, as that deployment begins, to withdraw all of its forces from southern Lebanon in parallel;

OP3. Emphasizes the importance of the extension of the control of the government of Lebanon over all Lebanese territory in accordance with the provisions of resolution 1559 (2004) and resolution 1680 (2006), and of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, for it to exercise its full sovereignty, so that there will be no weapons without the consent of the government of Lebanon and no authority other than that of the government of Lebanon;

OP4. Reiterates its strong support for full respect for the Blue Line;

OP5. Also reiterates its strong support, as recalled in all its previous relevant resolutions, for the territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence of Lebanon within its internationally recognized borders, as contemplated by the Israeli-Lebanese General Armistice Agreement of 23 March 1949;

OP6. Calls on the international community to take immediate steps to extend its financial and humanitarian assistance to the Lebanese people, including through facilitating the safe return of displaced persons and, under the authority of the government of Lebanon, reopening airports and harbors, consistent with paragraphs 14 and 15, and calls on it also to consider further assistance in the future to contribute to the reconstruction and development of Lebanon;

OP7. Affirms that all parties are responsible for ensuring that no action is taken contrary to paragraph 1 that might adversely affect the search for a long-term solution, humanitarian access to civilian populations, including safe passage for humanitarian convoys, or the voluntary and safe return of displaced persons, and calls on all parties to comply with this responsibility and to cooperate with the Security Council;

OP8. Calls for Israel and Lebanon to support a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution based on the following principles and elements:
-- full respect for the Blue Line by both parties; -- security arrangements to prevent the resumption of hostilities, including the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL as authorized in paragraph 11, deployed in this area; -- full implementation of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, and of resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), that require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that, pursuant to the Lebanese cabinet decision of July 27, 2006, there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state; -- no foreign forces in Lebanon without the consent of its government; -- no sales or supply of arms and related materiel to Lebanon except as authorized by its government; -- provision to the United Nations of all remaining maps of land mines in Lebanon in Israel's possession;

OP9. Invites the secretary general to support efforts to secure as soon as possible agreements in principle from the government of Lebanon and the government of Israel to the principles and elements for a long-term solution as set forth in paragraph 8, and expresses its intention to be actively involved.

.... and so on and so forth till op19.

1701 ... a major disappointment ... still a hope for a ceasefire lingers on ....yet as the resolution was being taken the humanitarian convoy was hit, yet even as I type now the drones still buzz over our heads with that incessant and nerve-wrecking zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Not even an immediate cease fire notice .... Not even that ... Today to celebrate this new number, Lebanon mourns the 7 dead in yesterday's convoy, one of which is a red cross volunteer.... Hope the death toll doesnt have to rise to 1701 in accordance with the new resolution ....

Reminds me of Robert Fisk's words ... There will be no peace in the middle east without justice and I hope and pray that "This new act of peace making won't be as bloody as its long list of predecessors" ....

To you out there who have a brighter perspective ... a brighter look on matters ... please share and help brighten our grim grim days.

Darkest before dawn?

CHTOURA, Lebanon (Reuters) - Israeli aircraft fired at least five rockets at a convoy of hundreds of cars carrying people fleeing south Lebanon on Friday, killing at least three people and wounding eight, witnesses and rescue workers said.
They said the convoy that had left the town of Marjayoun earlier in the day was targeted by at least one drone near the village of Kefraya in eastern Lebanon.
Around 3,000 civilians and 350 Lebanese security men had left the town in the convoy a day after Israeli forces seized the area.

Linalone ur not alone in the daya3... kelna de3na, tu l'as bien dit, de3na, metna .... wou baadna 3am nmout.

Alors que le monde entier ou du moins notre monde a nous retient son souffle dans l'attente de la fameuse fumée blanche, ce nouveau numero, qui releguera le 1559 au deuxieme rang ... le souffre lui n'a pas ete retenu ... convoi humanitaire ayant quitte Marjeyoun depuis des heures ... recu a partir de Hasbaya par villageois et journalistes ... a ete pris pour cible de la part des drones Israeliens .... "How many times must a canon ball fly before it forever lands"

While the UN is about to come up with its resolution, that, as the news have it has great chances to be approved by Israel- (Resolution aiming at that lasting peace we've lost over a 1000 people for, not to mention the deaths on the other side of the border) - US is about to approve the shipment of arms to Israel.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israel has asked the Bush administration to hasten delivery of short-range anti-personnel rockets armed with cluster munitions, which it could use to strike Hizbollah missile sites in Lebanon, The New York Times reported on Friday.
Sourcing its report to two American officials, the newspaper said the request for M-26 artillery rockets, which are fired in barrages and carry hundreds of grenade-like bomblets that scatter and explode over a broad area, is likely to be approved shortly.

Is it always darkest before dawn? Or is it getting darker and darker as our dawn turns despairingly elusive?

Mots a Impact!

Dés mon arrivée à la maison, rapide tour des chaines locales,

Magida El Roumi sur LBCI, affirmant sa résistance, la force des Libanais, tt en parlant avec des mots si simples qui vont droit a l'âme, qui font jaillir les larmes, du calvaire continu des Libanais, ce calvaire, cette histoire qui n'en finit pas de se répeter.

D'autres mots a impact,

Tracts Israeliens au dessus de Beyrouth, au dessus meme du grand sérail, demandant aux habitants de Chiah, Bourg el Barajneh et Hay el Sellom de quitter leur quartier. Quitter leur quartier .... pour aller ou? Pour faire quoi?

L'ancien phare de Beyrouth .... démoli ...

Et dire que les nouvelles sur le Net annoçaient que l'offensive terrestre massive israélienne suspendue pour 48h (source Maariv) ......

No further comment ... yet

We need to be heard, desperately

Israel to expand war against Hezbollah cnn.com
Israeli cabinet considers expanding military action euronews.net
Israel opts to expand Lebanon war Scotsman
Israel advances in Lebanon TVNZ
Israeli ministers approve expanded Lebanon offensive Reuters
Israel advances in Lebanon http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/
Israel Cabinet Approves Expanding Lebanon Operations (Update1) Bloomberg
Israel Cabinet OKs Wider Offensive foxnews
US, France at odds over Lebanon demandCTV.ca, Canada
and so much more, so many different paraphrases and nuances ... in communicating news...

There's so much in the choice of words!
war against hezbollah says CNN while 1020 civilians have been reported dead so far not to mention the massive destruction of Lebanon.
expanding military action euronews still smoothens and uses emulsifiers
Israel advances in lebanon as reported from new zealand sounds like a field trip eih?
Expand lebanon operations operations?? isnt that the very term that was so controversial in the sharm el sheikh agreement when it came to the israeli acts in the occupied territories?

The world news are a source of huge frustrations when we live the daily massacres when we witness our whole geography changing shape ..... yes huge frustration. Like that anonymous comment posted to nadine on her blog, in brief, "yeah we know whats going on but what have you .. to the world you're the villains ...." or otherwise said, we know we have a blindfold but we're comfy with that ....
Huge frustrations .... what to do? Blame our misfortune on others? not much of an option we've already tried that.
Accept to be silently buried? Not much of a choice.
Then
Let's speak up!
Publish!
Make ourselves heard!
Mik published today sthg from Gebran ... its shaking. www.nadche.blogspot.com
Islander shared on nadche's blog a new blog www.raniasassine.blogspot.com
We always have been good at expressing ourselves, let's use our skills to make ourselves heard.
We need to be heard.
We need to work for peace Our peace, the security of our people our land our homes.
Just heard Sayed Nasrallah's word, we seem to be all agreeing on a solution ..... for once, we're agreeing for once! Let's make it happen ...
Despaired as we are, we still can ...
We still can God willing ....

This "barbaric war sounds its giant YAWP over the rooftops of the world"

Waaay over I guess!
cos the rooftops of the world have gone deaf
they're hiding under the glorious umbrella called war on terrorism
they haven't heard the babies' wails
they haven't seen the villages and towns disappear
they've seen, couldn't avoid those, the 1 million man march or shall I say flee
it made them uneasy like a thorn in one's foot
they hid them under tons of aids, of food rations,
they haven't seen the bridges, nor can we see them now, see they're gone
as nad said in her blog, as mik wrote in his comment to her
"C'est un ponte anti-ponts qui compte les points des ponts qui tombent." (nadche.blogspot.com)
Il oublie de compter les etres qui tombent
et le monde les oublie
et le reste du liban oublie-t-il ses différences, ses angles étroits, ses fanatismes?

1559 deaths for 1559? Is this what a good war is about, sound mathematical equations?

I wonder ... as I fight a raging disgust/nausea/revolt .... Ghandi did say that non-violence was the toughest track, the Lord did say the same ... I can see now what He must have meant ..... can you?

Batisseurs de justice, Artisans de Paix

Ironic or symbolic?
The title above was our motto as catholic schools for the current year.
"No peace without justice"
Robert Fisk wrote in his article commenting on the Sharm el Sheikh agreements:
If we are going to clap our hands like the Sharm El-Sheikh "peacemakers," we'd better realize that unless we are going to resolve these great issues of injustice now, this new act of "peacemaking" will prove to be as bloody as Oslo.

"This new act of peace making" seems to describe the official name of the current war waged on Lebanon. War for peace.

If it's peace that is ultimately sought then we need to ask: On what soil does peace grow? Will it grow on the debris of homes and decaying bodies, will it thrive on a soil where hundreds of people are being buried on a daily basis. Will the peace dove safely and majestically fly amongst an exchange of bombs, rockets, missiles and accusations?

Ghandi said: "I object to violence because, when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent."

Violence currently occuring doesn't even appear to do good, though the world turns a deaf ear and blind eye to the massacres committed. "Silence on tue" wrote one of the banners in a manifestation in Belgium. The world seems to allow Lebanon's happenings as a means to a desired end.

But what we're overlooking is that it never is a controversy about the end justifying the means. Huxley wrote way back in the 1930's:

If violence is answered by violence, the result is a physical struggle. Now, a physical struggle inevitably arouses in the minds of those directly and even indirectly concerned in it emotions of hatred, fear, rage and resentment. In the heat of conflict all scruples are thrown to the winds, and all the habits of forbearance and humaneness, slowly and laboriously formed during generations of civilised living, are forgotten. Nothing matters any more except victory. And when at last victory comes to one or other of the parties, this final outcome of physical struggle bears no necessary relation to the rights and wrongs of the case: nor in most cases, does it provide any lasting settlement to the dispute. (Huxley, 1938. p. 139)

All fighting parties in the middle east, remember that what goes round comes round, but what never comes back are all the victims of this circular movement of violence, this by all means is a literal definition of a "Vicious Circle".