14 February 2007, an anniversary and more

To view more pictures of today's events please visit this album. Pictures courtesy of moi.

After yesterday's explosion at Ain Alak, our speculations were if another explosion of a different kind will blast in today's event commemorating the 2nd anniversary of Hariri's assassination. A lot of questions have been asked, and today we have the answers.



The politicians might haven't openly escalated the situation but they sure have spoken with a rough tone, especially Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and Abou Taymour, the Progressive Socialt Party leader. Jumblat called Lahoud a whale that the sea has rejected, and that is probably the nicest thing he said about him, as later on he continued that Lahoud will make the history of garbage. Of course, there is always an interesting piece for Syria, its regime and its leader Bashar Al-Assad, whom got a real bashing by Jumblat. Geagea remembered all the martyrs naming them one by one, and called them the resistence of the nation.



Hariri thanked everyone for coming, thanked the martyrs, the people, the patriotic... In general, the politicians asked for the issue to be solved outside the streets, for it to be discussed in a civilized manner around the discussion table.



Hundreds of thousands of people have come from all over Lebanon, even by sea, and in a large number. Convoys made of hundreds of vehicles moved towards the capital, when the traffic starts, they park and continue by walking. Today's mass of people might not have been as large as March 14, 2005, but it certainly was the second biggest.



Lebanese Army divided the square into two between the opposition campers - who have been camping in downtown Beirut since December 1, 2006 in order to topple Siniora's government - and today's marchers who want to pay respect for Rafic Hariri and condemn the criminals who assassinated him 2 years ago, asking the international community for the truth of who those criminals might be.



The distance was wide, and not a single fight arised. The opposition security forces asked the for people to be present in the tents, in order to avoid any clash.

To view more pictures of today's events please visit this album. Pictures courtesy of moi.

The divided Lebanese

Born and raised in Lebanon, where I have lived in my entire life, I have been through civil wars, regional wars, conflicts, economy break-down, assassinations, demonstrations, occupation and recently sit-ins to topple the current government. Even the meaning of the colors in the Lebanese flag carries the red as the Lebanese martyrs blood and white as the color of peace.

If you meet any Lebanese person, politically active or not, this person will speak to you about politics, and not just the Lebanese politics but also the regional one. It is not because it is in our blood, or hereditary, but it is because when you live through such things as mentioned above, and you have to literally survive on many occasions from rockets, explosives or simply the expensive life-style, you tend to become political.

Lebanon in nature is a beautiful place, we have ruins and cultural monuments that have footprints of romans, ottomans, phoenicians and many more. More to come on how beautiful and cultural Lebanon is, for now enjoy a small summary I have written not so long ago about Baalbeck and Byblos (Jbeil).

Moreover, we are blessed to have a small country of only an area of 10452 km2. If you want to know more about Lebanon's history, surface, demography, diversity of sects, anything, just visit wikipedia's page on Lebanon.

The benefits of living in a small country, is the fact that a person can go from the shore of Jbeil for example to Faraya where a skiing resort exists, in almost an hour. Of course, swimming and skiing in the same season is not very probable unless you either enjoy swimming in cold waters or skiing on sands. However if you make it to Lebanon during the winter there are 6 skiing resorts that you can visit, or to enjoy the warm sun, hot weather and beautiful water, drop by in late spring and summer, which after a long hot day, you can still go back to Faraya and enjoy the moderate weather, barbecuing with friends and family and more.

Lebanese people who live abroad come back to Lebanon on two occasions, new year's period and summer, and they also bring their friends with them. The crazy and energetic night life that rocks Lebanon when the sun sets, like in Gemmayze or Monot street, is what attracts tourists as well, there are pubs, restaurants, night-clubs, the whole nine yards!

I bet by here you are wondering, with such a heaven in Lebanon then why on earth did she put such a title to such a story. Well, for the reason that as soon as political debates start, a brother turns against his brother, a sister against her mother, a friend against his best friend, and a wife against her husband.

Unfortunately, and as sad as this may sound, we disagree on so much when it comes to politics, and which party to follow, that you wouldn't believe we were having so much fun the previous minute. However nothing a tasty dinner, a great drink and a local enternainement show cannot make us forget.

Loving Lebanon so much and having too many people meddling in our internal affairs is a part of the problem. Nevertheless it is not really that simple, the politics I mean. It's a long story which I will tell you about in the coming future, but now I can tell you one thing, Lebanese people have been through 16 years of war, 29 years of occupation, 16 assassinations, martyrs, freedom demonstrators, rioters, economic drop-down and this is only in the last 30 years, however, they never give up, they tend to get frustrated from time to time, but that's a natural reaction to such horrible events.

The Lebanese are divided because they look outside more than they look inside, they all want a better Lebanon, they all want to live a good life and provide a good future for their families, but as long as they keep believing that a political leader, who was once a warlord, is the one who will provide them with a peaceful country and better economics then they will only be making the same mistake again! And sadly, we have too many warlords, whom we follow blindly, and we just cannot get out of our system.

Posted on NowPublic.com

Is 2007 the year Lebanon has another civil war?

Since the assassination of Former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri on Monday, February 14, 2005, resulting with a big hole in the road, death of his bodyguards, Minister Bassel Fleihan and several by-passers, Lebanon has been on the edge.

[...]

One thought went through the minds of the Lebanese people who were at home watching TV reporting live from the area of the clashes on the night of 25th January, and it was, will there be another civil war?

Lebanese people are scared, worried, and angry that there is a possibility of a war if things don't get under control by all political parties leaders. Is this period similar to the one that occurred before the 1975 Lebanese civil war? Could the Lebanese do the same mistake twice?

Click here to read full article.

P.S. My second story at NowPublic.com