Tag: Lebanon

After finally getting my Indian visa, I decided to spend my last day in Lebanon at one of the classic sights, the Roman ruins of Heliopolis. They are up in the mountains, where the cool air made wandering around in midday sun a little more bearable. The ruins are incredibly well preserved, and were far larger than the Parthenon. The temple of Bacchus has a lovely carved ceiling and lion shaped rain spouts, as well as a good mosaic of the hedonist god himself.

As the Bekka valley is the home of the party of god, there is a Hizbollah museum and gift shop just outside the ruins entrance. A diorama room filled with middle-school level styrofoam cutouts represents their apparent military glory over the bat-winged Israelis. Their marketing department must work overtime to produce the vast array of pins, flags, t-shirts, and DVD’s available for sale. I almost purchased some, but the thought of directly giving them money was a little much. Besides, I already have a beach towel.

Tonight I went to the Bourj al-Barajneh refugee camp just outside of Beirut for a screening of Slingshot Hiphop, a documentary about several Palestinian rappers. It was one of the best films I have seen in a long time, and does an excellent job at humanizing the conflict. There is no US distribution deal yet, but the director told me she is working with Sundance to get it out there. At dinner and drinks afterwards, a fellow American regaled me with the entire history of Tupac and the other American political rappers who are cited as inspiring forces in the film. As always, my education continues.

After two days of downtime due to sickness, we’re back in action. We went south to Tyre yesterday and spent the afternoon on the beach. Found some sweet towels, which will make excellent souvenirs.

Today we got permits to visit the “secure zone” of Hizbollah controlled towns. Our permit required color photocopies of our passports and new photographs, but ended up being a slip of paper with a number written on it. Sometimes things are just laughably ad-hoc in the Middle East. Stormed a castle that was originally built by the romans, captured by the Crusaders in 1139, used by the PLO to shell northern Israel until 1982, was used by the Israelis during the occupation which ended in 2000. Now there is a yellow Hizbollah flag on the top, and the castle is in rough shape.

We also toured through several villages that were heavily bombed by the Israelis in the 2006 war, where reconstructions is still underway. As our gracious host explained, the Lebanese are experienced at rebuilding. We also saw a former Israeli detention center, which was also bombed during the most recent conflict. Hizbollah banners and martyr posters line the streets, and it isn’t hard to see why the population supports them. Of all the “non-state actors” in the region, they are the only one to achieve any real gains against Israel. My feelings about the group are mixed, however despicable the qassam rockets were they haven’t been involved in suicide attacks within Israel. They do seem to be a more classic nationalist organization than your stereotypical international terrorist group.

Wandered around the downtown today, seeing the massive rebuilding project. The area was where the worst fighting during the civil war was, but you’d hardly know it today. There are shops galore, a huge new mosque, and the Parliament building, even if the representatives haven’t met in two years. It’s almost like Disneyland, in that new-old building style.

At Jared and Jenna’s insistence, we went to a concert tonight in Martyr’s Square. It was both the worst musical experience of any concert I have been to, and also the most fun. Mika is apparently a big deal, especially in Lebanon, his homeland. I’d never heard of the guy, but I guess that means I’m out of the loop. It was a remarkably strange performance, with giant inflatable pizza slices and milkshakes surfing the crowd, a squadron of zaftig dancers, and several interludes with animal costume performances. Words cannot quite describe the, well, gayness, of this show. Still, the crowd loved it, and we decided to as well. When in Beirut, you have to party hard.

Crossed the Allenby/King Hussein Bridge again yesterday, and just made it across. I have to learn not to travel on the Sabbath in this place. Then we took a taxi to Amman, where we ate a good cheap dinner and collapsed. Amman really isn’t such an interesting town, but we needed to go through it to get here. Took a really early flight to Beirut, and made it through immigration without too much trouble. We are being put up by Jared’s friend Shireen, who is staying in her Aunt’s fabulous apartment. Going to a beach party tonight, so we’re all catching up on rest beforehand. We’re all experiencing pretty severe culture shock, coming from Palestine where women are all covered to Lebanon where it seems anything goes. It’s also amazing that we are only a few hundred miles from Jerusalem, and yet it took us 24 hours to get here. What seems like a small part of the world is not always so easily traversed.