I went to visit where they threw holes in the road that once lead to the sky

These are interesting times indeed! All those Lebanese with foreign passports are leaving…
Those that do not stare at me for NOT leaving…
It isn’t that it bugs them, I think it’s because they don’t see the possibility of carrying the effects of this situation.

Like I wrote of yesterday…Lebanon’s dream is dying… I never dreamt of Lebanon…

I see her as she is…

I see the sharp ragged edges and the silk that covers the skin beneath.

I see the beauty and the filth of it…

I saw it from the beginning.

Those who are with me, will be forced to admit to its faults.

I pray they learn and try to change them rather than throw a sheet over and pretend again.
But these days not much learning goes on. I walked by the Hospital today as a mass email went out concerning conserving electricity at AUB facilities… The idiots had left all of the ER windows open and there it was pouring out into the street. I have seen countless ones open with the A/C roaring away inside… Poor dreamers!

I know that they don’t care about sterility and the required airflow that reduces nosocomial infections. They use antibiotics in such a willy nilly fashion that I am sure AUH has contributed to several of the worlds most wonderful antibiotic resistant strains…They were just picked up somewhere else when one of the Lebanese who carries another passport was bouncing around passing them on to people.

The cities are growing quiet as are the roads…
This place is becoming a strange little ghost town…

Another Ghost town I visited was Ouzai. People in Ouzai can literally SPIT on the tarmac of the airport. So I visited today…

Mostly out of curiosity… and to take a peek at the airport from a spot I used to see the planes land…
The terminal is fine, the runway looks like a pile of coal has been dumped at particular spots along it. The hangars have patches in them where the sheet metal has curled up or flapped off and one lone MEA plane lays on its belly tailless without windows and doors. A hulk of what once powered the Lebanese economy.

I have seen bombed buildings beside the airport that were people’s houses in Ouzai… They are now pretzel twisted steel and pebbles…

So much for Lebanese construction!



It reminds me of the woman in front of the Embassy. She had your typical Middle American build and expressions but she was from Washington State. She said she was shocked to walk out on her doorstep where she used to relax with her husband and find shrapnel from a bomb lying there with broken glass. I guess she was a dreamer until then.

I am not mind you talking about hiding from everything…Merely accepting things for what they are…
And this is the kicker for most of those who I have tried to talk to about Lebanon….
Rolling up the sleeves and making the dream a reality…
Nope they want it Fast…Cheap…and with no work.

Things that come that easily
GO that easily.
There should have been more work on Lebanon… I know some of the audience will clamor there was tons of work.

I would agree in part… that part being…KEEPING AN IMAGE ALIVE… But Israel just shot out the projector bulb like they did the lighthouse and now we are seeing how dirty the little movie screen is.

The Lebanese have a HELL OF A LOT GOING FOR THEM!!! Unlike the Kaleej they have a long history
They have seen money come and money go…
But why pay so much for the image?
Why not build the foundation?
Why not prepare the ground rather than just throwing seeds in the air… The crops will take TIME and WORK but that time and work will REMAIN because despite bombing earthquakes and other catastrophes the base upon which it was built CANNOT BE DESTROYED… Without a base… all you have is a house of cards that will crumble in the next wind!
The fact that you didn’t build that foundation made civil war… last so long….and this one so hard for you to bear.
I hope that some of us can work… to try to show you how to build the base…
That, come what may, you can rebuild quickly and remain stable.

This base I believe works much like these little terrorist groups…
In CELLS!
And if one goes down the next one along rises .… Sleepers woken up by the shaking of the ground as a structure falls.
People close enough to see where the cracks started and BRAVE enough to admit them.
You Lebanese must be strong enough to patch them otherwise your society and culture would have vanished EONS ago.

But here you remain… IN DENIAL and that is why I am convinced your repairing jobs collapse so quickly.
Is it so hard to say I do not know?
Is it impossible to say you know better TEACH ME?
Does it destroy you to ask how can I make this day better than the last and pass that on to my children?

I leave it to you to be offended and hope that you can honestly listen to such questions and the reasons I wrote them… It isn’t me being arrogant…I honestly want to know how I can help!