In the baraksat

Wedding

Zuzu!

In nahr al bared, using some fancy program on my phone.

So much of this around town

Man in tripoli

2 events, one day

Sorry, but this image was not taken on my phone as promised in the "about" section for this site, but I need it to illustrate a point.

Earlier in the day I photographed at the Hizballah rally (see previous post). I, and many of the other journalists I talk to, are always very impressed by the amount of organization that Hizballah has. Not only are the events well organized, but how they deal with journalists, their security checks, and then herding us around to take pictures at their events - by the way, at these events contrary to what many think, there is no discrimination by Hizballah against journalists who have written bad things about them, come from countries who call them "terrorists", and they do not censor anything.

Now, compare this to any event organized by the state, and the differences are incredible.

First of all, Lebanon is a bizarre country. We left Dahiyeh where tens of thousands were listening to a speech by Hassan Nasrallah to travel just 15 minutes to downtown where thousands were coming to listen to a concert by Haifa Wahbe. These two figures, one a leader of a disciplined resistance organization, and the other a singer who sings about well, lovey stuff, and has obvious plastic surgery (although now Nancy Ajram might be more popular than Haifa) are Lebanon's most popular. Crazy.

Anyway, at the Haifa concert, the Lebanese police officers were at first sitting around joking with each like always. Hizballah guards at the speech in Dahiyeh joke too, but it's like if you see a couple joking you're lucky, and right after the guy's straight face will return and he will be back in position arms folded. Not only were these police officers untrained in how to deal with crowds, there was only about 20 of them to fight off a storming crowd of thousands. Needless to say, the police officers lost and the stage was stormed and the concert ended.

One of the police officers who was fighting off the storming crowds grabbed me and tried to hand me a phone a bunch of times. I kept telling him in arabic, "it's not mine!" And he was shouting, "Take picture of Haifa!" I looked at him giving him that "are you serious" look and finally I said why not. So I ran up before getting pushed back by Haifa's security and snapped her pic. Finally Haifa was rushed out by police and her bodyguards.

It was chaotic. And this was right after an event in Dahiyeh where if someone stood up to cheer when it wasn't the time to do so, they would get a firm look from a Hizballah guard and sit right back down immediately.

...right

Back page of the daily star.

resistance and liberation rally

Wow, that's a lot of people. In Beirut's Dahiyeh suburbs, tens of thousands of Hizballah supporters attended a rally marking the 8th anniversary of Israel's departure from south Lebanon after 22 yrs of brutal occupation. 

Lebanon has a president, finally

Now all the problems have been solved!

Sunset at rawda

Ouch

What the ???

Hizballah flags in Hamra??? Crazy, I know. My neighborhood is covered in Amal flags currently, and posters with their logo, Sadr, Birri, etc... My neighborhood is overwhelmingly Future Movement, and they haven't taken down Amal's stuff or replaced their own vandalized posters of the Hariris. Everyone says March 14 supporters are scared to do much right now. Bad news coming from Qatar as well, things are not looking good, again.... We'll see though. My friend jokes, "where is Saddam when you need him?" The joke (although not really) being Saddam, as a brutal secular dictator, would put an end to all these sectarian problems in Lebanon. 

Nakba event in bourj albourajne refugee camp

Vigil for the Nakba in Hamra

Its a sad day

But really its no different than any other.

my life in beirut

my life as an ajnabi (foreigner) i doubt is much different from most beirutis these days. the streets are empty, everyone is inside smoking and watching the news 24/7. my friends joke that even the religious drink during times like these. fucking shooting. right now theyre shooting like crazy celebrating the govt's decision to revoke previous decisions about 1. hizballah's communication network that they tried (and failed miserably) to  say was illegal. 2. the head of airport security who they removed accusing him of being aligned with hizballah. man, march 14 really got their asses handed to them. now, it's fucked though. friends who lived the civil war tell me, it will soon become like back then when the ideologies were lost and it becomes about revenge. posters and flags still can be seen all over my neighborhood which is nearly all sunni and supporters of the pro-US future movement. people are scared to take them down. but you know the neighborhood sees it everyday and just gets pissed off. and now the opposition is shooting like crazy, why? they won. they got their way, and the 2 big issues have been resolved. so why the celbratory shooting. everyone i talked to when it started was pissed off from it. one hour it lasted, just shooting. i can only imagine what the pro-government (anti-opposition) folks are feeling. 

Good morning beirut

that bowl is much bigger than my head, and i have a huge head. its filled with fatteh, i love it so much. all the restaurants have been closed for the past days because of the fighting. but the fatteh/fool/hummus place by my house was open today. that dish serves 2-3, i ate it all by myself. it took a pack of cigarettes afterwards to help me digest it. 

journalists protest in beirut

Journalists protest against what Amal fighters did to Future TV's HQ in Raouche (see below pic). Just for the record, I was not taking part in the protest. 

Future tv

It begins

Amal movement fighters taking position against fighters from the Future movement at Corniche al-Mezraa in Beirut. 

Beirut problems

imad moughniya lives on in Dahiyeh

forbidden to park

and the justice (one of the slogans for Hariri's "future" movement referring to justice for assassinated former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri) is also forbidden to park? 

shatila graffiti

this piece "authority" by Palestinian refugee graffiti artist Abdul Rahman Katanani

pre-1948 Palestinian birth certificate

all it takes is a single piece of paper to expose the inherent injustice in the state of Israel. 

Tariq al-Jadide buildings