It's a Wednesday



I don't know, I'm not feeling creative for a headline here. Things that have happened recently - I've overcome, more or less, my down phase of last week (I feel so odd posting things like this on a web page, but then I guess that's what a blog is about and I've been going on about it...) and anyway I have lots of work now to keep me busy! I'm organising two events, i.e. conferences and stuff, in December, and I'm also supposed to have designed and conceptualised a calendar teaching kids about human rights within the next 10 days. One of the conferences is about the European Neighbourhood Policy - it's supposed to get people from the government and civil society together and come up with recommendations for an action plan for this policy. And the other one.....is meant to help found a new political movement, but then this sounds so weird. It's all about capacity building and all of that. You know what I mean...

So last week I went to see this concert inside the "Dome" I was talking about before. It actually looks quite nice on the inside, but when you see this thing from the outside you really wonder how it can still hold up. Apparently they've had a huge techno party in it a few years ago which is now famous for the amount of drugs that were abused there. I tried to take a close-up of my favourite musician, the very cool grandpa bass player, but unfortunately it didn't really turn out.

I've also been to a two-day conference about Euro-Mediterranean relations. The food there was quite good and they gave away lots of freebies, but as far as the outcome it was pretty much zero if you ask me. The Minister of Telecommunications was there to talk about the fight against terrorism - he recently escaped a car bombing himself. It was a little odd because when anybody talks about terrorism in Europe, people usually talk about definitions, or networks, or other grand concepts. This discussion however was very much focused on details - which security service is listening to which kind of phone conversations? Strangely, there was also some French General there who was talking about security services in Europe. According to him, terrorism is of course something to worry about, but at least we should count ourselves fortunate because there are no more wars between "great powers" - as he put it, "la guerre a prise un bon coup derriere les oreilles". Thank you for this opinion! I'm sure it went down well with the car-bombed Minister or any other people in the audience who have any kind of war experience. Anyway, I mostly think the discussion was STRANGE. A colleague of mine told me today she saw me on TV when this event was broadcast (the TV people arrived and left together with the Minister), sitting in the audience and looking bored.

I also went to the famous Gemmayzeh cafe to smoke Argileh and have Lebanese food the other day - good stuff! (Luckily I can eat again by this point).

Bluesy Beirut days

So far I've been mainly talking about positive experiences here, but of course I wouldn't be telling the whole story if I didn't talk about the negative ones. They exist and have been bugging me lately, starting with the fact that it's impossible, as a foreigner, to walk anywhere without people staring, observing, occasionally even - this goes especially for old men - stopping on the sidewalk to get a better look and be able to spend more time staring. I've already told you about the security guards everywhere. I could also tell you about food problems: my stomach has had a hard time adjusting and I haven't really been able to eat anything apart from plain rice for the past week. Or about getting ripped off by taxi drivers, or the feeling of exposure to mortal danger that any pedestrian constantly experiences because people's driving over here is insane. Such 'normal' adjustment and culture shock problems are probably something most of us have experienced, and they're a bit of a bitch at times. What's really confusing me at the moment though is my situation at work, where I feel pretty lost with the tasks that have been given me as I receive no guidance, orientation or instruction by anyone. Still, I'm expected to figure everything out and be reliable and deliver on time (and to pretty tight deadlines). This seems very hard to do when around me, everything looks like chaos, I can never find the people I'm supposed to work with and the way people interact is hard to get used to. It seems that often people use a tone of voice which would be considered really rude in Germany, but it's normal here and nobody means anything by it. Conversely, this means if you want to get anything done at all, you have to be quite 'rude', in any case very determined and not put off by occasional setbacks ('Yeah yeah, I'll call you back, we will meet later today' for example is not at all a reliable statement but calls for further insistence on a meeting apparently...). And then there's of course the language barrier: sure, everybody speaks foreign languages, but all social conversations here at work, for example, are held in Arabic and it's frustrating to think that I've spent so long trying to learn this language and I still can't understand anything. I'm taking private lessons now though, so I'm hoping things will gradually improve, along with getting used to the other issues I've been talking about.

To distract myself from thinking about this stuff, I've been going to a bunch of cultural events recently. There was a lecture last week by Gayatri Spivak, the queen of postcolonial studies, at the Lebanese American University (another elite institution for sure). It's really weird because she seems to have this unique gift and charisma and everybody walked out of her lecture - essentially a plea for supporting 'the humanities' (i.e. studying languages, cultures, literature) as a counterforce to globalisation which makes everything alike and stamps of difference - thinking, wow, that was great, finally somebody has made sense of it all and explained the world and it's not so complicated after all. But the more you think about what she said, the less it makes any sense and you realise that a lot of it is basically hot air, or her talking about her own publications, achievements, basically about herself. With a week of hindsight and several accounts by people who went to a seminar she held the next day, I would even venture so far as to say a large part of what she said was bullshit. And yet, I clearly remember sitting in her lecture feeling all inspired and motivated. Never experienced anything like it. I suppose she would make an excellent populist and could whip up people's feelings for any idea. As she was keen to point out herself, someone once said to her that she could probably teach the phone book and people would think it was inspirational.

So as far as believing in the forces of good in the world, Gayavatri Spivak was not such a great help for me either. I've also gone to see a play by Rabih Mroue, apparently a really happening Lebanese director, called 'Who's afraid of representation?'. It was great and definitely the best threatre experience I (not very much into theatre and not having much of a clue about it) have had in a while. I think the main issues in it were how art deals with painful experiences - and being in Lebanon the main experience referred to was the civil war. How people deal or not deal with it seemed to be what this play was exploring, and it was done in a very clever and ironic way. The one I went to was the second performance, and interestingly (and sadly) it had been censored after the premiere. Some friends who went to see the first performance said that one recital of a poem which was quite sexual was taken out, and also several references to differences between religious sects. Instead of the original poem, the director had then put in a very cynical one which talked about a five-day festival (i.e., 'Homeworks', the festival the play was being performed at) with lots of sheep being slaughtered and blood spilt and animals being cut into little pieces and the whole barbarian mess then being loaded into a helicopter and dropped from above to fight the tanks that are threatening us, or something like that. It probably doesn't make a lot of sense this way, but when they were reciting it it was really funny and an amazing way for the directors to get back at the censors, as my friends were explaining to me. So compared to Spivak, this was definitely a lot more fun despite the heavy topic and all.

Tonight I am going to see a famous Lebanese Oud player give a concert in the 'Dome', which is a completely destroyed cinema from the 1960s which miraculously survived the civil war and is smack in the middle of 'Downtown'. I am sure in Germany safety regulations would prevent anybody from even going into this building! :) The concert is part of the Independence Day celebrations. Yesterday there was a military parade near my house and I was woken up by a bunch of explosions which were probably military salutes or something. Ok that's all for now, I will continue to keep you posted...

Lebanese humour...and security

Maybe some of you have seen the slogan of the so-called "cedar revolution" (of course nobody calls it that here except some very nationalist activists I think; it's either the 14th March movement, or the 8th March movement, depending on where you stand on the issue of Lebanese-Syrian relations). It's these posters or stickers:

Now check out the latest advertising campaign by a well-known French fashion store chain, to be found all over town at the moment:

Pretty funny, these Lebanese.... Btw: I took this last picture just outside the supermarket near my house. One of the approx. 15 security guards (a very lucrative economic sector in Lebanon, it seems!) at the door noticed me doing this, so I had to leave my camera with the security at the entrance. I mean, what are they thinking??? It's a supermarket!! Am I going to snoop around to check whether they've clandestinely imported avocadoes from Israel and then publish the pictures to denounce them? This is crazy. I tried to engage the security guard in a discussion about this, obviously to no effect. Ever since I was physically assaulted by several "security" people at the marathon for trying to take a shortcut around the nonsensical, omnipresent barriers after the event was over, my patience with all things security is really running low. Maybe I'm just paranoid but these guys really do seem to enjoy holding up female foreigners. But it's no use because it's everywhere and for a good reason I suppose, so everyone has to put up with it and accept it. Still...

Corniche pics








Went a bit mad there.... so nice though!

I never seem to be able to figure out how to create a headline for these posts. Hmmf. Anyway! Got lots of things to tell you and a bunch of pics, which I will have to put in at a later date because.... never mind!
So today I ran the "10 K", as they call it, read: 10km run, as part of the Beirut International Marathon. 17,000 people ran in it as well, but it felt more like 170,000!!! Major crowd event!!!! It was part of a charity run for work, raising awareness for a project that tries to get kids out of work and back into school. So we weren't timed but happily running along with some colleagues from the office (Lili wenn Du das liest: meine Zeit war ungefaehr so wie bei unserem ersten Lauf, allerdings war es hier auch ziemlich heiss und sehr huegelig... ;) ) and it was quite an experience. Great fun to be part of it!! Also running as official teams were the Bank of Beirut (they must have had about 200 people), SonyEricsson, just about every business in Beirut and even (!) UNIFIL, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon as well as various branches of the security services (identified by their black tank tops with 'Security Forces' printed on them). Everybody was in for the advertising space! It just so happened that today was actually the first really warm day since I've been here, about 26 degrees I think and it was quite a hike up the steep hills here at times - and there was an especially evil climb of about 300m just before the finish line....!
Hmmm, what else... on Friday I went to a major club called Basement. I have to say it's been a very long time that I've partied like I do here. It just feels like everybody's out there to have 100%, no-inhibitions-whatsoever parties. And so far it's always been really great fun, even if the music may at times have been questionable.... especially at this pub we went to beforehand, which was playing nothing but R&B non-stop and at top volume, making any conversation virtually impossible, and which appears to be a favourite hangout for hip hop style dudes.


Before that I went to have dinner at 'Flying Pizza', decorated entirely in 80s style with a lovely Versailles-garden wallpaper completely covering one wall and a model chopper hanging from the ceiling. Apparently the owner used to be a pilot and the place was frequented by air hosts&hostesses back in the day. Or something like that. In any case it's a really nice place!


And the other evening there was a lecture by Rashid Khalidi, a historian who now teaches at Columbia Uni in NY, on 'Iraq & American Empire' held at the super-elite American University here... everybody's favourite quote of the evening was that George W.'s administration was 'faith-based and fact-free', and he had lots of similarly witty and scorching rants to give about the administration, the U.S. media etc. Very entertaining, if not really a big revelation.
Otherwise I'm trying to figure out where I can take Arabic classes that won't cost a fortune - I literally haven't spoken a word of Arabic since I've been here, especially in Ashrafiyeh you can get by without ever knowing the language it seems. I really have to do something about this. I try to pick things up by listening to the radio and watching TV - I figured watching the Smurfs in Arabic should be about my level. But even there I don't understand very much and I definitely need some teaching and lots of practice!!

Life at my new office

Hello again, it seems that my working life is now picking up speed. The way people work here is quite different from what I'm used to in Germany. Everything seems totally chaotic, but there must be a hidden system to it because there's a lot of work and it's getting done. I will continue my investigation of how this system works. (Er, actually I can update this thought right now because a colleague just came in for a chat, and according to her, there simply is no system and things are actually totally chaotic. Well. Hm. I'll follow up on it...). This morning, lesson 1: don't show up at the office too early! I thought I'd demonstrate my motivation and diligence by getting here before 9 a.m., but I had to sit outside the door on the staircase for 15 minutes until somebody got here.

I went to have lunch at a nearby shopping mall with some colleagues and was kind of appaled at how un-Middle Eastern things can be here. Where's the authenticity, guys??? This place could have been anywhere, Milan, London, Berlin, probably Buenos Aires for all I know, or Phoenix, Arizona. Although I doubt that women there have this special Lebanese look, the highlights, the expensive accessories, I don't know, somehow it's very characteristic and recognisable. In any case I find it hard to believe this place is only several hours by bus from Damascus, which is an entirely different world.

Well, and now I'm going to walk back over the hill to my neighbourhood... I am thinking of stopping by the Virgin Megastore inside the same shopping mall. The most recent guidebook to come out is "A Hedonist's Guide to Beirut", written by the Arts&Culture editor of the local paper, The Daily Star. So it has all the fancy restos and bars for sure. Hm, I'm not so sure this is the kind of info I need, because these things travel by word of mouth anyway. The book I need is, "A Political Scientist's Guide to How This Place Really Works" (ideally containing a step-by-step guide "Publishing your stuff on Lebanon"), or, alternatively, "Finding a meaningful job with a decent salary in Lebanon" (mind that I'll only work at this place for 2 months), including sections on "How to avoid typical foreigners' mistakes" and lots of other helpful tips.

If any of you come across things like this on amazon or whereever, do let me know!!! For now, I'll leave you with the view from my office window of Beirut hills in the setting sun, cheesy-weez:

Dear friends,

I have now arrived and started a new life over here in Beirut. As I promised, I will tell you my stories and send you pics (Bilder & Geschichten) of what I'm doing over here. Let me start by showing you a view of the Corniche, Beirut's beach promenade. That was actually not the picture I wanted to put here, but it took about half an hour to upload this so I'm not gonna change this now. Pretty though, no? This was the day after I arrived at 4 a.m. in the morning and took up residence in the chichi Crowne Plaza Hotel, where I got a room on the 15th floor with a sea view. (Will include a picture of that below.) So I had a day to catch up and adjust to the amazing speed of events, which took me from my normal life in Berlin to a completely new story here in Beirut, all in the space of barely two weeks. My new motto is 'why not?'. Many thanks again to all the people who helped me organise things before I took off and are now storing various items of my stuff, carried my beloved Vespa down the stairs or drove me to the airport!!!! :) And also, sorry once again this is all in English ---- aber sonst muesste ich alles zweimal schreiben und das wuerde wahrscheinlich dazu fuehren, dass ich gar nicht schreibe. Ich hoffe, das ist o.k. fuer Euch bzw. uns alle in der globalisierten Welt und so....:)

Ok, here we go, this is the view from my hotel room across Beirut at 4 in the morning. It looks a lot nicer than the day view actually, although that's not bad either. But anyway, to stop rambling on..... The second day I was here was also my first day of work, and I felt a bit overwhelmed by it all, especially as I had to take part in a bunch of meetings and process large amounts of information. I also met the Minister of Social Affairs, Nayla Moawad, which I hadn't known was part of the agenda that day, and I felt very inappropriately dressed sitting in her office (the other people there where having a meeting, I was basically just present). I was so confused by it all that I took the security guard at the entrance to be a participant and shook his hand, until I noticed how surprised he was and that he was carrying a gun. Just for the record: for the next two months I will be based at Rene Moawad Foundation here in Beirut. I will be doing some stuff for them and will also be helping to coordinate some projects for Friedrich Naumann Foundation, my official employer (i.e., I report to them and they pay me money). If it all seems confusing to you, rest assured that it does to me at the moment, as well. It'll all become clearer in time, I'm sure....

Ok, so I had to move out of the Crowne Plaza eventually of course (after two nights), and this is where I live now. This is Paul's apartment, and Paul is a friend of a colleague's of mine (I have met neither Paul nor the colleague who is based in Amman, but both of them are incredibly nice and helpful, for sure!!). Very nice place and all mod cons, I have to say, including a huge flat screen TV and surround-sound DVD and all. It's also located close to my work (I work opposite Hotel-Dieu, the big French hospital...) in the lovely Achrafiyeh area. A very pretty and fancy neighbourhood with lots of designer stores and funky bars and restaurants. The main clubbing area around Rue Monot is a 5-minute walk from the flat. Way to go, Paul!
My building is actually fairly modern-looking (and has a small but ugly Phalanges-logo sprayed on outside), but to give you an idea of what the 'hood looks like, here's a pic of the building across the street....(see below).
Erm, this is really addictive and I could tell you lots more stories (e.g. how I took a picture of a random, futuristic-looking high rise building and a soldier came walking up to me, machine gun dangling from shoulder, to say something with his forehead all wrinkled up and looking serious - and then he turned out to be joking. How funny! Or how I got lost walking home from the supermarket, or the adventure of taking a taxi and all these things....) but more later....I'll show you some more pics instead:


This is the building I was talking about.... and there are lots like this one around.
And this is a pic from my birthday, the first day I was here, when I went out for drinks with my friend Yasmin in Gemmayzeh:





Well, will write more soon....see ya!