Violent Sunday

Ok, never mind DSL. Right now everybody is more worried about inter-communal violence making a real comeback onto the stage here. I wasn't here yesterday to witness what was going on, and I feel fortunate! I spent the day in Saida (Sidon) in the South of Lebanon and only came back in the evening to find that the crossroads close to my house looked like a battlezone with hundreds of soldiers at military checkpoints stopping each and every car. Lots of protesters from Christian parties (the Lebanese Forces and General Aoun's party) where marching towards the church that had been ransacked by protesters during the day (nobody holding them back...). It was all a bit much to take in. It got worse though when I turned on the TV and saw that while I had been blissfully exploring the souqs and sea castle of Saida and eating a delicious meal in a seaside cafe, there had been a major street fight going on at a crossroads that is literally a few minutes away from my doorstep. On CNN, Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera, I could see the street corner that I round about twice on any given day and which up until now had always struck me as a completely oblivious, non-descript, run-of-the mill street corner. So much the weirder to see this area transformed into a war zone with stone throwing, tear gassing and water cannon use in full force. Also, the church that was attacked by protesters is on my regular jogging route. I feel a little disturbed by how close-by these things are, although today everything seems relatively calm. At least on the surface: underneath it, the police and security forces are conducting a massive wave of arrests among Islamist activists of all couleurs. Ok, they obviously have to do something, but if they suspected these people of criminal activities beforehand, why didn't they arrest them earlier? And is this really going to help or just breed more resentment of - perhaps innocently arrested - people against the state and the system which is going to flare up later?

Speaking of the infamous system, I think it's fairly scary that despite the heavy police and military presence (when we left Beirut early in the morning, the streets were already packed with army and riot police) public order could not be maintained. This underscores another and more dramatic absence of system when it comes to maintaining the peace - which makes DSL and electricity problems look temporarily petty. If the army is afraid of getting involved in this fight because it would have to take sides and this might have dire consequences for the peace between the different communities, then this says a lot about the weakness of the central government. Clearly, the army and police are not considered 'neutral' instruments fit for ensuring the protection of private property or the prevention of violence directed at citizens (which fortunately hasn't occured so far). The interior minister resigned today because he officially did not agree with the use of water cannons against violent protesters (and they were really violent). A lot of people are scared about what all of this might mean. Politicians, meanwhile, call for 'dialogue' without ever making any concrete suggestions as to how this crisis might actually be resolved. Religious leaders take the lead in calling for peace and calm, and Mosques are broadcasting calls for people to take it easy and not get involved in violence. Surely that doesn't bode well for a secular state power to step in and resolve things - and this would be badly needed I think. Not just to control violence & ensure 'law & order' but also, for example, to give citizens who disagree with all this stuff a space to hold their own, peaceful protests and express their opinions. This is impossible right now. People are too scared!

While all of this was going on, I spent part of the day in a meeting with supporters of various Islamic charitable NGOs who are affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. A friend of mine had accepted to hold a workshop for them about recruiting volunteers. Behind this technical topic, there were a lot of discussions about values and social and political issues going on. I was only there for part of it - warmly welcomed by everyone present - and couldn't understand all of it, but my friend says the discussions were extremely fruitful. For one, the fifteen people who came to the training were fifteen people less at the demonstrations in Beirut. And secondly, during the discussions people really opened up to a lot of ideas they hadn't considered before. Say, for example, the 'profile' that a possible volunteer should have. Some in the group wanted to enforce gender restrictions here - and pointing out to them that Lebanon has signed and ratified all major human rights conventions and that gender discrimination is therefore in breach of national and international law was a new idea that people were willing to consider. And there are many more examples. As a next step my friend wants to get this group together with quite a hard-line Christian one to debate. Inshallah this will happen! It would be great, especially at this time.

Ok and finally, here are some unrelated pics from my Saida-excursion...

So yeah it was a windy day! Here my friend Hania and I climbed to the top of this holy Mary-statue. Apparently Jesus at one point was passing through Saida (behind me in the picture, with the huge Ain el Helweh camp for Palestinian refugees in the foreground - this camp cannot be entered by the Lebanese army, it's controlled by Palestinian forces. From up there it looks like where Sidon has maybe 1 person for every 2 square meters, Ain el Helweh has 5 persons per sqm.) and Mary, like a good mummy, waited for him at the top of this hill. Hence the statue is called Holy Mary of the Waiting, or something to that effect. Nice view, in any case.