167 Blogging from Beirut
I can’t believe this place is only an hour’s flight away from Cairo. I’ve spent most of my time here ensconced in a hotel conference room, but I like what I’ve seen of the city so far. Everything people say about this place is true: it’s under construction, some buildings are still pockmarked from civil-war shrapnel, the food is wonderful, the rooftop terraces are lined with bougainvillea and grape vines, and even the mothers of Lebanese, Palestinian, and Egyptian boys who disappeared into Syrian prisons 20 years ago wear fashionable sunglasses to the sit-in protest in front of the U.N. House. I constantly feel underdressed.
Mornings are devoted to internal meetings for work. There’s a convention of Middle Eastern police officers in the open conference room next to ours. I try not to eavesdrop as I come in and out. Impressive people come to talk to us in the afternoons. The meetings have been interesting, but are, sadly, off the record. Evenings have been filled with work dinners. So far, I haven’t seen anyone who looks anything like Haifa. A lot more skin and pleather than in Cairo, but makeup and pleather do not a Haifa make. I’m clearly hanging out in the wrong places (like sterile conference rooms next to cop conventions).
The verdict against Ibrahim Eissa, editor of the Egyptian opposition weekly Ad-Dostour, caught me off guard last evening. I remember sitting with a friend on a sidewalk cafe in Cairo just a few nights ago, watching the World Cup and explaining Ad-Dostour to a foreign correspondent who was marvelling that the paper hadn’t been shut down yet. Reading the story that got him in trouble—reporting a lawsuit against the President, the First Family, and a slew of NDP big guns—I actually suspect that he planted the lawsuit to be able to report it. It’s an old trick. But if true, so what? In this press environment, you do what you have to do to say what you want to say. And, as this verdict proves, such elaborate ruses won’t stop the government—sorry, the patriotic “ordinary citizens” of the village of Aya Makan who are so outraged at any slander against The President of the Republic—from locking you up. Sure, Mubarak promised two years ago to stop locking journalists up for what they write. But who’s he to stand between the patriotic Ordinary Citizens and a journalist?
Update: Ran into Alaa last night. He tells me, based on some inside information from his father, that Eissa had nothing to do with the lawsuit beyond reporting it.
[tags]Beirut, Lebanon, Egypt, Ibrahim Eissa[/tags]
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i actually thought u were lebanese! i am a-quiver with curiosity as to ur national origin.
Comment by forsoothsayer — June 28, 2006 #
Haha, I’ll never tell. You’ll just have to meet me when you get to Cairo to find out.
Comment by Administrator — June 28, 2006 #
Patriotic ordinary citizens? For real?
I’ve tried without success to get people to discuss the new Haifa pheedeeooo cleeb (the child-woman Wawa song). What do the Beirutis make of it? Are they totally blase and inured to the sight of skin and schoolgirl outfits, or is Haifa a Bad Girl even there?
Comment by SP — June 28, 2006 #
Yeah, the case against Eissa et alia was brought by “ordinary citizens” of Al-Arrak, Giza governorate.
Good question re. Rx to Haifa’s Wawa song. Will ask. I kind of suspect a great many people don’t care. But I’ve met a lot of sharp people here and I’ll bet Haifa inspires the same kind of reactions that girl band in the States (you know, the one that sings “Don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like me,” and “I don’t mind you looking at my beep/ since I was 14, boys been looking at my beep,” whatever their name is) inspires.
Comment by Administrator — June 28, 2006 #
i haven’t actually seen the clip, but my understanding is that pretty much anything is ok in lebanon.
Comment by forsoothsayer — June 28, 2006 #
Hmm…I got the impression La Haifa was trying to make a Statement with that clip…the sexy single mom act, the man must be a good father too, etc. With the disturbing overlay of herself as a sexy little girl, of course. Wonder why she would choose such a “story line” rather than the more straightforward Badi ‘Aish-clip “Haifa’s boobs from every possible angle” approach. But maybe I’m expecting too much from pop culture.
Comment by SP — June 28, 2006 #
Haifa Wehbe was made in a dark and evil laboratory and sent forth to torture me.
Comment by John-Paul Pagano — June 28, 2006 #
Hey! Take some pix and post them…I would love to see Lebanon (maybe I will someday).
Comment by L — June 29, 2006 #
JPP – Haha, if you came here, you would think all Lebanese girls had been concocted in a lab to torture you.
L – I’ve taken some pictures. Mostly of southern Lebanon, the “liberated territory.” I wish I could have gotten shots of the billboards by the side of the road, the giant portraits of Khomeini et al, but I did get some of Khayyam Prison, a former Israeli/SLA torture installation now turned into a Hizbullah-administered museum. Must wait to get back to Cairo to post them on Flickr. I don’t have the camera/computer cable with me.
Comment by Administrator — July 1, 2006 #
SP – BTW, have asked around about the Wawa Song. Folks here have just had a good laugh at it, don’t really think too much about it.
Comment by Administrator — July 1, 2006 #