A source on politics, war, the Middle East, Arabic poetry, and art.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
I am at the airport in Detriot sipping my chai. I enjoy chai, personally. Don't know about you. Wait. Who are YOU? I don't know you. I was thinking at the unending saga/farce of Lebanonese festival of patriotism. I mean, do you know that the Lebanonese demonstrators really think that the West is following their story of Hummus festivities minute-by-minute? They really think that the story of Lebanon is dominating the front pages here. Don't want to disappoint you, but that is not the case at all. You are forgotten and ignored. Completely, with the exception of a word here or there by some American official on LBC-TV. Lebanese correspondents in the US also reinforce the myth by telling their readers about continuous American attention to the daily developments in Lebanon. Oh, ya. Believe that if you want, and imagine that Muhammad Qabbani, or Minister of Ping Pong, Ahmad Fatfat, have captured the imagination of the White Man. And we know how much the Lebanonese people want the approval of the White Man. So how is Dick Cheney? Is he still shooting at people? You know: the word on the street in Beirut (that famous Arab street) is that Dick Cheney may have shot Hariri. Is that possible? He would not do such a thing when his office now runs the Hariri Inc. I apologize to the Lebanese friends in Dearborn for missing the event, tour, and dinner yesterday: the time change (which requires me to wake up at 3:00AM California time) really bothers me and messes my system up. But I may be coming back to Dearborn in March or April. Details to be worked out. Talk to my people.