More ramblings: more than usual. Palestinian artist, Isma`il Shammut died, and I did not even eulogize him. And the brutal occupation of Palestine continues. Oh, how much I have missed a fast internet connection, like this one in London. The connections in Lebanon are getting worse: simply because there is more use and no development of the lines. Broadband is being promised: just as Rafiq Hariri promised the spring--just around the corner. Ashraf Rifi--the director-general (and Hariri man) of the Lebanese Security Forces--has an interesting theory about the Hariri assassination: he "reportedly" believes that neither Rustum Ghazalah nor the "four generals" were involved. He "reportedly" believes that the Syrian government dispatched a special team from Damascus to perpetrate the assassination without even alerting their men in Lebanon at the time. One of the four generals, Jamil As-Sayyid, may be released soon. He is the only one of the four who not only is not linked, according to the UN investigating team, to the assassination, but is also not implicated in the "tampering"-with-the-scene-of-the-crime allegation. The others may have done so for several reasons: they could have panicked, or could have assumed that one of their branches or Rustum were involved, and were trying to protect that apparatus. But the investigation shall continue, and will not reach conclusions in my estimation. Read the interview with the French investigator in An-Nahar today: he said that if the US had any evidence it would have provided it a long time ago. I sat for an interview with the Daily Star yesterday. I told the reporter that I had sat for a long interview with the Daily Star 2 years ago, but it never ran. We shall see. I also sat for a long interview on Feminism with the new Al-Akhbar newspaper, which will launch around 15th of July, in copy and on internet. I shall supply link as soon as possible. I was once interviewed at length on feminism (published in 2 parts) with the Hariri rag, Al-Mustaqbal a few years ago. And I was interviewed at the newspaper's headquarter itself. Those were the days. I am reaching a point of utter frustration and bewilderment at the incompetence, confusion, and perplexity of the Lebanese Communist Party. I read in Sada Al-Balad today that the party is now working on a "document of understanding" with the 'Awn movement. 'Awn movement? Have you read their program? It is more pro-capitalist than Fu'ad Sanyurah, if that is possible. What do they think that can accomplish? The party is still running away from its ideology, and is satisfied doing what many Lebanese do: posting Guevara pictures everywhere, simply because he is good looking, and many Lebanese don't even know what he stood for. One upper class Lebanese told me that he was in fact an artist in London during the 60s. They are afraid of Karl Marx or any other socialist icons. More disturbing stories about Sri Lankan maids, and more disturbing stories about Hariri Inc. A member of the audience at my last talk in Beirut at Masrah Al-Madinah asked me what the March 14th Movement should do to succeed. I said, that I don't want that movement to succeed, period. No way. Sectarian tensions in Lebanon are so deep that you arrive to UK wanting to ask people whether they are Sunni or Shi`ite or Maronite or Greek Orthodox. A cranky cab driver--Bernard Lewis loves those as it is the only thing that he has for understanding the contemporary Middle East--told me the other day that the problem is with the "matawilah"[a pejorative word for Shi`ites], that "they don't want the state to rise." When I challenged his thesis and his language, he said: "Oh, no. I am not sectarian. I would not want to hurt a fly. I don't ever hurt flies. I let them go." "What about cock roaches?", I asked. "For those, I use a spray", he said. How often you hear people asserting that they are not sectarian in the failed homeland. The Phalangist militias used to say that while butchering Muslims at their checkpoints during the war, or by the Druze and Maronite militias during the Mountain War. This year again, I also could not get appointments in Syria that I wanted for my forthcoming book on Lebanon. I did not even go to Syria, although I like the Syrian people very much, and the country, although I detest the regime. One person trying to help me with the appointments said that I "blew" it when I said on AlJazeera that Bashshar Al-Asad was wrong when he said that the regime made "mistakes" in Lebanon; the regime, I asserted, made crimes in Lebanon, NOT mistakes. Horrific crimes, in fact. And who would have thought. The rag of Prince Salman, also known as Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper, today had a "scoop" on its first page. Apparently, the outfit of Kanaan Makiya (referred to by the newspaper as "Dr." although he dropped out of graduate school in architecture although he now holds a chair in Arab and Islamic studies at Brandeis--a university long known for its objective treatment of Arab, Islamic, and Zionist matters--"discovered" "documents"--yes, DOCUMENTS--that prove that Saddam was linked to Bin Laden. "Dr." Makiya will soon found the WMDs in Iraq too. Just give him time. His "documents" apparently contain very incriminating pictures: one of them show Bin Laden sitting in Saddam's lap and sipping an unidentified beverage. Another document contains a love letter on Valentine Day from Bin Laden to Saddam. Do you realize how much we owe Makiya's Invented Iraqi Memory Project? Do you really realize that? Al-Arabiyya TV today was busy covering Bush's birthday; it was much more important than Israeli killing of Palestinian civilians. Al-Hayat newspaper--its editor-in-chief sat near me on the plane to London--had a headline about "Israeli military operation." That is the "fair and balanced" terminology now. Do you realize how I am increasingly drawn to conspiracy theories in analyzing Arab media? Israeli guests on Al-Arabiyya are now treated less rudely than Hamas officials. Here in London, I realized how hectic my schedule in Lebanon has been. On the last day, in a cafe--as I give appointments in cafes: three consecutive appointments coincided at the same table at the same time, due to scheduling error, and traffic delays. I need the "sleep of the cave people," as we say in Arabic, and I need it now. I was dismayed to discover that the tyrant Saddam managed to get some popular Arab mileage from his lousy and pathetic--in my eyes at least--appearances at the Baghdad camel court. Any Arab public sympathy for Saddam will only increase the wedge between Iraqis and other Arabs. In private, Rafiq Hariri used to curse King Faysal of Saudi Arabia. "We would not have managed to make that much money in Saudi Arabia with him in the throne" he had told the person who told me. The Saudi financier, and the first business sponsor of Hariri in Saudi Arabia, Nasir Ar-Rashid, is involved to his head in the Madinah Bank scandal in Lebanon. Human Rights Watch may be investigating abuse of Sri Lankan maids in Lebanon. High time, I say. High time indeed. The US embassy in Lebanon issued the most cynical and most manipulative statement ever: it was the most fawning obituary of Ilyas Hrawi, the former Lebanese president who died yesterday. I mean he was a funny man, but he was one of the most corrupt presidents ever in Lebanese history--second only to Amin Gemayyel--and he used to receive £75,000 (it should be the dollar sign but this computer in London does not have it, or I did not find it yet) a month from Hariri Inc. The US embassy statement talked about Hrawi's shared dream of "independence" and "sovereignty". I mean, the guy was a stooge of the Syrian regime; he would refer the most minute matter of Lebanese governmental affairs to the attention of the Syrian regime. At least his memoirs were published prior to the withdrawal of the Syrian troops and prior to the assassination of Hariri. Read the memoirs and judge for yourself. They can't now change his words. I have the copy. He bragged in his memoirs that he was a favorite Syrian stooge. And the US embassy forgot that he was the first president to extend his term. Did you forget that, o ambassador of US in Lebanon who has been studying Arabic for 7 years, and can only manage to say fa-la-fil. Sometimes I don't know why I write--anything. You see news of murderous Israeli occupation bombing the hell out of Gaza, and you say, does anything matter? Was that what Adorno meant when he said "No poetry after Auschwitz"? But how can you kill poetry? I would not. Not for any reason.