A Lebanese graduate student in the US sent me this (I use with his permission although he does not want his name mentioned): " I wanted to share this with you As'ad, just to present yet another example on corrupt sectarianism in Lebanon. I was leaving for my summer vacation last week, and got stuck in A... airport for five days, sleeping on metal benches with ten other Lebanese citizens, mostly old. The Lebanese consul in A... appeared after three days, only to offer..... a lunch at the airport cafeteria. He dealt with us in such a humiliating way. To add insult to injury, he stressed that he was from al-Mukhtara, with all possible connotations in such circumstances. Then, he started to show different attitudes towards us, based on his estimation of our sects.. When I asked him whether I should go to Amman and thereby to Beirut, or just fly back to NY (what I ended up doing), he raised his voice and said that the ambassador in A has just spoken to Seniora, the latter insisting that there will be no compromise (musawama) whatever THEY did... Just an additional example of the sinister sectarian spirit in everything Lebanese.. P.S., the only Lebanese who tried to help us out, even though he had a Canadian passport that spared him the whole thing, was....Armenian (courtesy of Ridwan al-Sayyed!!!).