Shafiq Jiha, dead at 99

He was my high school teacher at IC in Beirut. He wrote many history books and civics for the Lebanese school system.  His book on the Darwin crisis at AUB in the 19th century is worth reading.  I was a hard-core Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist in high school, and Jiha was a right-wing reactionary.  I clashed with him regularly.  I remember in one class, he wanted to introduce the class to Marxism-Leninism from the standpoint of J.Edgar Hoover's book on communism--I kid you not.  I was livid.  I yelled at him: how dare you talk about Marxism-Leninism when you know nothing about the subject.  I had a similar argument with my philosophy teacher, Qaysar `Afif (later a well-known poet who now lives in Mexico).  `Afif was furious at me: he yelled at me and then suffered from a shouting batch that went on for such a long duration of the class, that other students from other class came to see what was happening.  During my Marxist-Leninist days, I was not tolerant of any teacher who discussed at IC or AUB the subject because to my mind they were ignorant of the subject--and indeed they were.