The Civil war...

May 6th

The Lebanese government decided to suspend Beirut airport security chief Wafiq Shqeir for “alleged ties to Hezbollah” and declared the Shiite militia’s private communications network to be illegal.
Hezbollah denounced the government’s decisions, claiming that its private network was essential to its resistance against Israel in the south and took control over the main roads of the capital in protest, blocking the way to the airport and shutting it down.
This coincided with a strike originally called by labour unions to protest against the government’s economic policies and to demand pay raises and the strike quickly escalated into street battles between supporters of the government and Hezbollah militants…

“It looks like the civil war has definitely started…” said one of the Lebanese mates.

I came to the Middle East to see what it was like to live in this powder keg, and political troubles had to be part of the experience. Surprisingly, I wasn’t really preoccupied by my own situation as a foreigner trapped in this time bomb, where any random little incident seemed to be able to set war wheels in motion. I guess my 250 wonderful cycling mates’ positive spirit was behind that feeling of relative tranquillity :-)

But I was really worried about my Lebanese friends and about Lebanon itself. What had happened was the expectable outcome of a 17-months political deadlock, where tensions have been adding up for too long and could find no other way out than violence …
The government’s decision to fire Wafiq Shqeir was just the straw that broke the camel’s back, just like Austrian Archduke François Ferdinand’s assassination in 1914 plunged the whole European continent into the murderous 1914-18 conflict.

First phone call... Mom :-)

A mother is never as cute as when she’s worried about her kids!I tried to reassure her the best I could, blaming the Medias for exaggerating things and she seemed surprised to hear me talking more about the lovely Lebanese places, sceneries and people rather than a way to actually fly back home the soonest.

Leaving the Middle East was none of my intentions at the time...

Dad’s turn…Extremely worried and a bit angry because he was originally opposed to my travelling to the Middle East in such uncertain times. His own version of mom’s tender “Hello darling” was (literally): “Where the hell is your stubbornness going to drive you?” Daddyyyyyyyyyy…he is so cute when he is upset! I grew up hearing the stubbornness thing almost everyday, and would always answer with the famous Arab quote: “Man shabiha abahu fama dalam” (The one who looks like his father is not to blame).

I guess it is always more difficult for people who see the conflict from outside…All they see is gun shoots, blood and a fast increasing number of victims everyday and they can’t help but imagine the worst.I couldn’t blame them for being worried, but I was certainly not going to give up now, no matter how long would the troubles last. The feeling of uncertainty was part of the experience, and as we reached the Syrian border at nightfall, I couldn’t wait to pursue the adventure through the Thousands and One Nights’ land: Syria.

We reached the Sham (common denomination of Syria; the Northern Arab territory, as opposed to the Arabic peninsula in the south) late at night… a breezy and quite May night...

We were exhausted and I fell asleep as soon as I put my head on the pillow.