Hariri’s Sisyphean task

Fireworks in Lebanon mean one thing: politics.

I watched the brilliant blue and gold explosions light up the Beirut skyline last night in silence, before the huge pops of thunder reached us on the roof of a Hamra hotel. Celebratory gunfire – that scourge of the town – ripped through the flat, close air.

Hariri had won, the pyrotechnics told us so.

 

Hizbollah cigarette cases and celebratory gunfire

As I’m sure many of you will be aware, Lebanon had its first post-Syrian general elections. They were billed as the closest in a generation and could have proven to be pivotal in the Middle East peace process.

On one side was March 14, a Western-backed coalition lead by the Future Movement’s MP Saad Hariri. On the other, the Hizbollah-dominated March 8 alliance, seen as leaning towards Iran and the foundation of an independent Islamic state.

Fortunately for those of us with fair skin and blue eyes, March 14 won, an outcome that never seemed so straightforward during campaigning and polling. Speaking with entire subjectivity, this is a good thing for Lebanon. It means that the huge amounts of US aid dollars will continue to flow into the country and that the delicate but so far finely-kept peace should be maintained.

 

Baabda with Osama

I can’t really begin to describe Beirut. It is the most daunting, confusing, exciting, thrilling and challenging place I’ve ever been to. From the Lebanese Army officers who strut around checkpoints with AK-47s cocked to the 300 car political rallies that cruise down Gemmayzeh street beeping their horns when you are trying to sleep, Beirut is a taxing city.

The flat I am staying in is right next to an apartment block whose walls are pockmarked with civil war bullet holes.

But Beirut is also a city of tolerance, a city where people know how to live. I have been to so many amazing places, bars, shwarmah outlets and cafes. A friend and colleague perhaps summed it up best by saying, “Beirut can be anything you want it to be. If you want Paris, it’s here. If you want Arab culture, it’s here. If you want luxury hotels and shops, they are here.”

“If you don’t enjoy Beirut, you are doing it wrong.”

I have been thrown into the deep end of work with my first assignment involving speaking to youth voters at the city’s two main universities, AUB and LAU. The range of political affiliations, erudition and enthusiasm is both confusing and overwhelming.

A March 14 supporter, who I met beneath a wysteria plant, heavy with flowers, in AUB, saw me in Faysals, a jibni outlet late last night. I sat and ate flatbread as he and his friend showed me videos of Hizbollah and Future Movement forces shooting at one another last year on Rue Hamra, a street which I had been walking down less than an hour ago.

“This is not a movie. This is Lebanon,” he responds to my face of stupid astonishment.

I will try to post something a little more substantial on my day off tomorrow. There will be a 9pm curfew and everything is closing all of Sunday (except the trusty Daily Star!) for voting. I will be buying supplies of water and beer – you can never be too careful…

On Sunday I will be traveling to a District of East Beirut, Baabda, with an Arab journalistcumreporter, Osama. Baabda is key state, with the outcome of the entire election potentially hinging on how much ground March 8 can gain there.

I urge you to watch this on TV, or at the Daily Star. This could be a new chapter in the long and rugged book that is Lebanon.