Travel north

3/15/10

With all of the sensory input that attends a visit to a place such as Lebanon where realities are blurred and points of reference are so different from our own, vignettes sometimes better describe the experiences one has here:

Our driver to Byblos today described his military service, in which he was sent to Israel for training three times, though for the first, he and his comrades thought that they were headed to Egypt. That was during the civil war. More recently, he served in Iraq, working in administration and as a translator for US troops until he was injured and returned to civilian life. He explained that Christian Lebanese soldiers have served in Iraq because they are highly desired by US forces given their experience with warfare in the Arab world. Interesting….

Today’s journey took us north up the coast, first to Harisa, the site of a large statue of the Virgin of Lebanon, arms outstretched since the 19^th century. Harisa is above the village of Jounieh, now an extension of urban sprawl north of Beirut where the Christian communities fled during the Civil War. Jounieh was the Christians’ access to the world; during the war, twice daily ferries brought people back and forth to and from Cyprus and its international airport in Nicosia. There is still a lot of money in Jounieh, and it looks like the community built up there did not return to Beirut. The billboards along the highway advertized a preponderance of women in wedding gowns, extravagant jewels, and skin tight jeans. I wonder how much research is being done on these conflicting images of women in the Middle East vis-a-vis their roles in traditional society?

After Harisa, we headed to Byblos (Jbail) in Arabic, one of the oldest continually inhabited sites in the world. This honor is also claimed by Damascus; I am sure that there are more such claims around the Middle East and perhaps other regions, as well. That being said, the first evidence of settlement at Byblos is dated to 8,000 years ago, and it is famous as the center of the Phoenician (Canaanite) empire. The Phoenician alphabet was the first which used symbols to represent specific sounds. It was the basis of the Semitic languages, and with the development of written vowels, became the basis for the Greek alphabet as well (according to what I have read). Ancient Byblos had ties and influence from Egypt, hence the Egyptian influenced statuary, ceramics, and other items in the museums we have visited. The complex of ancient buildings in Byblos include Roman ruins, a Crusader castle built to protect the small but still working harbor, and a church built by the Crusaders on the foundation of a Roman temple. We had a great lunch at the Byblos Fishing Club and visited a small display of fossilized fish from the mountains east of Byblos.

Religion plays such a large role in Lebanese society. It is the topic of many conversations. Yesterday’s tour guide quizzed us on how many “confessions” (religious sects) exist in Lebanon. The answer is 18, including Jews, though here are fewer than 100 Jews left in Lebanon today. Our guide explained that the French attempted to introduce a 19^th during their mandate called “secular” (read unaffiliated), but it failed as an untenable notion here in Lebanon. At dinner tonight, Sasha posed an alternative theory: religion as political affiliation, sort of 18^th century European idea that one’s political loyalty is governed by with whom you keep company, and here it is your co-religious brethren. Another topic for research.

Near the end of yesterday’s walking tour, I chatted one on one with our guide. He explained that there is power for 21 hours per day because the electric generating facilities destroyed by Israel in 2006 have not been re-built. Why re-build when war and conflict will erupt again? We talked about this strange environment where people feel like they live on borrowed time, waiting for the next outburst of violence. How can the future be envisioned when it is unpredictable and one’s existence seems at risk? Hence the large Lebanese diapora. Today’s driver claimed that there are 3.5 million Lebanese living here in Lebanon, and more than 7 million live around the world. It would be worth checking those statistics. A good chunk of the young people on our walking tour yesterday were Lebanese kids in their 20s, working here in Beirut, having returned from someplace overseas where their families had settled years ago. Sounds familiar? Similar to our neighbors down south….