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Published: January 3rd 2005
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The People of God
I find it ironic that both 'Hezbollah' and 'Israel' mean "The People of God". Shot is of the Hezbollah flag flying at Castle Beaufort, used as a military base by Israel during its occupation of the region. Christmas in Lattakia was a bit of a letdown, and I wanted to see Beirut at its absolute worst (most decadent), so I figured new years would be the time. I also figured there wouldn't be much happening in Hama, which apparently has a reputation for being one of the most religious places in Syria.
Before leaving I visited the Ismaili town of Musyaf, home to the ancient castle of the "Hashashins" who would get high before undertaking an assassination, and from whose name the english word "assassin" is derived. Fascinating. The castle was in its final stages of being restored and we had the opportunity of talking to the engineer woman (roughly my age) responsible for some of the restoration in the town. Possibly my first truly lenghty discussion with a member of the opposite sex in Syria, it was very informative. The religious tolerance in Syria is simply amazing... in Musyaf (just one random example) coexist Christians (I'm not sure how many rites but lets assume a minimum of 2), "conservative" Sunni muslims, liberal Sunni muslims, Aga Khani Ismailis and Ismailis who don't believe in Aga Khan... apparently there are also Alawites in the countryside. She said this
Assassin Castle
A castle is a castle. You get to look at (most likely) Ismaili construction workers for a change. Be happy. is the way things are all over Syria, and for her (and many others) it doesn't matter what other peoples' religious beliefs are... in fact she said she didn't want to know. Compare and contrast with a place like Lebanon or the Balkans where the slightest theological differences spark all kinds of civil unrest. Lets also not forget the 'civilized' west wherein bigotry and fear of 'muslim fanatics' rather than tolerance reigns. Sorry for that rant.
Head out from Hama for Beirut on the 31st of December, a largely uneventful trip mostly down the coast of Lebanon on the way to Beirut. The border guards were a little bit puzzled by my using my US passport for Lebanon and my Turkish one for Syria, but they managed. Then came the shock of Beirut, which started when the billboards began advertising in english (alone) and the surroundings started to look like any western city's downtown area, possibly even somewhere like San Francisco... Nearly all the cars you can see on the street (at least in the downtown area) are new fashionable Mercedes or BMWs or SUVs, the first I've seen in my travels so far (especially with this concentration)... There
Apamea
Old Roman city in the vicinity of Hama. The colonnaded road is simply enormous, over 2km long. More interesting to me (and not featured in the picture), was the irrigation system and water pipes used to bring running water to the city... fwiw. seems to be a lot of mammon-worship going on, and the people are proud of it.
I met two girls who were dressed Gothic (on had dreds) and were speaking to each other in english with an American accent... they're Lebanese (well, Lebanese fathers and Danish and Spanish mothers, respectively) but one of them doesn't even speak Arabic and they always communicate in English, and go to the American highschool. We debated the merits of going to Juliard in NYC or Berkeley for studying Theatre and other fine arts... So yes, I rubbed shoulders with the bourgeoisie of the bourgeoisie... They told me there'd be a Times Squaresque countdown around midnight, which I went to (after a short nap) just in time to see people
pretending to be madly having fun, while some puked, others fought and yet others sauntered around with ganja-red eyes... Nothing to see... move along.
Essentially within the span of a week I went from the Alawite babes of Lattakia to the Muslim veils of Hama to the fake blonds and SUVs of Beirut... it's quite a lot of variety for such a small area.
I spent a day just walking around the
Roman Villa in Apamea
Old stones. At least they looked pretty with the sunset. city and looking at the bullet-damaged buildings and trying to see the scars of the civil war... people don't seem to want to remember it, although the ever-present police with their simply enormous automatic rifles are a sure indicator that the government has no intention of letting things get out of control again. All the same the area immediately next to the hardcore downtown area has many bombed out buildings where the holes indicate where the sniper was when he drew fire... all very fascinating.
Yesterday we went down to the town of Sidon (as in the ancient Phoenician town) to get permission from the military intelligence to visit 'the South' as they call it, the area formerly occupied by Israel before their withdrawal in 2000. A Palestinian guy (again, roughly my age) offered to show us the way and ended up taking us there, translating for us and taking the blows during the Gestapo-style questioning of 'why are you going there? how are you going there? where did you hear about it from? where is your car? etc', and then showing us around the town, making our stay an extremely pleasant one. After he left I met two
Bombed out Beirut
This is just one of many buildings right next to the downtown area which are abandoned and riddled with bullet holes. Sucks my guidebook (LP 2003) is more interested in talking about expensive restaurants and hotels than what went down, and I'm left grasping at straws. Palestinian girls walking along the waterfront with whom I had a nice conversation (in complete Tarzan as I speak a total of 5 words in Arabic and they didn't speak much English)... one of them works in a clothing factory 8 hours a day 6 days a week and makes 10,000LL (almost $7) a day. Mind you, this is Lebanon, not Syria, and $7 is *nothing*. She comes from a family of 18 kids (two moms, one died), who moved to Lebanon after 1948, and lives in a refugee camp near Tyre.
Today we used our hard-earned permits to 'go South' and visit the al-Khiam Detention Center used by Israel and its SLA allies to terrorize the local population into submission. The area basically has two faces, one prior to the visit of the Red Cross in 1995 and the other after. The former is essentially tiny (no more than 4x4 feet) solitary confinement cells, while the latter has 10=person 'dorm' sytle communal rooms. There was a small box (barely big enough to hold a human) where they would lock people up for days, and apparently the solitary confinement holes were used for up to 4 months at a
Sidon of the Phoenicians
The castle is an offshore crusader fort (which I haven't had the pleasure of exploring). Sidon's a pretty cool town, and definitely has tons of character... especially if you compare it to soulless downtown Beirut.
time. The prisoners were allowed 5 minutes of cold shower every 20 days, and 10 minutes of sunlight every 20 days (the females had it good with 10 minutes every 10 days)... simply unbelievable. Our driver (who took us around for $25, which I still think was an outrageous price) said something in Arabic which I interpreted to be that he was actually in said detention center, possibly for 4 years. He's associated with Amal, although his brother is with the Hezbollah, and he said both groups have no problems with each other. The roads heading there have military checkpoints, followed by flags and billboards of Hezbollah and Amal, one declaring "You are now entering liberated territory. Proceed in peace and safety. -- Hezbollah". Somehow I don't think ending the practices of al-Khiam constitute the "terrorism" the media attributes to Hezbollah. From there we went to the 'Fatima Gate' where we were essentially 5m from Israel, with only an (electric) barbed wire seperating us.
So, that's what I've been up to.
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