Photo by Emily O'Dell
Don’t let your throat tighten with fear.
Take sips of breath,
all day and night.
Before death
closes your mouth.
— Rumi
“When do people here tend to consider a break out in violence as a war?” I asked a Lebanese colleague today–on the beach in Beirut.
“Why, when it starts raining, of course!” he replied.
Today in Beirut–even on the beach–everyone was on edge.
“We’re such a small country, we’re gonna get clobbered,” said a ripped body-builder on the beach. He wasn’t confident that his muscles could hold back the oncoming tide. And, under the water, no one told the turtles about the troubles brewing above.
Today in Beirut, the beach was bare–the Corniche quiet. This city feels like it’s turning into a ghost town–and it’s impossible to book a flight out. Yesterday, the Kuwaitis were evacuated, and today Bahrain urged its citizens to leave too. In-coming flights, by contrast, are empty–since Britain and France have advised their citizens to stay home. As tensions grow over a possible U.S. military strike in Syria, a number of regular flights to Beirut are being cancelled.
“If the airport gets bombed, you’ll have to leave by ship,” my colleague added–rehashing what happened here in 2006. In that case, he explained, a helicopter would come to pick us up on a field near my home.
“But don’t worry–no one’s going to bomb the airport anytime soon–because the CIA, KGB, and Syrian intelligence officers still have to use it–right now, they’re the airport’s best customers,” he said.
In between swims, dinners, and shopping, everyone’s trading their own tantalizing tidbits of intelligence–prefacing each prediction with phrases like, “Well, I can’t say where I heard this, but–“. People whose loyalties lie on opposing sides, are all relaying the same message: don’t go to this neighborhood, avoid this public space, remember that most car bombs go off between 10 am and 4. Is this intel, or just common sense? Who’s to know what’s true? Who’s to know who’s planning what–and when?
Tonight in Beirut, the streets were just as quiet as during the day. Instead of the usual Saturday night in Beirut, it felt more like a Sunday morning. And in the supermarket, I found that all the eggs and essentials were long gone.
Now that President Obama will be seeking congressional approval before launching a Syrian strike, maybe Beirut will soon be back to partying every night like it’s a Saturday night–and I can finally buy that carton of eggs…
Photo by Emily O'Dell
