abou ali

Every morning i see Abou Ali. In his sixties, tanned, slim, wrinkled. He sells all green vegetables from a wooden cart parked under a huge trea, in a side street to the busy Marelias Street in Beirut. Fresh Spinach, huge leaves of parsley, coriandre, lettuce, enormous broccoli. Half of the vegetables are in huge plastic bags, neatly lined up against the wall. He uses at least an hour a day to set them up in such a nice way that you cannot but stop and buy from him. He adores to talk if you have a minute. He asks about the children, speaks about his own grandchildren whom he wished lived in the mountains, because they are constantly sick in Beirut.

He reassures me when i am nervous about the political situation, he tells me that it will all calm down eventually. He talks about his father who ate meat once a week and lived a very long life.

One day he wasn't there. Nor his cart. Nor the vegetables. I wondered why. Was he ill? had something happened to him? Days would go by and there were no trace of him. Until one day as i was driving through the area, trying to avoid the horribly congested main road, i saw him and his cart. It was a totally different road and he was not selling green leaves, but a famous summer fruit called Subbeir (horned melon). I stopped the car and smiled. He was happy to see me. He then explained that in summer, he relocates and sells only Subbeir. Better sales. Refreshing fruit!

For the last 35 years, throughout the colder sseasons, he has sold green leaves in Marelias. But in summer he relocates and sells Subbeir.

I just find Abou Ali a wonderful man, warm and refreshing. He reminds me of the good old days, of people who take it easy, who enjoy the moment, who appreciate life as is.

Twit..Twit...

My fascination for Twitter started a month ago when i heard that Oprah was going on Twitter..Being a fan of new technology I immediatly logged on twitter page and tried to get some grasp out of this new upbeat social networking device. Alas, i only got far enough in my search as to register a username and tried to follow a twitter page, but i frankly didn't get the point, which lead me to close the page and move on. Until few days ago, where i met someone who uses Twitter and is ecstatic about it.. again, i poked him with info and asked how he was using twitter and why it was such a cool thing..

Basically, Twitter is a social networking tool where you can post anything that you are interested in. You can Follow other twitters, and they can follow you. Anyone can be on Twitter.. i just discovered that Obama and Madonna are on Twitter. It is a bit similar to SMS'ing, the difference is that anyone can read your "sms" as it is available for all. you can twitter a topic, and get real-time info on the matter. If the information is of importance to you and you would like to share it, you "re-twit" it (as in forward it). The info is exponentially spread through the web.

The interesting part is when someone uses Twitter from his mobile for example during a disaster. He can send a Twit from his phone thus reaching people must sooner than any news channel. Amazing and fascinating.

Today i read that people can be ranked as most influencial Twitter - as to how many followers they have (1,6 million for actor Ashton Kutcher /married to Demi Moor), and how their tweets are interesting to others.

Another interesting fact is most new users of Twitter quit after few weeks... time will show if Twitter will be the next best thing...

Twit.. twit...

Why parenting is a great thing..

First of all it makes you realize how difficult parenting is,and thus appreciate your parents much more, they too must have had their moments of frustration. Why difficult? Because you don't always have the right answers. Because there is a lot of 'trial and error" management.. Because you tend to avoid what your parents did to you and try the opposite, until you realise that maybe they were not completely wrong in their decisions..or maybe your inner voice tells you to do something, but the surroundings tell/urge/make you do differently..and the books you read.. oh dear.. each country has its own philosophy.

Second, parenting is a self learning voyage. We learn about limits, needs, dreams (is it cool to have 4 kids as in my dream?),reality. We need to chose the right answer to their 1000 fantastic questions; "Can you see angels in the sky when you are in the aeroplane mummy'..

Third, you discover unconditional love through your kids.. and it goes both ways.. such a blessing. "you are the the prettiest mummy in the world.."..I love you even when you are angry with me mummy..."

Also, there is a major part of me who dreams of a better world, and what better way than to slowly work the minds of the little ones with positive attitude, confidence, love, and spiritual growth...for a better world...

The dream of having a big family...I wanted 4 kids since I was 14, when i met a friend who had 3 brothers and sisters, and her house was such a great house to visit.. always laughter and noise, big dinning table, always food for an extra friend, parents who seemed to be on top of everything. A happy home. Full of life.

How did they manage? recently i visited the same friend (who now have 4 kids of her own), same style, cool and happy and not at all overwelmed by any of it.. What a blessing.. and an aspiration for others..

anyway.. parenting is great...and tough.. and alive..

facebook and people

Today more than 200 million people are linked through Facebook. Imagine all these people holding hands. What a sight! Imagine all these people following a certain path of idealogy. what a strength!

850 million photos are posted every day. Amazing how much we(including myself)need to preserve the Moment and a space in this virtual and easy accessible world. The downside is that all pictures are as public to the world as they would be if you published them in a worldwide free newspaper.

Suddenly earth has no boundaries. We all are sitting behind the screen writing, smiling, adding friends, downloading pictures for other friends to see and comment, reading comments, replying to them, searching for old flames, for new ones, stalking friends and their whereabouts, adding friends (yes again, you need to have more than your best friend).. it is an ongoing job.

what strikes me the most these days, is the need for women in particular to voice their feelings, needs, moods, ideas, thoughts on Facebook status bar. You can actually follow a person's wave of emotions throughout the day and night by reading her status bar. It is amazing. And friends comments those status in a continuous flow, connecting with that person, giving her attention, support, whatever..

Facebook might just add some fun and happiness to the lonely heart. Or frustration. Or emptiness. Because when is it enough? when are we satisfied? when are we shutting the PC off to go and have some "real" fun? some "real" interaction with people..Or are those days over?

I am just wondering... and wandering throught he amazing paths of virtual life..

Things can change...

I did not believe that the current situation in Lebanon could suddenly change for the better..

But it did.

And we are now on a new path, leading to what may be the nicest summer in Lebanon since February 2005 where Hariri got killed in a huge car explosion. I will not remind you of the horrors and killings and fear and suffocation that we have been through since 2005, but will only say that we are finally breathing. We were living our lives with low oxygen, low expectation, low planning, low hope, low everything. and now we are given a new bottle of oxygen mixed with hope, strategies, planning, future, smiles and laughter. But we still need a shot of vitamines to energize us and make us truly believe that the bad part is over and we are in the good part now.

We also need to forgive the bad part. This is very difficult. But very crucial. It might take a while, and it might be the most difficult thing to do for those of us who have suffered the most. but it is needed. Peace cannot prevail without forviness.

I will start forgiving as of today, but will not forget what has happened to us, and will try to remember all of this and try to teach my kids to be better than us so that they are able to prevent history to repeat itself and maybe create a history that their kids could be proud of.

What is normal?

One week of horrors. One week of shooting, bombing, fleeing people, scared souls. One week of life and death for everybody.
This morning, we all went to school and work normally. That means we took the normal road as opposed to yesterday where half of the roads leading to the other side of Beirut where still blocked. We saw pseudo normal street life again. A bit of sand and debris still scattered here and there, but relative normal street picture. I walked on the corniche as I usually do and so did my fellow men.

I looked at the sea and stopped. This picture is wrong, fake, weird. We are returning to our daily routines as if nothing has happened, the airport is open and flights resumed last night. But somewhere behind this “normal” picture, something is broken, destroyed, ugly, sad, empty. More than 50 people have died in last week‘s fighting. Killed and burnt. More than 200 hundred are injured and will never forget what they went through. Homes and offices are destroyed, burnt down, leaving only black sod and desperation.

No, this picture is definitely not normal.
Lebanon is deeply scarred . This should never have happened. But it did.

The horrors of the last days are reminding us of the disastrous state of our country. It is a ticking bomb, filled with angry people with a lot of weapons. This is in itself a dangerous cocktail. And we are at the mercy of those who chose to wake the dormant monsters from their beauty sleep.

Beirut, may 8th

The morning after.. the streets are still very quiet in my neighbourhood. i woke up at 5:30 am to watch the news and listen to the radio. apart from squatteret fights in the streets of the capital, the situation is less dramatic than expected.. howeve the road to the airport is closed by huge sand piles and most probably will remain closed for some time. this is adding a more dramatic dimension to the crisis. one thing is to be under siege in our homes, but it is a totally other ballgame to denie us the access to the airport. the country will indeed be shut down.