If March 14 2005 would happen again, I would be exactly where I was – in the middle of the chanting and exuberant crowds in Martyrs’ Square – when it all happened. It was history and I was part of it, along with thousands of others who gathered there. Continue reading “March 14 and the Myth of the Cedar Revolution”
Love in the Time of Politics
In one of his most acclaimed novels “Love in the Time of Cholera,” Gabriel Garcia Marquez explores the meaning of love through the follies of the heart and the lucidity of the mind. As he recounts, love and its symptoms at the turn of the 19th century could be very well mistaken with those of cholera, which had been spreading across the Caribbean at the time. When there is fever, uncontrollable emotions and madness, followed by either sanity or delusion…can one really differentiate between love and cholera? Continue reading “Love in the Time of Politics”
Time to Re-Evaluate the War against Daesh
We all knew that Daesh was capable of horrible things. However, the death by burning to which Jordanian pilot Moaz al Kasasbeh was subjected to broke through a morbid threshold I believe very few of us, if any, thought would happen. This isn’t to say that the other killing methods (decapitation, execution, drowning, etc..) used by the so-called Islamic State are any less brutal. But we dealt with them by exercising a degree of denial, if only because of the sheer number of times they have and continue to occur and more importantly, as a coping mechanism to deal with the horrors of Daesh at our doorsteps. Continue reading “Time to Re-Evaluate the War against Daesh”
Eye on the East wishes you a Happy New Year
Having welcomed 2015 from the agitated waters of the Mediterranean Sea, especially when looked upon from Beirut, Eye on the East wishes a Happy New Year to you and all your loved ones. May 2015 be all that you wish for and more. And may it be a much better year for those who truly deserve it, those who battle sickness, misery and indignity, who have lost loved ones or are waiting for them to come back, wherever they may be, for those who flee death and violence and for the children who suffer, for childhood should be about anything by suffering.
Continue reading “Eye on the East wishes you a Happy New Year”
“A century of war and peace in Lebanon”: Eye on the East for Lacuna Magazine
“…resilience might have kept the country from falling apart, but has not helped in truly bringing it together. Resilience is surviving but not coming to terms with the past.”
As part of their World War I centennial issue, University of Warwick’s Lacuna Magazine invited Eye on the East to contribute a piece on Lebanon and we accepted with pleasure. This was the end result:
A century of war and peace in Lebanon
As you may already know, Eye on the East regularly contributes to a variety of online and print publications, listed in the Featured page here. I thought I’d highlight this latest contribution, especially since it isn’t usually something covered on the blog and especially in such length! I hope you enjoy it…
“The West will never understand Iraq’s complex landscape”
It is heartbreaking to watch a country fall apart and become accustomed to its cities becoming synonymous with war itself. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, this has been the fate of Iraq. Sadly, recurrent violence in Iraq and the eruption of wars elsewhere, such as Syria, have also pushed the Iraqi story away from the front pages of the world’s news.
Continue reading ““The West will never understand Iraq’s complex landscape””
Syrian Refugees in Lebanon: Is Anybody Listening, I Still Wonder?
Earlier this year, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) published a map plotting the distribution of Syrian refugees throughout Lebanon (Eye on the East commented about it here: https://eyeontheeast.org/2014/05/13/syrian-refugees-in-lebanon-is-anybody-listening/). I can only imagine how that map has evolved since, but at the time: Continue reading “Syrian Refugees in Lebanon: Is Anybody Listening, I Still Wonder?”
To a Lebanon that is slowly drifting away…
In less than a week, two giants of Lebanese and Arabic music and literature are no more. Sabah will no longer charm us with her eternal smile and enchanting voice nor warm our hearts with her simplicity and modesty. Said Akl will no longer speak to us in his characteristically intense and lyrically robust voice nor provoke us with his radicalism and idealism. Continue reading “To a Lebanon that is slowly drifting away…”
A walk along the Berlin Wall
Note: This is the first of two posts recounting Eye on the East’s recent visit to Berlin. Part two can be found here.
I hate to admit it, but until very recently, I still associated Berlin almost exclusively with the Berlin Wall. Even after 25 years since the wall crumbled to pieces, stories of successful and failed escapes from East to West Berlin, neighborhoods divided by a simple concrete structure and tales of how a Cold War of worldwide proportions was also played out in the alleys of a single city, have never failed to intrigue me. It is mostly due to this socio-political curiosity – and not my love of sausages – that finally led me to visit Berlin. The fact that the visit coincided with the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall, made the sightseeing a bit more crowded, but surely not less emotive. Continue reading “A walk along the Berlin Wall”
This is Tripoli
Last week, Tripoli was a war zone. Today, it is a city like any other.
Last week, Tripoli seemed a world apart from the rest of Lebanon. Today, some decided to bring it a bit closer to where it belongs, back to rest of Lebanon…
Eye on the East 