The chronology of this blog is mixed up. With only snatches of time to write, and sporadic internet availability, my notes are folding back on each other. So, please forgive any repeats -- or worse, unexplained gaps.
On Friday last, (already a digression...I find that when I'm around a lot of non-native English speakers I start constructing my sentences like them -- it's not an affectation, but if it sneaks out, I may not catch it)...we had lunch with Robert Fisk, a British writer and journalist who has long lived in Beirut. Here are thoughts of his I found interesting, since he said ALL of his comments were on the record. He had just returned from Iran and the million strong demonstration in favor of Mousavi. His analysis is that Ahmadinejad's personality is the problem of the moment. Iranians are proud people who call Ahmadinejad "the child". Fisk feels they are repulsed by the words of a lunatic and crackpot who makes them look stupid, backward and uneducated. (sound familiar?). Ahmadinejad does have a PhD -- in traffic management, and apparently the choked traffic of Tehran could be an example his intellectual knowledge and prowess.
Fisk's calls the New York Times Middle Eastern coverage incomprehensible. He particularly criticized Thomas Friedman, but I wouldn't rule out professional jealousy there. He said that the problem with US media is that they try to cover an issue 50/50 and write in cliches and from fear, when in Fisk's opinion, media should be biased/neutral on the side of those who suffer.
One of the subversive tactics the demonstrators are using is to write "where is my vote?" on Iranian currency . During the 1979 revolution against the Shah they burned the Shah's face off the bills.
Fisk also said that Hezbollah is not on the streets in the Tehran demonstrations -- rather, that idea is just a good story which is all over the US press. Hezbollah is a very disciplined military outfit that is trained in Tehran, but not part of the internal Iranian issues. I am reading my autographed copy of Pity the Nation by Robert Fisk about Lebanon's experience. Lebanon is a flash point and somewhat of a microcosm of the Middle Eastern cauldron.
That's all for now. If you are interested in what is going on in the Middle East, we have been recommended to check Al Jazeera English http://english.aljazeera.net/ You might also want to look at The Independent in the UK, for whom Robert Fisk writes.
Off to the races again -- I didn't make it to art places today -- the time flies so fast. I applied for a job online -- it will likely go nowhere, but was an exercise, and wrote this blog and now my free time is gone. The beginning Arabic class has dropped from an enrollment of 8 to 3.
Beirut, she beckons!
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