Monday, December 31, 2007

A last post before the New Year

What is more problematic to me?

1-Is it to stay home on New Year’s Eve?

2-Is it to know that Bashar Assad and Ehud Olmert are having a cup of tea together in a hotel in Switzerland now?

3-Is it to see Hillary losing the 2008 election?

4-Is it to wonder when the next president of Lebanon will be elected?

OR

5-Is it to discover that Noa didn’t send a “Happy New Year” email until NOW?

Hey!!!

Surprise!!!

Happy New Year!!!

Always with a SMILE

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Remembering the Year 2007

Benazir Bhutto is dead…a few days before the New Year...

The year 2007…

I had my second child, a beautiful boy we named him Ara…

Life with two kids is definitely not easy…

Life in Lebanon was not easy this year…

Assassinations, political deadlock, a country without a president…

We have no plans for the year 2008…we have learnt to enjoy every moment without thinking of the next one…

This is a “survival trick” when you live in an unstable country… You live on the edge…

2007 was the year of stories without beginnings and without endings…

A year of unspoken words and meaningful silence…

A year of creativity and accomplishments…

A year of disappointment and maturity…

In one word…the year 2007 was an ordinary year…

May the year 2008 bring more joy and peace of mind…and hopefully the Lebanese will have a president!!!

Happy new year to you all!!!

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Xmas Time

Xmas Tree is set!!!

Food is getting ready!!!

People are getting crazy!!!

I havent bought the gifts yet!!!

It is Xmas Time!!!

Merry Xmas to you all!!!

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Sushi revolution in Beirut

Sunday thoughts...

It is raining…It is one of these days where you just want to stay in bed…have coffee and watch a movie…

Yesterday, I had sushi…It was excellent…come to think about it I have been having excellent sushi for a while in different places…in Beirut…

Another day has past and the Lebanese parliament failed to elect a president…

What is the link between having great sushi in Beirut and failing to elect a president in Beirut?

It is the passion for life!!!

It is the natural survival instinct!!!

It is not true that the Lebanese people are being passive, not caring about the disastrous situation in the country…

Just by serving the best food in the restaurants…
Just by decorating the streets and the shops for Xmas…

The Lebanese people are rebelling against the political catastrophe…

Who said that revolutions happen on the streets?

Every shop we enter to…
Every restaurant we eat in…

Is a sphere for revolution…

Long live the sushi revolution in Beirut

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Another Body in the Valley

Another body in the Valley…

It is an excellent title for a thriller isn’t it?

Today was supposed to be the commemoration day for the assassination of Gebran Tueini, who was killed two years ago…his body was found in the valley…

Today another body was found in a valley…Francois Hage…

Who killed him? It depends on which TV station you are watching…

Why he was killed? It depends on the politicians you are listening to…

The only thing all agreed on was that Francois Hage was the prime candidate to become the next chief of the Army…

And the movie goes on…

Once I met Danis Tanovic in Sarajevo, I told him how much I was impressed by his movie “NO MAN’S LAND”…

Maybe if I meet him again, he will be telling me how much he is impressed by the Lebanese thriller, our national production, “NO MAN’S NATION”

God save Lebanon!!!

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Xmas in Bethlehem

Since November we have been celebrating Xmas…
Every morning, Marco jumps to the car, puts up the volume and listens to Xmas songs…
Today, as usual we were listening to the CD…
The CD is divided to two parts: Xmas songs and Xmas play…

In the play, the author explains to the children that Xmas is when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, Jesus who is born in a far away land in a city called Bethlehem…

And Suddenly, Marco turns to me and asks me: “Olo, how far is Bethlehem?”

Wow! What a surprise!

I told him Bethlehem is not far away, it is very close from here…

“Can you take me there now, I want to see where Jesus was born”, he said…

“We can not go there”, I said…

Why?, he asked

“You know Marco…Israel…

And suddenly he said to me…Ah! Because Israel bombed the bridges, we can not go there?

I didn’t know what to say...I was shocked...
but I was saved!!!
We arrived to school; he gave me a kiss and left with his teacher…

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Inspiration from Amman

January 2007, I was in Amman…
I started the year with a group meeting aiming to create a platform for those who are sick and tired of the nonsense in the Middle East…

December 2007, I was in Amman…
I ended the year training Yemeni, Sudanese, Iraqi, Palestinian and Lebanese engineers how to communicate effectively under crisis…

January 2007, I was in Amman…
I was filled with confidence that borders and differences meant nothing; that bringing people together was the easiest thing on earth…
I was free, there were no limits to what I could imagine I could achieve.
My head was full of ideas chasing each other…
Words and images were competing to get a place in the special compartment in my head. In that compartment ideas get ready to be written on paper or on the blog.
It is that compartment that gives life to ideas, words and concepts…

December 2007, I was in Amman…
I was entrapped; I was surrounded by big egos…
My small cottage on the green hill was attacked…
The big egos just wanted to build a huge fence around my cottage to distort my vision…
They offered me a ride to their cities…”You may stay wherever you want in our cities”, they said
But their cities lacked color…
But their cities lacked nuances…
In their cities, life stopped blowing in the creation compartment of my head…
That was a sign of death…

I decided to go back to my cottage on the green hill…

They built a huge fence around my cottage…and I kept waiting for that phone call that never came through…

January 2007, I was in Amman…with deliciously terrifying feelings and a great vision
December 2007, I was in Amman…with deliciously challenging feelings and a great vision…

Sunday, December 02, 2007

when marco writes his name



Marco's achievement

I had promised myself not to write about the Annapolis Conference…

Annapolis will be mentioned in the history of the Middle East in one sentence…so why should I put an effort to write about it?

They met…Each group had its own agenda…and Peace was on the bottom of the list…

End of the story…

But 27 November 2007 will be a very special day for me…

On the same day of the Annapolis parade…my son Marco learned to write his name…

I can’t describe the joy and pride of seeing my little boy write his name…and the effort that he put to write it and the look of victory on his face after I clapped for the great achievement in his life…

For a second, I wished that I was clapping for the participants in Annapolis, for the great achievement of bringing peace to the Middle East…

For a second, I wished that the look of victory was on the faces of the participants in Annapolis…

But, within seconds... I cleared my mind…run to get the camera and take pictures of one of the greatest achievements that happened that day…

Marco, my son, wrote his name for the first time…on the day of the Annapolis fiasco…