I had intended to take a break from commentary on political and social issues and limit my self to the World Cup. But this sort of racism is totally unacceptable. Something must be done, especially in a country that deems itself "cosmopolitan" and a tourist destination.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/22/pan-arab-narrative-myth-lebanon (Arabic) http://international.daralhayat.com/internationalarticle/155906 I hasten to add that once when I filming was in Sudan on the banks of the Nile I saw some kids approaching gathering all sorts of plastic bags and rubbish. I asked the old Sudanese man I was interviewing who the children were. "Pay them no attention, they are Negroes," he said! The Lebanese are crazy about the World Cup. Everywhere in Lebanon people show their support with draped flags on buildings, cars, bikes... There's not a street that hasn't got at least a few flags fluttering. At this point in the calendar the flags of the countries playing the World Cup easily outnumber the flag of Lebanon by a tremendous margin.
Now there's a new manifestation of the craze with some enterprising Lebanese bakers making the traditional mana'eesh flat cheese pies in the colors of the competing nations. Permitted food colorings anyone? Guaranteed to make you glow... with pride. |
Omar al-Issawi
The desert in the blog title is figurative, not literal. Archives
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