From my vantage point here on the 17th floor of my apartment in Ha Noi, Viet Nam the world looks quite peaceful. I have a great view of the lake and the city and little of the background noise that can sometimes wipes the charm right out of this beloved place. I can see Hanoi but with the volume muted. Perfect. None of that incessant beep da beep beep beep. In the morning I wake up to see fishing boats all coming out for the catch of the day and I say, without hesitation, Thank You God. I keep it short and sweet what with the prayer waves being cluttered up with people from all the major religions clamoring for God’s attention to their calls for help I feel it is unfair to be bothersome when I am under no imminent threat of having the bridge outside my window blown up, or a bomb land on one of my children so I keep it simple.
I had decided that one way to begin this blog might be with a list of cities and places I have been in during the past few years beginning from A—Amman and Afghanistan and working my way through the alphabet. As I got mentally started working on that a post came in from my good friend in Germany Susann who studied Arabic with me at Bier Zeit University in Ramallah, Palestine. We shared an interesting time which ranged from being hauled out of a van by the Israeli police for crossing over land that didn’t include a travel plan approved by the Israeli’s to meeting Yasser Arafat. Susann and I lived together in Ramallah in a home we rented from Palestinian Christian’s who were sitting out the battle for their homeland in Canada. We watched the war on Iraq through the eyes of CNN for several hours a night and threw fits and took turns screaming at the TV set. The CNN International news team is a steady crew and there was always the slightly dazed looking Nic Robertson looking as though he had rushed to the camera and forgot his comb as he gave us his on the spot coverage of Iraq from whatever distant vantage point he was at. I know from my own time in Iraq that CNN doesn’t travel without a full crew of armed security guards for good reason. Attempting to appear as close to the front lines without being on the line is a Nic achievement. Considering the amount of dead and maimed reporters who do cover Iraq I understood quite well when asked by some anchor in the USA at least once a day how "Iraqi’s feel" about a situation that it wasn’t easy to create something meaningful from talking to the same waiters in the same bars in the green zone day after day and trying to make it sound as though the whole of Iraq might have one united opinion. There is probably no group of people on earth who have been more frequently questioned about how they feel on various subjects of interest for world viewers then the handful of people held up in the fortress within the city of Baghdad like these guys are.
Admittedly when Iraqi’s started killing each other it became even more difficult to explain how the average man on the street was feeling when you would have to guess what side of the fence the man on the street was on. Tough reporting but the pay is good.
Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2006 6:46 PM
Subject: CNN's Lebanon Problem
During the first 40 minutes of "The Situation Room," which devoted itself almost exclusively to the escalating Mideast chaos, there was no reference to the fact the Israeli military had killed more than 50 Lebanese civilians. (It wasn't until halfway through the second hour of "The Situation Room" that Blitzer finally clued viewers in.)
Later, I went back and checked CNN's reporting, via TVeyes.com, and discovered that throughout the day CNN repeatedly reported on the lone Israeli civilian causality without making any mention of the more than 50 Lebanese civilian casualties. To be exact, CNN did that at 10:31 a.m., 11:02, 12:09 p.m., 12:19, 1:00, 1:30, 1:52, 2:00, 2:17, 2:30, 2:50, and 4:04.
I suppose I am inclined to being overly concerned about Lebanon anyway given what I know from Lebanese friends about the natural beauty of the land and the people. Being a child of the 60’s I have my attachment to Khalil Gibran, The Prophet and those lakes and trees, and hills, and mountains he was writing about were after all in Lebanon. My friend Fadi writes from Lebanon when he can and that is about all the news I need for now.
When I was in Jordan one day sitting near the Dead Sea looking across at what for all the world appeared to be a peaceful Palestine I met a nice guy from Lebanon. We exchanged email addresses and much mail after that. We talked that day of war across the Sea and the total mess in Iraq. It never occurred to me that in the not so distant future his country would be attacked by the Israeli’s in the manner it was and he has written while in personal danger himself:
To: Cherie Clark
Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2006 2:05 PM
Subject: RE: Lebanon
Dearest Cherie, Of all the countries of the world, this is the dearest, the most fragile & the most endeared. Rarely does anybody come to this country and not fall in love with it. It has everything anyone can ask for, but that exactly is where its doom lies, it so inviting that evil is also attracted! Of all the countries of the world, I believe that this is one that will protect, the future of Islam and Christianity, of modernity and Fundamentalism, East or West, could live or die in this country it has so much to offer. If the Arabs are ever to be saved, their salvation would stem from here, if Islam is ever to leap into the new century, this leap will take place here... It's more than a country, said Pope John Paul II, it's a mission. That is why we love it so much, to borrow Dan Brown's metaphor, it's the Holy Grail, and for that, our lives are nothing. It is the smallest most beautiful country in the world that God chose to leave the stem of the future, the plant of life...You'll come to this country, and you'll love it too, Regards, Fadi
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