There were families in Canada that were prosecuted ... - Memewar

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Middle Eastern and North African region. On average, Women marry at 27 years of age and men marry at 31 (UNFPA). This phenomenon means there’s a wider space of time during which ‘things’ can happen. I certainly don’t think any of the Lebanese young people I witnessed were card-carrying, ring-bearing abstinence pledgers. While there may not be a direct translation for ‘hanky panky’ in Arabic, kids will be kids wherever they are. The ways in which their sexuality displayed itself were sometimes enough to make me blush with girls squeezed into body-hugging clothes and boys equally feeling the pressure to ‘look the look.’ The public health officials I spoke with were not in denial about the possible prevalence of premarital sex, but they realized the challenges of approaching not only young people, but also their communities at large on this topic. In the national political context, these issues become even further complicated. Lebanon has not had a census since the 1950s (or even since the 1930s depending on which source is quoted) because to know the exact numbers within each of the 18 different religious sects would lead to political suicide for some. It’s also hard to ignore that nearly 20 years of civil war was caused by tearing apart the delicate balance between these sects. While I’m not privy to completely understanding and demarcating the underlying sectarianism of Lebanese society, I can see its effects in the incapacitated government and in the selfblame felt by some Lebanese for not being more aware of what was happening within their own borders. I can see its effects in their fear of rekindling of civil war divisions and in the concern of which areas would be hit first once all the foreigners had evacuated. We hear its effects in the speech of Nasrallah when he says he didn’t think the kidnappings would plunge the whole country into conflict. We see it in the strategic placement of Hezbollah flags throughout the country, yet this reaches even beyond Lebanon’s borders. While external bombardment and internal divides were on the minds of the Lebanese, my family and friends were concerned about my safety and capacity to leave. As an American passport holder, I had no options by which to depart outside of holding out hope that the Israeli army would stop creating potholes in the Beirut airport’s runways. Syrian visas were only possible from the Syrian consulate in the US (how handy!) and the only other bordering country is, well, Israel. Despite warnings against making hasty decisions in a presumably hostile, anti-American environment, I ultimately crossed into Syria once I’d heard they were allowing US citizens passage without prearranged visas. Once again that reassuring feeling of ease and safety followed me through to this decision. For a country in cahoots with the ‘axis of evil,’ Syria certainly wasn’t acting like the ‘baddie’ the current US administration attempted to perpetuate (although Syrian presi
dent Bashar al-Asad’s moustache is a bit Hiter-like in my opinion). My greater fear would’ve been being trapped for up to ten hours on a boat filled with hysterical countrymen. Terror begets terror, but that’s the last thing I felt as I strong-armed my way through the chaotic Syrian border, crossed and wandered the streets of Damascus where the flags of the World Cup football teams were being replaced by those of Hezbollah. It’s also not what I felt as my Syrian airline agent told me they were open even on Fridays to handle the influx of foreigners and Lebanese displaced by the assault occurring next door. Of equal note is the fact that very few Western media outlets or diplomats discuss the terrorizing force the Israeli military placed on the Lebanese people. Yet I find the individuals I come into contact with in the Middle East to be the least paranoid or fearful. I think in part because they’re all treated as suspects. They’ve been through the worst in realizing they’re feared or deemed suspect by others. My Middle Eastern friends take these attitudes in stride for two reasons: hoping that one day people will learn and because they simply see it as ignorance. Ignorance can be fixed. If people are willing. When the Fox news correspondent asked me if I was afraid to be in central Beirut (I was apparently one of few Americans she could still find in the immediate vicinity), I didn’t know how to answer. I knew my hesitation implied ‘no’ and that didn’t correlate with the American media’s image of the Middle East. It also wouldn’t have been fitting to say the most terrorizing country in the region is in fact Israel, yet that’s also where the most fearful and paranoid population lives. Funny how that happens to a country that doesn’t care to understand its neighbours or seemingly know how to act in a neighbourly fashion. Instead, perhaps the news correspondent should have asked about feeling powerless, faithless in the competency of my own government to handle this situation appropriately. But perhaps that was too complex of a sound bite for the evening news. I could sense the US administration knew something more (and nobody perhaps doubted the carte blanche they would provide to Israel in this most recent offensive) when I visited the embassy in Beirut. They were only having citizens fill out their registration forms while still carrying out full consular duties to the Lebanese, from green cards to non-immigrant visas. There was no sense of panic. Yet there was also no sense of needing to keep people apprised of the situation. The lackadaisical attitude with which my queries were met made me think they knew something I didn’t and left me with an unsettling sense of security. They were tight-lipped, keeping ignorant those who didn’t need to know anything further. What I despise the most is the attitude I know I’m subject to, i.e. ‘why does none of this surprise me?’ The US provided its arsenal to Israel to continue
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There were families in Canada that were prosecuted ... - Memewar

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