A new travel experience

This is the view from where I live, or at least the view to the east looking at Abel Aziz Street. Yes, I have a view. A view. Am I getting older, or what? I mean, here I am, standing on a balcony, taking pictures of a view. A balcony of an apartment I rent. Alone. In another country.

Bye, bye, hostels. Bye, bye, cheap hotels. Here I am in my new world, renting an apartment in another country by myself with a balcony and a living room and 24 hour electricity and cable television and a maid (and laughing from the cafe a block away while a girl proudly displaying a nose job walks by.)

Here's another view from my balcony. I took it in a t-shirt drinking a beer. In January. Evan says I should get a grill. (Evan is friend and former co-worker who is going to grad school here.) I think it's a fine idea to get a grill for my balcony to the apartment I rent by myself in another country with the living room and the 24 hour electricity and the cable television and the maid (the maid is a little excessive, but it's included in the price. I'd rather not have someone come in and touch my stuff, to be honest.)

Here's a view of the balcony from the bedroom where I had a very nice sleep last night, a very nice and very long sleep in which I missed the opportunity to go out in Gemmayze with a bunch of grad students and some couchsurfing Americans living in Ankara, Turkey because after I got ready to go, I sat down to see what television stations could help me learn Arabic (or relearn, I guess) and what do you know, I feel asleep, waking just long enough to drag myself to the bed. Stupid jet lag. Unless that disgusting chemical air freshener that lets off some horrific flowery scent every 15 minutes is actually sleeping gas put there by Lebanese intelligence. Or Mossad. Or both. I got that turned off today. We'll see if I fall asleep there again.

Here is the kitchen where I doubt I'll do very much cooking, what with me being afraid to light things that have gas going to them. That and I'm just too lazy. I mean, why on earth would I try to cook something when I've got hummus and tabouleh and fatoosh and kibbe and all of this wonderful food prepared by other people? And the orange juice...the freshly squeezed orange juice that makes me embarrassed I ever thought Tropicana Pure Premium was good. And the stand on the corner where they bake fresh croissants every morning...I guess I'll need to use the burner to heat water to make coffee since my tongue cannot take the bitterness of the stuff here.

Here is the living room, which was the difference between this and another place. Not that I plan on watching much television - I only have four months, why waste them? - but it will help with my language skills (I have French channels, too.) Still, it's nice to have some place separate from a bedroom to work, read, and blog. (Though I don't have internet in my room. :( I can still type up what I want to say, hit up Cafe Prague a block away, if I can mind the communist wannabes, and have high speed access better than what I had in my apartment in DC, which is unreal here.)

Look for this bookshelf to be filled by the time I leave. UPS is gonna love me.

A view of the kitchen from the living room. I even have a table for eating, which I've already turned into office space. I do need to get one of those pen organizers.

Even though the sun never directly hits my apartment, there is plenty of light, as you can see from the scintillating glow emanating from the balcony to the apartment which I am rented by myself in another country with 24 hour electricity, cable television, and a maid. Oh, about that electricity thing - Beirut rations electricity so everyone loses it in three hour periods every day. The losing time varies, but many places have a generator. Thanks, corruption! Thanks, Israel! Thanks, sectarianism!

A view of the living room from the other side. Yes, that's my Reds blanket on the couch. I have to do some streaming video tests from Cafe Prague to see if this is the place from where I will be watching our Holy Opening Day or if I'll have to go to another country for such an important holiday. I also have the baseball Billy Hatcher threw me in DC last summer and a little Reds sundae helmet, as well as my Reds cap and jersey. Despite everything, I am still pumped for baseball season as much as if I were in the States.

Here's another view from the balcony, this one more typical of what I'll be posting here. This building stands abandoned, yet one (obviously) squatter hangs laundry outside. I felt the squatting was juxtaposed with the palm tree, the latter being a symbol of prosperity in so many places in the world. The building itself is juxtaposed with the others around it, as the whole block aside from it is under construction. As I was marveling at the situation I found myself in, that being standing on the balcony of an apartment I've rented by myself in another country with 24 hour electricity, cable television, and a maid, I felt a guilt looking at that one occupied apartment among trash-strewn ruins. But hey, I'm here to help Lebanon overcome such an injustice as a squatter in ruins among wealth. We're going to fix this.

This photo is what I think of Beirut, with the contradictions and the absurdities and the imbalances of life. How among the new high rises and the furnished apartments for foreigners can a ghost of a building house someone who has no place to live? Of the 18 different gods who rule over this place, can't one of them dish out some justice?

And so I will live across the street from this squatter, neighbors by location only, and I'll pay a rent equal to what I paid in DC to have much more. I am going to enjoy every second I am here. I mean, look at this photo - how could you not? (Just don't look at the enlarged photo - there are two ships participating in the salvage operation of the plane crash from Monday. This is what's going on.)

Oh, and HA HA - I'm getting tan and you're not!

First day: Success.

Feeling pretty good after sleeping 12 hours and getting up about 6am. Ran out for some coffee before some places were open and got back to take a shower by candlelight, my first introduction to the power issues which plague Lebanon.

Yesterday, or rather on Monday, I embarked upon a turbulent flight from Washington DC to Paris on my way to a four month stint in Beirut. Three hours of rather scary turbulence that made us reroute our trip (adding a mere three minutes to our seven hour journey) were three hours of hell for a nervous flyer like myself, especially when the meal service was suspended and the flight attendants strapped themselves in. And to think that the takeoff hadn't really bothered me...

The flight from Paris to Beirut was a breeze and quite beautiful. When we got to Paris, I felt like I was home. Charles de Gaulle has become so familiar that I know how to find everything. Sadly, I have not been to Paris in a decade, but I've seen it from a plane many times.

What you see here in this first picture is Bulgaria in all its winter glory. Nostalgia came to me as I sat so high above it, face pasted to the window as soon as we left Europe's winter cloud cover and hit a clear shot of the Balkans. The rest of the trip was cloudless and amazing. Most of Turkey was snow covered and beautiful.

This may be the creepiest photo I've ever taken and I hope I never take one like this again. This is a ship that is part of the rescue operation for the plane crash that happened the day before. (You can see a clearer version from Reuters here.) Nothing like seeing the rescue operation of a plane crash from a plane as you are about to land. It was pretty easy to figure out what was going on, because I was looking for it, being the nervous flyer I am. The Reuters photo of the same ship confirmed it. I saw more rescue boats today - I knew they were rescue boats because it was too cold for people to be boating for pleasure.

On a better note, I like a place where you can choose whether or not to have winter. Snow-covered mountains, Mediterranean Sea, a great big city with a lot happening, and warm, beautiful sunshine...I really couldn't ask for more.

Some more photos:

We Won't Work for Peanuts

Screw WaPo for publishing this b.s., especially in light of Haiti's need at this time.

...an analysis of the charity's tax returns raises questions about how it has spent money in the past, with administrative expenses that appear to be higher than comparable charities and payments to businesses owned by the musician and a board member, including $100,000 for a performance by Jean at a 2006 benefit concert.

Wyclef has done nothing but good in raising awareness about Haiti's plight (before quake) and helping Haitians to claw their way out of the mire. This article amounts to little more than spreading a rumor that will only hurt the Haitians who have been devastated by plague after plague. It's irresponsible journalism - why not wait until the organization has been thoroughly investigated before publishing an account of corruption? And newspapers wonder why they're failing? Yele should sue WaPo for defamation.

It takes money to run a non-profit. I know people who've never worked for a non-profit think we who work for them should receive pittance for wages and gasp! we have health insurance? But to be effective, you need money to fund your organization.

I'm also sick of the criticism of celebrities who fight for causes. Once upon a time there was a generation of celebrities who put their names on a cause, planted a tree at a school, did a save the whales commercial, but many of today's celebrities are actually experts in what they are supporting. They spend time working in the field, fundraising, and learning about the issues they are supporting. Wyclef, a Haitian, is one of these guys. He was before the quake, and he will continue to be long after people have moved onto their next moment of concern and forget Haiti exists.

Donate to Yele Haiti Foundation.

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Civil society issues in Lebanon

Last week, the Daily Star reported that in 2009, despite unprecedented stability in Lebanon, civil society failed to achieve any significant reforms.

Here are some issues that Lebanese civil society needs to deal with to be more effective:

1. Lebanese civil society organizations largely fail to understand how to use technology to spread awareness about their activities. There are many organizations doing great work; however, no one knows about it. This results in a duplication of efforts, wasted resources, and unnecessary competition for precious funding.

If you click on many of the links in our sidebar, you will encounter many websites that have not been updated in awhile. This happens for several reasons:

a) The organizational website was set up under one particular grant, and when that grant ended, so too, did updates to the website.

b) The organization pays a company to maintain the website and the company charges for every update.

c) The organization doesn't understand how important it is to update a website.

All of these issues are easily rectified, especially in a country as tech savvy as Lebanon.

For the first point, many grants - including all US government grants - require sustainability of projects before they are awarded. Simply put, an organization is not fulfilling the commitment it made when signing its contract if it stops updating its website. When writing proposal budgets, organizations should always include website maintenance as a line item.

On the second point, companies who charge for every update should be fired and replaced by a company who values service and commitment to its clients. The company should offer the software that allows organizations to update their own websites. Organizations should understand that paying for this software is worth the cost.

The final point is the most difficult to overcome, yet it is still rather simple to rectify. Civil society organizations simply don't know the value of or don't know how to use technology to promote their causes. Groups like Social Media Exchange are working hard to help civil society understand the importance of technology. Organizations should take advantage of training programs on how to use technology to promote their activities and accomplishments.

An organization's website is the primary means of electronic communication. Social media like Facebook and Twitter are good tools to promote your organization, but they should not be the primary means of spreading information. Your website should do that. Your website should include frequent updates on your organization's activities and accomplishments. Websites are especially important to overseas funders who want to know if your organization has enough experience and knowledge to be awarded a grant.

Up next, the second reason why reforms were lacking in 2009: organizational egos...

Safadi Foundation USA wishes everyone a great 2010

Here's to 2010 yielding new hopes for peace and prosperity for the whole world. Here's to optimism for the future and a relegation of pessimism and victimhood mentalities to the past. Here's to all of us cooperating to make the world a better place. Here's to leaders having the courage to stand up and do what's right for everyone, not just for themselves or their sects or their parties. Here's to an end of desperation, an end to ignorance, an end to the warped minds of fanatics convincing youth to blow themselves up in the name of some ideology. Here's to soldiers across the globe returning home to their families and friends and staying there. Here's to literacy, abundance of food, good health, and shelter for all.

With each new year comes the chance that maybe, just maybe, this is the year we'll get it right.

Pandora never has a crappy year

NPR did a quick survey asking people to describe 2009 in one word. I was surprised at how negative it was, if only because NPR listeners tend to be more liberal with higher education levels that make them less susceptible to losing their jobs in the midst of a depression. (Then again, when "sucky," "sucked," and "suckfest" were used several times, you have to wonder about education levels...)

Pessimism is so odd to me. If I had what many would consider a bad year, I would just be grateful that I wasn't homeless, a refugee, living in a warzone, had all my limbs, was healthy, etc. I would look at the highlights of the year - seeing a young Reds prospect make his Major League debut, a concert I attended, a person I met - and use those to define the year. You know, the small things. They all add up to be the biggest anyway.

To me, pessimism is the sentiment of a life unfulfilled, someone who isn't living life to the fullest, someone with a spiritual void. I imagine a pessimist spends many hours in front of the television or within the confines of a gray cubicle beneath the harsh tones of a fluorescent light. Fluorescent life. A pessimist has ceded control of his life to outside forces.

2009 was a crappy year for the economy, it is true, but you don't need money to enjoy life. Playing ball in the backyard with your kids is free, or if you don't have a backyard, in a local park. Reading a good book from your local library is free. You don't need to take your kid to Pump It Up for a birthday party - bake a cake and pin the tail on the donkey. It's all the extra things that people couldn't do that make so many say it was such a crappy year.

If a person's year is a "suckfest," that's a character flaw - he didn't do the things that could give him fulfillment. Yet so many people blame everyone else - blame the government, blame the corporations, blame the rich, blame the poor people who took out loans they couldn't afford to chase the American Dream. They blame, blame, blame while they sit in their living rooms filled with fancy televisions, DVRs, and a $100 a month television bill, wondering how long they'll be unemployed, wondering how they'll pay the credit card bills, worrying about this and that material possession.

Sure, worrying is natural. But it shouldn't define your year. It shouldn't make 2009 a "suckfest." Here's a real suckfest:

A few weeks ago, I walked by a man and two boys on a corner of a DC street. He was middle-aged, white, well-dressed, and the boys were playing with some toys right there on the sidewalk. The stores around us had recently put up Christmas displays, and as the sun had already left us for the day, the air was getting cold. My heart was broken when I saw what he was holding. It was a cardboard sign with neatly drawn letters that said, "Please help. We're homeless." I nearly started bawling right there on the street corner amidst the Christmas lights and window displays calling people to buy things they didn't need. The man had a difficult time looking at people's faces - shame filled his eyes. The kids, who were also well-dressed, were in awe of everything around them, like they'd never been to a big city before. It seemed to me they were newly homeless.

I walked several blocks up towards Dupont Circle wondering how it had come to that for that family. What had been the man's job before he lost it? Where was the mother? How long were they behind on their house payments before they were evicted? Why did they have no friends or family to stay with? And then I thought about the thin line between courage and desperation. How long had he put off standing on the street corner asking people for their spare change? There was still a pride in his face, a pride that has long since left the hardened veterans of the streets. Had he stood in front of a mirror in a communal bathroom in a homeless shelter that morning, trying to psyche himself up to go out there as he smoothed out a wrinkle in his white button down shirt? How courageous he must be to face the humiliation of begging.

I only saw him that one time. The faces of the Dupont-Farragut homeless are now familiar to me, but he has not been among them. That gives me hope that he has found a job or a place to stay.

I guess some people have a right to say they had a crappy year.

I have a few wishes for 2010: Peace on Earth. Horny teenagers no longer blowing themselves up for 72 virgins. Americans no longer throwing around the words "fascism," "racism," and "socialism" so they lose their meanings. Glenn Beck getting fired. The Bankee$ finishing in last place and the Reds winning the World Series. People coming to see the quest for material possessions is not a good thing. Americans getting to know their neighbors. Adults reading books written for adults again. An end to pessimism.

Fortunately, "awesome" and "hope" were two of the big words on the collage. That's a great start.