The wanderer is at the feast of Saint John, with its tents, archery contests and country food. Suddenly, a clown begins to mimic his gestures. People laugh, and the wanderer laughs, as well, and invites the clown to have coffee with him.

“Commit to life!” says the clown. “If you are alive, you have to shake your arms, jump around, make noise, laugh and talk to people. Because life is exactly the opposite of death. “To die is to remain forever in the same position.

If you are too quiet, you are not living.”

-From “Maktub” by Paulo Coelho

It was an interesting bookend to our discussion last spring in Boston as we considered how far away we were from doing things in the world – Here we were, a Journalist and a Web Developer, trying to change the face of Journalism in Lebanon and the world, two 24 year old white kids, born two days apart, just sitting and eating in a place that 20 years ago was the heart of a civilization’s collapse? Literally, people used to kill each other where we were sitting on a daily basis – the statue has bullet holes and shrapnel all through it.

Last night I spent the evening in a smokey jazz lounge on Gemayze St. called “Bar Louie,” listening to some real honest-to-God jazz while drinking scotch that was probably a little outside of my price range, but I didn’t care too much because it was such an amazing show. The jazz scene in the Middle East tends to be patchy and it’s really difficult to find talented live musicians who can put on a show like that is both technically perfect and musically engrossing. This really was both – it was a great show and I couldn’t get over the authenticity of the thing itself – I feel that Beirut, in its finest moments, is like a combination of the way I envision Paris must has been in the 50′s and Brooklyn was in the late 90′s. Now it’s not always at its finest, but trust me when I say that Beirut has more of its fare share of these truly authentic moments, without the yuppies ruining it for everyone, than perhaps anywhere else in the world (see my note above regarding lunch today if you have any doubts…)

Beirut has something else to – People talk a lot about the Clash of Civilizations and obviously Lebanon has its fare share of that, but in a country so prone to civil and religious conflict, right next to Martyr’s square is an enormous Christmas tree, which is right outside of Beirut’s biggest Muslim Mosque, right next to that Mosque is an enormous Church, and right next to the Church is the heart of Downtown Beirut, which also happens to reflect the capitalistic ideal in about as succinct away as I can imagine. A block from there are both Parliament and the Hariri memorial – For the uninformed, it was Hariri’s assassination in April 2005 which led ultimately to Syrian’s withdrawal from the Lebanon.

So within just one block you have a perfect image of the Anti-Clash of Civilizations – and it is not by any small measure of irony that this is just a short distance from the “Green Line,” the epicenter of the Civil War in the 80′s that led to the death of over 100,000 people. From a human perspective, the image of this one block, home to an enormous Mosque, an enormous Church, a Christmas Tree, Martyr’s Statue (riddled with bullet holes), Hariri’s memorial, and the busiest block of Downtown Beirut, and only a short distance from Gemayze St. which is sort of like the Georgetown (Washington D.C.) of Beirut, is an enormous thing, and in my mind the relative co-existence represents not only an “Anti-Clash” of Civilization, but the reality of the growing up of the post-Cold War world.

I stopped to pray at a Church on my way back from Microsoft – I haven’t been in a Church for a long time, let alone for any real spiritual reason. I think probably the last time I went to Church just to pray was maybe a year ago in Portland. Anyone who knows me probably knows my relative aversion to organized religion, an aversion which ultimately was a major part of choosing not to go into the priesthood. This particular Church I think is either Catholic or Greek Orthadox (I am neither) but that wasn’t a concern – The building, both inside and out, is beautiful. So I’m sitting there praying – Generally I try to pray in as nebulous a way as possible – “I hope I’m on the right path, stay with me on this,” etc. What struck me was that about three-quarters of the way through praying the Mosque next door started with their call to prayer -  which if you’ve ever heard it is fairly haunting and definitely beautiful – It added a nice touch. In standard Lebanese fair, the Church gave the Mosque about three-quarters of the Call before they started ringing their bells at a million decibels, promptly drowning the Muslims out. Oh well.

Anyways, it was nice – Just to pray I guess but also to take a breather. I’ve been living in a really cheap place, writing and consulting for free, and things are finally starting to progress – I dunno. It was a nice day and a nice evening last night and then a nice afternoon, so it seemed a good occasion for praying.

So – On a lighter note, I wanted to make a point about Lebanon not being backwards and all that, so here’s a picture of some Burger King I ate a few days ago – Looks delicious right? Click the picture to see it full size, so that you can be assured that, yes, there is Burger King in the Middle East. Lots of Burger Kings for that matter.

Missing everyone back home – Will keep you all posted as things move along. Oni, if you’re reading this, we’re going to change the world man! Let me know how things are going in New York.

This is from a Lebanese Embassy website regarding the Cedars:

(src: http://www.lebanemb.org.au/Lebanon_Profile/Cedars.html)

THE CEDARS OF LEBANON are an integral part of the history of the country just as the ancient cities of Byblos, Tyre and Baalbeck. They date back to ancient times, when the Phoenicians were exporting cedar-wood to the Pharaohs from the apparently inexhaustible forests, which at the time covered the upper reaches of the mountains. The wood was not only used for construction but more especially for nobler purposes; this was the sacred wood of the gods and used to honour the dead, a task to which the peoples of the ancient Orient attached deep importance.

The cedars of today are very few in number because they have been overexploited, but their isolation gives them even greater majesty, evoking some awesome presence in the pure silence of the mountain peaks, standing strong under the snow amid sparking cascades or locked in grim struggle against the desolation of bare rock.

The Cedars of Becharreh in the north of Lebanon are remembered best for their Biblical associations, and these venerable patriarchs have indeed deserved to be classified as a national monument. Further north in Ehden is a fine stand of cedars, with another grove in the Jbeil area at Jajj near Laqlouq where their cocky foothold on the mountainside makes an impressive sight. The largest forest comprising several thousand trees, is at Hadeth al-Jebbe – but these are younger than the millenary Cedars of Becharreh. Finally, there are the forests of Barouk and Ain Zhalta in the Chouf, where the endless spread of trees on the gently rising slopes adds an impression of infinity to this symbol of agelessness.

The Cedar as a Cultural Asset

The Cedar, Lebanon’s national emblem, is an important asset in the country’s national heritage. At first sight it may seem strange that something belonging to the vegetable kingdom should be part of the cultural patrimony. But, as M. Joseph Chami rightly says in an interesting study which inspired this article, the Cedar can be classified as an archaeological monument. The 400 Cedars of Becharreh are just as valuable historical remains as the ruins of Byblos, Baalbeck or Tyre. What is more, they are still-living witnesses of the time when Hiram-Abi of Tyre built the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem.

In his book on Carthage and its Phoenician antecedents, Pierre Hubac writes: “The Cedar is precious, more than precious – it is sacred. In Egypt, the Cedar is the Zed tree, the tree that is a god, it is Osiris. It is also incorruptible material that bestows immortality. It is the wood for religious objects. Later, the Cedar was to remain the religious wood par excellence: the Cedar is the Church. For Islam, the Cedar is the sacred wood, the pure wood …”

In nearly all religions and in most literatures the Cedar – not just any cedar, but the Cedar of Lebanon – has a place apart. It is an object of veneration. It is also a subject of meditation, comparison, and exaltation.

All Eastern travelers speak of it, but Lamartine gives the most beautiful description of it: “The Cedars of Lebanon are the most famous natural monuments in the Universe. Religion, poetry and history have all celebrated them because of the reputation for magnificence and holiness that these prodigies of vegetation have enjoyed since the earliest antiquity … These ancient witnesses of past ages know history better than does history itself …”

The Cedar of Lebanon is mentioned in the works of Ovid, in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, in Horace and Persius. There are references to it in Egyptian inscriptions, on Babylonian and Assyrian steles, in the Universal History of Diodorus Siculus, on the monuments of Greece and Rome and, of course, in Phoenician inscriptions.

It is mentioned in 70 different passages in the Bible.

The prophet Ezekiel gives a moving description of the “tree of God”: “… a Cedar of Lebanon with fair branches and a shadowing shroud and of a high stature, and his top was among the thick boughs. The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running about his plants …Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field …All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations … nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty. I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.”

The Book of Kings describes the building of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem by engineers and workmen sent by Hiram the king of Tyre. There was a lavish use of cedar wood: “And he built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar, both the floor of the house and walls of the ceiling. And he built twenty cubits on the sides of the house both the floor and the walls with boards of cedar he even built them for it within, even for the most holy place … And the cedar of the house within was carved with knobs and open flowers: all was cedar; there was no stone seen.”

Isaiah uses the cedar to point a moral when he says that it is the Lord that deals severely with all pride and arrogance, with all greatness, with all the Cedars of Lebanon, high and lofty.

The Psalms tell us that “the righteous shall grow like a Cedar in Lebanon”. The most beautiful of all love songs, the Song of Solomon, describes the beloved as follows: “his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the Cedars”.

Such is the place occupied by the Cedar of Lebanon in the religious and literary monuments of humanity, a place so important that we can without any exaggeration regard the cedar as a cultural asset.

From another website:

(src: http://www.atlastours.net/lebanon/cedars.html)

120 km north east of Beirut, known to the Lebanese as Arz Errab (the Cedars of the Lord). Cedars are among the last survivors of the immense forests that lay across Mount Lebanon in ancient times.

The most famous Cedars are in Bsharreh region where about 375 trees, some between 1200 and 2000 years old, stand on slopes 1950 meters high in the shadow of the 3088 meters peak of Qornet Essawda (the highest in Lebanon).

The citizens of ancient Byblos, Tyre, and Sidon used “cedrus libani” to build houses and fashion masts for their ships. From Lebanon’s cedar forests, King Solomon (pbuh) got the timber to build his temple and palace in Jerusalem, while the Egyptian Pharaohs used the wood to carve their sarcophagi and sun-ships. Also, Phoenicians and Greeks used its wood through the centuries in their homes, temples, sarcophagi, and galleys.

The village of the Cedars, over 2000 meters in altitude, is a very picturesque ski resort with hotels, chalets and sky lifts.

The Cedars resort is set in an area of unusual natural and historical interest. In only 30 minutes you can drive from the crest of the mountain, which soars nearly 3000 meters above the resort, down to the bottom of the steep-sided Qadisha Grotto; a natural cavern with stalactites and stalagmites formations, at less than 1000 meters. Within this area are rivers, springs, waterfalls, caves and other natural formations as well as rock-cut churches, monasteries and interesting villages to visit. There is always the promise of a friendly welcome from the hospitable people who live there.

Nowadays, the Cedars tree, majestic and indestructible, is the emblem of Lebanon and adorns its flag.

Doug Mills/The New York Times

And so it did. Surrounded by expats, Lebanese Americans, and Lebanese of all religious and ethnic shades, I drank profusely and watched CNN as my country seemingly came to its senses and pulled itself from the brink of self-destruction. Indeed, for my generation, this is the first time in our modern lives that we can be proud of our executive leadership, and of the voters who selected it. I was in awe as the cynicism of the Americans with me in Beirut this evening washed away. Trust me, no American is more cynical than a young American in Beirut. Here we see first hand the disaster that is American foreign policy, and many moved clear across the world to escape the America represented by the only Executive they truly knew: That of George W. Bush.

It was said on BBC World tonight that President Bush told President-Elect Obama that the election day was “awesome,” in his congratulatory call. Such are the times and the years and trials we have lived through, and God Willing, somehow survived, since 2000.

My new boss Marc remarked to me today, with excitement, trepidation, and the cynicism of a westerner towards the United States of this past decade, of the irony of my arrival the day before  the most important American election of the modern era, and that I would begin to work on the day after. He dared not even suggest that Obama could pull it off.

This morning, Nick, myself, and Nick’s flat-mate made our guesses for what the electoral votes would look like in the evening, when the dust settled. I am amazed at how far our cynicism had taken us, and how beaten and deflated a generation we belong to.  For though we all agreed that Obama would win, even in the face of  every poll declaring Obama the likely winner, even in the face of 100,000 person crowds and an enormous financial advantage, we mustered only the slightest confidence in an Obama victory:

I believed that Obama would receive 283 points. Nick believed that Obama would receive 336 points. Andrew went with 325.

So now, I am a believer, and feel perhaps that “Yes We Can” is a striking motto for my time here in Beirut. I have to believe that if we have come this far, if the American people, so complicit as we are in the re-election (and clear mandate) of President Bush in 2004, so complicit as we are in our acceptance of a horrendous war and unprecedented Republican cronyism on Wall Street, so complicit even in the many declarations that Obama surrounded himself with terrorists and was a Communist and everything else, if WE of all people, we as a nation, can elect a man of such stature, so dissimilar from the politics of the past 8 years, the first African American President-Elect in our country’s history, than I believe we can do anything.

Congratulations, America, you didn’t blow it, even without me there to supervise. I thank you for that, more than I can say.

Fun.

Ok, I get the socialist thing. Obviously Obama’s plan to tax richer people so that normal people can have services is relatively socialist. Ever heard of Medicade? Social Security? Ask John McCain and George Bush and anyone else who’s ever been in charge of anything government-related – That’s how services get paid for. Taxes. Welcome to modern America. It’s a little bit socialist. Everyone should agree on that. Especially folks who expect to retire to some sort of life, given that they’ve been paying into the pot for a long time. That doesn’t make Obama a socialist, it makes him a POLITICIAN.

But the Muslim thing, well, the VIDEO is great – The jerks are interviewed and talk about Obama being a horrible Muslim terrorist etc. and how Muslims deceive people and all that. Although he refuses to ‘defend’ his comments with fact.

Then the Republican McCain-voting Muslims show up, ONE of whom happens to be a McCain DELEGATE. Hilarity ensues (again, click here if you can’t see the video: http://www.americannewsproject.com/node/158)

Lebanon's Premier English Newspaper

Daily Star journalist Nick Kimbrell reported on Stefan Wild’s lecture at the German Orient Institute in Beirut last Tuesday:

In September 2006, Pope Benedict XVI delivered a speech at Regensburg University which invoked a centuries-old dialogue between the beleaguered Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an unidentified Persian scholar. The pope quoted the emperor as saying, “Show me just what [the Prophet] Mohammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

Wild surveyed several key points of clarification in the letter penned by the 38 Muslim scholars. He called the letter “exceptionally encouraging … [an] appeal to dialogue much more than a rebuff.” The correspondence, he noted, began by supporting Benedict’s opposition to “the dominance of positivism and materialism in modern life.”

The several ramifications of Benedict’s decision to quote a Byzantine emperor in a lecture about the contemporary role of reason in Catholic faith was the subject of professor Stefan Wild’s Lecture at Beirut’s German Orient Institute on Tuesday night.

He read at length from the pontiff’s address, the letter, and a longer and more ambitious letter of October 2007 that 138 Muslim scholars addressed to the pope and other Christian leaders. He also alluded to an August conference at the Yale Divinity School, which called the interfaith conversation following the Regensburg lecture “a quantum leap in Muslim-Christian relations.”

Although the Byzantine quotation was unrepresentative of stated papal doctrines and tangential to the subject of the pontiff’s lecture, the September 2006 remarks sparked confusion, concern, and outright rage in much of the Muslim world.

A professor emeritus at Bonn University and a former director of the Orient Institute, Wild sketched the events since Benedict’s 2006 lecture with a measured optimism and offered some commentary of his own.

These underlined yet again the proximity between religious rhetoric (culture, if you like) and political action. Various threats, protests and actions followed – in one case, a 65-year-old Italian nun was gunned down in Somalia.

The most measured and official response came in an October 12, 2006, letter from 38 well-respected Muslim scholars who, while questioning the scholarship of some of Benedict’s claims and offering a gentle reproof, opened the possibility of a renewed interfaith dialogue.

Click here to read the whole story: German academic sees signs of dialogue between civilizations