some guy in lebanon

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It seems this is it – A final stand was made, and I cannot thank enough those who have tried their very best for me, and those who are still trying.

But it seems that there is no solution to my problem in Lebanon. For reasons I don’t understand, I am not allowed entry, not even to collect my things and empty my bank account. A work permit is the only option, but I cannot make that option work, for now.

So now I’m truly in diaspora… and it’s amazing to know what that feels like. Whatever it is that the Lebanese government assumes I’m up to, at least I know I’m not. I have infinite reasons to be upset, but for some reason, finally, after losing my cool for a few hours, I am strangely at peace with everything.

Thank you Amman for your help – And thank you Lebanon. Hopefully, somehow, I’ll see you soon.

I’m tan – “How did you get so tan, Will?” You might ask – Well, dear reader, this is for three reasons:

1. I live at the eastern end of the Mediteranian. One can get a tan just by walking around
2. I spent Saturday at “Lazy B,” a wonderful little cabana-style resort south of Beirut.
3. I spent most of Sunday sitting in no-man’s-land at the Syrian border in the sun. For five hours. Just to be in Syria for forty five minutes.

I want to remark on this last point – “Why did you go to Syria, Will?” Well, dear reader, it’s because my visa was going to expire and they changed the rules in Lebanon requiring an exit stamp to leave at the airport if you’re in your third month of a tourist visa. But I couldn’t get an exit stamp because my visa was going to expire in two days, so they told me ‘just go to Syria – you don’t need an exit stamp.’ Of course, going to Syria means waltzing into one of the most skeptical-of-Americans nation in the world – they purposefully make you wait forever if you’re American to dissuade you from coming back – or something, I’m not really quite sure (they fax the information to Damascus – who knows how long it sits next to a cup of coffee there). Luckily, they let me in after I got a mean tan – I had to be out of the country for “a few mintues” according to Lebanese authorities in order to renew my visa.

Unfortunately, I have renewed my tourist visa too many times, so they confiscated my passport on the way back into Lebanon, and I spent this morning at General Security sorting things out.

Almost 8 months in Beirut now – Eight long months. As I sit back and think – go over my current situation, I can’t help but notice the totality, and the still insignificance, of what I’ve accomplished so far… and all the people who have trusted me, who have had faith in me, and who have stood by me.

I will never be able to repay the debt I owe to those who’ve made this possible – even here, I see that truly it takes a village to raise Will Donovan. Perhaps more here than anywhere.

Who has arrived in Lebanon without family, with limited finances, with no contacts, and with a degree in Religion, and built a business from nothing? To those of you who have done so, you know how hard it is. To those who have not, perhaps you can imagine.

To those who have treated me like a brother, God Bless you. You will always have a place in my heart. I could not have done this without you.

To those in particular who have opened your homes and your hearts to me, thank you. There are no words to express my gratitude.

My God, it’s been ages, hasn’t it? I am so sorry for not keeping up with my blog, but I’ve been SO busy over the past two months. So many people who are reading this are not at all uptodate on what’s been going with me, and I don’t know where to start, but I’ll try to just give a brief overview.

My God, it’s been ages, hasn’t it? I am so sorry for not keeping up with my blog, but I’ve been SO busy over the past two months. So many people who are reading this are not at all uptodate on what’s been going with me, and I don’t know where to start, but I’ll try to just give a brief overview.

In the past two months I’ve been so blessed to have my name and expertise grown noticed by many people here in Lebanon. In particular, through some business associates, I now have a budding career in strategic communications consulting in Lebanon, and I find myself one of only a few people who are offering those types of services here. What does that mean? In Lebanon, unlike say, in America, there are very few people who help companies…

From InformationWeek:

Under a program called Project Match, IBM will help workers laid off from domestic sites obtain travel and visa assistance for countries in which Big Blue has openings. Mostly that’s developing markets like India, China, and Brazil.

The climate is warm, there’s no shortage of exotic food, and the cost of living is rock bottom. That’s IBM’s pitch to the laid-off American workers it’s offering to place in India. The catch: Wages in the country are pennies-on-the-dollar compared to U.S. salaries.

So, it’s almost been three month in Beirut. How time goes by in a flash! I won’t forget it… so, to recap, here are some things I’ve learned about myself in the past 87 days.

Note (8/19/09) – This post has been getting a lot of attention recently due to a link from a blog called ‘Dances with Klingons‘ – So I wanted to add a remark. Something that I didn’t understand when I posted this article, is the degree to which it is possible, if you have no dependents, [...]

Tomorrow I will be writing part 3 of a series I am writing, “The American Diaspora.” So far: The Coming American Diaspora The American Diaspora, Part 2: The Economic Consequences of the Bailout In the meantime, the always informed Christopher Sheeron recently shared this interesting article from the Wall Street Journal (it seems the youth [...]

Update: Please note that this is a follow-up article to a previous post, “The Coming American Diaspora.” To begin what is really an extended diatribe, consider this quote from Nathan Gardels’ interview with George Soros on Friday: U.S. influence will wane. It has already declined. For the past 25 years, we have been running a [...]

Update: Also read “Part 2 of the American Diaspora – Economic Consequences of the Bailout” which is currently a top-ranked article on Google for the keywords “American Diaspora”! I can’t believe I wrote this in early October… guess I had a little foresight, eh? People ask me why I’m leaving the country – why I’m [...]