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.

What a summer. What an extraordinary, incredible, lovely, indescribable summer. Hopefully not too-indescribable, or it would be hard to articulate it in this post…! And now it’s over, and tomorrow I get on a plane and fly back to Beirut. As my business partner Oni Kabir put it to me this evening, “It’s amazing how full circle things feel.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Let’s take a moment to reflect on the past year – 365 days ago I was working at the Portland Lobster Company and gearing up to fly to Lebanon, with literally zero plan besides to intern at the Daily Star. I was also painting houses. Hey, don’t knock it – It paid the bills. But I was staring out into a future that I’d no idea how to envision – In 45 days I’d be getting on a plane for Beirut, praying that Nick would, in fact, be at the terminal to receive me (he was).

9 months later I returned to the United States for vacation, initially planning on being here for a 30 days. However, as my grandmother had major surgery over the winter and wouldn’t be in Maine until late August, it was important (and fantastic) to stay for another three weeks to see her. And so my return date morphed to September 11th (I didn’t choose the date).

I was up late this evening, faced with the sudden urge to watch “Casablanca.” I can only imagine it has much to do with my longing to get bored at 2:30 in the morning and wander over to Captains Cabin, for a beer (or several).

But I have an awful, frightful, terrifying secret that I must get off my chest – I had never seen Casablanca all the way through. Only in bits and pieces, here and there. I know, it’s sad.

However in retrospect, I’m sort of glad I hadn’t – At least this way nobody could accuse me of trying to, well, you know, be Humphrey Bogart.

I guess I’ll just have to be more careful now. That pained expression I get when I’m talking about women I’ve loved over many rounds of scotch at 4 in the morning in any dive in Hamra? Well, now you can assume it’s just my way of pretending we still live in a world where one can run guns to the resistance in Ethiopia and pretend that, if it’s said a smoke-filled-bar where the men speak Arabic and the women speak French, it makes one a protagonist. Only in the movies, I’m afraid – although, it seems, love still finds a way to hurt us more in real life than on celluloid.

No matter. There’s something magical about the movie – I think it’s sort of incredible that it was filmed prior to the American invasion of North Africa. I think that the character of Rick and the love triangle, and his actions, must have had an enormous impact on the American viewer at the time. The movie does not scream “love triumphs over all.” If it did that, it’d just be foolishness. Instead it says, “love is a uniquely free thing. Fascists don’t feel love, rebels feel love. Bar men feel love. France feels love, and God dammit, Americans feels love. And the only people who aren’t having any fun are the Nazi’s, and we’d best keep it that way, because we’d rather be in more pain from love than not love at all.” The movie beautifully orchestrates the viewer into a position where they must equate rebellion, intellectualism, sympathy for the underdog, good music, gorgeous women, and smokey saloons with love, the opposite (an absence of love) with the Nazi’s. The Fascists are here to take your fun and your love, and by God, if even this drunken angry murdering love-struck chain-smoker can do the right thing, why can’t we all?

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.

A few months back, I wrote a piece entitled “My dear Israel.” In it, I derided Israel for it’s inexplicably overpowering assault on Gaza – Look, every situation has two sides – Hamas took off the gloves, and it’s entirely up to both timeframe and opinion as to who shot first. The truth is, when it comes to Isarel/Palestinine, the first shots were fired by people most of whom have not lived to see their consequences.

Such as it is in Lebanon today, as well, although the wounds are certainly fresher in the Occupied Territories’ northern neighbor: Those who fired many of the first shots are no longer alive to see the positive, and negative, consequences that lead to the Lebanon of May 2009.

Such as it is in Lebanon today, as well, although the wounds are certainly fresher in the Occupied Territories’ northern neighbor: Those who fired many of the first shots are no longer alive to see the positive, and negative, consequences that lead to the Lebanon of May 2009.

I have lived here about seven months – I have seen what a quiet Beirut is, but I have yet to live through “accidents” or “unfortunate periods” or “trouble” or whatever those who have lived through it like to call mid-to-large-scale political or regional violence. But I know one thing – I am an outsider, at the fringes of what these days I can only tentatively call my neighborhood, my city, and my country. Because of course it will never really be “my neighborhood, my city, my country,” not just because I am not Lebanese, but also largely because there are so few in Lebanon who make that claim themselves – the Lebanon of their birthright is hardly the Lebanon it is today, because nobody deserves citizenship to a country in pieces. I think every Lebanese awaits the day when their nation and their passport don’t raise eyebrows or pulses.

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.

By Your’s Truly with the Very Much Needed Help of Florence Thireau – Original Article Can be Read Here
Many say they skip demonstrations out of opposition to organizers
BEIRUT: Protests continued in Lebanon and around the world this week, calling for an end to Israeli hostilities and global action to stop what the UN Human Rights [...]

BEIRUT: A Carnegie Middle East Center Seminar Thursday at the Rotana Gefinor Hotel in Hamra discussed the effects and repercussions of the Gaza war and the two-year Gaza siege. The discussion did not break much new ground, pointing familiar fingers and shying away from serious analysis on the role of civil society and the prospects of legal challenges to this latest Israeli action on the people of Gaza.

This most recent conflict began in late December and has cost hundreds of Palestinian civilian lives, despite broadly defined, and according to an American lawyer attending Thursday’s event, “ill-conceived,” military goals. Hours after the end of the seminar, the UN passed a resolution calling for a conditional cease-fire, subsequently rejected by both Israel and Hamas.

I had my first “Ah-Ha” moment as a journalist today. It helped me in many ways define what it is that a “Journalist” is supposed to be.
First the moment itself – I was writing an article this afternoon on a seminar regarding the current Gaza conflict and the 2 year old Gaza seige. I was [...]

Possible correction to the note below: Lebanese military personnel have arrested members of the Hamas in Lebanon organization, suggesting that the Lebanese government does not believe the PFLP was responsible for the rocket attacks on Israel.
To put everyone at ease, it seems that World War 3 will not be happening this morning in Southern Lebanon. [...]

From the Daily Star, by Your’s Truly – Published on December 27th, 2008 – Click here for the original
BEIRUT: A strategic partnership between Lebanese technology companies EDM and eSharing is breaking the “go-it-alone” status quo of the Middle East IT sector. eSharing will develop enterprise resource software that interfaces directly with EDM’s new Global Positioning [...]

Although I find their analysis a little hackneyed and sadly standard, this is a nice article about the current calm and the future challenges facing Lebanon. As Nick said, “Using an unknown business man as the central pillar of a tired argument does seem like a stretch.” From the article:
Construction cranes dot Beirut’s Mediterranean skyline. [...]

By Yours Truly, Published in the Daily Star on December 24th, 2008 – Click here to see original
BEIRUT: The Education’s Ministry decision to make intellectual property rights (IPR) the theme of its SchoolNet project in 2009 highlights the growing prioritization of anti-piracy initiatives in Lebanon. Education Minister Bahia Hariri delivered a speech to a workshop [...]

You’ll find a deck of pictures from my trip to the Cedar Reserve in Shouf, Lebanon, here: http://williamcurtisdonovan.com/photos/?album=1&gallery=10 – the first half of the gallery is of pictures on the way from Beirut to the Reserve, with some amazing pictures of the Shouf area where Karma is from. There will be a second gallery shortly [...]

Link to the Original Article, Published December 5th, 2008, Daily Star
BEIRUT: Lebanon is well-positioned to offer web development, digital marketing, and information technology services to local, regional and international clients, according to several owners and partners of companies in and around Beirut. These experts agreed that Lebanon’s global position for IT services, outsourcing and off-shoring [...]

Link to Original Article Published in the Daily Star, Published December 3rd, 2008
BEIRUT: The American University of Beirut (AUB) on Monday welcomed esteemed Harvard Business School professor John Quelch for a discussion on the ramifications and theories of his most recent book, “Greater Good: How Good Marketing Makes for Better Democracy.”
Quelch, the senior associate dean [...]

Hamra pub has weathered 44 years of wars and sieges
By yours truly – This is the most fun I’ve ever had writing anything. Ever. Pictures are my own and were not featured in the original article.
Click here for the Original Article from the Daily Star, Published December 2nd, 2008

BEIRUT: The speakers filter over the noise [...]

Waiting waiting waiting – Patience patience patience. This is my new mantra, and I’m not very good at it. Waiting to see what will happen at the Daily Star with my proposal, waiting for other people to make decisions about various other business ventures, waiting waiting waiting.
This weekend I spent Saturday morning finishing Robert Fisk’s [...]

I’ve written and re-written the intro to this post half a dozen times. How does one sum up the feeling of being 9000 miles from home on Thanksgiving? It’s not exactly a good feeling – Actually it’s not much of a feeling at all – More of a sort of nagging non-feeling. I think that [...]