(no subject)
helloooo to anyone still out there lol. its 5 am and i woke up because i forgot to take my earrings out and they were hurting me and i couldnt fall back asleep so i decided to to a little research on lebanon and the political and social crisis there. random? kinda except i went to lunch with my friend sara who just got back from lebanon. she is lebanese and has family there.
anyway at lunch she started telling me how violent it has gotten over there and the basic reason for it and its really really interesting. so i decided to look it up on my own. seriously if you have time look it up yourself i promise you wont be bored. wikipedia is amazing in terms of that.
anyway this summer has been pretty quiet over there compared to last year and the year before. in 2005 the former prime minister was murdered and a huge number of people believed syria was behind the murder. the syrians had occupied parts of lebanon since israel ended its war with lebanon in the 80's. finally after tons of pressure from the un and other arab countries and the fighting that occurred all throughout 2006 syria agreed to leave and this calmed down for a little.
the thing is that there are so many religions in lebanon that the country is completely divided and they keep blaming all the horrible events that keep happening on each other creating even more hate and intolerance. sara said her mother will never ever even consider stepping foot in syria because she considers them responsible for the violence and instability in the country. extreme religious conviction is in my opinion to blame for all of this. sara said that in the schools there a huge insult is to call someone a jew. if you want to call someone dirty you just tell them they are a jew. the border between israel and lebanon is completely closed and probably will be for a long time.
the palestine liberation organization which hopes to expel the jews from israel and restore palestine has played a huge role in lebanese politics since the 1960s. the country holds tons of refugees from palestine but they do not accept them as citizens and until 2005 they were only allowed to work low level jobs. in 2005 they added 50 new jobs to the list of acceptable jobs for palestinians in lebanon but still isnt that crazy that today in the world there are still limits to the kinds of jobs you can do just because of your nationality?? that seems so backwards. the palestinian refugee camps are very poor and in horrible conditions. this summer they revolted against the lebanese army and throughout june and july different camps kept breaking out against the army. finally in july they ended these breakouts by invading the camps and basically killing all the rebels. look up lebanse conflicts of 2007 on wikipedia and its really cool because they give you the reactions to these conflicts and the bottom of everyone from the prime minister to the different leaders in the palestinian groups.
the craziest stories come from the civil war though from 1975 to 1990. there were so many massacres and a particularly brutal one, the damour massacre where muslim forces surrounded a christian neighborhood in beirut, the capital. a priest, father mansour labaky, in the neighborhood begged and begged them not to attack and to cease fire once they did. he spent a whole day calling muslim religious leaders attempting to get them to pursuade these groups to stop but htey did nothing. more than 500 innocent men women and children were killed for no reason. the muslim forces opened up coffins and burials and stole from the dead. they burned the entire village except for a few churches which they used as bases and garages for their equipment. its disgusting.
and the chances of the violence ending are very slim because there is so much hate in that region and so much passion for beliefs that people will do anything for their convictions. in the massacre i just mentioned, the leader said was quoted saying "lets give allah a holocaust he'll be proud of"how crazy is it that people still say that kind of a thing??? another massacre that caught my attention was one where they set up these check points all throughout beruit and you had to show them your id to get through. the lebanese id cards show your religious affiliation and if you were of a different religion than them they would just shoot you. more than 1000 people were killed in that way.
you are all probably bored out of your minds lol. sorry but this kind of this is just eye opening. im usually so willingly self centered about these kinds of things. im one of those people who could care less about global warming and anything that happens beyond my neighborhood but every now and then i read about something like this and feel like an idiot for not knowing about it sooner. because i honestly believe that thats how the world is going to end. everyone will be killed because by some massive and pointless religious war.
this is the kind of thing that makes me want to go make the world a better place. one of the very very few things that make me want to do that because in reality i usually think the world is doomed so why waste my life trying to make it better. but this is really scary.
.
anyway at lunch she started telling me how violent it has gotten over there and the basic reason for it and its really really interesting. so i decided to look it up on my own. seriously if you have time look it up yourself i promise you wont be bored. wikipedia is amazing in terms of that.
anyway this summer has been pretty quiet over there compared to last year and the year before. in 2005 the former prime minister was murdered and a huge number of people believed syria was behind the murder. the syrians had occupied parts of lebanon since israel ended its war with lebanon in the 80's. finally after tons of pressure from the un and other arab countries and the fighting that occurred all throughout 2006 syria agreed to leave and this calmed down for a little.
the thing is that there are so many religions in lebanon that the country is completely divided and they keep blaming all the horrible events that keep happening on each other creating even more hate and intolerance. sara said her mother will never ever even consider stepping foot in syria because she considers them responsible for the violence and instability in the country. extreme religious conviction is in my opinion to blame for all of this. sara said that in the schools there a huge insult is to call someone a jew. if you want to call someone dirty you just tell them they are a jew. the border between israel and lebanon is completely closed and probably will be for a long time.
the palestine liberation organization which hopes to expel the jews from israel and restore palestine has played a huge role in lebanese politics since the 1960s. the country holds tons of refugees from palestine but they do not accept them as citizens and until 2005 they were only allowed to work low level jobs. in 2005 they added 50 new jobs to the list of acceptable jobs for palestinians in lebanon but still isnt that crazy that today in the world there are still limits to the kinds of jobs you can do just because of your nationality?? that seems so backwards. the palestinian refugee camps are very poor and in horrible conditions. this summer they revolted against the lebanese army and throughout june and july different camps kept breaking out against the army. finally in july they ended these breakouts by invading the camps and basically killing all the rebels. look up lebanse conflicts of 2007 on wikipedia and its really cool because they give you the reactions to these conflicts and the bottom of everyone from the prime minister to the different leaders in the palestinian groups.
the craziest stories come from the civil war though from 1975 to 1990. there were so many massacres and a particularly brutal one, the damour massacre where muslim forces surrounded a christian neighborhood in beirut, the capital. a priest, father mansour labaky, in the neighborhood begged and begged them not to attack and to cease fire once they did. he spent a whole day calling muslim religious leaders attempting to get them to pursuade these groups to stop but htey did nothing. more than 500 innocent men women and children were killed for no reason. the muslim forces opened up coffins and burials and stole from the dead. they burned the entire village except for a few churches which they used as bases and garages for their equipment. its disgusting.
and the chances of the violence ending are very slim because there is so much hate in that region and so much passion for beliefs that people will do anything for their convictions. in the massacre i just mentioned, the leader said was quoted saying "lets give allah a holocaust he'll be proud of"how crazy is it that people still say that kind of a thing??? another massacre that caught my attention was one where they set up these check points all throughout beruit and you had to show them your id to get through. the lebanese id cards show your religious affiliation and if you were of a different religion than them they would just shoot you. more than 1000 people were killed in that way.
you are all probably bored out of your minds lol. sorry but this kind of this is just eye opening. im usually so willingly self centered about these kinds of things. im one of those people who could care less about global warming and anything that happens beyond my neighborhood but every now and then i read about something like this and feel like an idiot for not knowing about it sooner. because i honestly believe that thats how the world is going to end. everyone will be killed because by some massive and pointless religious war.
this is the kind of thing that makes me want to go make the world a better place. one of the very very few things that make me want to do that because in reality i usually think the world is doomed so why waste my life trying to make it better. but this is really scary.
.