Alain Gresh is in Lebanon. 'Les douleurs de l'enfantement' is a letter describing his first impressions of the country after the July war. In French. With the title, Gresh is referring to the infamous remark made by Condoleeza Rice to describe the Israeli-Lebanese war.
I may translate it to English later...
''My people decide the truth in sixty countries every morning. And in every one it's different.''
Since March 29th 2006
5 comments:
Sophia - may I impose upon your kindness? I've had no less than 3 emails saying the commander of French forces now in Lebanon has said that if Israeli planes continue to violate Lebanese airspace that they'll be treated as hostile and engaged. All those mails were from Syria and I don't have time today to investigate. Have you heard/seen anything similar?
Thanks.
Mark
PS: Another good reason to select the dessert you chose is that it gives you yet another reason to test the quality of the fruit by eating some first. That's what I do whenever I prepare it :-)
Hi Mark,
I have not heard about this from the news and I did not receive mails about it. I guess it is only wishful thinking.
Two things are however clear: France and French soldiers and commanders in the UNIFIL, even though they have a long time declared animosity for Israel's actions in south Lebanon, will not put such a threat into practice. Chirac, right now, feels pressure of internal zionist critic for the next elections in France and he seems more inclined to listen to Saudi Arabia with their new conciliatory line toward Israel and the US.
Moreover, Israel has been flying war planes over Lebanon daily since I was a child, I am not sure they can change their habits in such a radical way...
Thanks for the dessert receipe, I will try it on the next occasion or make my daughter try it under my supervision...We are pretty much dessert eaters also, whenever there is some at home, it disappears within 24 hours.
Thanks for the web pictures developper and organizer link, it looks easy to use and I will try it sometimes this week. I installed Picasa on my laptop but sometimes it makes me crazy...
I have so much to do before Christmas and I added more than 10 hours spanish lessons to my fall weekly schedule. I will be traveling in south America and Cuba next year (actually I will be in Cuba for two weeks before Christmas) and I will use these opportunities to discover my father's roots in Cuba and one of his cousins who lives in Mexico. My grand'parents immigrated from lebanon to Cuba as many Lebanese did at that time, in the twenties, with my father as a one year old, made a little fortune, came back 14 years later to their native village, bought the properties of those from the family who remained in latin America (in Lebanon, properties ownership usually stays in the family). My father kept a correspondance with his cousins for a long time and during the civil war the connections were lost...
The reason why i did not learn sapnish until now is that my father wanted us to fully integrate Lebanese standards, learning French and the rest...he kept saying: 'I don't want you to learn Spanish it is of no use here in Lebanon'...My three brothers learned spanish lately, during the last ten years, I am the last one to do it. I am very excited at the prospect of reconnecting with this part of the family's memory, places and people...
Mark,
I did some search on the information you mentioned and it only appeared on Libnannews. But this site is a rumour website. I have never been able to cross check the 'exclusive' informations they sometimes publish.
Hi Sophia many thanks, that's what I came up with too and as you rightly say they're a rumour site, I don't use their stuff at all unless I can verify it elsewhere. I asked Sasa of Syria News Wire if he had a URI and he provided one from Israel National News in the comments to his posting he told me that it was originally an AFP report.
Interesting. No doubt there's all sorts of agendas there BUT there is a record. During the war in Bosnia the French peacekeeping contingent were attacked by the Serbs. The rules of engagement were if the Serbs attack you run away. The French did not obey the ROEs they attacked back and were never attacked again by anyone.
As I say - doubtless lots of agendas in the background but in all honesty I've reached the point where I don't caare how Lebanon gets a break just so long as she gets one.
Lots of luck with the language lessons - I'm frankly very envious.
Mark,
I am inclined to believe that if the UN soldiers engage in combats to protect themselves against local groups it might work well as a deterrent but then this was Serbia, the evil for French from all political affiliations...It won't be the same with Israeli warplanes and soldiers.
Don't be envious and go for language lessons. I assure you, you will enjoy the whole process. Of course it is sometimes painful to act and appear like an idiot not being able to express yourself, but inside you retrieve some of your childhood. Learning a whole language from start is becoming a child again. You have to take it as if it were a game, a mind game...
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