I try not to worry about political stuff when I’m here in Lebanon. I mean, what’s the point? I never understand what’s going on anyway. My in-laws watch the news all day long and they’ll let me know if there’s something to worry about. My father-in-law worries the most of anybody and as a consequence his nerves are completely shot. He’s like a gun-shy horse, always waiting with trembling knees for the next bang. It works out well for me, though. I sleep like a log knowing he’s a few floors below me fretting enough for the whole family.
Yesterday around dinner time I heard the noise of a crowd in the big intersection near our building and I looked down to see some sort of demonstration about to start. People were massing under the intersection’s bridge near the army tank which is always parked there with its attendant soldiers. Traffic had slowed to a crawl as people drifted in twos and threes toward the gathering point and up on top of the bridge I saw large banners being readied for hanging from the girder. Someone was setting up a sound system and makeshift podium.
I wondered what was going on. I wasn’t exactly worried but a certain disquiet crept over me. Political tensions have been running pretty high in the country lately and who knew what a demonstration might turn into? Things could get violent. Dusk was falling and the figures milling around in the semi-darkness underneath the bridge began to take on a menacing aspect. I had just decided to call my father-in-law to ask him what was happening when I heard the swell of voices chanting something in unison. It was a short, rhythmic chant which quickly grew in volume. I rushed back to the window and the first thing I saw was the twin banners now hanging unfurled from the bridge. They were huge, stretching down several meters each with an identical symbol in bright red that I could see clearly from my window. Their meaning was impossible to misinterpret.
They were tomatoes.
(Yup. M confirmed it later when he came home from work and saw the story on the news. It was a protest by the local vegetable sellers against the high source price of tomatoes.)
And so you see, this is why it’s really a waste of my energy to worry about anything around here.
Your father-in-law reminds me a lot of my father in the sense that he worries about everything. We have never experienced war or anything, but he always thinks that one day it will happen, which for him is a good thing, as he'd like to get rid of all the people that are a nuisance to the country.
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