We were a handful of friends sitting at a table on the sea shore. I felt content with the night that was drenched with the spray of waves and the lights of the boats floating near the coast. I had extremely humble aspirations: to spend two quiet hours in a country that has not known calmness for decades; to fight time with the agreeableness of old friends; to laugh a little in a country that has turned into a crying institution; to have fresh vegetables and greens, especially thyme; and to have fresh fish in a country where everything has become spoilt. Sometimes an individual's relation with his country can shrivel. It might be restricted to the road leading to the office and to a coffee shop that is the meeting place of former comrades with graying hair whose sons have emigrated. In order to reconcile itself with what remains of the country, it tolerates the rise of new stars with dialects that are too large for the fragile Lebanese structure and with lexicons that were never witnessed, even during the most violent times of war. So we told ourselves: let us leave the land to its affairs and its sadness, and let us forget the barefaced greed that appeared when it was said that our regional waters contain some oil and gas. Mountains have been ground and sold. Sand has been sucked in and sold. They are now getting ready to pounce on hidden riches, God forbid. It is hard for anyone in Lebanon to enjoy the mountain breeze or the sound of the sea without seeing the region's files precede fresh fish at their table. The Lebanese are a people dedicated to politics; a people of journalists and analysts. It all becomes complete if you are lucky to have friends who follow every tiny detail in the Lebanese “regions” and are able to link these details to the fears of the Middle East region. One of them said that the black clouds are gathering, and that the Iranian nuclear file will witness additional escalation. He suggested the monitoring of the situation from Baghdad to Beirut, without forgetting the situation of the UNIFIL in south Lebanon and the “incidents” that sometimes affect its relations with the inhabitants. Another person interfered, pointing to the danger of the recent explosion in the province of Sistan and Baluchistan, in southeast Iran. He said that Sunni-Shiite relations in the province are going through testing times. He expressed his fear from the return of sectarian violence in Iraq if it remained without a government or if a government was formed that would remind of the triumph of a party over the other. He wished that the Lebanese would attempt to avoid new sparks, as their land seems to be prone to ignite due to the contact between the fears and the files. A third person said that the region is moving towards more dates for divorce. Divorce is imminent and probable between the south and north of Sudan. Yemen might also witness a bloody attempt for a divorce between its south and north. The lack of tolerance, the identity crisis, and the rise of extremism could entice each minority to perpetrate the region's dream. The dreams of divorce exceed the dreams of coexistence and marriage. A fourth person said that the international tribunal will explode in Lebanon, as it exceeds the country's ability for tolerance. He added that the structural transformations in the Lebanese society make the project of a state highly improbable. He considered that Lebanon's future depends on the relations and calculations inside a triangle that includes President Bashar el Assad, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and Saad Hariri. He noted that Syria today is strong, stable, and able to turn into a force of stability in the region, and that Lebanon is the first test. It was a pleasant dinner. The fish was fresh and the sea was lovely. And my friends wrote this article in my place.
