A Message from the Organizers of the Baalbeck International Festival

Dear Internationally Renowned Artist who will be performing at the Baalbeck International Festival: Thank you for accepting the invitation to play at our festival in the historic site of Baalbeck. Now that the date of your performance is coming closer, we would like to inform you of the following:

- Lebanese people are always late, so your performance may start at 7.30 (as scheduled), or at 7.45, or at 8, or at 8.15pm. In any case, we cannot start until all the VIPs have arrived, so please be flexible when waiting in the dressing room to go on stage.

- Once you start, don’t be surprised if your soft rendition of Schubert disappears by the sound of the nearby mosque’s call for prayer. See, we cannot possibly know what time those pesky things start singing and schedule your concert around it, so you’ll just have to live with that.

- The local population will be very happy to receive you, and will demonstrate this intermittently with fireworks and gunshots around the venue throughout the entire duration of your (acoustic) concert. Don’t worry about it, it’s tradition.

- Similarly, a welcome-party will be held across the street, and cars will drive by honking loudly. Don’t worry about that either, we will send the police to ask them to turn down the volume of the music, and they will do so with blasting sirens so you are sure they are doing their job.

- Some of the audience will be there to listen to you play the piano. Most of them are not. They’re the ones with the expensive tickets sitting in the front row, and they will come and go as they please. Don’t think that they are rude for getting up in the middle of the concert – they’re just trying to get their money’s worth in terms of showing off. Similarly, we’ve made the floor-boards of the venue extra squeaky, to assure the full attention of the whole audience when the above-mentioned guests get up and walk out of the temple during your concert to answer their phones.

- If all the noise and disturbances make you feel unappreciated, know that we can’t help it, this is how people are here. The client is the king, so we can’t possibly ask our security people to tell paying guests to turn off their cell phones, or return on time after the break is over. That would just be impolite.

So, we hope you will have a great concert here at the International Festival of Baalbeck, and remember: it’s not about you – it’s about them!

Looking forward to seeing you here,

(signed) The Organizers of the Baalbeck International Festival

Can you tell we had a great night at David Fray’s acoustic piano-recital yesterday, in the Temple of Bacchus at the Baalbeck International Festival?

What I really wanted to say about that

“The absence of Marwa’s story from the mainstream media and the failure to start a debate about the immediate dangers of present European anti-Muslim racism shows the depth of the problem and draws us to expect a gloomy future for Muslims in Europe. Muslims like Neda only get to the news if their story serves the dominant narrative that presents Islam as the primary threat to freedom, while Muslims like Marwa who expose the pervasive racism of the West and challenge the existing stereotypes fail to get their story told.”

Read the whole article here.

(And yes, he took my title. But he’s allowed to, because he is my husband.)

One woman makes the news, another one doesn’t

So here’s what happened, and we saw it:A woman in Iran protested the outcome of the elections, and was shot by the Religious Guard. She died on the street. International outrage followed.

So here’s what happened, and we didn’t see it: An Egyptian woman living in Germany sued a man for using racist and sexist slurs against her. She won; the man is fined 780 Euros. He appealed, and when she showed up in the courtroom for the second trial, he attacked her and stabbed her 18 times, to death, with a knife – in front of her 3-year old child. Her husband, who rushed in to help her, was shot by the guards in the courtroom and remains in critical condition in the hospital. International silence followed.

Can we all take a moment to think about what it means that the first death is immediately widely covered in European and American press, and the second death widely silenced?

Simpelweg hilarisch

Ik heb al eens eerder geschreven over de lolligheid van een multiculturele relatie: humor laat zich maar lastig vertalen. Ik herinner me een Iraanse collega in Amsterdam die elke ochtend bulderend van het lachen de nieuwste Iraanse cartoon zat te lezen – cartoons die zelfs met de beste uitleg niet meer dan een glimlach op het gezicht van de rest van het team veroorzaakten. Hier is weer zo iets. Onderstaande video is een clip van een slapstick-achtige TV-show genaamd S.L.Chi (‘meest irritante ding’) die eind jaren ’90 hier in Libanon op de buis was. De meeste van mijn vrienden vinden dit geweldig, en kunnen niet stoppen met lachen als ze dit eenmaal na beginnen te doen. Ik doe heus mijn best in het integratie-proces, maar dit? Ik snap niet wat hier zo grappig aan is... (vertaling onder de video):

- Meneer, meneer! - Ja? - Uw deur staat open! - Wat? - De deur! De deur staat open! - Deur? - Deur! - Mijn deur? - Uw deur staat open! - Oh! (zegt iets tegen zijn mede-passagier/chauffeur) Dankuwel meneer!

Lachen gieren brullen, nietwaar... Wat denk jij?

Lost and found: does anyone know this little guy?

I found him on the street here in Hamra a little while ago. Someone must have loved him dearly – he’s missing a leg and two arms, and possibly his ears as well. If you know the kid who lost this little guy, please direct him or her to me; this little one is waiting to be picked up…

dsc_0070