Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
With the constant stress of the past few days and the bombings, I had not considered how much the reconstruction would cost. According to this article by The Daily Star, the damages currently total $25 million, and I believe that only includes roads and not the airport. As I have written previously, Lebanon is still rebuilding from the civil war and past encounters with Israeli bombs, and the current bombing campaign is largely targeting infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and the airport, which Israel bombed again this afternoon.
The economy does not just suffer from the strain of reconstruction, it also suffers when people are not able to go to work because the bridges are out. Most of the teachers in my program could not make it to the university today simply because the bridges were out.
The UN Security Council has debated passing a resolution calling for the release of the soldier held in Gaza, but the US blocked this resolution as it was "unbalanced" and did not take into account that the UN plans to send people to the region to evaluate the situation. Bascially, the US does not like that the resolution condemns the Israeli offensive in Gaza. I know that many in the US scoff at the UN and do not think that its resolutions really mean anything, but in the Middle East such a resolution would have at the very least changed things psychologically and politically. The Palestinians cling to such resolutions and the Israeli violations of them, basically because that is all they have. If the resolution would have passed and if Israel had chosen to ignore it (which is pretty likely) it would have given the Palestinians more fuel for their fire. On the other hand, this also reinforces the view here in the Middle East that the West does not really care about them as we chose to ignore human suffering and focus more on politics. I'm not saying this is necessarily the case, but it is not hard to see how this perception can arise from such actions.
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After hearing about Hizbullah hitting the Israeli battleship, I became very upset and unfortunately I chose that time to call the parents. Given that the Israelis have responded heavily in the past and seem to like this "collective punishment" approach, I can only imagine what this means. Mom asked that I leave the first chance that I get, but I feel safer on campus than chancing it on the roads north that run by the sea and across bridges. I am told that there are 5 bridges between here and the Syrian border, and those are prime targets that I don't want to be near. Basically, I think the consensus between the other students here is to wait for the US to come and take us and not chance it on our own. We are worried about those who are trying to make their way to Syria.
To be continued...
The economy does not just suffer from the strain of reconstruction, it also suffers when people are not able to go to work because the bridges are out. Most of the teachers in my program could not make it to the university today simply because the bridges were out.
The UN Security Council has debated passing a resolution calling for the release of the soldier held in Gaza, but the US blocked this resolution as it was "unbalanced" and did not take into account that the UN plans to send people to the region to evaluate the situation. Bascially, the US does not like that the resolution condemns the Israeli offensive in Gaza. I know that many in the US scoff at the UN and do not think that its resolutions really mean anything, but in the Middle East such a resolution would have at the very least changed things psychologically and politically. The Palestinians cling to such resolutions and the Israeli violations of them, basically because that is all they have. If the resolution would have passed and if Israel had chosen to ignore it (which is pretty likely) it would have given the Palestinians more fuel for their fire. On the other hand, this also reinforces the view here in the Middle East that the West does not really care about them as we chose to ignore human suffering and focus more on politics. I'm not saying this is necessarily the case, but it is not hard to see how this perception can arise from such actions.
~~~~
After hearing about Hizbullah hitting the Israeli battleship, I became very upset and unfortunately I chose that time to call the parents. Given that the Israelis have responded heavily in the past and seem to like this "collective punishment" approach, I can only imagine what this means. Mom asked that I leave the first chance that I get, but I feel safer on campus than chancing it on the roads north that run by the sea and across bridges. I am told that there are 5 bridges between here and the Syrian border, and those are prime targets that I don't want to be near. Basically, I think the consensus between the other students here is to wait for the US to come and take us and not chance it on our own. We are worried about those who are trying to make their way to Syria.
To be continued...
posted by Courtney at 7:12 AM
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