A Texan Abroad

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for First Day of Training for the Earth Day Half Marathon in Gambier

2010-03-08T21:39:00.000-05:00

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for First Day of Training for the Earth Day Half Marathon in Gambier

I am back in the saddle (well hopefully). The job market has been frustrating and exciting at the same time. I ran in the Cowtown Marathon 9 days ago and suffered greatly. That said, I am training for the Earth Day Half Marathon in late April. The goal will be - at present - to beat 1hour and 45 minutes.

It's on...

Support Independent Music! Support James Hyland! So, give if you can!

2009-10-07T15:38:00.005-04:00

I take great joy in bragging about my brother James. I am convinced that he is a talented artist, but one may say my perception is biased. I agree. I am biased. But, indulge me for a moment and let's take a look at other observers.

My brother's former band - the South Austin Jug Band - received the award for Best Alt-Country Album of 2008 by the Indie Acoustic Project for their last studio album entitled "Strange Invitation".

San Francisco’s East Bay Express says James “makes a joyful noise that seems made of pure sunlight and moonshine.”

Performing Songwriter Magazine claims “Hyland possesses a hypnotic power and an intensity that is emotionally captivating.”

Michael Barnes of the Austin American Statesman writes, “His gently rolling voice was exquisitely tuned, never showy, always poised for the right turn of musical phrase. His parched lyrics begged for a close listen.”

That's my brother!

Now, my brother is launching a brave project to allow him to record an album. The James Hyland 2010 People's Album fund drive launched this past Monday (October 5, 2009). The initiative will last until December 1. In this time period, James will attempt to raise $26,200 to record, mix, master, and push the record in time for a April 2010 release date. Brave, indeed.

For their generosity, donors will receive gifts in return, ranging from thanks in the liner notes to a private party, depending on how much one gives.

The idea is simple. My brother needs to produce an album so he can secure gigs around the country. This is where my brother - and many musicians like him - make their living. Obviously, to generate $26k by performing would require many many shows. But, here's the rub. It is difficult to secure shows without the benefit of an album for the venue to push the artist. So, the vicious circle runs rampant. Hence, the fund drive.

Here is my direct plea to my friends. You all have been there for me in the past, and I am asking you – as a personal favor to me – to financially support my brother’s effort to produce a quality album while preserving his rights to his intellectual property and controlling the artistic creation. I cannot stress enough how important this fact is to an artist who is not one of the cookie cutter products that pollute commercial radio.

So, if you are single with a real job, I would appreciate you kicking in $100 or $250 to the fund drive.

Those of you with real jobs who are married (without kids), I ask you to kick in $50 or $100.

Those of you with real jobs who are married (with kids), I ask you to kick in $25 or $50.

For my friends who are impoverished graduate students with grim job prospects or undergrads, I kindly request you give $10 to $25.

Every dollar counts. If you are able to give – which I will view as a personal favor to me – please note on your check or the Donor Information Form that you are my friend. This will help my brother see the wide network of support an artist can have in the creation of quality independent music.

So, check out my brother's website detailing his reasons for the fund raising initiative and how one can support directly this drive. The music is quality and I am confident more people will dig on it than not.

I appreciate your time and consideration...

James Hyland 2010

James Hyland and the Joint Chiefs on Facebook

James Hyland on Twitter

James Hyland on YouTube

James Hyland on Flickr

I appreciate it...

Support independent music! Support James Hyland!

2009-10-06T23:53:00.005-04:00

James Hyland 2010

I take great joy in bragging about my brother James. I am convinced that he is a talented artist, but one may say my perception is biased. I agree. I am biased. But, indulge me for a moment and let's take a look at other observers.

The Indie Acoustic Project for Best Alt-Country Album of 2008 (the last studio album of the South Austin Jug Band - "Strange Invitation")

San Francisco’s East Bay Express says James “makes a joyful noise that seems made of pure sunlight and moonshine.”

Performing Songwriter Magazine claims “Hyland possesses a hypnotic power and an intensity that is emotionally captivating.”

Michael Barnes of the Austin American Statesman writes, “His gently rolling voice was exquisitely tuned, never showy, always poised for the right turn of musical phrase. His parched lyrics begged for a close listen.”

That's my brother!

Now, my brother is launching a brave project to allow him to record an album. The James Hyland 2010 People's Album fund drive launched this past Monday (October 5, 2009). The initiative will last until December 1. In this time period, James will attempt to raise $26,200 to record, mix, master, and push the record in time for a April 2010 release date. Brave, indeed.

For their generosity, donors will receive gifts in return, ranging from thanks in the liner notes to a private party, depending on how much one gives.

The idea is simple. My brother needs to produce an album so he can secure gigs around the country. This is where my brother - and many musicians like him - make their living. Obviously, to generate $26k by performing would require many many shows. But, here's the rub. It is difficult to secure shows without the benefit of an album for the venue to push the artist. So, the vicious circle runs rampant. Hence, the fund drive.

So, check out my brother's website detailing his reasons for the fund raising initiative and how one can support this drive. The music is quality and I am confident more people will dig on it than not.

I appreciate your time and consideration...

James Hyland 2010

James Hyland and the Joint Chiefs on Facebook

James Hyland on Twitter

James Hyland on YouTube

James Hyland on Flickr

I appreciate it...

Let the applying begin

2009-09-21T05:38:00.002-04:00

A number of jobs have finally come online, my job application letter has been approved, and my letter writers are beginning to upload their propaganda to my Interfolio file. I am excited about the process. A great job for was advertised recently - an immigration historian at a university in Texas. Get me home!! More to come from the traveling circus...

Argentine Cattle No Longer Home Just On The Range

2009-09-14T09:14:00.002-04:00

My wife is not a big red meat eater. She prefers fish, chicken, and pork to a steak or hamburger. Yet, one of her favorite pastimes is an asado argentino, or Argentine cookout. Really the only time my wife will happily enjoy beef is if it happens to be a bife de chorizo, or some other cut of Argentine beef. Famed for their open range, grass-fed beef, it looks like the economic reality of beef production maybe changing the industry in the southern cone. The following is a news article aired on NPR's Morning Edition.

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by Juan Forero

Argentina's vast plains are bigger than Texas, and for more than a century, great herds of cattle roamed and ate to their hearts' content. That helped build up Argentina's image as the producer of lean and natural grass-fed beef.

But ever so quietly, Argentina is increasingly fattening its herd in American-style feedlots. Promoters say it's efficient, but some Argentines wonder if quality isn't being lost for the sake of quantity.

Each day, 12,000 animals from all over cattle country arrive at the Liniers cattle market on the south side of Buenos Aires.

Read or listen to the rest of the story here

Exhibit honors Muslims who saved Jews during WWII

2009-08-29T09:56:00.005-04:00

Despite all the rhetoric and myth that surrounds the conflict of the Middle East, the history of these communities (Jews and Muslims) and their interaction with each other in different historical moments are certainly more complicated than is publicly recognized. Indeed, over the past 15-20 years, there have been many scholars and ecumenical groups who have attempted to better understand past relationships and to foster mutual dialogue. Exhibits, like this one in Houston, is an important part of this continuing narrative.

Bravo, Houston...

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from the Houston Chronicle

By SHAHZADA IRFAN
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Aug. 28, 2009, 10:47PM

Holocaust's untold heroes
Their story is rarely told, but Albanian Muslims took in fleeing Jews during World War II, saving thousands of lives

When no other European country dared to withstand the wrath of Nazi Germany, it was the Muslims of Albania who saved a large number of Jewish people from extermination.

Albania, a Muslim majority country in Europe, opened its borders during World War II and took in thousands of Jews fleeing from different countries. They were treated like honored guests, and many were given fake names and even passports.

This little-known chapter of history is the focus of the photographic exhibition Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews During the Holocaust, which kicked off in July at the Holocaust Museum Houston and continues through February.

Read the rest of the story here

Adoption legislation for gay couples nearing passage

2009-08-27T20:38:00.005-04:00

The presidency of Tabaré Vázquez in Uruguay has shepherded through some exceptionally progressive legislation since he took office in 2005. It now permitted for gays to serve openly in the military, and gay civil unions were legalized last year. Now, the Uruguayan Senate and Chamber of Deputies will reconcile the differences in two bills, which should be done by September 15, that will give gay couples the right to adopt children.

¡Qué bien!

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Here is the AP story

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Lawmakers in Uruguay have approved a bill allowing gay and lesbian couples to adopt.

Despite opposition from Uruguay's Roman Catholic Church and its political opposition, the 99-seat Chamber or Representatives passed the bill 40-13, with the remaining members absent.

It goes next to the Senate, which approved an earlier version of the bill in July but must now vote again on a modified version.

Read the conclusion here

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Here is an article from the Uruguayan newspaper El Pais, located on Montevideo (in Spanish)

Diputados aprueba adopción por homosexuales

La Cámara de Diputados aprobó hoy el proyecto de ley que legaliza la adopción para las parejas homosexuales. La iniciativa pasará a Senadores donde seguramente tendrá una sanción a favor.

El diputado Jaime Trobo dijo a la agencia AFP que fueron 13 los votos en contra, es decir que fue aprobada por 40 votos en 53, tras una larga discusión parlamentaria.

El proyecto fue aprobado con los votos de la izquierda. El Partido Nacional votó en contra, salvo por un diputado que apoyó la polémica iniciativa. También el Partido Colorado se expresó en contra de lo sancionado hoy.

The conclusion of the story here

Meeting of the Job Materials Working Group

2009-08-27T11:43:00.004-04:00

Last night, the remnants of the Job Materials Working Group met at Northstar Cafe in the Short North. Over the past several weeks, the size of the group dropped from seven to three. Two had a full plate of outside commitments, including their respective weddings, and the other two just lost interest or melted away.

Nevertheless, I met with the two others (Brian and David - both of whom are historians of modern Germany who have won international research fellowships for their work). Conversation was good and we were all a bit anxious to, yes, get the comments, but more importantly to get the show on the road. The release of job announcements has been really slow. In fact, there has only been one that concerns modern Europe (if I understand the comment last night).

We drudged through each of our letters and CVs. I discovered that David is an excellent writer and that Brian has published quite a bit. Both these guys are solid young scholars, but they have the disadvantage of competing against each other. They agreed, actually, to not read each others letters in the process. As an aside, Brian was on the market last year and actually secured five job interviews at the AHA. Unfortunately, nothing materialized.

I am not convinced they are actually going head-to-head with each other because each department will have a fairly clear idea of what they want. For instance, last year a university advertised for a modern Latin Americanist (junior level), open specialization. It turned out the selection committee decided they wanted someone who specifically did Mexico. That internal decision truncated the applicant pool and probably cost many applicants some money. Most job seekers use the service Interfolio to organize materials and mail them out. Interfolio charges a fee for each request to send out documents (depends on the number of pages/docs/etc).

So, unless both Brian and David each meet the designs of a specific departmental search committee, they really are not competing against each other. They are competing against other graduate students and Assistant Professors and the desires of the search committee.

Anyhoo, I received really good feedback from both guys. I thought I gave some useful suggestions. We now do the revisions and send it along to our advisers. Then we will feel the real pain and do another set of revisions. At that point, we will send out our materials, provided there are jobs to apply for...

Hosed by Google Maps

2009-08-27T11:03:00.004-04:00

I had a very interesting trip yesterday to Amish country courtesy of Google Maps. I had been once before and kind of remembered the roads, but I printed out the directions just to be safe.

All went was going according to plan until I followed the directions and made a right hand turn onto what we would call in Texas a caliche road!!! Seriously! I could not believe I was leaving a massive trail of dust while driving through the shadows of corn fields and grain silos! My directions said that this part of the trip would last 0.8 miles, so I carried on bravely.

I reached the next intersection and turned right onto a asphalt road. The directions said this part of trip would last 0.3 miles and I would then turn left. The coming left hand turn featured an unpaved road that actually was more of a trail than a road. It did have tread marks where a car could pass through, complete with grass growing in between the tire treads. My favorite aspect of this road, which according to Google Maps was to extend for a mile before I made then next turn, was the very large street sign that read "Dead End"!!! I laughed and was pissed at the same time.

So, I grabbed the map I printed out with the written directions and formulated a way using state roads - as opposed to the county roads I was apparently on - and got back on track. And I only lost about 20 minutes.

Moral of the story - beware of the at-times-too-cute Google Maps. You may end up in your own version of Children of the Corn and awfully lost. Ahem...

Beirut is back!!

2009-08-25T12:10:00.002-04:00

Beirut, Lebanon is one of my favorite cities in the world. The cultural life is really with few equals in the Middle East and the stunning Lebanese coast just adds to the allure. For what I do, Beirut is also a great place for professionally run archives and research centers.

I spent many evenings taking in the nightlife - many years ago, unfortunately - and just before the war broke out in July 2006 between Hezbollah and Israel, I enjoyed a refined evening dancing to Paul Van Dyk. It was beyond fun. This was also the same summer that 50 Cent threw it down in Beirut.

It is good to see that the global stars are returning to Beirut...

For those of you interested, you can read my posts from Beirut during the war in the July and August 2006 archives of this blog...

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from GlobalPost.com

Snoop Dog, Paris Hilton ... Beirut's back!

By Ben Gilbert

BEIRUT — “The bombs are dropping on Beirut with Snoop Doggy Dogg!” said rap music fan Nick Haddad as he walked out of the Snoop Dogg show in the Lebanese capital this past weekend.

The 18-year-old Lebanese Canadian was of course referring to the “bombs” in the lyrics of Snoop Dogg’s raps, not the other bombs that some people may associate with Beirut.

At 1 a.m., Haddad and his 16-year-old British friend of Lebanese descent were looking to find the Snoop Dogg after-party, by no means the first A-List gathering seen in Beirut this summer. The American rapper has followed in the footsteps of Paris Hilton and Charles Aznavour as the latest international "name" on everyone's lips in this newly calm city. He entertained several thousand people at a convention center near downtown Beirut on Thursday night.

Read the entire story here

Eduardo Galeano on NPR

2009-08-24T09:23:00.003-04:00

A great story on the fascinating Latin American intellectual Eduardo Galeano, heard on National Public Radio's Morning Edition.

For those of us who read The Progressive, a member of the real liberal media, Galeano has long provided his perceptive views on things Latin American and global.

*************
August 24, 2009, Reported by Susan Stamberg

At a Summit of the Americas last spring, Hugo Chavez, the frequently anti-American president of Venezuela, gave President Obama a copy of Open Veins of Latin America.

First published in 1971, the book presents author Eduardo Galeano's version of the history of "five centuries of the pillage of a continent."

Galeano's name may be unfamiliar to most Americans, but in South America, he's a legend — revered in some circles, reviled in others.

Read or listen to the conclusion of the story here

Flashback to Damascus

2009-08-23T11:36:00.002-04:00

A recent post on BBCnews.com, entitled "Arabic and friendship studies in Syria", sent me back to Damascus, remembering my times there studying (and indulging in the booze we bought from the local Armenian store). Good times and, as suggested in the BBC piece, good friendships were made and have continued through the years. In fact, my old roommate RoRo - who now represents the US at the diplomatic level - is engaged to get married next summer.

I studied in Damascus on two separate occasions (Summer 2004 and AY 2005-2006) both at the Language Institute in the College of Arts and Letters at Damascus University. It was truly a multi-cultural space of North Americans and Europeans, with the occasional South American of Syrian descent trying to reconnect with the memory of his grandparents.

What was beautiful about Damascus University (Dam U among some of my friends) was the fact that one was surrounded and could connect with Syrian university students. This aspect is overlooked by the BBC peice. Some of my peers and friends studied at private institutions such as French Institute of the Near East (IFPO-IFEAD) or with private tutors.

I concede the instruction at IFEAD is superior to Dam U, but you do not have the opportunity to meet many Syrian students. It does happen, but you have to be a bit more industrious than those of us at Dam U. One such Syrian I met is a Kurdish kid named Kawa, who later tutored and work with me, my wife, RoRo and our other roommate Alex (a tall and distinguished Englishman).

Kawa is the son of a shepherd and one of at least 11 kids. He is the first in his family to go to university. While studying, he worked in a restaurant way outside of Damascus and provided lessons to European and North American students. He remitted a portion of his earnings to his family that lived in the far eastern part of Syria near the Turkish border.

Kawa studied English Literature at Damascus University and spoke English with an Irish accent - a product of who his friends were when he first learned the language. RoRo, Alex and I always encouraged Kawa to apply for scholarships to study at the American University in Beirut or somewhere in the USA.

Against his better judgment, Kawa followed our advice and applied for a Fulbright fellowship to study at an American university. Kawa asked me to write a letter of recommendation for the competition, which I was more than happy to do. Here is an excerpt:

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I was introduced to Kawa by two colleagues in Damascus. We met in late 2005, and discussed my project and what my needs would be. Kawa was genuinely interested in my project and we agreed on the range of responsibilities that he would have, which primarily involved translation and the creation of an annotated bibliography of key works by Arabic-speaking immigrants in Latin America. The work produced by Kawa was outstanding and first-rate. In addition to completing my requested tasks, Kawa also engaged me with methodological, theoretical and historical questions that forced me to be more precise in my thinking and conceptualization of the project. It is significant that some of the fine-tuning for my project’s development comes straight from discussions with Kawa.

It is also significant that Kawa, who is a Kurd, studied full-time at Damascus University, worked full-time as a research assistant for a variety of scholars and journalists, and financially supported his family. He has done it without social networks or family connections. It is a product of talent and hard work. It is a personal story for which I have tremendous respect and is representative of American values at its most basic level.

***
Our man Kawa brought home the award! He won! We could not believe! We could, but we were somewhat sceptical that he would lose out to either faculty or children of the political and military classes. Yet, Kawa pulled it off and is already in the USA studying on the East Coast.

His story is one I am proud to be a part of. I am convinced we all will hear a lot about our friend, whom I met while studying Arabic in Syria as a Fulbright Scholar. This is an important aspect of the Fulbright mission - to humanize people from different parts of the world and create cross-cultural bonds.

Back from vacation

2009-08-21T22:21:00.005-04:00

Man, oh man! I just returned from nearly three weeks of holiday and I am completely spent. I took Baby Girl to visit her grandparents and just got beat up by my daughter. This past week was a lost one in terms of personal work because I was playing catch up with the mundane aspects of life - bills, emails, and phone calls.

Nevertheless, we have our first meeting of the Job Materials Working Group - which mysteriously has shrunk by more than half. So, three of us will brave it out together, cajoling and supporting each other along the way...

Grading is done, and I am free!

2009-07-29T00:01:00.002-04:00

I just survived the marathon session of grading. Jesus Murphy, am I happy that is over and done! Now, I have shifted gears to getting my job materials in order, and revisions of the article is the primary task for the next four days.

In spite of all this busy work, I am taking my daughter to South Carolina for three weeks at the beach! Wahoo!

I have a tale to tell in the next post about the byzantine bureaucracy at Ohio State. Seriously, what I just experienced (and I have a colleague as a witness) makes the French look like the model of bureaucratic efficiency.

Hasta pronto...

Job Materials Working Group

2009-07-21T21:11:00.003-04:00

We got this group in motion now. We had a solid meeting yesterday where we established the deadlines for circulating materials, and the meeting to discuss and offer critical feedback.

Of the group in Columbus, only one of us was on the market last year. This colleague is convinced that process will be altered from previous years. He noted a job posting for which the selection committee was aiming November as the time to bring finalists to campus for interviews. This is highly unusual because the process had always been apply in the autumn, interview at the annual conference of the American Historical Association and the on campus interview coming in late January and February.

We are all apprehensive about the unknown.

So, here is the rub:

We will circulate our job application letters, CVs and dissertation abstracts to each other on August 12. We will meet the evening of August 26 and bludgeon these letters and stuff into the best shape possible. Sometime after the latter date, we will submit our letters to our advisers for final review. Then, off to the selection committees wherever they may be.

Exciting stuff...

"Mexico's 'Tet offensive'" and a "New Escalation" in the drugs war

2009-07-18T22:03:00.005-04:00

The drug cartels are ratcheting up the violence against the Mexican government. The current offensive is a direct assault against President Calderon following his party's recent defeat in legislative elections. While there are many critical differences, this increase in violence reminds one of the spike in brutality experienced in Colombia in the late 1980s.

The escalation has prompted a massive response by the Mexican state, including the arrests of ten policemen said to be complicit in the assassination of twelve federal agents. Certainly, the conflict will get worse before its gets better, and drug cartel-related violence will increase in US cities.

A post on the complications of militarizing the US border is forthcoming. I just need to survive the end of the first summer session. In the interim, here are four very good stories concerning recent issues in the global drugs trade...

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From the Christian Science Monitor - Drug cartels launch Mexico's 'Tet offensive'

Mexico City - Revenge is not a new current in Mexico's drug wars. Journalists who investigate too deeply are often killed, making Mexico one of the most dangerous places to report from. Prosecutors seeking justice often face the same fate.

But suspected members of the La Familia cartel in the state of Michoacán gave new meaning to the word over the weekend – even in hardened Mexico – after gunmen shot up police stations across the country, killing five officers and two soldiers by the time the revenge attacks were over on Saturday.

Story continued here

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From the BBC - New escalation in Mexico drugs war

Ten Mexican police officers have been detained in connection with the torture and murder of 12 federal agents during a major escalation in the drug war.

The arrests come as more than 5,000 troops and federal police are deployed in the western state of Michoacan.

Story continued here

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From the Corpus Christi Caller-Times - 43 gang members, associates arrested in Corpus Christi area

CORPUS CHRISTI — Immigration agents arrested 43 gang members or associates in the Corpus Christi area as part of a series of days-long sweeps throughout Texas, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Tuesday.

A total of 116 gang members, associates and immigration violators were arrested during sweeps which wrapped up Friday and included Houston and Beaumont, according to a news release.

Story continued here

**********

From the New York Times - As Mexico Border Tightens, Smugglers Take to Sea

SAN DIEGO — They move north in rickety fishing boats, often overloaded and barely seaworthy, slipping through the darkness and hidden from the watchful radar of American patrols.

Along beaches north of here, the migrants from Mexico and beyond scramble ashore, in groups of a dozen or two, and dash past stunned beachgoers, sometimes even leaving behind their boats, known as pangas. Drug smugglers, too, take this sea route, including one last month found paddling a surfboard north with a duffel bag full of marijuana on it.

Story continued here

Tour Rest Day

2009-07-18T12:59:00.005-04:00

My friend Kyle and I traveled to France in summer 2005 to see my brother's band (the now defunct South Austin Jug Band) perform at the Festival de Musique Country Rendez-Vous de Craponne sur Arzon, which also took place during the Tour de France. After several days of drinking, we incorporated some key aspects of the Tour's schedule to our routine, namely the Tour Rest Day. The pain we felt following these night sessions was similar (we thought) to riding in the Alps and Pyrennes. Adapting the Tour Rest Day was the only way we were able to survive the weeks we spent in Europe.

Four years on, I am enjoying a tour rest day, but not from drinking. I am a grader for a history course at OSU, and I just returned some midterm exams earlier in the week. 51 10-page typed midterms. I had been buried under those exams for 8 days. I felt some serious pain, but this like the early stages of the Tour is just a precursor of what is to come.

I will receive 51 4-6 page term papers on Wednesday and 51 up-to-15-page final exams on Thursday. I will have to churn out these badboys by Monday evening at midnight. This is the grading equivalent to riding in the Alps. I will be in some serious pain, and I have already apologized to my for the intemperate mood I will likely be in. I'm not complaining. It is my job after all.

In the lead up to Wednesday, I will be revising an article and will convene with some good friends on Monday for the first session of the Job Materials Working Session. I am excited because the second announcement for a Latin American history position came out; this time at Colgate University.

But first, the Tour Rest Day.

Are Conference Interviews on the Way Out?

2009-07-08T22:06:00.003-04:00

Conference interviews for us in history are exactly what my Job Materials Working Group is preparing for. We will submit our materials for the targeted job, and the selection committee will review the packet and then, if they like us, they invite us for a conference interview at the annual conference of the American Historical Association, our primary professional body.

Here is an article by David Evans in the Chronicle of Higher Education discussing the potential decline of the conference interview. I have included a portion of a response by the blog Tenured Radical, plus the link.

I should add that many universities used the phone interview in the last hiring cycle. A good friend of mine had about a half of a dozen phone interviews, some of which led to on-campus interviews (the holy grail for us grad students on the job market). My friend Rob ultimately got a tenure track job that came out of a phone interview. Rob did attend the AHA conference for interviews there, and I believe (my memory is hazy on this), that of his 5 interviews there, only one turned into an on-campus invitation.

I imagine in the lean market coming this autumn, most universities will conduct these phone interviews. In a future post, I will give my thoughts on Tenured Radical's reform ideas.

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My original academic discipline is English, so I was socialized to the hiring process fostered by the Modern Language Association — applications in October, conference interviews at the end of December, on-campus interviews in early-to-mid spring. For years (really, until I became a dean with responsibilities for disciplines with customs very different from my own) I was convinced that conference interviews were the way to go for hiring new faculty members.

I still think that conference interviews have a lot of advantages. Meeting candidates face-to-face is, I believe, considerably more effective than talking to them on the phone. Simply being able to read their body language, make eye contact, and interact directly provides a clarity that isn’t available by phone. The intensity of the conference-interview process, while exhausting, gives hiring committees the opportunity to make direct comparisons between candidates, refine their impressions, and get a sense of the candidates’ interest in the position.

View rest of story here.

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Response from Tenured Radical

In my opinion? It's on its way out. For what Zenith spent on searches this year, we could have hired a bunch of visitors, or two tenure-track faculty. Or we could have given the faculty we have a weenie little raise. Just a weenie one, but a raise all the same. Or not cut the library budget. Or....or.....

Budget cutting is no reason to end a tradition permanently if it is valuable, but I predict that budget cutting will jolt universities to some useful reforms. Replacing the conference interview with the phone interview is one of them. We had this conversation in my department recently, and I have had it with a Zenith administrator on two separate occasions.

Read the rest of the post here

Author Paints Small Town's Struggle In 'Methland'

2009-07-08T22:02:00.002-04:00

From National Public Radio's news magazine All Things Considered...

All Things Considered, July 8, 2009 · The small town of Oelwein, Iowa, is home to 13 churches, a refurbished Main Street and a new library with free high-speed Internet.

It is also home to Roland Jarvis, a former meatpacking worker who burned his house down in 2001. Jarvis, who had a methamphetamine lab inside, was hallucinating that he saw black helicopters hovering overhead and, in a panic, dumped chemicals down the drain. The home went up in flames, and Jarvis was burned so badly that he begged the police to shoot him.

Author Nick Reding tells Jarvis' story — and that of Oelwein and the infiltration of methamphetamine — in his new book, Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town.

Link to the rest of the story

Article done!

2009-07-07T21:36:00.005-04:00

Well, at least the initial draft. I have dispatched the draft article to four friends who I trust to give me unvarnished feedback. Once I get the comments, I will revise, which hopefully will not take much time. Once that is done, I ship it off my adviser. Most likely another round of revisions, and then off to an academic journal.

Until recently, I have not given great effort to get published. I figured a completed dissertation and the host of awards I have won to conduct the research would make me competitive on the job market. Apparently, not having a publication is my Achilles heal.

In the Spring, I lost out on a dissertation fellowship competition to departmental colleagues, only one of which I thought more or equally deserving than/as me. The other two, I'm still not convinced. That said, the selection committee made their determination. I met with the professor who organized the selection committee and the only thing lacking for her was the damned publication. This is now the metric.

So, the article is done, and I am awaiting with bated breath my friends' comments, brutal though they may be.

Now, it is time to organize the Job Materials Working Group, and get our application materials in order.

More to come...

Atlanta is the new distribution hub for drug distribution

2009-07-07T21:28:00.003-04:00

Somehow I missed this news article in May. According to BBCMundo, Atlanta is now the chief distribution hub for the Mexican cartels. Atlanta serves as the gateway to the Midwest, Northeast, and obviously throughout the South, including Florida. Authorities point out that Atlanta sits on transportation routes allowing distribution in DC, NYC, and Miami in less than 12 hours.

There is an outstanding map at the bottom of the story. Here is the link to the story (in Spanish).

This is an adaptive enemy who uses lessons learned very well.

Game on!

2009-06-26T17:22:00.003-04:00

OK, things have calmed down. The course I am grading has settled in. I have quitting feeling lonely because wife and child are in Okinawa visiting my in-laws. Now, it's time to get busy.

This weekend's project is to revise an article for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Increasingly, this is becoming the threshold for graduate students in history trying to compete on the job market. To date, I have not published any of my research, but I have completed four of five dissertation chapters. I have won several prestigious university and national awards. Yet, the final component allowing me to compete well in a tight market apparently will be this freakin' article.

So, I have great comments from two close friends, an historian and a sociologist. The trick will be to balance the critiques and suggestions of the two and try to make a coherent, connected and integrated whole.

Oh yeah, I have organized a Job Materials Working Group made up of some good friends. I was told by another friend who recently graduated from Michigan and is now teaching at Loyola of Chicago that the job application letter (a 2-page single-spaced document) will be the most important document I write in my graduate schoolcareer. Frightening, no? Hence, the Working Group.

Will post more as events develop...

Cocaine, opiate markets 'shrink'

2009-06-24T23:00:00.003-04:00

From the BBC, and based on the World Drug Report from the UN...

Cocaine, opiate markets 'shrink'

Global markets for cocaine, opiates and cannabis are steady or declining, the UN's annual drug report says.

Opium cultivation in Afghanistan fell by 19% in 2008 while cocaine production in Colombia dropped 28%, it says.

Consumption of the drugs in major markets in Western countries is said to be stable or declining.

But the production and consumption of synthetic drugs are thought to be growing as they shift increasingly to the developing world.

Link to the rest of the article

Mexican Cartels Lure American Teens as Killers

2009-06-23T20:17:00.003-04:00

Here is a great article from the New York Times' James McKinley.

Mexican Cartels Lure American Teens as Killers

LAREDO, Tex. — When he was finally caught, Rosalio Reta told detectives here that he had felt a thrill each time he killed. It was like being Superman or James Bond, he said.

“I like what I do,” he told the police in a videotaped confession. “I don’t deny it.”

Mr. Reta was 13 when he was recruited by the Zetas, the infamous assassins of the Gulf Cartel, law enforcement officials say. He was one of a group of American teenagers from the impoverished streets of Laredo who was lured into the drug wars across the Rio Grande in Mexico with promises of high pay, fancy cars and sexy women.

See rest of article here.

Arrested Iranians face terrifying ordeal

2009-06-23T20:12:00.004-04:00

This is an excellent article by an old friend of mine who I met in Yemen way back in 1997. Angus was a freelance journalist who lived in Iran from 2003 to 2007, and published this piece in the English daily The Guardian.

Arrested Iranians face terrifying ordeal

Most of the hundreds of protesters arrested in Iran have disappeared into a tortuous system of detention

When I asked an Iranian friend if he planned to go out and protest this week, he said he was afraid. "It isn't the idea of getting beaten up that's the problem," he said. "I'm much more scared of being arrested."

For the hundreds – or even thousands – of people seized on the streets and in their homes over the past 10 days, the real ordeal is only just beginning. A few have already been paraded on Iranian television, implausibly claiming to be common thugs, terrorists or agents in the pay of foreign governments.

Link to the rest of the article

C'mon Texas!

2009-06-23T20:10:00.003-04:00

My Horns will win BIG tonight. Last night's loss was painful, but I can deal. I was an undergrad at UT during the lean David McWilliams and early Jon Mackovic eras. These are problems I can deal with!

I'm interested to see if Augie reverts to small ball and get some runs early.

Anyhoo, more to come from the traveling circus!

Narcotrafficking, Latin America, Texas and Ohio

2009-06-17T11:04:00.004-04:00

My neighbor is a young attorney trying to build his business, and in the process of generating revenue some of his clients happen to be accused of drug trafficking. In a brief conversation, I learned quite a bit about the drug trade here in Ohio. Did you know that US Route 33 (coming from the NW) is the major artery for importing drugs into central Ohio? I didn't.

As you can imagine, narcotrafficking is a direct threat to several nations in Latin America, but what is significant is how Ohio is becoming a competing ground for distribution networks peddling narcotics. Texas and the Southwest has long been points of entry and transportation hubs.

This is the launching point for what will be a series of posts on narcotrafficking. I actually devote a class entirely to drug trafficking in my modern Latin American history course. Let's face it, Latin America's two principal contributions to globalization are mass migration and narcotrafficking, both of which disproportionately affect the USA.

Some general observations: For those who advocate neoliberal economics, one must be impressed with the production and distribution of drugs. Long gone are the massive, vertically integrated cartels of the 1980s and 1990s. With the collapse of the Cali Cartel in the mid-1990s, the production of cocaine became decentralized with particular drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) carrying out specific roles (transporting coca to production labs, processing coca paste to cocaine hydrochloride, smuggling cocaine to Mexico/Central America, etc.). The distribution of drugs has fostered the development of competing DTOs in Mexico and provoked a corresponding spike in violence. This violence has and will continue to spill over into US cities. It's already in LA, Phoenix and Houston.

The politics of it are critical, transnational and local. Two weeks ago, Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared democracy in Mexico was "in play" because of the power of the DTOs there. These organizations are adaptive, creative, technologically savvy, and very violent. To give the most recent example, Mexican authorities yesterday discovered more than a ton of cocaine stuffed inside frozen sharks about to be shipped from a port in the Yucatan peninsula. This followed the discovery of 50,000 litres (>13,000 gallons) of ephedrine, enough to produce 40 tons of methamphetamine, or 309 million personal doses, at the same port.

The challenge is enormous, but it is critical to the long term security, democratic governance and public health, both here and abroad...

72 hours in Caracas, democracy's fun house

2009-06-15T09:10:00.004-04:00

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is a polarizing leader, not only for Venezuelans, but also for scholars and commentators of Latin America. Here is a fascinating, if cursory, story of a brief visit to Caracas by Canada's CBC Latin America correspondent Connie Watson:

I got the word just after landing in Caracas. The Venezuelan conference I had been invited to attend on public broadcasting was on shaky ground — suddenly not a sure thing.

That morning, someone in the government had called someone with the conference to suggest the event should be postponed. Now, coming from a government that runs most of the events in this country, that's a pretty serious suggestion.

One reason for the postponement was about to be made evident at the airport arrivals gate. Mario Vargas Llosa, the well-known author and Peruvian presidential candidate in 1990, had a crowd of media waiting for him. And waiting for him.

Click here for the rest of the story.

Chasing a job in higher education...

2009-06-14T09:45:00.004-04:00

I last posted 13 months ago. In the time elapsed, I have cranked out four out of five dissertation chapters, my wife got a real job (and is kicking all sorts of ass there!), Baby Girl is running the show at her daycare center.

As we head into the summer, the big tasks for me are to finish my dissertation, crank out an article for publication, really really development and refine my materials for the job market.

Some of you may know how the system works for us in history. Others not so much. This post will serve as a primer, and will be the initial post of my experience on the market attempting to secure gainful employment in higher education.

Beginning now - but reaching critical mass in late August/early September - universities and colleges will begin advertising for positions in a variety of disciplines. I work in the universe of history, and my particular planetary system is all things Latin America. Here is an example.

So, History Departments advertise now and begin sifting through the materials in the Autumn semester/quarter. If they like me, they will invite me (usually) to an interview at the annual conference of the American Historical Association. If I perform fabulously there, then I may earn an "on campus" interview. At this point, the selection committee is comfortable with my scholarship and the members want to see if they want to spend the next 25 Christmas parties with me.

And so it begins, please check back and see how I am progressing. It will be a fascinating experience for a couple of reasons. Firstly, this is my first go 'round, and I am sure the rubbernecking of my worries, blunders, and hopefully successes will provide some entertainment. Secondly, the reality of the market is quite peculiar. The demographics are on my side and departments need to replace faculty; however, the economy is doing me no favors. The stimulus bill passed by Congress will allow many universities to either maintain previous budget levels or at least minimize the cuts.

There it is. The goal is clear, the path to it is not. I hope you enjoy the ride.

dirty diapers and celebrating 90 years on this earth...

2008-05-02T11:04:00.002-04:00

Well, my wife and child returned from a two-month holiday in Okinawa. My in-laws were devastated to see them go, but as marital units, I prefer to live with my wife. Keeps me on target and out of trouble. Well, their arrival has disrupted my life! The Mrs has jet-lag, the baby's schedule is disjointed and she is a bit wary of her new surroundings. I had forgotten how spoiled I was in getting 8 hours of solid sleep every night. I am happy to get 3-4 hours now.

In their long absence, I had also forgotten about some of the dangers of parenting infants. Baby Girl and I were playing on the bed. She was getting a bit restless, so I decided put her on my shoulders. As I lifted her over my head, her backside bumped the top of my head. Something oozed. Thinking that she just had a wet diaper, I lowered her to inspect the diaper. Boy, did I get whiplash from the smell. My daughter pooped on her daddy's head. The vagaries of parenthood...

So, a friend returned from a couple years of research in England, Poland, and Rome. It was awesome to see him in the office. He is back for good and in the same boat as me - dissertation writing. We were attempting to arrange a date where he could meet my family. He asked about this weekend. I responded that it was impossible because we were heading to SC for my grandfather's 90th birthday. We all just paused to think of the amount of history this man has lived through. I offered that part of the reason he has held his health throughout the 20th century was the fact that my grandfather HAS NEVER HAD A SIP OF BOOZE! Nothing. Nada. La shay (Arabic). My friend responded that, actually, my grandfather living to 90 years of age was the lord's punishment for NOT drinking! Pretty funny coming from a Dominican friar!

Well, writing can be cathartic...

2008-04-21T01:55:00.003-04:00

So, I have not been here in a while. I am back in the USA - in Ohio - after a long period abroad doing research. I had quite the experience in Beirut (a ride with the US Marines) and my wife had a baby in Argentina. It has been a magical past couple of years, but now is the time to put it all together and write the effing dissertation.

As such, this return to A Texan Abroad will serve as my outlet guarding against the writer's block that I will certainly experience over the next 13 months. I do have a goal to graduate in June 2009.

Game Time is Pain Time...

An Evening with Mercedes Sosa at the Teatro Colon

2006-12-15T07:37:00.000-05:00

The adjoining text is soon to follow. In the interim, due enjoy the following story about the Teatro Colon (I am not sure if the link is still true).

Whose idea was it to run an effing marathon? (pictures added)

2006-12-13T23:38:00.000-05:00

Two friends, Mark and Matt, came to visit in October. They too ran in the Buenos Aires Marathon; however, they finished in less than four hours. I rumbled across the finish line at 4 hours, 22 minutes, 37 seconds. Chihiro arrived at 5 hours and 27 minutes.

I was fine during most of the race. Well, fine is a relative term considering the rigor one puts the body through in this type of event. Just before I departed Columbus and in the middle of my training regimen I strained my right calf. It effing hurt. I was pissed off and quite scared that I would have to miss the running of the marathon. I rested for about 10 days and then began to run again – slowly and not very far – once Chiro and I arrived Buenos Aires. My calf did not hurt during my last two runs before the race.

Mark and Matt pulled into town and life was good. It is nice to roam the streets with your very own team of physicians (It’s how I roll…). We ate well, drank wonderful wine and toured all the important sites, such as the pizzeria El Cuartito and the fair at Mataderos (which we went to on the wrong day… whatever…) In any event, Mark explained to me that I should begin a steady diet of Ibuprofen and be ready to consume loads of Goo (a glucose product designed to keep energy levels quite high) during the race.

Race day! I could not sleep the night before. I was soooo pumped and excited. I registered about 3 hours of sleep, but I did not care. I had Goo. Mark and Matt arrived at our apartment around 6am. I had a pot of coffee going. Everyone as trying to get the system awake and running – and hopefully conclude one final bowel movement. I know – kinda gross; however, I never knew that there would be that much pee and poop going on in a marathon. The great fault of this wonderful event in Buenos Aires is that the organizers failed to provide portable toilets. More on this tragedy later…

The previous evening I spent about an hour trying to secure a disposable camera. After finally locating and purchasing the bugger, I was three hours past Mark’s suggested bedtime. In any event, all were excited that we had a camera and that there was a light sprinkle of rain that morning. All consumed four Ibuprofen tablets and inhaled a Goo packet (my flavor was Dulce de Leche. Goo in general lacks in taste, but this was just brutal…) We hailed a cab and hurtled down Alcorta Boulevard towards El Monumental, the fabled home of Club Atletico River Plate.

We arrived about 15 minutes before the start of the race. We hustled through the crowd, passed the special start section for the world class and competitive runners, and jumped into the mix. It was ‘Go’ time.

The race started and I kept pace with Mark and Matt. No small feat considering Mark ran his first marathon in 3 hours and 38 minutes. For the record, I was hoping to beat a 10-minute mile average over 26 miles/42 km. I felt strong, Chihiro was keeping with us for about 20 minutes and then she sensibly settled into her own pace.

So, we were 3. Early on, around the US Ambassador’s house in Avenida del Libertador (no, this does not refer to Hugo Chavez, as much as he would like to believe…), one of us – no names divulged – started to feel rumbling in the stomach. We had read that there were portable toilets at the 5 mile/8 km mark. We decided collectively that we would stop there and hit the head, as it were. As we passed the 8 km mark and with know sign of toilets anywhere in the vicinity, we decided to run for the bushes. This is all you get… My mother reads this blog…

We got back on course and stopped for the occasional picture (also another pit stop, this time at a Mc’Donald’s – what? They always have clean bathrooms).

Just as we were heading into the San Telmo neighborhood (about 3 miles from the halfway point), my right calf started to seize up. I told Mark and Matt that they were on there own. I was slowing it down and praying that I could make it to the halfway point (just next to the Bombanera – home to Boca Juniors football club). I stopped three times to wrap, rewrap and adjust the wrapping on my right calf. I continued to the midpoint without an increase in pain. I decided that I would finish the damn thing – personal costs be damned!

The second half of the race was workmanlike. I found myself on the hip of an experienced runner who ran a consistent pace and I just followed him. I had no desire of tracking people down; at this point, just finishing was success. I remembered my Lance Armstrong and Team Postal/Discovery lessons – STAY HYDRATED! I consumed entire half liter bottles at every water stop and had Gatorade at its respective post. I drank so much water that I actually had to make a pit stop about 6 miles from the finish line. Fortunately, there was a gas station that had opened its (bathroom) doors to the more than 2,000 runners passing by.

In this part of the race, I organized my running in 5km clips. This was how I was extending my training runs and I knew that I could run 5km in my sleep - however slow it may have been.

As such, I inched ever closer to the finish line. As I approached the half mile marker, Matt and Mark were cheering deliriously and snapping photos. One could not ask for a finer exhibition of American health care providers. I ambled across the finish line - beer belly still in tow. We hugged and Mark looked at me and said, "You just completed a marathon. How cool is that?"

Mark and Matt left to find food. I sat on the side of the road, consuming liquids and awaiting Chihiro's arrival. Before I saw her, I puked twice and during the process my entire chest convulsed painfully. I thought it was going to implode. At the top of the horizon, I saw a little white hat and a grey Ohio State running shirt. She was here. My baby had made it succesfully with much time to spare.

Chihiro crossed the finish line. We met, collected her T-shirt and began the long walk towards home, always in hope of finding a taxi. After about 20 minutes, we got hold of one. We returned home, taking turns puking. We laid down to rest. Chiro did not move for more than 2 days. I met Mark and Matt for dinner. Pain was beginning to set in. It would not leave me for 3 weeks...

While completing the marathon was a tremendous accomplishment, the four of us think that the true treat was attending the final show at the Teatro Colon. But that must wait until the next post...

back in the saddle

2006-12-13T07:30:00.000-05:00

Yes yes yes. This post is long overdue. I really got the hint from my wife over the past couple of days. Chiro has opened up the blog address and read the last post (from 21 September) for consecutive days. Even I got tired of the site not being updated...

Anyhoo, much to update...

Let's see, the important - Texas football is subpar this year; Chiro and I completed the Buenos Aires Marathon; I have found more research materials than I can hope to incorporate into the dissertation; we went and saw the Ballet Nacional de Cuba; we saw the final concert in Teatro Colon (featuring Mercedes Sosa and friends).

And this is just a brief roundup. More is to come. Chihiro and I are fixing to leave Buenos Aires for Tucuman. We will do a brief visit to Bolivia and Peru to see our good friend Mark.

Rest assured that the Texan Abroad is back at it. Just in time for a mediocre bowl game against a mediocre Big Ten team...

More to come from the traveling circus.

Pain and Suffering...

2006-09-21T22:23:00.000-04:00

Most of the pain has subsided after 12 full days. I traveled to Austin, Texas confident that my beloved Longhorns would put it to the Buckeyes. Oh, it was ugly... Everyone knows the score and the pain that the Longhorn Nation felt was palpable in the Hill Country Night. I did what any true fan would do: I got drunk; real drunk. Granted, had I graduated from Texas A&M, I probably would have gotten in a fight with a fellow Aggie. I should add the Buckeye fans do that too... In any event, I do believe the players were let down by the coaches. Seriously, Texas should have set a NCAA record for rushing attempts in a game. Alas, it was not be... And it hurt...

So, the pain and suffering continues, but on different level. I am well on my way to running my first marathon - the 29 October Buenos Aires Marathon. I VOLUNTARILY ran 20km (12 miles) last Sunday. This Sunday I will run 24km (15 miles).

Chihiro and I leave for Argentina on 17 October. We have small apartment in Palermo Chico. As one might imagine, we are excited and ready to start our tango lessons yet again.

Will write more soon...

gone and done it...

2006-08-30T10:34:00.000-04:00

Well, the word on the street is that my wife and I are crazy. We proved these nabobs correct. We have registered to run the Buenos Aires Marathon in the end of October. With any luck, my boy Mark will come down from Peru and join us in the early morning run...

Real quick - I have had two people ask me about Parts 3 & 4 of the evacuation story. Totally my bad, however, I left my notes of the event in the USA. I am currently on holiday and will not be home until the 12th of September. I will get it up that week...

update from Okinawa

2006-08-26T22:07:00.000-04:00

The past 10 days have been wonderful. My good friend Danny has been visiting and we have seen much of Okinawa. It is a shame, but Danny leaves for Australia this evening. Yesterday, we visited an underwater observatory (incredible!) and found a semi-deserted beach and swam among the coral and small fishes. We caught sunset on the recently constructed bridge that connects Yanagi Island with Kouri Island (on the NW coast of main islan Okinawa). We concluded the evening with dinner in Nago. We had soba (Okinawan noodles) that the city is fanous for... Here are some pictures from yesterday. Do enjoy...

On holiday with Danneaux

2006-08-23T09:05:00.000-04:00

The past week, Chihiro and I have hosted our dear friend Danny who currently resides in Canberra, Australia. Danny and I have covered quite a bit of Okinawan territory exploring underground caves, embracing large snakes, scaling castle walls and enjoying local flavors of ice cream, such as ube (sweet potato) and goya (a bitter vegetable that is quite mild in ice cream form).

He are some pictures from the tour, which officially does not end until Sunday afternoon. Do enjoy:

settlin' in... for a couple of weeks anyway

2006-08-16T03:59:00.000-04:00

Sinve my last posting, I have done some heavy traveling. Truth be told, I am tired of moving about and am looking forward to being still for the next couple of weeks. I am now in Okinawa visiting my in-laws. Tomorrow, we will welcome my roommate from OSU, the effervescent Daniel J.T. O'Malley.

The recent journeys have taken Chihiro and me to Hong Kong (with a pit stop in Shanghai thanks to a typhoon), southern China, Macao, Taipei, and now Japan. Per usual, I have met some wonderful people and have a tale or two to tell (apologies for the unecessary alliteration) with pictures to boot.

That will come later tonight after my afternoon jog. It is official. I am fat - 81 kilos. Ahem...

More to come from the traveling circus...

PS Who knew that locating an internet cafe in Hong Kong, et al, would be tantamount to parting a sea... Hence, the delayed posting... My bad.

Evacuation, Part 2

2006-07-30T00:50:00.000-04:00

As we pulled away from the helipad and moved west over the Mediterranean Sea, I sighed and felt less tense. The wear of the previous week and some days had been heavier than I had thought. I was still very concerned for my good friends left behind, but I could not resist acknowledging my pleasure at quitting Beirut. It seemed that this moment – the actual evacuation out of Beirut was the most difficult aspect to my getting back to the USA and to my wife Chihiro. The boat ride and the charter flight were guaranteed and held – so I thought – less uncertainty.

We meandered in three clockwise circles over the Lebanese shores as the Marine pilots steered towards a ship that seemed further north than the others. We had been told that our likely destination was the USS Nashville and that we would most likely head to Turkey for Incirlik Air Force Base. I gazed continuously out of my window at the back of the helicopter. The Lebanese coastline and mountainside is very beautiful. One would never know the congestion and pollution that marks the streets when on the ground. I was happy to steal away…

After a nearly eight minute ride, we landed on the back of a boat that did not fit the image of US Navy warship. Where were the big turrets with menacing guns? I was the first one off of the CH-46 and struggled a bit to stand up. In the excitement of evacuation, I did not notice how heavy the life preserver was. I managed fine and debarked from the aircraft. Immediately the ship’s ground crew formed a barrier that guided the others and me towards the reception area. More importantly, this human wall prevented any of the evacuees from falling of the side of the boat due to the force of the air caused by the helicopter’s rotating blades.

The ship’s XO and an alligator that happened to be passing out lollipops greeted me. The commander directed us to registration table where we gave our passports and received a medical form that we would have to fill out and submit before quitting the boat. Once past that area, a woman sailor organized us and then introduced our chaperone for the ride to either Cyprus or Turkey – we still did not know at this moment for sure. I happened to be wearing a University of Texas (my beloved alma mater) baseball cap to shield the sun from my balding pate. While I awaited the other evacuees to negotiate the alligator and registration line, three sailors came up individually to ask me from where in Texas I hailed (I should add that the XO also inquired about my Texas roots).

Our chaperone was Petty Officer Don Oznik, a 17-year veteran who was three years away from retirement and scheduled for some work at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa. He informed the group that we were actually on the USS Whidbey Island, a logistics ship that has its own crane on the back of the boat. Don led us to our quarters, called a berthing room, and said that we would have to double up on the bunks. This room held accommodation for 15 sailors, however, the ship’s commanders were doubling us up in order to take on more evacuees.

Don then said that he would feed us – well, not him in particular although he did bake us some cinnamon bread and delivered it later in the evening – and then take us to send emails to our families.

Every sailor and Marine onboard has a personal account for Internet and email access. Computers, usually two, are located in the TV rooms throughout the ship and it was to one of these rooms that Don guided us. He advised that we be quick in light of the number of people waiting to get online. In addition, he counseled that if we were interested in watching movies on the big screen TV, we should hole up now before this room was transformed into another berthing room.

I sent a brief email to family, friends and professors – essentially every one who had been in contact with me during this ordeal and whose email I could remember off the top of my head. The rules for sending emails were the following: 1) we had to use Don’s Outlook email account and 2) we could not browse the Internet (the server was slow or something). Fair enough, I thought.

After dispatching emails, Don escorted us to the Mess Hall for a late lunch – it was about 3:30pm at this point. The meal featured a pasta concoction with chicken. It was not bad. I also had some fruit and a couple of rolled. I had lunch with an American woman (of Lebanese descent) who hailed from Baltimore and had been on a fellowship in Beirut for the previous academic year. She was an artist – a painter to be precise – and Dartmouth alum who will head to an MFA program at a university in London. In any event, her small tragedy was that she was just about to have an exhibition of her work at a Beirut gallery. Under the auspices of the US Embassy, she was slated to show all her work that she had created over the previous eleven months. Obviously, her plans changed… Her work now lies in her apartment in Gemmayze awaiting rescue by her distant aunts who live outside Beirut. So, so sad…

Part 2 will continue, but I must get some dinner now…

a trip to Nogales, Sonora, Mexico

2006-07-30T00:38:00.000-04:00

Chihiro and I went to Nogales yesterday. It was my first border crossing into Mexico that was not along the Texas frontier. The wall was amazing. In Texas, at least down in the Valley (as deep South Texas is known), the divider is the Rio Grande and one must cross a bridge to enter either country. Nogales – named for the town on both sides of the border – is in a hilly part of southern Arizona and northern Sonora. The wall in Nogales seems to be made up of the steel blast shields that airports use to deflect the thrust planes produce away from terminals and roads.

In any event, we did some shopping. I saw some boots made from penguin skin for US $350. I decided against the purchase. After all, I am technically unemployed and without income. Well, that is the case until September anyway… I did buy some Café Combate. This coffee bean is roasted with sugar before packaging. Should be an interesting morning beverage…

Chihiro and I treated Gary – my advisor’s husband – to lunch at the Fray Marcos Hotel restaurant. We started with the queso fundido and it went downhill from there. The “fat boy special” was on order that day and since I was without Mexican cuisine for nearly a year and cannot find decent Mexican food in Argentina (where we will be the next academic year), I have committed gluttony over the past five days…

We attempted to visit a mission just south of Tucson, but it had closed its doors before our arrival. The San Xavier Mission is a late 18th century structure that is currently being refurbished. What is fascinating is that the mission sits on an Indian researvation – a true throwback to the colonial past…

Disappointed, we returned to the home of Donna and Gary and caught a beautiful sunset. Tucson has been experiencing flash flood rains over the past three days and, in turn, everything has turned green. It is beautiful here, I must say.

Anyhoo, Chihiro left today for Tokyo. In fact, she has been in the air for nearly seven hours and probably has anywhere from 3-5 more to go.

We will rendezvous next week in Hong Kong. Can’t wait… More to come from the traveling circus…

The Evacuation, part 1

2006-07-27T13:09:00.000-04:00

This is the story of my departure from Beirut and my arrival in the USA. While exhausting and ultimately succesful, this journey is in no way more gut-wrenching or draining than the daily uncertainty and violence that my friends in Lebanon and Israel experience currently. People can bitch and moan about the differences in the severity of the bombings (i.e., airplanes versus katyushas), but the fact of the matter is civilians on both sides of the border are subjected to brutalities of war,usually in indiscriminate fashion.

The passages have been broken into four parts for two reasons. Firstly, I think it will be easier for readers to consume the story in smaller bits. Secondly and more critically, parts two through four have not been written yet. My notes are in place; however, the prose is wanting at the moment...

*************
22 July 2006

I arrived at the rendezvous point at 3:45am. I was fatigued. I had spent all night writing and preparing for the evacuation. I had been in constant communication with my wife, parents, and friends and advisors. All was set, the bags were packed; it was time to get on with it. Upon arrival, we learned that there were two rendezvous points – one for faculty and one for students. We were told that there were going to be three buses that would transfer us to the US Embassy in Awkar – a suburb north of Beirut perched half way up the western face of Mount Lebanon. What was unfortunate was that the Embassy staggered the three buses with 90-minute buffers. Thus, my ride for Awkar left four hours and forty-five minutes after I arrived the rendezvous point. People in my situation were quite vocal with their displeasure. I could not be bothered. I was too tired. I found refuge beneath a Banyan tree located in the playground for faculty children. I lay on a park bench and tried to sleep.

I awoke to the voice of an undergraduate student calling me to the bus. The time had arrived. I was leaving Beirut. The bus lurched towards the exit at 8:30am. As we rode, the bus was nestled between three police vehicles – two marked SUVs and one unmarked black Benz. We wended our way along the corniche and passed Biel, just past the St. George’s Marina – the place of former Lebanese PM Rafiq Harriri’s assassination. Biel was crawling with Americans looking to pass through screening, jump aboard the Orient Queen cruise liner and quit Beirut. I marveled at how exactly two weeks before Chris (my roommate) and I, along with nearly 12,000 Lebanese, grooved, gyrated and partied to the sounds of Paul Van Dyk. That moment seemed so distant in the past.

We arrived the embassy where the principal entrance rests on a steep incline – probably an haute catégorie for you Tour de France lovers. The entrance was draped with men in fatigues carrying M-16 rifles. Interestingly, these gentlemen were not US military personnel, but a private security detachment. Insofar as I know, Beirut is the only US Embassy in the world that is not protected by US Marines. It is a policy that must date to the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 by Hezbollah.

We were directed to place all of our electronic equipment into our luggage. None of it was permitted on our person while on embassy grounds – be it cell phones, digital cameras, hand-held PSP2s, whatever… It had to go… This was a setback for me because I had planned to dispatch a text message to John Chrysostomou – a friend of my father who lives in Cyprus and had agreed to give me refuge in this moment. I would have to find another way.

Once inside the embassy, we were taken to the pool and instructed to wait. The vast majority of the evacuees were amcits – State Department terminology for American citizens – of Lebanese descent. Here we lounged in total decadence with a marvelous view of downtown Beirut and the coastline going north towards Jounieh. From our perch, we could see several American warships hugging the shoreline. I counted a total of three ships, though there were others in the area taking on passengers. These ships were part of the USS Iwo Jima Battle Group.

There was much activity going on before us. Two US Marines CH-46 helicopters were circling the vicinity and taking turns landing at the helipad on the campus of the embassy, collecting evacuees and shuttling them to one of the navy ships. Below us on the water, we could see clearly the shuttling of evacuees via a (high-speed hydrocraft) Hellcat amphibious personnel carrier from a beach landing on property owned by the US Embassy.

Helicopters are noisy. The CH-46s used various approaches to the landing zone in order to prevent predictable flight patterns. At various moments, the choppers came from the north, the south and once even from the east. South of the embassy, the helicopter flew above Mount Lebanon and then approached the embassy from the backside. As an aside, the embassy grounds face west and the view at sunset must be breathtaking.

About 200 meters south of the landing pad stood a building in the initial stages of construction. It was a four-story structure that did not have any of the outer walls built up. As such, it was used as an observation platform. I counted 10 men, all heavily armed, on the structure. The top floor possessed four men in the respective corners providing surveillance looking for the ill tempered. These soldiers, I assume they were Marines attached the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, were armed with rifles with large scopes. Two additional men were placed between the NW and NE corners of the structure and seemed to provide additional surveillance of the areas just north of the embassy. There were four additional security personnel on the third floor scanning the north and west.

To watch the operation in action was amazing. It was truly a machine at work. As I marveled at the machinations of evacuation, the poolside evacuees – the initial part of the evacuation was decadent indeed – were greeted by the visit of a Navy chaplain from the USS Iwo Jima.

Commander Carr was an affable man with a subtle, dry sense of humor. He had been with the navy for more than twenty years. He informed us that he was currently on a 6-month junket away from their homeport along the coast of Virginia. Six months at sea was the normal amount of time away for sailors. He said that he had come to speak with us to offer us comfort and answer our questions to his fullest ability.

Here is what we learned: There are over 1,000 sailors and 2,000 Marines in the Iwo Jima Battle Group (a collection of seven ships, I think). Commander Carr let us know how the procedures of evacuation would most likely work. Questions ranged from Internet and communication access to the types of food served on the ship to whether he thought that Hezbollah would try and attack the Marine helicopter shuttling evacuees to safety. In fairness to the 13 year old that asked that question, the report of an Israeli bomb had just gone off north of Beirut in the general vicinity of the embassy (Later reports confirmed that the bombings were targeting the cell phone towers). Commander Carr notified the group that once aboard a Navy ship and after al the evacuees from all the different locations had been assembled on the ship, the trip would take nine hours to Cyprus (I must add that still at this point we were uncertain as to port of arrival).

On a more human note, Commander Carr detailed that there are over 200 religious groupings, sects, belief systems, whatever represented in the US Navy. The battle group had a Catholic priest, a Jewish Rabbi and Muslim Imam, in addition to Commander Carr who was a Protestant (I never got to ask which specific denomination). In terms of the sailors for whom he cared for, he let us know that it was not uncommon for a mail shipment to the battle group to weigh a total of 3,000 lbs. Many servicewomen and men would receive care packages from home. Carr did say that life aboard the ship was much easier with the Internet. Each sailor and Marine had their own access account and could send emails and surf the ‘net. He hastened to add that we would not have those privileges on the boat.

Commander Carr eventually left and the group was relocated to the embassy bar that had a huge television surrounded by couches. In a bit of morbid humor, the bar sold T-shirts that had the place’s motto, as it were. It read: “The best placed to get bombed!”

Oh, the humanity…

While we waited for the moment of transfer, the TV continued to show the bombardment and destruction of Lebanon; live and direct, of course. It was difficult for me to believe that I was escaping this tragedy. At the same time, I trembled at what the future held for my dear friends who have remained (In fact, at this moment 9am Thursday, I have yet to receive word from either Hani or Chadi… 5 days on…).

A loud report went off. The embassy security officers assigned to us – both of whom possessed a sidearm – immediately made way to the balcony and scanned the horizon for the plumes of smoke.

In the lull before the helicopter ride, we were able to send an email. I dispatched a quick one to family and friends to say that I was safe at the embassy and about to get out of Dodge. At the same time, I really wanted to know how Floyd Landis was doing in the Tour de France. The race had been an escape for me during the early days of the war and I had only come around lately to Landis. I had been cheering for George Hincapie of Discovery Channel. George looked good in the early days of the race, but struggled in Individual Time Trial (most unusual) and then in the Pyrenees (not that unusual). I decided to avoid the selfish and superfluous use of the Internet and quit after sending the message.

The Cultural Attaché of the US Embassy gathered us round and delineated the process of evacuation. We would be broken up into two groups of 15. I had been placed on the first flight out. As the choppers approached, we lined up in single file. Persons who had children or would need help boarding the helicopter were instructed to remain at the end of line.

The embassy personnel gave us earplugs to dampen the sound of the aircraft. The CH-46 landed at the helipad. We moved in single file to just off the landing pad. A Marine from the helicopter approached us carrying the equipment that we would wear – a life preserver and a helmet with earmuffs.

We suited up, moved towards the back end of the helicopter, and entered the belly of the aircraft. What I found most surreal was that while we moved to the chopper, boarded, buckled ourselves in, and prepared to fly away from danger and uncertainty, Marines on the ground and in the chopper itself were taking pictures of us with their digital cameras. The CH-46 has two pilots, one medic and two machine gunners. It was bizarre to see these men (the gunners and medic) attach themselves to their restraining equipment, then place one hand on this massive 50 caliber weapon and with the other snap away and wave to the children on the helicopter. Actually, it was amazing. I later found out from my good friend Evan who currently teaches at West Point (and who is an active artillery officer in the Army) that the primary reason for taking the photos was more documentary than souvenir. In the event of an accident or something untoward, these photos would help the military figure out who was where and with whom at a given time.

The time had arrived. I was leaving town. The blades of the helicopter increased in speed. The noise became nearly unbearable. The aircraft shook violently. The Marines put away their cameras and looked out the windows of the helicopter. We pulled away from the ground. I was one step closer to being home.

Beirut classrooms become clinics

2006-07-27T13:03:00.000-04:00

Beirut classrooms become clinics
By Martin Patience
BBC News, Beirut

As a team of doctors wiped down school desks with pungent disinfectant, a group of women with babies in their arms jostled at the classroom door.

"Just wait a minute," one of the doctors called to the mothers as he carried a brown box of pharmaceuticals over to the window sill.

With Arabic grammar scrawled on the blackboard this does not look like a doctor's clinic - but that is what it is.

Link to the entire article...

Agencies struggle to provide aid in Lebanon

2006-07-27T13:01:00.000-04:00

Agencies struggle to provide aidBy Martin Patience
BBC News, Beirut

With stacks of tinned tomatoes, apricots and beans, hundreds of packets of rice, pasta and lentils, and crates of bottled olive oil, there is no shortage of food supplies in the windowless warehouse of Mercy Corps located in central Beirut.

But as volunteers pack brown boxes with enough food supplies for a family of 10 to survive for 15 days, Cassandra Nelson from the international relief organisation says she is frustrated about their inability to get the aid to those who need it most.

Link to the entire article...

Human cost of war in Lebanon

2006-07-27T12:54:00.000-04:00

Human cost of Israeli campaign
By Martin Asser
BBC News, Tyre

Hospitals in Tyre have treated hundreds of civilians injured in Israeli shell and missile attacks since Israel began bombarding southern Lebanon 11 days ago.

At the Jabal Amil hospital, for example, they have received 275 bombing victims. Of those, 27 (including eight children and five women) were either dead on arrival or the doctors were unable to save them.

Link to the entire article...

Winding down the evacuation...

2006-07-26T14:01:00.000-04:00

Today (26 July) is the final day that the US Embassy in Beirut will coordiante evacuations for American citizens who wish to depart Lebanon...

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U.S. Embassy Announces Last Scheduled Ship Departure for American Citizens Who Wish to Depart Lebanon

The U.S. Embassy advises American citizens in Lebanon that the last scheduled ship departure from Lebanon will be on Wednesday, July 26. The Embassy believes that most American citizens who wished to depart Lebanon with U.S. Government assistance have now done so. All Americans who wish to depart Lebanon and who are able to do so are strongly urged to do so. They should proceed directly to the Dbayeh Processing Center. Processing will begin on July 26 at 9:00 am. Do not wait for a call from the U.S. Embassy. Further delay is not advisable. Future assisted departures will be on an emergency case-by-case basis and such departures may not be immediate.

The U.S. Embassy in Beirut is in contact with some American citizens in South Lebanon who have had difficulty in getting to Beirut. These citizens should remain in contact with the U.S. Embassy for further guidance. Family members in the United States of these individuals may contact the Department of State if they have information on their specific location.

The Dbayeh Processing Center is accessed via the Dbayeh Bridge in Beirut. Processing will take place at the Mobile Forces Barracks (Marina Khoury) facing the water station pump near Dbayeh Port. Travelers should be prepared for a wait; they should bring supplies of food and water and wear comfortable shoes and protection from the sun.

Link to the entire press release.

A kept promise

2006-07-26T13:24:00.000-04:00

I arrived in Tucson, Arizona yesterday morning weary and battered. Donna - my advisor at OSU - and Gary picked me up at the airport. Several hours later, Chihiro arrived from Mexico City. As we embraced all the emotions that were pent-upover the past two weeks just flowed out. As a tear struggled to fall down her cheek, I consoled Chiro that I was confident that the embassy would get me out safely. It did and I kept my 25 July promise.

I have begun to write about the evacuation experience and I will put it up in installments. It reads to me like Tom Clancy, however, I will try to place more characters into the story. My thoughts and worries are with my friends who have remained behind in Beirut. I will keep trying to contact them and will post their news as well. I received an email from a dear dear friend who encouraged me to tell the stories of the innocents subjected to this brutality - on both sides of the border. I will do the best I can and hope it does help raise awareness to the senselessness of the current state of affairs.

More to come

One Final Night in Beirut, Take 3

2006-07-22T23:34:00.000-04:00

This post was written in the early hours of 22 July; just before the 4am rendezvous for evacuation...

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I am exhausted. I am three hours away from the rendezvous time and I must not sleep. I do not trust myself to wake up. At the same time, I can taste the bitterness of adrenaline in my mouth. I am getting anxious. The moment is at hand. I want to come home. I want to see my wife. We have a date planned for 25 April. I will keep it.

My exhaustion is partly self-inflicted. I went to Torino last night for yet again “one final night in Beirut”. The place was overflowing with people. There must have been two-dozen people in the street. Demand was so high that two bars on opposite sides of Torino opened for business. What was unusual was the predominance of Westerners, primarily recently arrived journalists.

Hani had picked me and a colleague up at AUB’s Main Gate and we skirted across downtown, slipped through the underground tunnel that links Ras Beirut with Ashrafieh, turned left onto the Red Line (Damascus Road) that surrounds Martyr’s Square. We made the right hand turn at Gouraoud Street, passed the Franciscan Monastery and then avoided the muchedumbre in the street. The roads were dead and the trip took less than ten minutes.

Mike the Bartender was in good form and his outstanding margaritas were the elixir that I needed to soothe my angst, fatigue, and uncertainty – just some of the emotions that I was experiencing. I probably drank two too many margaritas and the shot with Hani didn’t help much either. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

In any event, Andreas (the owner) passed by and cleaned off our table. I leaned toward him and thanked him for continuing his hours of operation. I said to him that I had announced to my friends about the importance of this place as a local institution. Andreas was adamant in that this publicity he was receiving was causing him more harm than good. He pointed to the street and pleaded, “I do not need this. I am getting criticized for running a business when people are dying. Every journalist in here wants to do a piece on the bar and how I remain open. I do not like this, but I will remain open.”

Properly humbled, I tried to reassure Andreas that I had only told my friends outside Lebanon about his hours of operation and whatnot. This apparently allayed his concerns and he went on his way. Sure, I forgot to explain to him that by “telling my friends” I meant that I posted in on a blog and thus had little control of who got hold of the information. Must have slipped my mind…

As we chatted, I saw the UN officer that I met the previous night. He looked tired and distant. He was not drinking adult beverage and seemed out of place in the middle of the music and the loud banter of the patrons. I moved his way to say hey, give him good cheer and encourage him to keep up the effort. I declared that Kofi Annan had been strong earlier in the day condemning Hezbollah and Israel and demanding an immediate ceasefire. He smiled and acknowledged that it had been a good day – tough, but good. He admitted as well that the Annan’s text largely came from the UN team in Beirut. He was pleased.

He then introduced me to his colleague. This Lebanese guy looked young, early 30s, and had more energy than the UN guy. The Lebanese kid was introduced as the former head guy at Lebanon’s UN mission in New York; obviously not the ambassador but high-ranking nonetheless. In Beirut, he served as the Lebanese Foreign Minister’s main man. He confessed that it was a frustrating job because FM Salloukh (I think that is his name) really had not stepped up in this crisis.

They departed shortly thereafter and I went back to kick it with Hani. (He is at work at the moment and I just do not have the energy to go back to Torino. I hope he forgives me.) Hani was in good form, although he again expressed his fear of an escalation of bombings on Beirut proper after the exodus of expatriates. It seems to be a general fear, although by no means uniform.

I woke up this morning at 6:45am tender and light sensitive. Ranin was waytoo active for anyone’s good. He had gotten up at 5am to send emails, buy food for the boat trip and whatnot. In a series of painful and uncoordinated moves, I readied my bag, washed my face, and lavishly spread sunblock on my arms and face – somehow I missed the back of my neck. We then met Dave – a colleague of Ranin’s at Yale who is a MD/MPH student – at the Bliss Gate just outside our dormitory.

We hiked down to the lower campus area. We looked the sad lot – the fatigued, the wretched, and in my case, the hung-over. As we arrived the rendezvous point, my wife called from Mexico. Caroline Chalouhi arrived during our conversation and articulated an announcement. Since I’m deaf in one ear, I was trying to half-listen to Chiro and half-listen to Caroline. In effect, I heard neither the announcement nor the line of discussion that Chiro was in the middle of. And my head hurt…

I hung up with my wife and asked Ranin what had happened. He said that we were being postponed until tomorrow at the directive of the US Embassy. I could not believe it…

Anyhoo, and much more important was this young undergraduate student. My height with a sturdy build and a T-shirt that clung to his torso, this kid had three massive and very fresh hickeys on his neck. I mean they were BIG!!

I could not stop staring. I thought of the “mole” scene from Austin Powers. I simply could not let it go. I called out, “Say bro, did you cut yourself shaving?”

Initially confused, he began to say no and then realized I was messing with him. He smiled and shook his head.

We made it back to the dormitory and I lay down for a brief respite.

At some point in the late morning, two Yale students (of the four remaining including Ranin) mutinied. There were tired of sitting around and not being able to leave. In the early days of the bombings, an insurance companied hired by Yale had a local security team take the Yalies to an undisclosed location – it turned out to be a 5-star hotel where the room was $1300 per night. No lie… $20 for a coffee and two éclairs… I saw the receipt…

The Yalies had returned two days ago when the first of the postponed evacuations was still considered a ‘go’. After today’s delay, the Yalies contacted the security company and the representative said that he guaranteed that the boys would set sail tonight – for Turkey as it turned out.

Ranin seemed to struggle with what to do. He met with Caroline Chalouhi and she said that they were free to do what they want. Uncertain uncertain uncertain.

They finally left and I received a call around 8pm from Ranin saying that they were indeed quitting Beirut and heading to Turkey.

Before I went to dinner I ran into an American journalist working for ABC radio and Global (a Canadian company). He asked me where I was from: Texas. He asked me for my story and I told him that I had been scheduled to leave town on Monday. He solicited me to repeat some of it for him. I will relay the highlights. I am sure that it will not be aired, save on Jon Stewart.

Q: You were scheduled to fly out on Monday, what happened?

A: [Hesitation…] Umm, the Israelis bombed the airport and all flights were cancelled.

When I answered the question, the journalist cracked a smile and realized just how silly that question had been.

Q: What have you been doing (or something like that)?

A: Well, I had the opportunity to go by land to Damascus. I chose not to because the roads were not safe. I thought that this conflict would be similar to previous ones and end fairly soon. They [the Lebanese] would then throw some concrete on the airport and all would be good. Obviously, that assumption was poor.

Exhausted in Cyprus

2006-07-22T23:26:00.000-04:00

A very quick note - I have arrived safely in Cyprus. I have been welcomed by Myra and John Chrysostomou and will get some sleep. Larger postings to come..

This is not a drill...

2006-07-21T12:49:00.000-04:00

All-right! It looks like we may actually get out of Dodge. People are preparing for the rendezvous that will happen tomorrow. A new wrinkle in the evacuation is that our destination is to be determined on sight. I am sure the Embassy people know, but they are reticent in releasing that data for security concerns and the ongoing nature of the evacuation process. At least, this how I am rationalizing it...

Will put a more substantive posting soon. I had a interesting conversation with Andrea, the owner of Torino Express, and a brief chat with the UN guy last night. UN guy said he had a tough day, but a good day.

More to come...

Big Daddy to Wed!

2006-07-21T03:08:00.000-04:00

My boy Carlos proposed to his beautiful girlfriend Jessica. Defying all conventional wisdom, sagely advice, and basic common sense, Jessica has agreed to marry Carlos.

Wedding is next July.

For the record, I demand a seat on the Steering Committee for the Bachelor Party.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Going to Turkey!!!

2006-07-21T02:51:00.000-04:00

I just received a phone call from AUB's Department of Human Resources. They informed me that today's evacuation was cancelled. The caller then explained that AUB personnel will be evacuated tomorrow to Turkey, then transferred to a US Air Force Base and flown to the USA.

So, there it is... I hope to be home on Sunday...

More to come from the traveling circus...

To Laugh or To Cry. That is the question.

2006-07-21T01:54:00.000-04:00

I cannot write melodrama this bad. The group of students looking to get out of Dodge assembled at the designated place at the designated time. Every one was sleepy-eyed and carried expectant, not worried, looks.

Typical of my recent run of luck, Caroline Chalouhi arrived and informed the group that the US Embassy had called and declared that we would not be evacuated today.

So, when will we leave?

Ms. Chalouhi said that it was "highly likely" that we will quit Beirut tomorrow. "Highly likely"?!?!? Are you kidding me?

I am a bit frustrated. My wife is pissed off. My parents are asleep and think that when they wake up that I will be on a slow boat to Cyprus

Will post more information when I have...

2006-07-20T11:29:00.000-04:00

There is a pick-up soccer game on the pitch outside my dorm room. I think that I will go kick the ball around...

2006-07-20T11:23:00.000-04:00

I met with Chadi earlier today at De Prague – a café just off Rue Hamra that is serving as a sort of community center for students and expatriates in the neighborhood adjacent to AUB. He was there with two friends who were futilely attempting to connect to the wireless Internet server. Chadi who is tall, dark and handsome was unusually fidgety. His right foot was shaking incessantly with nervous tension. Chadi was inhaling cigarette after cigarette. He was making me anxious. Per usual, he asked me if I was okay and apologized for the current state of affairs. He could not hide his worry.

We ordered coffee and chitchatted for a bit. He had decided to travel to his home village in the Shouf Mountains south of Beirut. Chadi needed to get home and check on his parents and give them some money. This is an emerging and escalating problem in Lebanon. Many of the banks are closed and the ATM machines will only dispense Lebanese currency. Normally, you can choose between Lebanese pounds and US dollars. In order to protect the value of the pound, the Finance Ministry directed banks to remove the dollar option in order to prevent a run on the banks. In addition, most banks are either closed or have reduced hours of operation. This fact has made it increasingly difficult for people to secure funds (although, I should add that the moneychangers (sarraf) are doing a brisk business). In this event, Torino Express (Hani’s place of employment and my favorite bar) has become a community center and, for certain people, a source of available credit.

Torino is the only place that is open in Gemmayze and it has been packed the last two nights. In addition to the UN officer, I met Ramsay Short who is the TimeOut Beirut Editor and the author of The Hedonist’s Guide: Beirut. He had just come from an interview on ABC’s Nightline. He said that he has been crazy with writing (he is The Daily Telegraph’s correspondent) and giving interviews.

Anyhoo, at least two people told Chadi that the roads to his mountain village were not safe. He decided to take the risk. Chadi needed to get to his parents and he was the only son with the means and the time. His brother Hesham was busy giving interview after interview as spokesperson for the ICRC, or the International Committee of the Red Cross. One talks about bad luck. Hesham had just come home from Yemen for a five-day holiday. In Sana’a he is an officer for the ICRC who had been Darfour earlier in the year. As the violence broke out in Lebanon, the local ICRC office asked him to stay and run their communications program since it was nonexistent before the bombings. He agreed, of course.

Chadi, in preparation for the trip home, bought his mother some cigarettes. I am not sure but I would think that the transportation of produce, foodstuffs and general groceries and products is all but nil in the south and growing increasingly difficult in the Shouf Mountains south of Beirut. We also walked back to my old apartment building where I had recently been evicted. Chadi is now squatting in Laura’s apartment (of Laura and Lorelai fame). He had Chris computer and is caring for three cats and suffering from the onslaught of fleas and other bugs that the cats bring in with them everyday.

It was good to see the building guard Kamal. He had been so embarrassed at me being booted from Chris’ apartment. Kamal asked why I was still in town. Vacationing of course.

Chadi grabbed a change of clothes and we headed to his car. Before he left town, he had to go to Ashrafieh – a Christian neighborhood in eastern Beirut that was bombed for the first time two days ago – and pick a friend who would make the trip with him. He was growing visibly nervous. He was being rather philosophical about the trip, saying that if it was his time, it was his time.

While I am not currently flush with cash, I offered him some money. I reckoned that I could part with $100-150 and survive tonight in Beirut and the first couple hours of Cyprus (should we finally depart for the island…) He was temporarily out of work. Chadi had been an interpreter/assistant to a Danish reporter until the journalist decided to quit Beirut two days ago. Chadi is hoping to latch onto an NGO – he is, after all, talented and perfectly tri-lingual. A**hole.

Anyway, he was almost overwhelmed with tears at my offer. He declined and said it was enough to know that I offered him and his family assistance. I gave him a hug. I tried to pull away but he held me close and tight for a couple of seconds longer. He was concerned about the wisdom of his decision to go. I asked him how long it would take him to go to Ashrafieh, pick up his boy, and then reach the village. He answered that he would need two and a half hours. I demanded confirmation of his arrival lest I become overwrought with worry and guilt.

We parted ways. I hit the Internet café and then went home to take a brief nap.

Just short of three hours, I received a text message: “I’m home.”

A fascinating interview on BBC's Hard Talk with Stephen Sackur

2006-07-20T08:06:00.000-04:00

I would love to see Stephen Sackur get a hold of someone from Hezbollah.

Sackur is smart, well prepared, unapologetic, unrelenting and bold.

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From the BBC

Stephen Sackur talks to a member of the Israeli Security Cabinet about the consequences of Israel's actions in Lebanon and whether he believes Israel can succeed in eradicating Hezbollah.

Israel's Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, has ruled out the possibility of a ceasefire in Lebanon until her country's borders and soldiers are safe.

But how can the Israeli's achieve their objective of eradicating the Hezbollah threat once and for all?

Isaac Herzog is a member of Israel's Security Cabinet.

Stephen Sackur asks him if, amidst all the fighting, Israel has a strategic plan.

Watch the entire interview. From this page there will be a link to the video.

I should add that there is an interview with Chief Negotiator for the Palestinians, Saeb Erakat, from 17 July...

Fleeing homes in the line of fire

2006-07-20T05:02:00.000-04:00

Signs looking for humanitarian workers are attached to the doors of most businesses in the Ras Beirut area, principally in the neighborhoods adjacent to AUB. These signs are even posted in the various dormitories on campus. It is inspiring to see local Beirutis rallying to help out. Hani and I organized a clothes drive and delivered a large amout of goods to the Red Cross. I have dispensed with most of my clothes. In fact, I am only carrying two pairs of pants, two T-shirts including my favorite South Austin Jug Band t-shirt, some underwear and, of course, my beloved University of Texas sweatshirt. Everything else will do more good here than on a slow moving boat to Cyprus.

The humanitarian crisis will worsen after the departure of the foreign nationals...

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Fleeing homes in the line of fire

By Martin Asser
BBC News, Beirut

Israel's relentless bombing of southern Lebanon and parts of the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut has driven hundreds of thousands of civilians from their homes.

A swathe of southern Beirut - where there is strong support for the militant Hezbollah organisation among the overwhelmingly Shia Muslim population - has been hit.

Some of Harat Hreik, where Hezbollah had its headquarters, has been reduced to smoking ruins, with buildings of 10 storeys or more flattened by air strikes.

Read the entire article...

Believing in a better way (with apologies to Ben Harper)

2006-07-20T04:03:00.000-04:00

I have written previously about my dear friend Elik who resides in Tel Aviv. He is a brave soul who fights for reconciliation between Israel and its Arab neighbors. I should add that Elik, a former IDF paratrooper, served/fought/survived in southern Lebanon in the late 1990s. We met in Paris where we studied French together.

In any event, he and some of his friends are organizing a protest rally this Saturday at 6:30pm.

This conflict has claimed far too many lives on both sides of the border.

I give great credit to Elik and his cohorts for arguing a different path to peace and criticizing a a range of polcies and actions with which they disagree. I wish them success and I hope it has an impact.

2006-07-20T03:36:00.000-04:00

No Payments Required of American Citizens Departing Lebanon
July 19, 2006

Secretary Rice has directed the State Department in this case to waive the requirement for American citizens departing Lebanon to reimburse the United States Government for their travel costs. We want to do everything we can to facilitate the departure of American citizens from Lebanon. Today’s step removes one potential worry for our citizens at this difficult time.

***************
In the building where Hani and Jihad live there is a Lebanese-American mother with her three kids (hopefully they got out yesterday or will today). They live in Staten Island, NY and are here visiting family. The mother was at her wits end. On Monday, she actually registered herself and her kids via telephone! She said it took her forever to get through and even longer to give the information. I can only imagine the frustration of the State Department officer in the consular office. Frustration seems to be the common thread among those who want to leave and those charged with organizing the departure.

The Rumor Mill had stated that the cost of evacuation would be in the neighborhood of $5,000. That's some juice. It would be worth it if I gout to ride to Cyprus via military helicopter. A slow boat with a thousand other sweaty and stinky people... hmmm, 5 grand might be a bit much... Anyhoo, it is moot now and I am sure that this mother and her children now no longer have to worry about this aspect of evacuation...

Postponed!!

2006-07-20T03:15:00.000-04:00

OK, I just received a phone call from AUB's Department of Human Resources. The caller informed me that the Embassy postponed today's evacuation of the AUB group until tomorrow. This news was confirmed in an email that I just received from Caroline Chalouhi.

Part of message reads:

"Please make sure your one bag is packed (max 15kg), and that you have your passport and the forms (the 4 copies from my office) ready. Do not put the passport and forms in your luggage, they have to be in your hand at all times, since they need to be presented to Embassy officials.

Once there, please wait for further instructions. Please don't leave the campus during this time.

If you are not [at the designated time], you could be left behind. Thank you."

Tomorrow should be fun. According to news reports, the embassy will evacuate 4,000 people. I heard that the boat has a pool with a swim-up bar... Right...

Yet again, I have another "final day" in Beirut. Perhaps I will head to the beach...

Awaiting the phone call...

2006-07-20T02:40:00.000-04:00

Last night I had a quick dinner with Ranin and a Canadian colleague from Simon Fraser University (British Columbia) at this little dive By The Way. It was a strange place without air conditioning, well, without electricity. The venue also housed a couple of strange fellows, including a middle aged woman who was sitting still with the parakeet on her shoulder. Three people seemed to own/run the bar and would alternate running food to waiting customers or mixing beverages of an adult nature for the thirsty clientele.

Behind the bar was a counter and the shelves that housed to "good stuff" was raised about 18" above. The space between the shelves and the counter was a mirror that had a piece of paper that declared "Please: No Poltics. No Religion." I am not sure if the sign was serious but it reminded of the barbecue held at Jihad and Hani's the first night I slept there.

There was about ten people including me. At one point, we were all gathered on the smaller terrace. Jihad put his arm around and said, "This is the only time that I will say this. Before you, every religious sect in Lebanon is present." The point he was trying to make is that the divisions within Lebanese society (religious, ethnic, class, etc.) were artificial and could be overcome. I think this is somewhat idealistic. The younger generation in Beirut who have similar education levels and access to jobs probably experience a melting away of these particular concers. I am fascinated to know how far this sentiment extends once one leaves the city limits.

In any event, shortly after dinner, I headed to Torino Express - my favorite bar in all of Beirut. Hani was working and I had to say goodbye. I also thought that I had deserved the comfort of an adult beverage, preferably a strong margarita - on the rocks, no salt.

I sat at the end of the bar. A fellow sat down next to me and ordered a snadwich and a Sprite. He looked tired. We introduced ourselves. Sunavabitch. He works for the UN - a political type involved the ongoing, yet heretofore futile, diplomatic negotiations.

I asked him a couple of questions that I will only offer a brief selection of the answers. He said the biggest problem is that both the Israelis and Hezbollah think that they are winning the fight. Frightening! He also opined that in the absence of foreign nationals in Lebanon, or at least those who wished to depart, the target selection by the Israelis would become more liberal. Nightmarish. Indeed, many of my Lebanese friends believe that once the internationals are gone, the hounds of hell will be released upon Lebanon and the civilian population - well, at least those populations not already in the south.

It was truly depressing. He hoped that he was wrong, but was not optimistic.

The time was rapidly approaching midnight. I needed to get home and get some sleep. As luck would have it, I arrived to the dormitory and Ranin was not in the room. He had the only set of keys. Sh^t! After 10 minutes of furious negotiations... with the RA, I walked back to my 4th floor dorm room (mind you that the last time I lived in a dorm was '91-'92 in Moore-Hill Hall).

Chiro called. We spoke for about 15 minutes. It was good to hear her voice. I slept very well...

Thursday will be long day in the sun. Rumors swirl around as to where we are going to go. I just heard that we will actually be transferred to Turkey. Probably nonsense...

2006-07-19T13:04:00.000-04:00

Three songs keep running through my mind – one by Robert Earl Keen (I’m Coming Home) and two written by my brother Denny (Weather on the Wood and Dark and Weary World). The most difficult aspect of this experience has been the anguish that I have caused my wife. I miss her desperately. I long to hold her. She first called me last Friday in tears. I have never heard the degree of frustration in her voice as I have over the past 5 days. The words of Robert Earl and Denny comfort me and give me hope of my imminent reunion with Chiro. These lyrics also remind me of the distance between us. Hopefully this burden will be over soon.

I am now in a dorm room on the fourth floor of Penrose Hall on the campus of the American University in Beirut. I am sharing a room with Ranin Kazemi. He was clutch! Ranin persisted in demanding that my name be included on the list of students to be evacuated by AUB tomorrow. He called me shortly after noon and asked me to meet him at the AUB’s Main Gate. He then led me to Caroline Chalouhi, Director of International Student Services. In the morning, I had met her about having my name added to the evacuation manifest. There was some concern about my status as an Associate with the History Department. I was neither a student nor a faculty member. Oh, the price of ambiguity. Ms. Chalouhi had sent me to the Department of Human Resources because my letter from the Dean of the College of Arts had been CC’d to him and not to her office.

I visited Human Resources and met with the gentleman charged with organizing the evacuation of faculty. I showed him my letter. He too was uncertain about my status because of the interstitial space I occupied in the world of AUB. He called the Dean’s office. No answer. He took my contact information and photocopied my letter from the Dean and my passport. He said he would get back to me.

I relayed this story to Ms. Chalouhi. At this point she made a command decision. In essence, she said, “Fuck it.” (my words, not hers) and added me to the evacuation register. She then asked me where I was staying. I replied that I as staying with a friend, Hani, near the Monot District. She called BS on that and proclaimed that I had to relocate to the AUB dorms where I would share a room with Ranin.

I grabbed a cab back to the apartment. Hani met me at the house and napped while I prepared my baggage (which was prepared, but I decided to dispense with the clothes and throw in all my research materials). I should say that I have given the lion’s share of my clothes to charity for the more than 500,000 refugees fleeing the South.

At AUB, all is quiet. Ranin and I bought a half-kilo of designer chocolate and gave it as a gift to Caroline Chalouhi. She was touched by our gift. It was the absolute least we could do. We inquired about her evacuation plans. She said that she had not had time to consider what she would do. Her focus was unequivocally on the international students.

Our dorm room overlooks the football (as in soccer) pitch (as in field) on the campus of the International College. It is about 80% of a regulation size pitch and features the latest athletic turf available – the kind with the black rubber pellets that SportsSite has in Columbus. Just outside the 18-yard box is a major crater. The Israelis, in addition to dropping tons (literally) of explosive ordinance, have also littered the sky with paper leaflets. I previously posted an example of one. Today, I walked onto the pitch and filmed the crater and grabbed a couple of leaflets. The most striking aspect of this crater is that this pitch is surrounded on two sides by student dormitories. A third side features classrooms of the International College and the fourth side is a public street with residential towers. 30 meters further south and the vessel carrying the leaflets crashes into a student dormitory.

In any event, the crater in the far end of the pitch was covered in pastel-colored papers (5”x7”). It is a pencil sketch of smoke plumes and people running hither and thither in search of safety. In the bottom right-hand corner is a picture of snake with a monstrous and grotesque face with open mouth and fangs. The face is a caricature of Hezbollah’s leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah. The leaflet’s header declares, “The resistance protects the Nation…? The Nation is the victim of the resistance!!!”

Night is rapidly falling and I want to return to my memories of yesterday – a most unusual day. I need to chronicle all the twist and turns and surprises. The biggest surprise of the morning was learning that the very, very Christian neighborhood of Ashrafieh received one bomb from the sky last night. It was a busy last night – many bombs. I slept through it all. Hani did not. He never does. He waited for daylight and the commencement of evacuations. This process of emptying Beirut of foreigners clears the sky of the jets and the air of the sounds of explosions. It was only this morning that Hani was able to rest.

'GO' time!

2006-07-19T08:18:00.000-04:00

I believe that I will quit Beirut tomorrow (Thursday) for Cyprus. I am set to depart with the evacuation of students, faculty and associated researchers from the American University in Beirut. I have moved into the dormitories on the AUB campus. I have to give credit to my friend and colleague Ranin Kazemi and the compassion of Caroline Chalouhi, Coordinator - International Student Services.

There was confusion as to who was responsible for me - the International Student Services Office or the Office of Human Resources (never will I moch this department, whatver its form...). In any event, Caroline Chalouhi made a command decision and threw me onto the list.

More to come from the traveling circus...

This Just In...

2006-07-18T13:15:00.000-04:00

From the US Embassy in Beirut

U.S. Helicopters Continue to Fly Out Urgent Cases Departures via Sea Begin Soon
July 18, 2006

U.S. helicopters continue to fly American citizens with urgent medical problems and for humanitarian reasons out of Lebanon. Embassy personnel are now contacting Americans for a series of departures from Lebanon via air and sea. In order to ensure a safe and orderly departure, the U.S. Embassy is asking Americans not to move until they are contacted by Embassy personnel or by an American Embassy warden. All Americans who wish to travel will be transported, although not everyone will travel at the same time.

Those who wish to leave should ready themselves immediately. They should prepare important travel documents such as a valid U.S. passport, birth certificates, and other civil documents such as marriage. Each traveler will each be allowed one suitcase only—not to exceed 15 kilos (30 pounds). Pets will not be allowed to travel. Further instructions will be disseminated via the media, the Embassy warden system and the U.S. Embassy website: http://lebanon.usembassy.gov

The U.S. Department of State continues to coordinate with the U.S. Department of Defense to ensure that the departure of American citizens is safe and carried out in an orderly fashion. The U.S. Embassy is particularly concerned about American citizens in the south and is working through the Warden System to reach them.

The Department of State continues to work around the clock to ensure the safety and well-being of its citizens. The U.S. Embassy encourages Americans who have not yet registered to phone the Department of State at 202-501-4444 from overseas, or at 1-888-407-4747 if calling from the U.S. and Canada.

The U.S. Embassy reaffirms the firm, enduring and non-negotiable commitment of the United States to Lebanon and the Lebanese people.

odds and ends

2006-07-18T12:55:00.000-04:00

Well, some of my colleagues are hopefully safe in Cyprus. According to an AP report (posted below), some 320 Americans will be evacuated tonight. Of these people, most of the AUB students have quit Beirut. A colleague told me that due to all the press coverage concerning students at AUB in CNN, AP, etc., they were given expedited service for evacuation. This colleague is said to have received this information from the director of AUB's Center for Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies (CAMES).

So, this is why I did not get the memo last night. I am not a student in the summer Arabic program at CAMES. No student. No emails regarding evacuation...

I have had a very strange day today. I will post something more compelte later. I need more time to sit down and think through it. Just a snippet though... A gentlemen who helped me secure some extra money (just in case the unusual springs itself upon me yet again) told me that he was heading back to Broumana (a town on Mount Lebanon). He said that I should come and visit. The pubs are open, people are enjoying themselves, partying in the street - Lebanese and international tourists both.

Very strange... I then walked backed to Hani's apartment and had to climb over (figuratively) many of the families who had taken refuge in the bombed out houses surrounding my apartment building. Very strange...

Here we go

2006-07-18T12:45:00.000-04:00

Dozens of Americans Flown Out of Lebanon
By ZEINA KARAM and HAMZA HENDAWI , 07.18.2006

Dozens of Americans were flown out of Lebanon by helicopter on Tuesday while hundreds waited in frustration for a passenger ship to take them to Cyprus. The U.S. Embassy tried to calm impatient Americans, saying everyone who wanted to leave will eventually get out.

The U.S. ambassador has said 320 Americans will leave Lebanon by the end of Tuesday and 1,000 more on Wednesday.

A ship chartered by Sweden loaded 1,000 Scandinavians and other Europeans in the port Tuesday. Some 150 American students were in line waiting to take that ship, the Hual Transporter, according to U.S. officials. Other Europeans were able to depart Lebanon by plane.

The Orient Queen, a rented cruise ship that can carry 750 people, steamed toward Beirut escorted by an American warship, but it was not clear when it would arrive.

The U.S. Embassy had said the ship would evacuate the Americans on Tuesday, but it had still not pulled into the port three hours before nightfall, when officials would likely not try to move hundreds of Americans through the city to the vessel.

Helicopters continued to fly American citizens, including those with urgent medical problems, out of Lebanon, the embassy said.

U.S. officials said 60 Americans were flown out Tuesday, and 60 more were to follow before the end of the day. The helicopters carry 32 people at a time, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

An estimated 25,000 Americans are in Lebanon, although it is not clear how many will be leaving.

The U.S. Embassy said it had begun contacting Americans "for a series of departures from Lebanon via air and sea" and told citizens "not to move" until contacted by the Embassy.

"All Americans who wish to be transported, although not everyone will travel at the same time," it said in a statement.

The Embassy said helicopters "continued to fly American citizens with urgent medical problems and for humanitarian reasons out of Lebanon."

It's all about logistics...

2006-07-18T11:15:00.000-04:00

I share some of the sentiments expressed in this news report...

*************
U.S. Rescue Bogs Down in Lebanon

By Megan K. Stack, Times Staff Writer

July 18, 2006, 7:54 AM PDT

BEIRUT — Thousands of Americans whose vacations and business trips to Lebanon have degenerated with sickening speed into stints in a battle zone remained stranded here under Israeli bombardment Monday, their frustration and anger mounting because the U.S. government hasn't gotten them out faster.

Waiting around Beirut with bags packed and fingers crossed, U.S. citizens derided the embassy for busy phone lines, a lack of information and gnawing uncertainty over when and whether they will get out. Hundreds were expected to be shipped to Cyprus today, but how long the full evacuation will take remains uncertain.

"I had heard it might take a week, two weeks. You hear so many things," said Pamela Pattie, a 65-year-old professor. "Why in the world aren't we getting it together?"

The frustration has been intensified by news that other countries have already pulled many of their citizens out of Lebanon, efficiently and free of cost. A ferry chartered by the French government carried about 800 of its citizens and several dozen Americans to Cyprus on Monday. The U.S. military evacuated about 60 Americans by helicopter Sunday and Monday.

Other nations have packed people into rented tour buses and driven them over the mountains to Syria. The U.S. State Department has warned Americans against traveling to Syria.

The main U.S. evacuation plan involves a Pentagon-contracted cruise ship, the Orient Queen, due to arrive in Lebanon today to ferry people to Cyprus. The ship can carry about 750 passengers for the five-hour trip. Defense Department officials said other private ships were likely to be hired as well.

Americans have been told to wait for a telephone call that could come in hours — or days. They've also been told they can't board a ship unless they've signed a contract agreeing to repay the U.S. government for the price of their evacuation.

The rules have angered Americans who are already fatigued and nervous after days of explosions. "I'm freaked out that our government is treating us this way," snapped a Rutgers University student who had been studying Arabic at the American University of Beirut. She declined to give her name for fear she would be taken off the passenger list in retribution for criticizing the evacuation effort.

"Are we a Third World country or what?" she said.

Female students from the American University of Beirut, who had been huddled on the ground floor of their dormitory in case of missile strikes, said they were instructed to take a blanket and a three-day supply of food to Cyprus. They were panicked at the notion of sleeping on the street in a strange country.

Officials estimate that 25,000 Americans have poured into Lebanon this summer. They include tourists, business travelers and students. There are Lebanese who fled the torments of the civil war decades ago and had finally dared take their families back for a visit. There are Lebanese Americans and American Jews, young and old, chasing down lost memories or looking for adventure in this sun-dappled country of pine-studded mountains and pristine beaches.

Now they are all stuck in place, trembling when the bombs shake the ground, sweating because of the broken air conditioners, listening to the roar of Israeli jets — and waiting to be rescued.

Among the stranded is a 9-year old boy, Noureddine Issa, who received a liver transplant at UCLA Medical Center as an infant. His family, which lives in Los Angeles, was visiting relatives in Beirut when the fighting broke out.

Surgeons at UCLA have been urgently trying to get Noureddine out of the country, fearing he is running out of critical medications.

The U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, sent a 17-person assessment team to the American Embassy on Sunday to prepare for the evacuation, which is being run by a task force based in Cyprus.

The Pentagon is also sending a Navy destroyer, the Gonzalez, to protect the ferry. Defense officials said sailors and aircraft on the Iwo Jima, a helicopter carrier that had been participating in exercises with the Jordanian military, could also be called in to help.

Juliet Wurr, an embassy spokeswoman, said the United States had done its best to help its citizens escape danger. Humanitarian cases — including children separated from their parents — have already been flown to safety on helicopters, she said.

She also pointed out that U.S. citizens in Lebanon had ignored the State Department warning against traveling there.

"I wish I could snap my fingers and put an aircraft carrier right outside the Israeli buffer zone," Wurr said. "But it doesn't work like that."

But Americans who have been looking to the embassy for advice describe long and futile quests for information.

Stan McKnight, a Los Angeles education consultant, arrived in the Lebanese capital on Wednesday for a business trip, his son at his side. Woozy with jet lag, the two headed directly to a seaside hotel and fell asleep. They didn't hear the blasts, or realize that Israel had bombed the airport just hours after they touched down. As the two men lay dreaming last week, a battle between Hezbollah and Israel was escalating outside.

They awoke to find themselves trapped.

They tried to call for guidance, but the phone lines at the embassy have been jammed for days. And registering with the embassy online was a futile exercise, McKnight discovered. He said Monday that he waited several days after registering his information, heard nothing and finally rented a car to make the trek to the heavily fortified building.

When he arrived, embassy workers explained that neither faxes nor online communications were getting through. So McKnight registered the old-fashioned way: with pencil and paper.

"We're getting zero information on this, just little bits and pieces," he said.

Linda Sayed, a 26-year-old graduate student from New York, has spent recent days making phone calls, with no result. Along with her parents and siblings, Sayed was vacationing in Lebanon.

Before the fighting erupted, her parents and 15-year-old brother traveled south to visit family in her father's ancestral village, Bint Jbeil, on the border with Israel.

Since the attacks began, the family has been sleeping in a bomb shelter, placing frightened calls to Sayed and her sister in Beirut. When the bombs smashed the cellphone towers, the family lost communication.

In Beirut, Sayed has been sitting helplessly in front of a television set, staring at footage of the bomb-scarred village.

She called the United Nations, then UNICEF, then the Red Cross. All the offices told her the same thing: It's impossible to reach her family now, because the bombing on the southern roads has been too heavy. Sayed called the embassy too but couldn't get through. Hundreds of Americans remain trapped in the south, embassy officials estimated.

"I don't care how much it costs," Sayed said. "My 15-year-old brother is there, and he's terrified. He's never experienced a war — we were all born back in the U.S."

Sayed and her sister have registered to leave as soon as the embassy can arrange their escape. The two young women might have to head back to America without knowing when they will see the rest of their family again.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Times staff writer Peter Spiegel in Washington contributed to this report.

it has begun....

2006-07-18T09:12:00.000-04:00

The evacuation has begun and I have no information concerning rendezvous points. And for the record, neither do the Yale students. I spoke with a colleague from Berkeley who is on a bus awaiting the stamping of her passport and then transfer to the ship.

Her response to my sense of amazement and bewilderment to the news was "You mean you didn't get the email last night with the information?" I had an immediate flashback to the celebrated line from the movie "Office Space" - 'Didn't you get the memo?'

No, I did not get the effing memo...

The Berkeley colleague is a student at the American University of Beirut where I am an affiliate of the History Department, but I am not a student. She told me that all those with her are AUB students.. But then again, the Yale students are mostly at AUB.

WTF?!?!

More to come...

Last night in Beirut... maybe, just maybe

2006-07-18T05:43:00.000-04:00

****This was written last evening*****

According to the Rumor Mill, tonight (Monday, 17 July) is my final night in Beirut. I recently completed a move to a new apartment. Under any other circumstances, this place would be considered swank. It is two-bedroom, two-bath marbled-floor beauty with two large terraces. It is located just up the hill from downtown (Solidere) on the road that served as the Red Line between Christian East Beirut and Muslim West. As I stated previously, 10-15 years on, many of the buildings are still pockmarked with bullets and bombs. The owner of the house is a Lebanese American named Jihad. He works as a Civilian Officer for the United Nations MAC. His mission is to remove the nearly 500,000 landmines (officially registered) that exist in southern Lebanon. His mission became exponentially more difficult as the Israelis have laid more mines down and seem to be driving back to the Litani River.

The apartment is housed in a very nice building; easily the first attempt at reconstruction and gentrification in the area. The neighborhood lies just across the street (granted a fairly large thoroughfare) from the very trendy and expensive Monot district. This building is completely overrun with refugees. The stairwell that one takes to come to Hani and Jihad’s has a small room just past it. It now serves as the bedroom for four people (at least). One person has a mattress and the other three sleep on prayer mats.

Normally, Jihad and Hani live alone in the house. Today, they are hosting six guests including me. One guy, Rabi’a, lives on Bliss Street across from the International College. Bliss Street is without electricity and he and his girlfriend Maya determined that it was safer to stay with us (I consider myself family and this apartment as a sort of timeshare, …ahem).

I departed the building to locate an Internet café and check for any updates from the embassy. As I walked down the street that leads to main thoroughfare, I passed a bombed out house that is now filled with dozens of squatters. I can only assume that these people are from the south, although apparently people from the Shuf Mountains (also south of Beirut, but not southern Lebanon) are fleeing to Beirut and places further north. These people had one solitary light that hangs over the principal entrance of a turn-of-the-century Beirut mansion. Inside

******10:15pm bomb blast – not as close as the one around 7:30pm*******

Inside the building, people had torches and candles place around to illuminate the interior. Not five minutes ago, there was huge applause and cheering from the house of refugees. There must have some news announcement. We do not have the TV’s turned on and I am without Internet access, so I think it is bet not to speculate. Oh damn, some kids just set of a barrage of fireworks. What the hell happened?

The streets are dead. It simply is not safe to drive at night. Oops, two additional souls have arrived…

My father called me about 30 minutes ago to give me an update on the situation. According to a CNN news report, the US Government has arranged for a commercial ship to arrive in Beirut under the protection of a US Navy warship. The ship will be able to shuttle 750 people at a time (25,000 divided by 750 equals 33 and 1/3 potential round trips for this ship). Evacuation should begin tomorrow morning. My father will call me at 1am local time (6pm Texas time) to confirm and deliver the latest news from the US Embassy in Beirut. I am virtually in the dark – I have electricity, however, I do not have the Internet and I am unable to send text messages from my phone. It doesn’t really matter because all my friends’ numbers are stored on my Skype account.

I am now waiting with bated breath a phone call from the wonder boy RoRo who is now working in the Secretary’s of State Crisis Center. Hopefully he will be able to give me the detailed information that I need in order to be in the right place at the right time.

****** 10:37pm An ambulance just screamed past (I can see the main thoroughfare from Hani’s terrace). I never had that in Ras Beirut. *******

In addition to the news about the ship coming in, I have been told that I am allowed to bring one bag that weighs no more than 15 kilograms (33 lbs.). OK, I can dispense with the clothes (my father accused me of a desperately needing a new wardrobe… insufferable wiseass, he is…). Yet, it my research materials with which I am concerned most. I sent a large shipment to my father before I left Syria; however, I have a ton of rich rich set of source materials. Indeed, I just dropped a $1000 on 14 reels of microfilm. The microfilm feature 4 Arabic periodicals that were published in Argentina during different moments of the first half of the twenty century. As best as I can judge, these materials exist neither in Argentina nor in North America in terms of the extensive nature of the collection. Oh, I suppose I should say what it is that I study for those of you are unfamiliar with my project of study. I examine the development, adaptation, and integration of the Arabic-speaking communities in Argentina in the first half of the twentieth century. Some families have been running provinces of Argentina since the 1940s, such as the Menem (LaRioja) and the Sapag (Neuquen)….

********10:55pm another ambulance… strange though, I have not heard an explosion for some time now… Small victories, I suppose.**********

OK, I hve hacking away for quite some time. I shall return in a little bit, but I now need to prepare my bags for travel….. 11:04pm

This Just In... Warden Message, 17 July, 10:30pm local time

2006-07-18T05:36:00.000-04:00

This Just In...

From: US Department of State Warden Message Mailed-By: state.gov

Subject: A Message to American Citizens in Lebanon - 17 July 2006

This Warden Message is to update Americans to the ongoing security concerns in Lebanon. The Embassy is monitoring the situation in Lebanon closely and is reviewing all options for assisting Americans who wish to depart Lebanon. The U.S. Department of State continues to work with the U.S. Department of Defense on a plan to help American citizens safely depart Lebanon. Additional information on departure plans, as it becomes available, will be released via the media, Embassy warden announcements, and on the Embassy website. The Department of State continues to work around the clock to ensure the safety and well-being of its citizens.

Beirut International Airport, which is severely damaged by bombings, remains closed. Americans who wish to depart Lebanon should prepare important travel documents such as a valid U.S. passport, birth certificates, and other civil documents such as marriage certificates, and medical records.

Once U.S.-sponsored travel arrangements are in place, travelers will each be allowed only one small suitcase. We give priority to U.S. citizens but will consider departure assistance to Legal Permanent Residents accompanying a U.S. citizen immediate family member. ONE guardian may accompany an American citizen minor, even if that guardian is not an American. The guardian must have a valid passport and a U.S. visa, if traveling to the U.S. We understand that neither Lebanese nor Americans need a visa to enter Cyprus. Pets will not be allowed to travel.

The Department of State has issued an updated Travel Warning, available at http://travel.state.gov, alerting American citizens that, due to ongoing security concerns in Lebanon, the U.S. Embassy has been granted authorized departure status. Family members and non-emergency American employees have permission to depart Lebanon.

We continue to urge Americans to remain in a safe location. Although we understand that Syria is willing to admit Americans without visas, there have been reports of damage to the border crossings at Mesnaa and along the northern Lebanon-Syrian border. However, if people encounter difficulty at the border crossing into Syria, they should contact the American Embassy in Damascus at 963-11-333-1342. Americans who attempt such crossings are advised to exercise great caution when traveling on major roads as they are subject to an air strike at any time.

The U.S. Embassy remains open for business; however, Nonimmigrant Visa processing has been suspended. American Citizen Services and Immigrant Visa processing are functioning normally. American citizens are urged to continue to evaluate their personal security and to keep in contact with the U.S. Embassy for continuing information on developments.

For the latest security information, Americans should regularly monitor the Department's web site at http://travel.state.gov where the current Worldwide Caution Public Announcement, Travel Warnings and Public Announcements can be found. Up-to-date information on security can also be obtained by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll free in the U.S., or, for callers outside the U.S. and Canada, a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444. The available time for these numbers of 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday (except U.S./federal holidays) has been extended to 24 hours a day until further notice.

Americans living or traveling in Lebanon who wish assistance departing Lebanon and have not yet registered are encouraged to register with Department of State by calling 888 407 4747 in the United States or 202- 501 4444 outside the United States.

Evicted, not evacuated!!

2006-07-18T05:12:00.000-04:00

**** This was meant to be posted yesterday, but due to technical diffivulties, it is only now getting up...*********

I hope that I am wrong, but I sense that things are going to go from bad to worse real soon. Two unconfirmed reports declare that 1) the Lebanese military shot down an Israeli jet and 2) Israeli ground forces have entered into southern Lebanon (I got this from a diplomat). Things seem to be spiraling out of control and I was implored by an UN worker to get out if I can. My warden in Damascus said that she has heard nothing concerning the evacuation of Americans from Lebanon and advised that if I am in a safe place to sit tight. It has been rumored that events are so fluid that it may be impossible for the Security and Assessment Team, now housed at the American Embassy in Awkar (Beirut suburb), to organize a safe departure. I have faith in our people.

To top things off, I got evicted from my apartment today. I have taken refuge in the home of my friend Hani, one of my boys from Torino Express – my favorite bar located in the Gemmayze district of Beirut.

I had been living in Ras Beirut near the American University. I was the guest of my friend Chris who is a teacher at the International College. As I said before, Chris flew out of Beirut for the Philippines about 10 hours before the initial attack on the Rafiq Hariri Beirut International Airport (Wednesday). Since Chris had gone, I was in effect squatting. Who knew?… I received an eviction notice on the apartment after I ran some errands and grabbed some lunch earlier in the day.

Holy sh^t! I could not believe it. I dispatched an email to Chris who, I am quite sure, is relaxing on some golden sand beach on some small resort island.

Ah, the charmed life.

Apparently, the International College has some Lebanese faculty whose family homes are in southern Beirut. It is simply untenable to remain in their homes. The institution owns a building where Chris' apartment is located and IC gives their foreign personnel these homes. Since most of the foreign personnel are outside Lebanon, they made the executive decision to house these families in the vacated apartments. Since I am technically a squatter, I lose out...

In any event, I sent three text messages to friends – Hani, Ziad, and Shadi. All three immediately responded. Ziad and Hani opened their respective homes to me. Shadi offered logistical help. Shadi is living in a one-bedroom apartment with 7 other guys. He shares his personal apartment with his brother. Unfortunately, it is located in southern Beirut near the airport…

So, I packed up my stuff and made my way to Bayt Hani, or Hani’s house. Rock star! He lives just off the Red Line that divided Lebanon into East and West from the civil war days. Many of the surrounding building have not been repaired since the cessation of hostilities. Hani’s lives with a Lebanese named Jihad who is an employee for the UN (I believe military job). He had spent a year at Fort Hood in Texas and is quite familiar with 6th Street in Austin. Represent!

When I arrived to their house, Jihad was frantically working the phones trying to gather information. A grim and sincere look dominated his face. He told me that the situation would most likely deteriorate further and that it was teetering on the edge of regional conflagration. I swallowed with difficulty. It is he who told me to depart with haste. I asked if the roads to the north are passable. He said yes, but that the roads were very busy and not terribly safe. Jihad said he would call a friend who was making the journey to Lattakia (a coastal town in Syria where one can get a ferry to Cyprus), which is north of Tripoli.

He disappeared into the other room, but I heard him yell, “She’s still in Lebanon?!” Gulp...

For his part, Jihad is determined to return to southern Lebanon. He feels extremely guilty to remain in the relative safety of Beirut…

We shall see what happens…

In the end, AUB decided not to evacuate its summer students via bus. They simply could not guarantee safety of passage. Ranin Kazemi, who received his MA (under Professor Stephen Dale) from OSU and is currently at Yale, delivered the news. In addition, he told me that Yale acted promptly by evacuating its students in Lebanon to an undisclosed location outside of Beirut complete with bodyguards. In an email, he declared that they are not allowed freedom of movement and are simply awaiting the evacuation orders from the US Embassy.

Israel dropped flyers declaring that they only had issue with Hezbollah and advised the civilian population to move north. So, many fled to Beirut, like the people in the school behind my now old apartment building, and to the north. Well, Israel bombed the north last night. As Hani put it, “now the Lebanese are confused as to where to go.”

More to come from the traveling circus…

An absolute tragedy

2006-07-17T02:59:00.000-04:00

I have commented several times on the refugees who are camped out in the public school behind my apartment building. Here is a story from London's The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk) concerning the humanitarian crisis that is developing in central Beirut. It is interesting that Hezbollah told some of these families to leave the south and to do it quickly.

An absolute tragedy.... Seriously, can I get some leadership from the international community?

**************
As the bombs rain down, a refugee crisis unfolds on the streets of Beirut

· Thousands of homeless or trapped Shia seek shelter
· Fleeing families killed in Israeli attacks on roads

Brian Whitaker in Beirut
Monday July 17, 2006
The Guardian

Lebanon was on the brink of a humanitarian crisis yesterday as Israeli forces continued their bombardment and thousands of Shia Muslims either fled their homes or found themselves trapped.

In Beirut, where Israel has dropped leaflets from the air urging residents to leave the teeming suburbs controlled by Hizbullah, schools are being overwhelmed as families set up temporary homes in classrooms. Hundreds of others are sleeping out in the open.

Among them were 600 homeless Shia, 70% of them children, who spent Saturday night in Sanayeh park, not far from the city centre. Police were turning journalists away yesterday. "No photographs," one said. A volunteer relief worker said the Lebanese authorities had been slow to act during the first few days of the crisis and would be embarrassed by published pictures.

Before the war began, more than half a million Shia were believed to be living in Dahiyeh, the suburb most heavily targeted by the Israelis. The Lebanese authorities opened dozens of schools at the weekend but these are now overflowing. The Chakib Arslan school in Verdun was considered suitable for up to 180 people, but now holds 850. Most had only brought what they were wearing or could carry.

As the sound of three bombs shook the school, a teenage girl burst into tears. Faten and her 16 relatives are living in a classroom. "Our house was not safe," she said. "Hizbullah told us to go and we left four days ago. We have $100 [£55] between us and my father needs medicine. We can't get it for him."

Rami, a volunteer, said: "Sometimes the families buy food. Most of the time the government doesn't help much but it sends a little food." The relief effort is being run by several organisations and political groups, and includes Christians and Muslims. "It began with a sit-in, in solidarity with Gaza, but then turned into relief work," said Ghassan Makarem of Helem, a Lebanese gay and lesbian organisation which is one of those involved. "It's a mix of NGOs, leftist groups, Palestinian youth groups, and others," he said.

Outside Beirut, though, there is no such help and people are having to fend for themselves. Many cannot leave because roads are impassable, and those who do escape face the risk of being attacked.

Eighteen people, including nine children, died on Saturday when an Israeli helicopter gunship hit their minibus as they fled from their village near Shamaa in the southern border region. A further three people were killed in an attack on the Masnaa crossing into Syria and three more near a bridge at the Syrian border.

Hanady Salman, of the Lebanese daily As-Safir, circulated an email containing gruesome photographs of child victims of Israeli attacks. "I am almost certain these pictures won't be published in the west," she wrote. "These are people who were asked to leave their village, Ter Hafra ... within two hours, or else.

"Those who were able to flee went to the UN base, where they were asked to leave. I think that after the Qana massacres in 1996, when civilians were bombed after they took shelter in UN headquarters, the UN does not want to be responsible for the lives of civilians ... I am afraid massacres will keep happening as long as Israeli actions are unchecked."

Israel initially said it was bombing roads to prevent the two soldiers captured by Hizbullah from being moved, but observers say it is mainly trying to prevent Hizbullah transporting its weapons, which are often hidden in isolated places.

"During previous conflicts, we used to flee southward when the troubles occurred in Beirut and vice versa when the fighting broke out in the south," Karim Hammoud, a schoolteacher in Beirut told the Daily Star newspaper.

This time, though, with both areas under attack, and north-south movement blocked by the destruction of bridges and petrol stations, the Shia are finding that they have nowhere to go.

Beginning Day 6

2006-07-17T02:44:00.000-04:00

Hmmmmmm, I slept well last night. I had thought that there was a lull in the bombing of Beirut. The southern suburbs lay, after all, in ruin. Apparently I slept through the third attack, at least, of the International Airport - a fuel depot this time. The video at CNN is quite impressive. I completely missed it. Maybe it was exhaustion on my part. Perhaps I am becoming desensitized to the explosions - I do not jump anymore at the sound of explosions or the screaming of jet engines...

In any event, a strange sense of normalcy has returned to the streets as children's laughter and screaming fill the morning air...

A Message from Oz

2006-07-17T01:22:00.000-04:00

The dispatch that is attached below is from my very funny ex-roommie who currently resides in Australia's culture capital - Canberra. We are scheduled to meet each other next month in Okinawa for some holiday and general hanging out with my in-laws.

By the by, I am still in Beirut. Danny, our superhero from Oz and author of the message, said that it was unclear as to my present whereabouts... Sorry about that. The Aussie FM seems a bit overwhelmed at the moment. His remarks are quite strange...

The comment was made about information being king. Well, I get tons of information. Sifting through it is painful because most of it is rubbish. Seriously, complete sh^t. Hence, the evacuation stories, the stories about border, etc... Apparently, the St Rita School evacuation is for Danes only. Yesterday, it was for every nationality. I will confirm as to whether or not it actually materializes. I have a Lebanese friend who is driving three Danes to said rendezvous as I type furiously away...

More to come from the traveling circus...

The received message frm Dannough:

"I have been without internet for the past two/three days, so was finally able to get onto your weblog, and have a quiet little freak-out session at work. Utter. Fucking. Madness. Simply unbelievable. Goes without saying (but of course, I'll say it anyway) that all good thoughts and karma and stuff are being directed towards you. I'm glad you've got all the support of the
OSU history department, and of COURSE, if you need anything that your Australian family can provide, it is yours. I don't know exactly what that would be, but simply ask, and it shall be put into your hands.

Meanwhile, your weblog is unclear as to where you currently are. Have you departed B-town?

The impression I get is that the most important commodity you can get right now (aside from sub-orbital pick-up jets and an adamantium skeleton) is information, and no doubt you're in a position to get it more easily than I. Still, the Australian info is striking. Estimates are there are about 25,000 Australians in Lebanon, and we have protests going on here in Canberra. They
are relatively subdued, but noteworthy. (We have a large Lebanese population.) The Department of FOreign Affairs and Trade is making noises about transporting 'a small amount of people' by bus up the coastal road to Syria, or using ferries to Cyprus.

Plus, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer stated:

'The other side is we've been comunicating with the Israelis and putting to the Israelis propositions about routes we might want to use and the like.'

It would be 'completely stupid' to attempt an evacuation with consulting Israel first, he said.

'We need to talk to the Israelis without having any aspirations the Israelis would tell us what their militay plans were,' he said.

'We'll discuss with the Israelis our plans to evacuate Australians who are desperate to get out so that if we do decide to implement those plans we'd have some confidence of the situation being a little more secure than it might otherwise be if we made a random rush for the border or just brought a ship into a port which was likely to be shelled.

'It's clearly completely stupid to do that, so part of the equation here is to talk to the Israelis.

'But, I mean, the difficulty with that (is) you're asking the Israelis for their war plans and they're obviously not going to reveal those.'

So, there you go. I am without comment on the above. Alrighty, I shall keep writing - probably intensely frivolous stuff, and
hopefully will hear from you soon (although I appreciate that appeasing my concerns is a low priority compared to, say, your wife (whose shrillness I can detect, and totally agree with.)

Your boy,"

Effing Rumor Mill

2006-07-17T01:08:00.000-04:00

Well...... Beirut is currently the capital of False Calls (with apologies to the Jug Band). I had my father contact the State Department to confirm (or deny) the evacuation story. Here is my father's email:

"I just got off the phone with State. They have no knowledge of an evacuation plan for tomorrow but they are working on one.

[...]

The theme of the conments I got from State was this: 'If he is registered with the Embassy in Beirut...'

Dad"

Alright, looks like I will be able to return those books to the AUB library.

Conclusion: Laura and Loralei

2006-07-16T12:29:00.000-04:00

Alex, the Right, Honorable Man from Norwich, has informed me that Laura and Loralei have departed Syria for the Emirates. In addition, Alex said that flights are still available out of Damascus - smashing yet another myth produced by the Rumor Mill.

In the same message, Alex said the Rumor Mill is reporting in Damascus that the bombing will arrive in Syria in the next 60 hours. I hope (and believe, actually) that this is myth and will be smashed shortly...

Oh hey Alex, will you grab my suit and winter coat from the tailor? I will meet you in London to pick it up...

More to come from the traveling circus...

Rumor Mill: Evacuation, Take 2

2006-07-16T12:09:00.000-04:00

According to a Danish journalist (via a friend), the evacuation of American citizens will begin tomorrow at 11:30am in Dbaieh (just north of Beirut). People are to meet at the St. Rita School.

I will confirm this as soon as possible.

This Just In: news from the US Embassy in Beirut

2006-07-16T10:19:00.000-04:00

Frontpage Headline
http://beirut.usembassy.gov/lebanon/PR_07_16_06_AmCit_Update.html

U.S. Embassy Preparations to Support Departure of American Citizens from Lebanon

July 16, 2006
The U.S. Department of State continues to work with the U.S. Department of Defense on a plan to help American citizens depart Lebanon. To assist with the planning of this operation, planning and security assessment teams arrived via helicopter at the U.S. Embassy in Awkar, July 16, at approximately 3:00 p.m.. The arrival of the teams is an important first step in facilitating the safe departure of Americans who want to leave Lebanon. The U.S. Government is making the arrangements necessary to provide secure transportation for American citizens who wish to depart Lebanon. The teams that arrived on the afternoon of July 16 are performing that planning role, and have no other mission. Additional information, as it becomes available, will be released via the media, Embassy warden announcements, and on the Embassy website. The Department of State continues to work around the clock to ensure the safety and well-being of its citizens. The U.S. Embassy encourages Americans to register with the U.S. Embassy, preferably on line at http://lebanon.usembassy.gov or by fax at +961 4 544 209 or +961 4 544 037. The U.S. Embassy reaffirms the firm, enduring and non-negotiable commitment of the United States to Lebanon and the Lebanese people.

Rumor Mill: Evacuation

2006-07-16T07:34:00.000-04:00

Just received a phone call from one of my roommate's students at the International College (he and his friend will care for the cat Muffin during the summer). He said that the Americans will be evacuated tomorrow. Will try to confirm later...

Day 5

2006-07-16T05:08:00.000-04:00

Last evening marked the first sound sleep I have had in the previous three nights. I had been operating on about 5 hours of sleep over two nights. I was exhausted. As the evening wound down, I turned the lamp off in my bedroom and noticed the bright lights emanating from the public school building behind my apartment building. As I mentioned before, the school is now a refugee center for Lebanese fleeing from the south. Less than three weeks ago, the room that my bedroom peers directly at was full of elementary schoolchildren. Last night it served as home (a one room home at that) to a multi-generational family.

I selfishly looked upon these families (indeed there were five rooms which served as temporary refuge) and tried to imagine the anxiety and concern with which they must be filled. A man played with one child and woman, presumably the mother, changed the diaper of a toddler. It was beautiful and pitiful at once. As I child of privilege (and I come from middle class stock), this moment of beauty and uncertainty was overwhelming, yet distant. I want to empathize. I want to help. I know, however, that at the end of the day my government will secure my evacuation to Cyprus. These families’ government has gone into hiding.

I will try to visit these families later today. I live in a building that houses the foreign teaching personnel for the International College, which is a private school (K-12) that acts as a feeder school for the American University of Beirut. I believe I am the last person, other than the building guard, to remain. Most left before the escalation of activities. Four, including Laura and Lorelei, fled yesterday. In any event, all the teachers dumped their leftover food on me. There is no way that I can consume it all. In addition, before the exodus yesterday, we had agreed to take much of the fruits and vegetables to the school in hope of helping their situation.

So, as I peered as a voyeur in these people’s makeshift world, a powerful explosion shattered the still night air. The men and women grabbed the children. My heart raced. This explosion was much larger than I have experienced to date. After a minute, a long minute at that, my pulse eased and the families across the way looked less likely to bolt from the buildings.

****** 10:54am A massive explosion just went off. The Israelis are hitting south Beirut again*********

I lay down to sleep. I was completely exhausted. I neared sleep. BOOM! Another large explosion: it was powerful. In my exhaustion, I moved from my bedroom to the couch in the living room. Obviously, a room full of sliding glass doors would provide more protection than my concrete enclave of a bedroom… I slept…

**********10:58am Another large explosion********

This morning has been relatively quiet. My wife Chihiro called me from Mexico just before 8:30am. She wanted to make sure that I got some sleep. Our conversation the previous evening had been marked by my impatience – due resolutely to exhaustion – with the discussion. I told my father about my exasperation and attitude. He counseled that wives have the privilege to critique and/or yell at us when they are either concerned for our well-being or when we have done something foolish, like hanging out in Beirut during a summer of military confrontation.

***********11:05am Two big, successive, and close explosions… Let me go out to the balcony. Business as usual.********

There is a sense of normalcy in the neighborhood. The children camped out in the school are playing. I can hear their shouting and laughing voices from my living room. People are on the street walking about and going about their respective business.

I should say that I have received tremendous amounts of support and encouragement from friends and family. Most important in my mind has been the mobilization of the Department of History at The Ohio State University, my home institution. The departmental Chair, Peter Hahn, has been in constant contact with my principal advisor, Professor Donna Guy and me. Donna, with whom I have had ongoing communication, has been working her connections to secure me a place in Istanbul, should I end up there.

************11:15am Again two large explosions… From the balcony, no sense of urgency on the street below; however, these blasts did bring out some inquiring people from the apartment-suites building across the street********

In addition, Professor Ken Andrien has offered his services and both he and Professor Hahn are ready to lean on Ohio politicians to force some sort of response from the government. We who have studied with Ken (a slim and gentle person) know that he can put foot to ass when need be. An example will hopefully suffice. A dear friend during his/her (we will remain gender neutral to protect the guilty) build-up for comprehensive general examinations (a process a PhD student must fulfill to advance to candidacy; it consists of a three day written exam and concludes with a 2 hour oral examination) had a meeting with Professor Andrien. Simply put, the meeting did not go well. Shortly after the said encounter, we received an email from our friend with the subject header “Andrien”. I opened the message. There was no written text. Instead, a most poetic and suggestive image took primary position upon my computer screen – Darth Vader wielding a light saber, and he looked pissed. I should say that this friend did pass his/her examinations. Perhaps I should have Professors Andrien and Hahn work the phones with the politicians. The Bush Administration is doing precious little. Bless the dedicated civil servants at the Department of State and US Navy.

Professor Carter Findley has sent me sound advice as to how to handle the border crossings into Turkey and what I can expect at the borders. In addition, he sent an APB (All Points Bulletin) to his students who maybe in Turkey or have friends and family currently in Istanbul or other cities. The department, which has offered to help defray the cost of an airline ticket should I need one, and its faculty have stepped up in my moment of need.

I should say that AUB evacuated the American and European student from their summer intensive Arabic language program (CAMES). The evacuation was voluntary and apparently AUB was blunt in saying that they could not guarantee safety of passage out.

********11:32am Sh^t!!! BBC is reporting that Hezbollah hit Haifa, Israel with rocket fire. There are dead and injured, primarily at a train station. F*#@ers… This is sooo not good… We really need some international leadership to have both parties reach some sort of ceasefire. Today’s “Duh” moment: continued escalation is good for nobody… I do have a gift for the grasp of the obvious...**********

OK, further updates to come. Americans who are still in Beirut are awaiting the USG’s assessment team to finalize the logistics to get us out of Dodge. Hopefully that will be sooner rather than later. We shall see…

More to come from the traveling circus…

This Just In: update from the US Embassy in Beirut

2006-07-16T01:51:00.000-04:00

This Just In:

From: US Department of State Warden Message
Date: Jul 16, 2006 8:41 AM
Subject: A Message to American Citizens in Lebanon

A message to American citizens in Lebanon:

The US Department of State and the US Department of Defense continue working on a plan to help American citizens who wish to depart Lebanon to leave in a secure and orderly manner. To assist in the development of that operation, the U.S. Government is sending an assessment team to Beirut to facilitate the safe departure of Americans who wish to leave.

The Embassy is open and will remain open at this time in support of American citizens in Lebanon. American citizens may register by contacting the Embassy in Beirut directly, or through the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs registration site at http://travelregistration.state.gov. For updated information, visit the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs website at http://travel.state.gov.

Updated information on travel and security in Lebanon may be obtained from the Department of State by calling 1-888-407-4747 within the United States, or, from overseas, 1-202-501-4444. Additional information, as it becomes available will be released via the media, Embassy warden announcements and on the Department and Embassy websites.

Update: Laura and Loralei

2006-07-15T16:06:00.000-04:00

Fantastic news!!!!

Laura and Loralei made it safely to Damascus. They are staying with my old roommate Alex, the Right Honorable Man from Norwich.

Apparently, they had surprising little trouble at the border (Laura, an American, did not have a Syrian entry visa). We seem to have smashed several claims of the Rumor Mill.

Alex called to confirm their arrival. Laura then sent me a text message: "Wow ur friends here r fantastic. Please be safe and keep us posted."

This border crossing (Masnaa) was presumably struck twice by missile attacks shortly after they passed through...

Not much else to report other than my wife was pissed tat I did not join the ladies on their road trip... They are really brave people.

OK, I apologize for the choppy nature of this posting. I am quite exhausted. I am going to bed. More tomorrow... well hopefully not.

Here are a couple of pictures from my apartment to give an idea of density of the residential areas...

PS The bombs I heard around 6:30 were apparently strikes against the Hezbollah HQ. Just a couple of miles as the crow flies from my apartment...

Getting out of Dodge... maybe...

2006-07-15T16:01:00.000-04:00

Here is an encouraging story from CNN about plans for an 'air bridge'.

U.S. plans 'air bridge' out of Lebanon, officials say Americans urged to register with State Department

Saturday, July 15, 2006; Posted: 1:08 p.m. EDT (17:08 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Americans could be evacuated from Lebanon using an "air bridge" of fast-moving aircraft, U.S. military officials said Saturday.

Pentagon and U.S. State Department officials are working on contingency plans to get about 25,000 people out of Lebanon to escape Israel's military campaign, launched after two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped by Hezbollah guerrillas.

An "air bridge" is the term for planes that would move in swiftly and ferry people out in quick succession.

Planners are focusing on flying people from the Lebanese capital of Beirut to the island of Cyprus, officials said. (Watch what options the Pentagon has for the trapped Americans -- 1:59)

But the U.S. military is also looking at other options for any evacuation, considering whether it is possible to dock ships or land aircraft in Beirut, given the large number of Hezbollah militants there.

The Israeli bombing of the Beirut International Airport rendered it unusable, and has complicated planning.

"As of the morning of July 15, we are looking at how we might transport Americans to Cyprus," the State Department said Saturday.

"Once in Cyprus, Americans can then board commercial aircraft for onward travel. Commercial airlines provide the safest and most efficient repatriation options to final destinations," it said.

The State Department added that the government would not provide free transportation but could provide repatriation loans "to those in financial need."

The State Department has set up a Middle East Task Force to coordinate policy and share information.

It is also asking Americans in Lebanon to stay in contact with the American Embassy. (Read message from State Department)

People in the region or their relatives and friends can call the following numbers for information: 1-202-501-4444 from overseas, or 1-888-407-4747 in the United States.

U.S. citizens can also register with the embassy online at https://travelregistration.state.gov/ibrs/.

CNN's Barbara Starr and Elise Labott contributed to this report.

shelling in south Beirut

2006-07-15T11:42:00.000-04:00

Three powerful explosions rang out at 6:37pm local time. I did not hear any jets, so the Israelis must be bombarding from the sea. It is quite the spectacle. The sounds of the explosions draw people onto their terraces (myself included) to look for traces of the destruction - plumes of smoke, ambulances criss-crossing the narrow streets, whatever...

A sheepish form of rubber-necking at the sight of road crash, I guess one could say...

Update: Laura and Loralei

2006-07-15T10:51:00.000-04:00

I just received a text message from Laura and Loralei. They have reached Zahle which is a town that sits on the eastern base of the first mountain chain. The next hurdle for the ladies will be crossing the Bekaa Valley - a Hezbollah stronghold and a persistent Israeli target. In normal traffic, it takes about 20 minutes to cross the valley. I, however, know neither the conditions of the roads nor the route the driver will take. This is where they will need a bit of luck.

Acording to my father, "CNN is reporting the Israelis are bombing roads and bridges in north Lebanon and that they have bombed the Syrian Lebanese border crossing points."

More to come... For the record, I wish this were fiction...

It's all about logistics

2006-07-15T10:45:00.000-04:00

My father just sent me this note:

"CNN is reporting that State is trying to arrange transportation to Cypress and will "loan" airfare money to get back to the US. Also, reporting US Navy is making plans to ferry people to Ships off shore."

I am awaiting official word from the embassy...

Today's first WTF moment

2006-07-15T08:34:00.000-04:00

My friend Laura and her friend Loralei have decided to try again for the Syrian border. THe Rumor Mill has birthed a story that a mountainous road which winds through Mount Lebanon is still open and passable. They are ging for it...

WTF?!?!

Just to confirm - the northern road to Tripoli and then Syria has been bombed and destroyed. THe Israelis apparently waited until daybreak before striking it...

Descending into greater chaos

2006-07-15T07:45:00.000-04:00

My neighbor Laura and her guest Loralei departed earlier today for Syria. They had found a taxi who was confident that they could reach the Syrian border safely. THey waited and waited for the taxi to arrive. When he did show up, the girls placed their belongings in the back of the minivan and left weeping. Twenty minutes later Laura called me, completely overwhelmed and crying unconsolably, and requested that I ask a mutual friend to care for her cats. The original person charged with caring for the cats had fled to the mountains.

I agreed that I would sort it out. I then made arrangements to have lunch with my buddy Ranin, formerly of the History Department at OSU, but now at Yale (traitor...). In any event, as we munched on proper crap fat-boy American food, I received a text. I saw that it was from Laura. I assumed that she was informing me that they had made it to the border safely.

I opened the text. It read:

"We've been turned back and a bus full of civilians have been killed."

I immediately forwarded the message to Adrienne, my warden at the US Embassy in Damascus. She wanted to know more details.

After Laura and Loralei returned, I spoke with them. Apparently, as they were climbing the initial mountain (one must cross two mountain ranges to reach the Syrian border), they heard a bang. Immediately over the car radio, it was reported that a bridge that connects two peaks had been destroyed. A bus carrying people had been on the bridge. Soon after, another report (the one discussed by the BBC) declared that a minivan carrying civilians had been directly struck by a missile. The driver, Laura and Loralei were compelled to turn back and return to Beirut.

Before I returned home, I stopped by the internet cafe to check messages. I received one from my dear friend Elik who currently resides in Tel Aviv. I have always viewed him to be a heroic guy. You will not meet an Israeli more committed to a peaceful resolution with his Arab neighbors.

Obviously, his political views are met with scorn and violence. He comes from a fantastic pedigree - his mother was awarded the Andre Sakharov Medal for Freedom of Thought from the European Union. He is his message:

"shit steven are you still in bierut?!
i can't tell how ashamed and desturbd i am because of everything that is going
on. on my part i can tell you that i'll go to jail before participating in any
of these crimes... for what its worth...
we are trying to mobalise some protest activities here but people are more
indeferent then ever. these are bad times.
in hope of better days
love elik"

He is a brave, brave person.

Further updates forthcoming...

Some Pictures from Lebanon

2006-07-15T04:01:00.000-04:00

These pictures feature children and adults who refugees from southern Lebanon. They are housed in a public school behind my apartment building in Manara neighborhood of Ras Beirut (about 10 minute walk from AUB).

The following picture is of the border crossing at Masnaa. This crossing is on the main road between Beirut and Damascus. this road was bombed earlier by the Israelis, but many people obviously had the resolve to get around the destrcution.

Let me just say that this border crossing is a complete zoo on slow days. It must have been an absolute nightmare for those who got out yesterday. Good news is that they got out... Oh yeah, Rumor Mill reports that the Syrians are permitting Americans to enter without entry visas. Rumor Mill also says that Syria will only let Americans in if they have confirmed flights out of Syria. Yeah right, how the hell are they supposed to come with that? Effing Rumor Mill...

Will update later on in the day

2006-07-15T04:00:00.000-04:00

This just in... from the American Embassy in Beirut

2006-07-15T03:02:00.000-04:00

THIS JUST IN...

From: US Department of State Warden Message
Date: Jul 15, 2006 9:54 AM
Subject: A message for the American Citizens in Lebanon
To:

Message to Americans in Lebanon

The Department of State continues to work with the Department of Defense on a plan to help American citizens depart Lebanon. As of the morning of July 15, we are looking at how we might transport Americans to Cyprus. Once in Cyprus, Americans can then board commercial aircraft for onward travel. Commercial airlines provide the safest and most efficient repatriation options to final destinations.

The Department of State reminds American citizens that the U.S. government does not provide no-cost transportation but does have the authority to provide repatriation loans to those in financial need. For the portion of your trip directly handled by the U.S. Government we will ask you to sign a promissory note and we will bill you at a later date. In a subsequent message, when we have specific details about the transporation arrangments, we will inform you about the costs you will incur. We will also work with commercial aircraft to ensure that they have adequate flights to help you depart Cyprus and connect to your final destination.

The Department of State continues to work around the clock and will continue to send updates to you as appropriate.

Rumor: bombing of the Beirut-Tripoli road in the north

2006-07-15T02:55:00.000-04:00

I am working to come confirm this rumor. If true, it means that the Israelis bombed it in daylight. There may have been traffic on the road. This road was the planned route of exit for the bus of Europeans organized by the Italains.

Some neighbors downstairs are awaiting the arrival of a taxi. They are planning on going north to Syria and the circling back south to Damascus. They are paying $350 for the service.

I have been offered a place in the taxi; however, I declined. Both the US and Canadian embassies are counselling that their citizens remain indoors. The roads are to fluid of gamble in my mind...

Will get back with confirmation - one way or the other - of the bombing of the northbound road near Tripoli.

a conversation with the US Embassy

2006-07-15T01:39:00.000-04:00

I just got off the phone with a gentleman in the Consular Section at the American Embassy. At the moment, they are advising that Americans who are in a safe and secure place (which I am) to sit tight, monitor the situation through the news media and wait for any official announcement from the Embassy or detailed information delivered by Warden Notices.

Well, the wife returned from holiday and dully called me at 6:45am local time. She had been in Veracruz and only found out about the hostilities yesterday. As one might imagine, she was not pleased with my continued presence in Beirut. Shortly thereafter, my dear friend Karim - a Canadian diplomat based in Hong Kong - called to check in on me and to encourage me to get out of Dodge as soon as possible. He raised a fascinating point in that sometimes people caught in a situation that I am currently in can become complacent. He counselled against that. We talked strategy about the safest and most efficient places to leave the region from. He thinks Cyprus is my best bet and beyond that Amman, Jordan or Istanbul.

I need to give a correction on the number of Americans in Beirut. I said 125,000 in the last post. MY crack team of fact checkers, led by the indefatigable Evan Wollen, confirmed that the number is actually 25,000 Americans in Lebanon. Evan was always clutch on pub trivia night.

So, that is the rub in 9am local time. More to come from the traveling circus...

the effing Middle East

2006-07-14T19:58:00.000-04:00

Greetings from Beirut!

As most of you know, things are a bit tense at the moment. I hope to allay most fears that you carry. I should say that I greatly appreciate your concern about my well-being. I am fine!!! OK? Really, I am fine.

Where are we? At the moment the Beirut-Damascus road is nearly impassable and the rush of tourists trying to cross into Syria created a four-hour wait at the border. Currently, the easiest road to take out of Lebanon is the highway (and I use that word loosely) through Tripoli in the north. The Rumor Mill – and this institution plays an important part in our story – is suggesting that Israeli naval ships are gathering around Tripoli. The implication is that during the evening Israel will bomb this road and make any sort of travel to border crossings nearly impossible. We will know more in the morning.

Now, as we all know, certain people make a lot of money during the time of war. Lebanon is no different. According to a reporter for Beirut’s The Daily Star, drivers at Charles Helou bus/taxi station were charging $300 per person to travel to Damascus. Other people (the Rumor Mill yet again) heard the price was hovering around $1000. Just for some comparison, the ride in a share taxi normally costs $10. In an email to a friend of mine, the journalist reported much doom, gloom, and general panic. (I will attach below.)

********************
this from my friend at the star.. she's american..
if they bomb that bridge it's a serious escalation manoevre.
stay safe in starbucks..
xx

>Subject: Re: greetings
>Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 06:39:06 -0400
>
>things are absolutely insane here. Ive been reporting all morning. most of
>businesses in southern suburbs outskirts are closed, a few random men are
>open. I said to one florist, why are you staying open? Who could buy
>flowers now?
>He said Im happy, i dont care if i dont sleep for a year, we are doing our
>sacred duty of resisting israel.
>At Charles HElou, the bus depot, people are falling over eachother to get
>on busese and they are charging 300 per seat to get to syria. Families with
>kids are camped out-under a bridge no less-surrounded by all their
>belongings.
>Israel is about to bomb two biggest bridges connecting east and west
>beirut. people in the office are crying because their families are in
>dahiyeh and they wont be able to get back
>haram as they say

***************************

I spoke with my warden from the US Embassy in Damascus earlier today. I told her of my plan to stay put in Beirut. I had figured that it is probably safer in Beirut than trying to battle the fleeing caravans of people on the dodgy Lebanese roads. I live in a neighborhood that Israel would not be that interested in targeting – loads of American and European expatriates. My warden, Adrienne, agreed with me but demanded that I keep her apprised of any plans I make. What was most shocking was the silence from the US Embassy in Beirut. I had registered with them when I moved here in June. I still received the occasional security updates from Damascus, but nothing from Beirut. Well, their ears must have been burning at the embassy because as I lamented the neglect of these guys, I received an email shortly after midnight local time (4pm Texas).

*********************
A message to the American citizens in Lebanon:
The Department of State continues to closely monitor the situation in Lebanon and make plans for every contingency.
The Consular Section at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut will be open from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. (local time) on Saturday, July 15.
The Department of State and Embassy Beirut are working on options to facilitate the departure of private Americans who wish to depart and would require assistance in doing so, but these plans are not yet finalized. We will provide further information as it becomes available. Here are some reports issued at 1:00 p.m. on July 14, 2006.
Both Beirut international airport, which is heavily damaged by bombings, and the Port of Beirut remain closed.
Road conditions vary greatly and are subject to change. For example, the road from Beirut to Syria at Masna was bombed and not passable. However, people located close to the border may be able to get to the border and cross into Syria.
If people encounter difficulty at crossing into Syria, they should contact the American Embassy in Damascus at 963-11-333-1342.
American citizens in Lebanon should avoid any areas where demonstrations are possible and exercise caution if within the vicinity of any demonstrations. They should maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness.

The Department of State will be working over the weekend and will send more updates to this email address.

*********************

Let me be clear, the American Embassy in Damascus has been very proactive and helpful concerning my position in Lebanon. I imagine the embassy in Lebanon will step up tomorrow as they finalize a plan to evacuate apparently 125,000 US citizens who reside in Lebanon. Damn, 125k!

As I write, I am watching CNN’s coverage and one would think that the city was being razed. Well, perhaps it is, but my neighborhood is largely untouched. In any event, I was at the Internet café earlier trying to convert some scanned images to PDF files. I had to send some documents into the Social Science Research Council for a grant that will fund my research stint in Argentine beginning in October (provided I can get out of Beirut..). As I was about to wrap up my time there, two large explosions rang out in succession (around 7:30pm local time). Apparently, the Israelis had just bombed the Kuwaiti Embassy (Rumor Mill). The Kuwaiti Embassy sits next to the Palestinian refugee camps Sabra and Shatila (the probable targets). It was quite disconcerting because the embassy is not that far from my house and actually caused several car alarms to go off.

So, what’s next? Many American students are trying to get out of Dodge. For the record, the American University of Beirut has not shut its doors and is not planning (yet) to evacuate its international students. The level of tension and fear among the American students (most of them being quite young) is palpable and, well, real.

****CNN’s Nick Robertson is saying that unconfirmed reports declare that an unmanned plane crashed into a navy warship. This will send a chill down residents of northern Israel because it would seem that Hezbollah could reach further into Israel. Sh^t. Not good.****

Rumor Mill – the Germans and/or Italians are organizing a bus for European Union citizens only to leave Lebanon tomorrow morning. Arschlochs!!

Last night I spoke with my mother. She wanted to make sure I was doing as best I could be given the situation. We finished around 3:15am. I was working on the computer. In a morbid sense, I was enjoying being here during this moment. I heard some jets flying around – obviously Israeli. I grabbed my digital voice recorder – hat tip to Kyle Sisk. I taped a couple of bombing runs with explosions. If I can figure out how to put it on the blog, I will do it…

Tomorrow, the US Embassy in Beirut will hold emergency hours at the Consulate. They are in the process of organizing transportation for Americans who want to get out. As the notice declares, nothing has been finalized. I will call them in the morning and then visit the Emirates Airline office. As luck would have, I was scheduled to leave Beirut this Monday. True to form, I may yet miss another flight; however, I am confident that I am not to blame in this particular situation.

What is most surreal about this situation is that last Saturday night/Sunday morning, my roommate Chris and I danced, along with 10,000 other Lebanese, to the masterful mixing of Paul Van Dyk. He lucked out. He flew out of Beirut for a summer holiday in the Philippines 10 hours before the Israelis bombed the airport.

If I do decide to steal away in a hasty manner, I believe that I will head to Istanbul. Rumor Mill says that air traffic out of Damascus is booked for at least a week. Turkey will offer a range of options to get me back to Western Europe and, eventually, North America.

So, that is the rub at the moment. The air strikes should begin in bout an hour – most likely in the north. I will give an update when I have some news… Please try not to worry to greatly about me. And I really don’t want Mike, Jim and Kyle to plan some sort of Chuck Norris-Vietnam-War-period-film rescue operation. I go to the coffeehouse during the morning and watch the Tour de France in the late afternoon. I am fine and this will pass hopefully in the very near future…

More to come from the traveling circus…

Much love from Beirut...

Delusions of grandeur

2006-06-12T15:54:00.000-04:00

The pain I feel is real. 3-0. Ouch... I should have recognized the omens. Firstly, Chris's cat urinated on a plastic bag which, as I tried to handle it, promptly ended up on my left leg and part of my suitcase. Secondly, I tore my Texas Longhorns National Championship T-Shirt on a non-obvious metal piece that stuck out of a telephone pole. If only I could read the signs... 3-0...

In college football, many of the games are won with speed and quality at the edges. Team USA lacked both today and were taken to school.

Well, there is always the Italy match... Ahem... To make it worse, Japan lost today 3-1, conceding all goals in the final 6 minutes.

I always figured Bob Marley was a prophet and that god was from somewhere in the Caribbean...

More to come from the traveling circus...

PS Congratulations Danny... Tim Cahill is truly Oz's talisman...

new from Beirut

2006-06-10T12:08:00.000-04:00

The World Cup began yesterday with Germany playing host to Costa Rica. I am terribly excited; Chihiro would rather take a nap (and she is in soccer-crazy Mexico!). Anyhoo, I have great hopes for Team USA. We happen to be in a tough group and face two very powerful opponents, Italy and the Czech Republic, and a third, Ghana, who spanked South Korea 3-0 last week. That said, the talent is there and I am confident that our team coach Bruce Arena (he prefers Manager) will work his magic in strategy, tactics, and subterfuge.

National Team hopes aside, it is amazing to be in Beirut. The city is completely into the world spectacle. Flags abound, passions are high, and the city will largely shut down tonight at 7pm local time when Germany-Costa Rica kick-off. What is quite cool about the Lebanese is that despite a weak national side most Lebanese can claim a relative, distant or not, who possesses citizenship in a country in the competition. For instance, the owner of my favorite bar, Torino Express in Gemmayze district, is a Lebanese fella born and raised in Germany. In addition, some estimates suggest that there are three times as many Lebanese (and those of Lebanese descent) in the state of Sao Paulo than in Lebanon! Let’s get on with it…

***********
I have completed my move from Damascus and wrapped up my first week of research in the archives and libraries. Oh, the goodies that I am finding in the National Archives and the Jafet Library and the Oriental Library. Granted, most of the stuff that I am collecting is Arabic-language press that was published in Argentina. What is encouraging is that the range of materials found run from 1905 to the late 1940s. The facilities are wonderful and one of my contacts here has already arranged an important contact for my trip to Argentina this October.

That aside, the move from Damascus had funny moments. As you might imagine, the house was in shambles as Roland and I were attempting to pack our stuff and prepare the bulk of it for shipping. The company we used had been recommended to us by the Embassy. Well, our point of contact, Bassem, was dodgy. It has been nearly 2 weeks and we are unsure if our materials (and mine has a lot of my hard-earned research) are in the States, Europe or the bottom of the Mediterranean. Who knows?

After we shipped our boxes, Bassem passed by the house to collect the money for the service. There was tremendous confusion for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I shipped fewer boxes than RoRo, but my fee was more expensive (books and Xerox copies, and I mean a lot of them, of newspapers). Secondly, Bassem was happy to inform me that my boxes were heading to Columbia, South Carolina. That seemed odd to me because my father lives in Charleston. Nonetheless, Bassem assured me that my shipment was bound for SC’s state capital. Frantic, I put my sister (who lives in Columbia) on notice. More to come….

*************
In the midst of all this, Alex (the third person in the DamasceneTriumvirate) was anxiously searching for housing. He truly did not want to return to the Bab Touma area of Damascus. Bab Touma is the Christian quarter of the Old City that possesses a large number of international university students who study Arabic. In my opinion (and Alex shares it), that place sucks. The houses are old, the families generally invasive and gossipy, and the facilities primitive. For instance, Alex, before he found salvation with RoRo and I, had to suffer with no access to a kitchen, no hot water in the shower, and he was arguably 2 kilometers from the closest Western-style toilet.

The Right Honorable Man from Norwich (or north London, whatever) was on edge. He decided that he would try to extend the lease of the apartment. He contacted Omar Bananas, the property manager and ‘Bananas,’ or ‘Mawz’ in Arabic, is his family name, about a 3-month extension. Omar was unsure b/c there was outside interest in leasing the space. In fact, Omar was bringing by a potential lessee later that afternoon.

Alex acted with shrewdness and conviction. He declared a moratorium on house cleaning, especially the kitchen, and rearranged the household furniture to give a subtly jarring presentation. I reckon he spent 90 minutes calculating and exacting a formula that would deter any person, especially an NGO professional as it turned out, from renting the house.

It worked! Alex contacted Omar the following day to discuss the apartment. The conversation was classic. Omar began to query about who the tenants would be. Alex fudged because he was unsure about who he could recruit. However, Omar wanted to take it a different route. He asked Alex, “Your roommates will be like you and Steven right?” Alex was somewhat bemused by this line of questioning, but Omar continued.

“The people will be good people like you and Steven.”

At this moment, Omar Bananas began stroke non-existent facial hair and concluded, “These people will not be like the one with the beard.” He then proceeded to say that the bearded-one, known to and loved by the world as Roland, drank too much and caused a stir within the neighborhood. I think Alex about wet himself with sheer delight and laughter. Alex assured Mr. Bananas that there would be no more RoRos.

Later, RoRo was pissed at the accusation, regardless of its accuracy. “Why me?” he pondered. We all drank it was true. I tried to explain a potential reason. Roland was the scapegoat. Omar Bananas had to be non-confrontational with Alex, since was about to deliver nearly US$2000 in rent money. As for me, I bought Omar Bananas’ loyalty long ago. In January, I spent an entire day with Omar crisscrossing the city of Damascus. I needed to secure my residency. To do that, I needed to get paperwork from the Province of Damascus validating the lease, and then I needed to pay the apartment tax at the provincial treasury department. I also had to get some paperwork stamped at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and then register with the local office of the secret police. There was one more place that I had to visit, but I was never entirely sure what it was… All the while, I had to pay baksheesh, or money on the sly to encourage civil servants to do their job, at every stop. Omar Bananas knew every guy along the way and this fact, along with fistfuls of Syrian pounds, got this painful process over in about 6-7 hours.
Now, I had learned in Yemen that if you want to get stuff done in a Third World or Developing Country (whatever euphemism/signifier/descriptor you want to choose) a very important Natural Law – ALWAYS PAY THE BAKSHEESH. And I did. (Parenthetically, an economist colleague studies the utility of baksheesh, or bribes, in 3rd World bureaucracies and its ability to make these institutions more efficient…)

So, at the end of the day, I gave some baksheesh to Omar Bananas. Actually, I gave him a lot - US$80. But, I am convinced that he was worth every penny. I received my iqama, residency papers, within 6 weeks (prior to this early January adventure, I had been in Syria for 3 months and was nowhere near getting my papers) and I had a legitimate rental lease with the few protections it guaranteed.

All that said Omar Bananas loved me. I sent him business regularly – he oversaw other properties. As such, he would not be critical of someone who had been generous in the past.

Thus, RoRo was the patsy for Omar’s general criticism of the house. We had two parties (nothing outrageous by any standards) that lasted well into the morning. The neighbors complained to Omar and Roland served as the warning to Alex. Nonetheless, Roland was not best pleased.

At last word, Alex is enjoying the Damascene heat and pollution and RoRo just had 4 wisdom teeth removed… On the cusp of the World Cup, all is good in Beirut…

More to come…

Back online...

2006-06-01T12:26:00.000-04:00

Firstly, I need to express many, many apologies for the lengthy delay in communication. I have been terribly busy as my time in Damascus is wrapping up. My move to Beirut is now at hand. Secondly, I am sorry for the impersonal nature of this mass mailer.

I want to give an update as to my present situation and the future plans of Chihiro and I. For the next 6-8 weeks, I will be working in the libraries and archives in Lebanon, with frequent trips to Damascus to tie up any loose ends. Chihiro is working hard in Mexico and has an important exam looming in the near future...

As for me and Lebanon, I will work very hard to avoid car bombs, Israeli air assaults, and detentions by the local militaries. I should add that with the departure of my dear roommate Roland (he is off to DC for the summer), the likelihood of being inconveniently detained by Lebanese or Syrian security personnel diminishes exponentially…

In the beginning of August, Chihiro and I will visit a good friend in Hong Kong (Karim, we are coming!), and, then, visit the in-laws in Okinawa. After we celebrate our first anniversary (4 September), I will return to Columbus to meet with my advisor Donna and other colleagues, kick it and consume one, or two, adult beverages with friends, and prepare for a move to Argentina (I won a scholarship for the academic year). I plan to slip in a very brief trip to Austin, TX in order to watch my beloved Texas Longhorns put some foot to Buckeye rear-end (9 September) and, equally important, visit with my brother.

At the moment, Chihiro and I will be in Argentina from mid-October 2006 until September 2007. All are more than welcome to come and visit.

Oh yeah, I am now returning to communicating via my blog (http://texanabroad.blogspot.com ). In fact, this message is the first posting since, ummm, forever. It will be updated regularly. Promise. No really, I guarantee victory in this regard.

OK, I hope all is well with you and yours where you may be. Stay in touch and watch Team USA shock the world in Germany!!!! C'mon boys!!!!!

More to come from the traveling circus...

PS It should be emphasized that these scheduled events are susceptible to change...

Of Cartoons and Lampoons

2006-02-09T07:15:00.000-05:00

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon. My wife, Chihiro, and I were lounging about in our apartment in the Mazra'a neighborhood. I was surfing the television in search of a football match. The Africa Cup was in full swing, plus the major European leagues had a full slate of matches. Chances were good and the mood was cheerful. I clicked to the al-Jazeera sports channels (1,2, and 4). Channel 1 - handball. Channel 2 - indoor soccer from the Italian Cup competition. Al-Jazeera Sports 4 showed a feed of footage of an angry mob at the foot of some building set ablaze. Some from this group of people were throwing rocks at the building.

As we looked at the television screen, we noticed that the top right hand corner had Arabic script that read - Damascus, Recorded. It was surreal. We looked on with greater interest. The footage shifted to INSIDE the building that featured to anxious-looking Europeans. They turned out to be French researchers who are based at French Institute just down the block.

In all the demonstrations that the government has worked very hard to organize, none had the spontaneity, passion, and violence of this one. A colleague, Nate Abercrombie, witnessed in person the events, both the torching of the embassies and the subsequent attempt to move the masses to the French embassy. You may notice some stitled prose inflecting Nate's narrative. This is simply the product of his university training at Oklahoma (this is a joke from a Longhorn who is still revelling in UT's National Championship in football... The local Sooner and Aggie population still refuse to return/take my calls...). Please do read his account and the comments in response to his posting. They are many more people who have more invested in this debate than I do...

In any event, I was stunned by the violence. Later that evening, I went played at the al-Thawra soccer complex. It is my Saturday night ritual. I play with about 10 Syrians who are all younger than I am. I love these guys. They have been super nice to this Texan. Anyhoo, Ahmed - one of the more outgoing in the group - pulled up next to me as I was stretching. He asked me if I saw the riots earlier in the day. I said yes and that they showed extremely poor form on the part of the Syrians who disagree with the denigration of the Prophet Muhammad. He said that it was a response to this very denigration. I agreed, but pointed out that there was a basic difference between the Danish government and a Danish newspaper of which nobody had ever heard before September. I think he got my point.

In any event, I was speaking with my father the day after the riot. He was shocked and I told him that there were two fundamental problems with the arguments given by the Free Speech advocates. Firstly, every American has the constitutional right to be stupid and say things that are crass, ill-informed, pejorative. Many Americans exploit this right. Just look at the public discourse on issues of domestic policy... Anyway, this ability to say anything with the freedom from persecution simply does not exist in this part of the world. It is very difficult to make the case for freedom of expression with somewhere who has no basis of comparison.

Secondly, the debate in the Middle East is not about the depiction of the Prophet Muhammad, as BBC World said as recently as yesterday. If one person is a non-Muslim and draws an image of the Prophet, the average Muslim will not go out of his/her way to express their opinion. By the by, the prohibition against images of the Prophet is to help prevent the descension into idol worship. The debate is about the denigration of the Prophet Muhammad. When you listen to al-Jazeera News, or even read the English section on-line, they always frame the cartoon debate about the manner of depiction. I think this fact is crucial to the understanding of the debate.

OK, I will finish this post later, but for now, Chiro says that it is time to go...

Back in Bidness

2006-01-11T02:09:00.000-05:00

OK, I am uploading this weblog frommy house!!! Chihiro and I are so excited that we now have home access - albeit dial up. In any event, all is good, sav from some irregular sleep patterns; residue of my jetlag. I will be posting regularly now that I am back from holiday and, especially, I can do it while wearing my bathroom and sipping coffee...

***********************
I arrived back in Damascus on the 5th. I am now getting settled into my new apartment and trying to the ease the adjustment of my wife Chihiro to Syria. The new apartment is wonderful, large and, after getting the heat functioning, extremely hot. Getting the apartment in fighting shape was actually a chore. I got to the apartment late Thursday night. As I did a sweep through the place, I noticed that the kitchen window was wide open. Judging by the amount of dust, dead leaves and tracks, the pane had been open for some time. I thought this was indeed curious. I inspected my room – my passports were out on my table, my laptop was in its case, everything seemed as Roland left it.
I checked Roland’s room. If someone had rummaged through his stuff, one would be hard-pressed to discern it. RoRo had asked me to apologize to Chiro beforehand for his room’s messiness. He moved into the apartment the same day he left for Yemen. The need to organize his room was low on the priority list; however, the funk emanating from his room was probably unexpected… Still, something seemed amiss. I moved to Alex’s room, whose door I had shut earlier also due to something odoriferous (with apologies to Charles Barkley).
As I peered into the room and flicked on the light switch, a black and white body yelped and jumped from the bed to the edge and scurried underneath the mattress. I immediately assessed whether I needed to change my under garments and slammed the door shut. Just as I had suspected, we had a squatter. I regained my composure and devised a plan to get this damned cat out of the house without hopefully touching it.
I closed all the strategic doors and created a direct path the kitchen and its open windowpane. My confidence grew as I reminisced the resiliency of my beloved Texas Longhorns and their most amazing win over the University of Southern California. With VY’s swagger, I grabbed the squeegee and moved towards Alex’s room. The door flew open, I hit the lights and I struck the top of the mattress three times with the tool. On the third hit, the cat flew out from under the bed and hightailed it out of the house.
Now, I had to deal with funk. The cat had made a bed out of the 5 comforters on Alex’s bed. The smell was rank. I removed the blankets, placed them outside and chucked the bed sheets into the wash. I changed out the mattresses for ones that seemed less compromised. I turned off the light, shut the door and have left it to Alex upon his return.
After the successful defense of our new apartment, I judged the kitchen and its needs for cleaning. I am convinced that one of my roommates rode the short yellow bus to and from school. I once had a stroke of genius in Beirut – I bought an automatic coffee maker on a trip and got it back into Syria. This product created unrivaled joy for the house as the nectar of the gods flowed easily into our mugs. No more were we subject to the whims of Nescafe. I checked its status and saw that it had been mistreated, some might say molested. Somehow it had gotten coffee grounds in every crack and crevice, including the water-only container. I not sure who tried to make coffee, but certainly an amateur had been involved. I spent three hours cleaning that bugger, but am now content with my requisite morning cup of joe.
I have survived and defeated the minor challenges and scares of this apartment. Chihiro is with me now and we are moving quickly to stock the house with food and buy the necessary supplies. RoRo and Alex get back next week. I am sure that RoRo will have plenty of stories to relate from his travels in Yemen.

More to come from the traveling circus…

On holiday in Mexico and a guest contribution...

2005-12-19T23:58:00.000-05:00

Dear all,

Apologies for the black out. I am currently in Mexico City vacationing with my wife Chihiro. We just spent a day in the beautiful mountain town of Taxco, Guerrero shopping, dining and walking about. I will get the pictures up soon...

As an aside, Evo Morales garnered a resounding victory in Bolivia's presidential elections. Again, it will be fascinating to see how Morales' first 100 days take shape and what the response from Washington. To be discussed in the near future...

I do have a treat for all. My dear friend and former roommate, Daniel JT O'Malley of Canberra, Australia, sent the following story. The boy is brilliant and full of talent. I do hope you enjoy his prose as much as I do... Not to mention the fact that many of his friends will like to know what he is up to these days... Employed, in short...

*******************************
My point, and I do have one!
Daniel JT O'Malley

Greetings my friends.

Normally, I loathe doing these group e-mail things. I always suffer from
major guilt when I do them (probably the result of Anglican
school—they’re big on guilt), but I thought this little anecdote would
be interesting to you guys.

Alrighty, y’all. So, guess where I had dinner on Thursday.

No.

No

Oh, you’ll never guess, so I’ll just tell you. It was the Anzac Hall of
the Australian War Memorial!

(Deathly silence.)

Okay, so the Anzac hall is this massive room, very dimly lit, with machines
and vehicles from various wars suspended from the ceiling, or standing
seriously on the floor, lit by little spotlights. Then, there is footage
from World War II being projected onto the walls. As a museum, it’s quite
stunning, kind of like the bastard offspring of the Smithsonian Air and
Space Museum and those war monuments scattered around the capital. As a
place in which to dine, well, it’s a little bemusing. You’ll be chewing
on your little fish meal, and you look up and there’s the miniature
Japanese submarine that they found in Sydney Harbour in World War II. It’s
a trifle disconcerting, to say the least.

I should probably clarify that the Anzac hall in the Australian War
Memorial is not generally a place in which you have supper. It’s a place
to come to reflect, to stare in awe, to learn about our history, to checkout
those kick-ass planes. You would no more sit down to a, well to a sit-down
supper there than you would in the Lincoln memorial. That’s not what
it’s there for.

HOWEVER, a friend of mine has a mother who works for the historical/journalistic society which honours war correspondents. And so I got invited to come to the annual lecture/book release party/memorial dinner, which was being held in the Anzac hall. The lectures were not great (they had three lecturers, one of them being the Attorney-General and so everything was intensely political which is all very well, and you’re kind of used to it in Canberra, but not generally at something like this.) So, one guy talked about the war correspondent about whom he’d written a book,
and then this one media guy got up and started complaining loudly and
incoherently about the new sedition laws (which ARE troublesome, but this
was hardly the place) and so the Attorney-General had to respond to those
remarks, instead of honouring war correspondents. And the book launching was
okay, and then we all moved into the Anzac hall for dinner under the
airplanes and next to the anti-aircraft guns.

So, guess who was the guest speaker?

No.

No.

That’s right! The Prime Minister of Turkey! (You didn’t think I was
writing you this just to tell you about a weird dinner where Australian
politicians bitched at each other, did you?) Yeah, dudes, this was the first
Turkish Prime Minister to come to Australia, and he was speaking at the
dinner I was at. And, we had Turks at our table and I fell upon them with
open arms (well, no, because I think a couple of them were bodyguard style
people, and I might have gotten the living hell kicked out of me (and
rightfully so)), but I was ecstatic to see them. I am going through Turk
withdrawal.

We got to talking, and they asked what I did and I said that I worked for
the government in Transportation Safety, and they commented on how lucky I
was to be so young and live in such a pleasant and relaxed place. And I (a
little thrown by the “so young” statement) said that I worked hard, and
they (amused) asked how hard, and I said something like 8 hours a day, and
they smiled indulgently and one guy said that he worked, like, 16 hours a
day. And I kind of pointed out that he was no doubt a very senior person,
and that I was only starting out, and was quite low on the totem pole, and
what was his position, just out of curiosity?

It turned out that he was special adviser for communications to the Prime
Minister. And this other guy? Oh, yeah. He writes speeches. And I’m
thinking “Holy Shit, I am having dinner with the Turkish versions of Toby
Ziegler and Sam Seaborne from the West Wing!” Craziness, huh?

I think they had a fun time, but were kind of bemused. They were jetlagged,
had been up since four in the morning, and had spent the day being
interviewed on matters of policy, so they were probably a little thrown by
the fact that they were seated with the youngest members of the party (we
dragged the age average down a good fifteen years at LEAST), who were not
particularly interested in matters of policy, but rather in scarfing as much
cheese as they could lift from the tray. I mentioned the kid’s book on
Topkapi that I’m researching (Lisa, did you have any stuff on that?
Especially on how the kids were collected), and I think that threw them a
little for a loop. And we had a good time. They were really nice, quite
aside from the fact that they were having trouble keeping their eyes open
during the speeches.

Anyway, so the guy whose book was being released that night welcomed the
Prime Minister and (this being a) The War Correspondents Dinner and b) The
Australian War Memorial ) he brought up Gallipoli.
Now, one cannot grow up in Australia without being saturated in the legend
of the Anzacs and Gallipoli. We have Anzac day, we have the Mel Gibson movie
Gallipoli (directed, along with Master and Commander, by Peter Weir, with
whose niece I went to school). We have a depressing song. Hell, we even have
the Anzac biscuit, which is a kind of cookie that fragments in your mouth,
and leaves it in bloody shreds (not as a tribute to Gallipoli so much as
because they consist almost entirely of rolled oats, coconut and golden
syrup.) So, what I’m trying to say is that easy to become jaded about the
whole thing. Respectful, but jaded. Anyway, this author quoted Ataturk on
Gallipoli, and what HE had to say was probably the best, kindest, most
heart-touching thing I’ve ever heard or read about it. So, I put it down
here.

"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... you are now
lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is
no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side
by side here in this country of ours... You the mothers who sent their sons
from far away countries wipe away your tears. Your sons are now living in
our lands and are in peace. Having lost their lives on this land they have
become our sons as well."

Folks, I read that, and I get a little teary-eyed right now.

Okay, so the prime minister spoke (in Turkish), and his translator
translated and he gave a good speech (way better than the
Attorney-General’s thank you speech), and the Turkish Toby Ziegler asked
me what I thought of the Prime Minister’s speech and I said “Oh yeah, he
was cool,” thus throwing them for yet another loop (I like to think that
of all the comments that will get back to the Prime Minister from the
evening, that will be one of them).

And so yeah, that was that. Good food, good company, and that’s how I had
dinner with the Turks, and thought fondly of y’all. I hope everyone is
well, and I look forward to hearing from you. Mucho love,

Dan

PS. Did you know that the Turkish Prime minister played professional soccer
for a while? The coolest thing John Howard did was work in his dad’s
petrol station as a kid.