My two favorite films are Being There, starring Peter Sellers, and Network starring many including Peter Finch. They are both old, and I like that. Anyway, here is the script of Being There. Now onto what this post is about. What on earth does an expat living in Kuwait, an Australian, think he is doing commenting on the situation in Lebanon? Well, I went there 3 times in October and November 2013. I did part of the beautiful Lebanon Mountain Trail. I met a lot of wonderful people on this walk and simultaneously undid a lot of the stress I felt from working in Kuwait. So, despite all of its faults and the pathetically weak government, I love Lebanon. Still, it probably seems a bit presumptuous what I'm about to do. 

I think that a couple of sections of dialogue from Being There apply to the strife that has recently beset the country in the form of:

• 1 million Syrian refugees (25% of Lebanon's population) entering the country due to the civil war there which started in 2011
• Iran Embassy suicide bombing in Beirut on 19/11/13, 2 days after I left for the last time
• Assassination of Hezbollah commander Hassan Lekkis in Beirut on 4/12/13
• Car bombing in Hezbollah stronghold on 17/12/13
• Killing of a potential prime minister in a car bombing of Beirut downtown on 27/12/13
• Another car bombing of a Beirut Hezbollah stronghold on 2/1/14
• Al Qaeda leader in Lebanon, a Saudi, dies in custody on 4/1/14

The 'Middle East Crisis' that has rattled about the international news bulletin of my life appears to be reaching another crescendo. One of the many reasons I came to this part of the world was to experience the events that take place here in a more immediate form than that from a news crew. I guess in the above timeline I have evidence of something like this experience occuring. Thankfully though I got my travelling through Lebanon done in the nick of time and was out of there before this latest spiral into chaos. 

Spiral into chaos? Well, that does sound a bit melodramatic. I do know, though, that there was one in Lebanon during the 1975-1990 civil war. Its causes are explained succinctly in this