Nadine Khoury's thoughts

Nadine is a very good singer living in london at the moment
who got her thoughts on paper on to her site about her feelings
here what she says:'

her site

17/07 - It has been four days that I have been walking around the city like a ghost, with no appetite for anything, in shock and disbelief about what is happening in Lebanon. I am neither blindly nationalistic or gung-ho about (the dirty business of) politics, but given the utter helplessness my country is facing, I thought I would put my thoughts down here, to anyone curious enough to be reading.

* * *

I went to an impromptu demonstration yesterday, facing the (empty) Houses of Parliament. I knew it would be a somewhat vain and futile expression of my hopelessness and frustration.

As expected, the small crowd served merely as a spectacle to the on-looking tourists, who occasionally stopped to take photographs of the people brandishing flags and slogans.

I have been living in a surreal vacuum. All around the people of the First World are going about their daily business. Joyful tourists are flocking around with cameras and shopping bags, people are discussing the world cup final and Zidane's head-butt. All around me everything still looks the same; except that the surrounding sameness has taken on a silent eeriness, with the knowledge that my family and friends are trapped in a blockade, increasingly scared and helpless, desperately seeking a ceasefire.

Perhaps the disaster is just another abstract newsflash for most, lost between Big Brother and some other inane TV series.

(Somewhere there, some small irrelevant country.

Or maybe even a shrug, accompanied by the worn-out refrain: "There is no hope for peace in the Middle-East.")

* * *

In the space of 4 days, Israeli military have managed to obliterate Lebanon's infrastructure and economy, which has taken a decade and billions to rebuild.

I played a show in Beirut a month ago; organized by Xanadu (Zena, its main organizer, has posted an open letter about what is now happening to her here); all around was a feeling of prosperity, of rebirth, of enthusiasm -- a nascent art and music scene. It had taken us years to achieve this. Since my teenage years, I have seen the city rebuild itself from the ground up. With countless international performers, plays, and festivals – it seemed like this summer was set to be Lebanon's most prosperous yet.

A week ago today, the city was still hip and happening.

In the space of four days, its economy and infrastructure have been annihilated.

* * *

My activist friends in NYC told me I was lucky to be missing the news coverage in the US. I remember the Rambo-esque reportage of Fox 5 (I had no cable when I was living there) and how it was making me lose my mind. At least tonight I saw images of both Sour and Haifa. At least I got a more impartial account and more accurate figures -- 160 Lebanese and 24 Israeli civilians killed. But it made my heart sink to see images of dead children, dismembered people, faces sunk in shrapnel, and Beirut International Airport go up like fireworks in the sky, for the third time this week.

Of course I try not to kid myself. I know that the forces that be are far greater than you and me. The powerful nations have got their own political agenda and their purported excuse for war and bloodshed. History is covered in blood. Still, it made me sick to see the "leaders of the free world" dine with their shiny silverware to discuss what is going on, and give such a fudged and lame statement about the situation.

* * *

The Israeli army is unleashing banned and illegal phosphorous bombs onto the south (these suck up the air and collapse buildings.) Obviously, these freak bombs do nothing to dismantle Hizbollah! They are killing children. They are bombing food factories. They are telling people to "evacuate the South" but they have bombed all the bridges that lead out of there. They are dropping propaganda leaflets from the sky. I (and many Lebanese) would like to see Hizbollah neutralized too. Hizbollah is not paying for any of this. The Lebanese people are.

* * *

The city is blockaded, its infrastructure obliterated, the people with little resources, and all I can do is hope with all my heart that this madness will soon come to a halt, and that some kind of exchange will be made.

Please write to your governments and pressure them to act for a ceasefire.
(If you are Israeli or have any Israeli friends please tell them to urge their government to put an end to this insane offensive. We want to live in peace. If the attacks continue it will only exacerbate the violence and plunge us deeper into a future of carnage and increased fanaticism.)

Donate to help refugees without food or shelter.
Petition to put an end to the attacks.
Demonstrate in organized rallies for peace.

Read the following people's blogs:
Ramsay Short (Time Out editor and journalist)
Zena el -Khalil (artist and curator)
Mazen Kerbaj (experimental musician and cartoonist)


Please do anything you can to alert people about what - in the face of apathy - could quickly descend into an irreversible catastrophe.

With love and respect,
Nadine