A View to a Massacre
by Sharad Venkat on August 4, 2008 in Blog, Live from Beirut
A film review I did for the movie Massaker, a documentary about the massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps 1982, just after the assassination of then newly elected Lebanese president Bashir Gemayel. It was committed by the Christian Phalangists and supported by the Israeli Army. There is no official count of how many were killed though the number is somewhere in the thousands. I hope to screen this film and another one made by an Israeli director about the same events next year at HKS.
Documentaries will always be subject to controversy, the integrity of the story questioned, the balance of the perspectives weighed. There is a fine line to walk whenever a film documents politically sensitive topics, especially in a place like Lebanon, and particularly when the filmmaker turns the lens toward the Lebanese civil war. Read more
The UNIFIL Indian Battalion wins hearts and minds in southern Lebanon
by Sharad Venkat on July 29, 2008 in Blog, Live from Beirut
I spent the day with the UN Indian Battalion, INDBATT, last week and wrote a story about the social services they provide to the surrounding communities. It was a great experience, 1. because I was able to see how an army can effectively forge ties and build trust with a local population, 2. because they took me on a tour of the disputed Blue Line and let me look out at the Shebba Farms from one of their observation posts, and 3. because they were extremely gracious, and treated me very well.
Printed on July 26, 2008, in the Daily Star.
IBL AL SAQI: Chief veterinarian for the Indian UN battalion (INDBATT) Lieutenant Colonel Satvir Singh, in full uniform, lowers himself on one knee on the side of the road in the southern Lebanese town of Shebaa. He reaches under the goat as the shepherd’s wife holds it by the scruff of its neck and pulls the heaving udder toward him.
The Plot Thickens- A sit down with Kantar
by Sharad Venkat on July 21, 2008 in Blog, Live from Beirut
I’ve been intrigued by the details surrounding what happened almost 30 years ago when Samir Kantar slipped into Israel and committed the most heinous of crimes. I still believe he did it, but this article provides an insight into the man, and into the psyche of the conflict that was occurring back when the middle east met the wild west.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/19/lebanon.israelandthepalestinians
Michael Young on why Jumblatt welcomed Kantar
by Sharad Venkat on July 21, 2008 in Blog, Live from Beirut
Its not because he wants a piece of the national hero pie… but that was easy to figure out. Michael Young provides an interesting analysis of why Jumblatt, leader of the PSP and the Druze, had to have Kantar over for dinner.
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mesh/2008/07/behind_druze_kisses_for_quntar/
The Hizbullah PR Machine, a.k.a. the Greatest Show in Lebanon
by Sharad Venkat on July 17, 2008 in Blog, Live from Beirut
Yesterday Hizbullah and Israel engaged in a very high profile prisoner swap. Hizbullah received the bodies of 199 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters, as well as 5 Lebanese who had been in Israeli prisons, for the bodies of two dead Israeli soldiers, who were snatched by Hizbullah in 2006, and which led to the 2006 war. Hizbullah held a massive rally in their stronghold in Dahiye in Beirut to welcome the prisoners back. I covered it as press and it was an incredible spectacle…
A crowd fit for a world cup football match packed into dahiye yesterday to welcome home their freed heroes and celebrate hizbullahs latest self-declared victory. Thousands upon thousands cheered amid a landscape of resistance flags- the color of the night was yellow but sprinkled in were Lebanese flags, as well as those bearing the insignias of AMAL and the SSNP sickle and hammer. Buildings framed al-Raya stadium on all sides, and each one filled with people standing on their balconies, waving flags and taking in this spectacle that seemed to be half rock concert and half coronation. Read more
To Bomb or Not to Bomb
by Sharad Venkat on July 6, 2008 in Blog, Live from Beirut
After nine straight days of drinking to fulfill a wide range of social obligations, I’ve decided to give up the bottle for at least three days in order to fulfill a personal obligation to my health and well being (and my wallet! Thanks for nothing Summer Internship Fund:)
Anyway, there’s been a good deal of talk for a while now about what’s going to happen next in the game of brinksman ship being played between Israel, Iran and the US. Rami Khoury, the editor emeritus of the Daily Star, recently published an op-ed saying that though the desire is strong for an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, such a move lacks the long term strategic cost-benefit ratio needed to put the no doubt complex and detailed military plans into motion. Rami Khoury’s article can be found here. Read more
Political Speed Dating
by Sharad Venkat on July 3, 2008 in Blog, Live from Beirut
This is an article I wrote a few weeks ago for the Daily Star newspaper. Its a reflection piece looking back on the Harvard Lebanon immersion Trip that started it all.
As I looked out into the night from the balcony of the Kataeb compound in Saifi, the lights of the houses glittered on the distant hills outside of Beirut. Waiting with 39 other Harvard students for former President Amin Gemayel to usher us into the conference room, I thought of something a friend told me a day earlier, itself a popular repetition of Beirut’s contradictory reputation. To paraphrase, he said “Beirut pulls you in with its beautiful landscapes, its rich history, its ceaseless nightlife, its stunning and enigmatic women…and then when you have let Beirut enter you, when you have let yourself sink into its welcoming earth, it will explode. Beirut will take your blood to feed the constantly spinning cycle of violence, as payment for taking in its riches, or perhaps as punishment for believing that what you had fallen in love with was the reality.” Read more
Looking thru a Broken Windshield
by Sharad Venkat on July 2, 2008 in Blog, Live from Beirut
The other night, I had a few drinks with a friend. On the walk home, he stopped by a red Hundai. “See this car?” he asked. “It’s been sitting here untouched since the last war.”
The next day I thought about the car and went back to take another look in the daylight. It is in relatively good shape except the back window is completely smashed. The front windshield has a bullet hole near the top. I imagined I was a crime scene specialist on CSI and after closer inspection, determined that a bullet had come in through the back and exited through the front windshield. It came in through the back because the glass from the back window was mostly inside the car, indicating the force came from the outside and in through the back. This was a pretty rudimentary analysis, but I was happy with it. I was more interested in the story behind this car. Why was it still sitting here? What did it mean? Read more
The Rebirth of Conflict
by Sharad Venkat on June 27, 2008 in Blog, Live from Beirut
Today, while walking near downtown Beirut, I came across the Hariri memorial, a large tent-like structure that serves as a tomb as well as memorial to those who died in the bomb blast that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. I decided to take time out and explore the memorial.
Rafik Hariri was the former Prime Minister of Lebanon. He served from 1992 to 1998 and again from 2000 until 2004. Hariri was loved by many and hated by many, which is a sure sign of political success here in Lebanon. Hariri was hated by the Syrians and by the pro-Hizbullah contingent, and he openly demanded the withdrawal of the Syrian presence. He was also incredibly rich, amassing billions of dollars thru business ventures, most prominently in Lebanon and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. During his tenure Hariri’s accomplishments were a mixed bag, but he was praised for his role in reconstructing Beirut after the long and destructive civil war of the 1970’s and 80’s.
The Power of Fear
by Sharad Venkat on June 25, 2008 in Blog, Live from Beirut
I had a genuinely frightening experience earlier today. I was walking home from Achrafiyya in East Beirut back to my room in Hamra, West Beirut, and crossed past a few checkpoints on the road. These guys always look at me funny but don’t often give me trouble. But at about the third checkpoint the soldier walks up to me and starts speaking in quick Arabic. I have a general idea that he wants to search my bag but I’m a little bit annoyed with his attitude so I pretend not to understand. He eventually starts using his hands and grabbing at my bag so I concede and give it to him.
This is no big deal- I’ve had my bag searched a number of times on the street by soldiers. I’m watching this guy and quietly appreciating how meticulous he is. Usually they’ll look in one or two pockets and call it a day. But this one went through every pocket, looked in every corner, took out and examined every object. I have a little squeeze blower that I use to clean my camera. He stared at it and then asked me what it was, so I squeezed it for him and he was satisfied.
Then he asked for my passport. I felt in my pocket and knew it wasn’t there…it was sitting in my desk drawer in the hotel room. I explained this to him. Then I did what I did once before at a checkpoint- I handed him my visa atm card. He looked over it, bending it, turning it, just like the soldier had done at the other checkpoint. But instead of laughing and giving it back, he laughed and said something in Arabic that I interpreted to be ‘do you really think you’re getting off with this?’ Read more
