Friday, May 9, 2008

Grief

There are no clean wars and no intelligent deaths, but civil strife certainly takes the prize for dirtiest and dumbest. Anything -anything- is better than civil strife.

I just came back from the funeral wake of my neighbor's son. He was 16 and he and his friend were shot this morning in my street. His family owns a bakery and a cafe in my neighborhood. They are also very involved in the local mosque. He and a bunch of other kids always hang out between the bakery and the cafe. They are Hariri supporters by default, like many other Beirut Sunnis. At around 10:30, when the fighting intensity was beginning to decrease, they went out to have a look. The sniper caught them both.

8 comments:

Helena Cobban said...

Rami, this is tragic. As you say "civil" strife is nearly always the most un-civil.

Just 16 years old. My God. Condolences to the family. Hope your kids are able to process all this in some way, too.

Ms Levantine said...

It is deja vu all over again, 33 years later.

I hear Amman is lovely this time of year. Sure beats sleeping in a closet and being shot at.

MM.

JoseyWales said...

Thanks Helena,

Now go back to cheerleading for Hezbollah and its divine resistance.

Anonymous said...

Nice one JW. But she'll probably say that it was amal or SSNP. There's no way that people with a mandate from could do such a thing.

Anonymous said...

Maybe Helena would like to join her divine brothers on the street to shoot more 16 year olds.

T. said...

JW & anons,

This is a time of grief for Rami, in case you have not noticed. Show some sensitivity and save your poison for other times.

T. said...

Rami, my condolences to you and your neighbors. When I think of all the similar stories from my own childhood, of children peeking out to take a look... There isn't much left to say, really. I just hope this is over soon.

JoseyWales said...

Suha,

It's grief for everyone and this particular grief stems from ideas and groups peddled by Helena.

Deal with it.