So I guess I´ve found myself in another country with a political situation. But it´s really nowhere near as tense or crazy as Caracas. (Did you read my Chavez blog? Yes, the people did confirm his presidency in the referendum.)
1559 is the U.N. resolution saying that all foreign presences need to get out of Lebanon. That would be Syria. Since the end of the 17 year civil war in 1990, Syria has kept thousands of troops in Lebanon. The current President, Emile Lahoud, is generally considered a puppet of Syria´s government. At some point this summer, it was decided that Lahoud´s presidency should be extended beyond the six year term limit, which goes against the Constitution. This made some people upset; they claim that Syria is running the country--imposing their guy as President and wantonly amending the Constitution.
Some of these upset people include the Druze. (See the previous article.) An important minister in Parliament from the Chouf (a state in the mountains), Marwan Hmadi, protested and walked out of Parliament. His car was bombed. It was a big deal. That kind of stuff hasn´t happened in downtown Beirut for a couple years. The guy didn´t die, but his driver was killed.
That day the souk in Aley closed. That was strange; nothing here was open. The event was followed by a week of no electricity from the government. The government said there was no electricity, but everyone knew that was BS. It's their method of trying to distract the people. There was a lot of tension brewing in the Druze community; some people were upset and wanted revenge. So the government tries to defuse it, by taking away the power and making life more inconvenient. These people lived through a long war (Aley was a particularly hot spot). You can see that things like this don't really phase them.
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