Letters to the Editor
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In the tradition of Orwell
I've been a fan of Tony Bourdain almost from the start. I am now more convinced than ever that his is the most original, most honest, and best-crafted voice in journalism today. Thank you Tony for taking me from my comfortable, ergonomically-correct chair and placing me, however briefly, in the midst of hell, then bringing me out safely again. I may never be the same for the experience. George Orwell would be proud to call you one of his own.
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Thank you, Mr. Bourdain
Thank you, Mr. Bordain, so very much for writing your story. It is also my husband's. He too was staying at Le Royale, waiting, and waiting. He was there because his apartment was in the Christian Ashrafieh section of town that had been bombed. (He's been in Lebanon for two years, teaching American literature at Balamand University up by Tripoli, commuting from Beirut because he wanted to live in the city -- lots of Balamand profs do that.) I was a "Somebody's Wife Calling from the States" who gave him better information than he was getting from our own embassy. (By the way, the Le Royale staff were wonderful and kind to me in relaying messages and connecting calls and giving updates.) I am very glad you emphasized the compassion and professionalism of the Marines, which my husband also told me about and which stood in striking contrast to some others who were supposed to be effecting the evacuation. My husband is staying on in Cyprus for the moment and I hope that what he writes about these days will join your words as a record of a world that was coming back to joy and a tragedy that was undeserved.
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good writing
and it sure beats those corporate news reports from yet another of the glammy, bullet-proof-vest-wearing-Anderson-Cooper-Wannabes.
They've actually sent Tucker Carlson there. Hilarious.
This is a great antidote.
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A war directed by Irwin Allen
This may sound irrelevant to some, offensive to others. But while reading this article, all I could see was a rerun of the cheesy disaster movies of the 70's, mostly directed by Irwin Allen. It has the main elements of "The Posideon Adventure" and "Towering Inferno" - corporate hubris and people incidentally along for the ride who suddenly face disaster.
The hubris of a country in a war zone using PR to portray itself as a center of culture and art, with cocktail parties and smooth-talking flacks, is no different than the vanity of the corporate bastards in those movies. (Who were pale, Hollywood reflections of real corporate bastards - like the guys running Hollywood today, for example.)
There's the protagonist who goes along with the big party at the top of the very flammable skyscraper or in the ballroom of the badly-built ocean liner. He has no complaints or foreboding, and he never notices that anything's wrong until disaster suddeenly hits, then he spends the rest of the movie trying to get to some kind of safety. At the end of the thing the protagonist hasn't learned anything useful like "never go on an ocean liner again" or "don't be a media whore for a war zone government" - he just gasps and thanks his generic Hollywood God that he survived.
And yes, that is an intentional slap at the writer, who seems to have learned nothing about life or himself from the experience.
All that's missing are a handful of celebrities doing cameos in which they die in colorful ways. Nobody cares about the crowds of extras dying out there in the background - they're people that the protagonist doesn't know personally and with whom he has no emotional ties. There needed to be a part for Shelley Winters or Red Buttons in this mess.
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Women and adults
S. Franklin: yes, women and adults are mutually exclusive categories in all predominantly Arab Muslim societies. Hezbollah is fighting for a world in which women are routinely murdered for having sex, where even being a rape victim is a capital offense.
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Wow...
First and foremost, this article demonstrates yet again that Salon is in the upper echelon of journalism today.
Second, tomreedtoon, what article did you read? Your comments simply cannot be directed at the Bourdain piece about Beirut. Nobody can be that clueless, right?
And my final point: war is evil, period. Always has been, always will be. It's always about the same things -- money and religion. In short, nothing worth killing for.
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Wow
This article made me cry. Shame on Israel, shame on Bush. When will this nightmare end?
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This brought it home for me
In a way nothing else I've read has. Thank you Mr. Bourdain.
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fantastic article
Thank you for this incredibly eloquent and heart-felt article. It truly brought tears to my eyes as it showed first-hand the absurdity and futility of this Perma-War that the U.S. refuses to condemn. The bit about George Bush chewing on the roll perfectly sums up his attitude, and the attitude of all the other support-Israel-at-all-costs crowd. First-rate piece, the best I've read in a long time.
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Great article
I enjoyed Mr. bourdain's observations and this was a great article and I am a progressive and jew. That said, Israel's ONLY demand is..Stop trying to kill us. You want withdrawl, no problem, stop trying to kill us. You want economic aid, no problem, stop trying to kill us. Ok, atleast say you will stop trying to kill us....no you won't do that....hmmmm
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Heartbreaking
Once again Anthony Bourdain gives us the readers an inside view as to what is really going on, and it is the most heartbreaking view yet. A beautiful city and country with so much potential back to what it was in the 80's. A country that has survived civil war,occupation by Syria and the assissination of a beloved political leader is being destroyed. It does not make either side right or wrong, or the actions of the U.S governement in this. It is just a sad situation, getting progressively worse. A humanitarian crisis well underway.
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"In the end we are among the lucky ones."
The most perfect sentence in a perfect article. I could hear his voice, see him on the screen, as close as I have ever been to Mr. Bourdain, or to Beirut. War reporting of the kind this country hasn't read since Hemingway, e.e. cummings, or Ernie Pyle. Thanks, Mr. Bourdain, I have saved your article to reread when this madness is finally over.