Daddy, wayn Tigi?

This morning Brigitte and I woke up by the sound of a new SMS message. Turned out to come from LibanCall, a news service that sends SMS alerts regarding Lebanese events. Having these messages at 7:15 AM is not a good thing and sure enough it said there was an explosion in Baabda, next to the presidential palace.

A wailing Ray Charles singing ‘Hear we go again’ got stuck in my mind. Another car bomb; an all too familiar scene. Obviously, we rushed to the TV and started watching. Janine, who was awake by then, walked into the TV room and saw mommy & daddy watch TV. What a treat! Normally, she only watches TV before going to bed, but finally, mom & dad must have seen the light, you could hear her think. Only problem: it wasn’t Tiji, her favorite channel that has French animated children programs.

So here we were watching the latest developments while Janine, now fully awake, was standing in front of the TV demanding/asking/begging us to switch to Tiji. “Wayn Tiji, daddy?” (“daddy where is Tiji”), followed by the cutest ‘pleeezzze’ that always cracks me up.

After a few minutes and realizing there was nothing much to see anyway, we gave in and let her watch Tiji instead of the chaotic images from the crime scene. And there she was, happily watching a cartoon, oblivious to the events outside…”born in a world where love survives”. Now, if only all the Lebanese politicians would watch Tiji with their kids for half an hour everyday, then this world would be a better place.

Later on, I dropped her off at her kindergarten. Amazingly beautiful, quite mild weather. The streets in Hamra were rather empty which added to the almost serene atmosphere. The contrast between the mild, pleasant weather and the harsh, raw murders reminded me of another sunny, mild day: Feb 14, 2005. It’s funny how the memory works.

I won’t bother now with the intricacies of the murder of the general who was in charge of the Naher al-Bared events. For more details, background and speculation, check out the excellent blogs of Blacksmiths of Lebanon and Beirutspring.