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Abu Dhabi: Compare and contrast |
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Written by Stephen Baines
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Wednesday, 08 March 2006 |
I didn't expect my posts from Lebanon and Abu Dhabi to go this way, but I guess it's the nature of meeting real people who live here that it will.
Today started with being collected by one of the guys from the office. He asked if I'd flown here direct from the UK, and I said I hadn't but from Lebanon. He went very quiet, then he asked what I thought of the place. I told him I enjoyed the couple of days I spent there, and that I found the people friendly and was amazed as some of the things they told me about the last 30 or so years. He went red, and then said "Oh, you probably won't want to talk to me, then, as I'm Syrian". I was amazed that someone would think that you have to take sides with a whole nation. It's not something I'd even considered. Sure, what the Lebanese had told me about the years past made me feel sorry for them, but I wasn't condeming a whole nation.
Later in the day during a break in the training I was talking to another group of guys, some Philipino and some Syrians who were working here, and got chatting. The Philipino's were telling me that the idea of visiting Lebanon was their dream vacation, as in Abu Dhabi all the models are Lebanese, and they know what they are like. The Syrians were telling me about how the problems looked from their country, that the other Arab nations pretty much forced them into staying in Lebanon, and that they didn't want to, and that at no time was Lebanon occupied - Ok, the leader of the country had to ask Syria's permission on all decisions, but that was just keeping the peace, not occupation.
I couldn't help but wonder if in a few years time British and American people will say the same about Iraq as a matter of fact, or whether it will be remembered as an occupied territory and treated in the same way as Syria is with Lebanon.
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