My day started bright and early (for me anyway) at 8am which was strange because my uncle told me we were leaving to vote at 11am. Now, for your information, if you didnt know already there is something we all "lebanese time" If someone says they will leave at one time they actually leave 1-2hrs LATER, this morning I was woken up to leave 3 hrs EARLIER! weird. Anyway, due to my quick readiness and my uncle's chronic lateness I was able to catch the news before going out to vote. The channel I happend to be on was showing an interview with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who is one of the international monitors for the Lebanese elections. He was answering questions on the U.S.'s possible reaction to hypothetical election results (which he didnt actually answer cus, obviously hes not the one who decides those things) as well as questions regarding safety, U.S. confidence in the results and so on. It was really cool seeing one of our Presidents here in Lebanon being so hands on with the election. I think he is probably over compensating for his small blip in his presidency, aka the Iran Hostage crisis (minor right?) ;) but none the less I have appreciated President Carter's enthusiasm for helping the Middle East (aka his books on Palestine and so on)
My uncle, his wife and I went to Tripoli to vote. Interesting part about voting here is you vote where your dad is from, and when a woman marries she votes where her husband's dad is from. So the city I went to vote is where my Grandpa used to vote when he was alive. Which for me was pretty cool. It puts the country and the culture into perspective because it is so small that this is actually possible, could you imagine in the US if you had to vote where your dad was from? No voter change of address? I thought a lot about this in the car, because I did a lot of work when I was working with the state legislature on an electronic voter registration bill that passed so we can change our address online simply....definitely cant do that here. The other strange and fun thing about voting here was the ballot. (my cousin has my cam at an election rally right now but when he gets back i'll put those pictures up with a picture of my "ballot".) It was a very small peice of computer paper with about 10 names printed on it, how did I obtain said ballot you ask? From a kid passing them out in the street as we were stuck in traffic driving in Tripoli, SERIOUSLY!! hahaha it was so funny! I thought it was an advertisement and all of the sudden my uncle passes me one and says "put this in your purse and make sure this is the paper you put in the box, if neone gives you another one put it somewhere else away from this one so you dont vote for the wrong party". Now, my cousin was saying there are other types of "ballots" but because we voted straight 14 of March party line we only needed this pre printed one. Apparently there are others if you want to mix and match parties (which doesnt happen much I dont think).
We voted in a poor neighborhood in Tripoli which was really quiet. It is pretty much all 14 of March supporters (14 of March, if you are seeing any American news is the Christian party that is "Pro Democracy" and "Pro West"). The army was there of course but not in as full force as other places (like the city we live actually, there is a lot of contention between parties here so the army is here in force, I've never been so close to a tank before, but thats later in our day). I went in to vote, they found my name on a big list and gave me an envelope, I went into the little booth and took out my paper from my purse, put it in the envelope and sealed it and dropped it in the white box outside. This is the first time I have ever GONE somewhere to vote!! (damn absentee ballots in WA) So as simple as it was I was pretty pleased. Then I got to stick my thumb in the infamous purple paint and sign my name!! I had major flashbacks of the photos on CNN (AC 360 of course) of the first Iraqi election after the invasion of Baghdad where everyone was coming out with huge smiles and a purple finger! I took a pic of my thumb too dont worry! It is still very purple for the record! I am glad I didnt do my nails yesterday like planned!
After voting my uncle (who voted in a different building because men and women vote in different places--dont get me started, I actually dont know why that is...could be a stupid reason but I am chosing to think it gives women a little more freedom actually so she doesnt have her dad, brother or husband staring over he shoulder when she votes, maybe the seperation gives her more of a choice.....thats what I am telling myself so my feministy side doesnt get pissed off) :) and aunt and I went to my mom and my fave desert place and had some breakfast (yes its a desert place that serves breakfast) it was delish!!!
Since then we have been sitting at home. I am editing my cousin's english paper and doing nothing basically. The highlight of the day post voting was going out to try to find some corn to eat when we ran into a big political "rally" where the two opposing christian parties were gathered one on one side of the street and the other on the other side with the army seperating them....it was a cool scene. I tried to take some pictures but when we got close enough to see anything a soldier saw me take a picture of a tank and told me to put the camera away. We headed home after that, didnt want to be in the middle of a cross fire. Right now it just looks like a gathering but it could turn ugly if too many ppl get rowdy (ok side note, I just misspelled "roudy" looked at it and in my head said an old cheer from HS which made me realize I spelt it wrong...wow--- Lets get a little bit rowdy R-O-W-D-Y! hahahaha see cheer makes you smart) My cousin Zouzou went back to see it, and took my cam so I hope he is getting good footage!
We are of course hoping we win the majority in our town but also overall, the results are just barely starting to come in! If we win there will be celebrations in the streets and little sleep! We'll see! It is a very important election for Lebanon. I have always described Lebanon to people as the world's Pawn if you will. If the Middle East is a chess board, Lebanon is always getting pushed around, or jumped or whatever. Its been traded between the French, Americans and Syrians, its been invaded and bombed by Israel and its being manipulated now by Syria and Iran. I just learned that the Parliament is actually the one who choses the Pres and Prime Minister, so it is very important to have a majority in Parliament of the party you agree with because it means you have a better chance of having a president/prime minister that you agree with. It is also an important election because the majority in this little Parliament has global ramifications. The Christian 8th of March coalition is teaming with the Shi'ite Hezbollah who is being armed and funded by Iran and Syria and the other Christian coalition 14 of March is aligned with Sunnis Muslims and the US (and the West in general). SOOO as you can see whoever gets the majority has some pretty big players to deal with. They are saying if Hezbollah/8th of March get the majority and therefore control of the government Israel will obvviously not be happy and the US will either be very unhappy or have to change its policies towards the region. What is interesting I learned from the news today is Hezbollah is not actually seeking any more seats than it already has in the current government, but because of this Christian split, an 8th of March win is actually giving them more pull.
I think that is enough political "analysis" for the day. CNN has a few good articles on the election and on the ramifications and such (aka real analysis) if you want to check it out.
I am going to go eat dinner, when results are in I'll post again!
Much Love,
Sasha
