Lebanon four years after...

With the end of the 2010 world cup, the Spanish national soccer team claims the title as football world champions... For the Lebanese, it meant running through the streets with a Spanish flag. As I returned home from watching the match with a friend, I witnessed two young children from a nearby balcony shouting to me "Monsieur! Viva l'Espana!" I kept on moving to my building's entrance without even flinching at their comments. The whole experience of the World Cup in Lebanon is astonishing, because its population decides to embody almost all of the teams who are in the cup and parade in the streets on their behalf. One neighborhood erects a gigantic Germany flag. Another puts up a Brazilian flag. These flags leave the Lebanese flags...few and far between...

Perhaps this isn't the most significant part of my post. It is more interesting because of what fears this environment evokes. It reminds us all of what followed during the last World Cup. The unexpected confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel in the summer of 2006. This year, it has become almost an accepted belief that war will break out this summer, as soon as the football is finished... That has happened and here we are, eagerly awaiting the fate of Lebanon's summer. With tourism at an all-time high and Lebanon's relative stability continuing, it seems like a recipe for disaster in the making (only in Lebanon)..

While many hold the belief that when Italy wins, Lebanon suffers with a war or invasion. This year we will have to wait and see if the Spanish victory will spare the Lebanese summer. Maybe it's not a bad thing for the Lebanese to wave the Spanish flag, or to go down to the South and embrace the Spanish troops that are working as part of UNIFIL. Instead, villages are confronting them and challenging their patrols. Instead they should be welcoming them and inviting them to stay as long as they can, because the moment they leave will be a harsh moment for Lebanon..

From the World Cup to the United Nation's Interim Force in Lebanon... Respect the Spanish...