“Falesteen, Falesteen, la lala”
Last week I was in Damascus and took a private taxi with a few Syrians
back to Lebanon. The other passengers were going to the village of
Nabatiyeh in the South of Lebanon, and I was going to Beirut. The taxi
driver was “Shadi” a middle-aged Syrian man (he told me he was Syrian
when I got in the car) with a gentle smile and a penchant for sweet
coffee.
After dropping off the family of five sitting in the back seat of the
taxi around 10pm, it was just Shadi driving, and me half-asleep in the
front passenger seat. He slowed down the car on a motorway, turned
left and kept driving.
After a minute or so, Shadi started crying and asked me to wake up,
urging me with some mumbling that sounded like an attempt at singing.
He began gesticulating wildly and at first, I thought he was dancing
while driving. Then I realized he was pointing at the hills on the
left. I tuned in to realize that the word he was repeating was
“Falesteeen, Falesteen” which is the Arabic word for “Palestine.”
There we were, on a starry and cold Sunday night, driving along the
Israeli-Lebanese border, and Shadi then revealed to me, that he was
not Syrian at all. He was a Palestinian refugee in Syria. I asked him
why he didn’t tell me from the beginning? He shrugged and looked
ashamed and I knew that look all too well. Half a million Palestinian
refugees in Lebanon are systemically vilified and rejected by
mainstream Lebanese society for being a “burden” and “nuisance” to the
nation. Shadi was afraid I might feel the same way as other Lebanese.
To the contrary, I told him that I truly love Palestinians and
Palestine with all my heart. His eyes filled with tears and he said,
“Thank you.”
The joy that he got from looking at the hills of Israel at night made
me drunk with joy too. And I looked at Shadi, and I started singing
“Falesteen” with him. I wanted to share his ecstasy at the sight of
the hills of Israel, a land where he has never been allowed to go, but
he knows is his home. “God willing,” I said to him, “You will go home
one day,” and he smiled and replied, “God willing.”
We sang the name of “Falesteen” for two hours back to Beirut. That
night I went home and cried. These are the people I am meeting, who
are inspiring the stories that I’m writing, who are inspiring the
project I’m working on. And I have so many more stories to share with
you, if you ever wanted to hear them.
The return of the blog
Hi, it’s been about two and a half years since I last posted on here, but it seems like yesterday. God, time really flies too fast. At the time I was living in New York, on my way back to London. Since then I moved back to London, made three films, finished a Masters in Film Studies at UCL, and moved to Beirut, Lebanon about seven months ago where I am working as a freelance journalist, editor and struggling filmmaker. I am working in Palestinian communities trying to mobilize community projects in relation to filmmaking as a historical function and cinema as a form of non-violent resistence. Things have been going really well. Life is busy, but good.
Walking Table update
I’m thrilled to say (for reasons that have yet to dawn on me) that my Walking Table video from last fall has, at the time of posting now, had more than 1.42 million views!
Busy times
This article about aerial yoga is one of the most fun stories I’ve written in perhaps years — made me consider becoming an acrobat.
Been caught lagging
I shall re-commence updating Cafe Solo this weekend.
Martin Scorsese presents Sesame Streets
This is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. If only they still made films with dialogue like this …
This is addictive …
Jim Henson was a genius.
Thanks Sebastiaan for inspiring the addition of the second clip below … brilliant
Totally over Brasil, right now.
A month in Brazil was great, but I missed so many things while I was away…Here’s my list of six things that either went over my head while I was in Brazil:
1. SADDAM’s execution (See Number 6 on this same list)
2. YOU TUBE … my “Walking Table” video somehow (I have no idea how) got featured on You Tube’s main page for a week and I had over one MILLION views on that nine-second video clip and I honestly have no clue as to why (anyone) cares … it’s just a boring clip about an interesting table I saw at a design expo in Holland … and everyone seems to love it. I blogged about the walking table in early Nevember if you want to see it under the Design category.
3. ARGENTINA. I was in denial for the first 20 days in Brasil about not being in Argentina. I got a consolation bracelet.
4. TOFU. Ever try telling a room full of Brazilians that you’re a vegetarian?
5. WI-FI. There’s something beautiful about free wireless internet whenever you want it.
6. MEDIA. Anything in English. Anything.
And six things I was not ready for:
1. INSECTS. They’re everywhere and I battled them.
2. BEING A “GRINGA”. Gets stale fast.
3. PRESUNTO. It’s everywhere. Gross.
4. FLAVOUR. Anything other than salt.
5. CLASSISM. It’s heart-breaking.
6. HIPPY MARKETS. It was beaded necklace overdose.
Back in the New Year
Hey, I haven’t been online as I’ve been travelling … I’ll be in Brazil until mid-January.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
A beautiful insurance commercial?
DUTCH insurance company RVS takes the cake for most brilliant television commerical I’ve seen since Peroni beer’s Dolce Vita tribute. It’s beautiful cinematography, with background music sung by Bonnie Beecher.
Such a lovely commercial.
Watch, and smile.
Café solo 