{"id":1135,"date":"2012-04-11T13:51:57","date_gmt":"2012-04-11T20:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libernetics.com\/?p=1135"},"modified":"2012-04-11T14:02:04","modified_gmt":"2012-04-11T21:02:04","slug":"belen-fernandez-coffee-with-hezbollah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libernetics.com\/?p=1135","title":{"rendered":"Belen Fernandez: Coffee with Hezbollah; comments and notes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Middle-East is a strange place. \u00a0That’s the conclusion I came to after reading Belen Fernandez’s recent book “Coffee with Hezbollah<\/a><\/em>.” \u00a0If I had to sum up the book in a few words, I’d say it’s a combination of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas<\/a>”\u00a0and “Alice In Wonderland<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Coffee with Hezbollah <\/em>doesn’t have the sinister quality or psychological violence of Thompson’s work, but it has the whimsy and the 100% subjective viewpoint. \u00a0And Fernandez’s description of Lebanon does seem like a fall into a fantasy world. \u00a0The characters have a fantastical quality, the whole premise of the situation seems unreal. Two young women hitchhiking in a country beset by war seems\u00a0unlikely to have\u00a0occurred\u00a0at all, much less with a happy outcome. \u00a0They are completely free to roam about, and they are treated to\u00a0hospitality, favors,\u00a0and friendship.<\/p>\n

But it is real. \u00a0I suspect (but am not prepared to prove) that in the US has a bi-polar view of the Middle-East — “Lawrence of Arabia<\/a>” on one hand and “Syriana<\/a>” on the other. \u00a0A world of romance and\u00a0violence, and some oil. \u00a0Belen Fernandez portrays a very, very different Middle-East. \u00a0It is far more complex.<\/p>\n

Her Middle-East is a combination of common people doing common things in a most uncommon reality. \u00a0There is romance, but it is the romance of unexpected\u00a0courtesies\u00a0and friendships while traveling.<\/p>\n

There is\u00a0violence; in fact it is pervasive. \u00a0It hangs in the air, but never visited on anyone in particular. \u00a0The people are sublime,\u00a0ridiculous, generous, self-serving,\u00a0thoroughly\u00a0steeped in misinformation, cynical, skeptical, cunning, and brave. \u00a0They are possessed of a kind of wisdom that comes from suffering.<\/p>\n

The book is loosely organized around the chronology of the trip. \u00a0From Turkey to Syria to Lebanon and many points in between and back and forth. \u00a0It’s hard to keep track of the locale or the characters. \u00a0There is probably a metaphor in there somehow. \u00a0Perhaps the fluid\u00a0quality\u00a0of the characters and settings presents the Middle-East as it really is, which is to say dynamic, not\u00a0homogeneous, complex, and very fluid. \u00a0If it is unstable, it is that way for a reason. \u00a0Those reasons should be respected.<\/p>\n

The one thing that stands out in this book is the one thing that I think is totally lost in other \u00a0discussions about the Middle-East: the humanity of the people. \u00a0Fernandez captures the attitudes and personalities of the people she meets with a fine touch. \u00a0She is satirical, but in a way that reminds me that everyone is to some extent a caricature when viewed from the lens of another culture. \u00a0To the people she met Fernandez must have seemed quite magical.<\/p>\n

Coffee with Hezbollah <\/em>is very different from Fernandez’s other book, “The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work,<\/em>” which I reviewed earlier<\/a>. \u00a0That book was austere in it’s format and unrelenting in it’s attack on the polices of the US and it’s allies. \u00a0Coffee with Hezbollah <\/em>is more poetic. \u00a0The political artifacts are\u00a0certainly\u00a0there, but presented as factual ironies on the ground. \u00a0Which is to say\u00a0unavoidable realities that are accepted, if not acceptable.<\/p>\n

The people Fernandez encounters may have a different worldview then me or you, but they have hopes, dreams, and they aspire to success in\u00a0worldly\u00a0and spiritual matters. \u00a0 Something to remember when we read our daily news.<\/p>\n

Cheers.<\/p>\n