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14:52:00 o'clock BST
Hearing Concierto de Aranjuez (Rodrigo)
Things that irritate during an air raid
It was a big night here in Beirut with a massive missile assault which started around 5am and everyone's nerves are frazzled.
During the bombing, I found myself getting angry over ridiculous, trivial things - like the fact that one explosion nearby set off all the car alarms outside my window.
I was swearing under my pillow about the noise of the stupid cars in the midst of a city-wide blitz which almost threw me out of my bed and in which, we hear, 15 people died.
I'm not sure what that says about my failing rationality. Perhaps it's just the brain's way of focussing on that with which it can cope and ignoring those facts which are impossible to process. In other words, maybe my brain was fiddling as Beirut burned.
Kiruja, the Christian Aid security guy, is being as even-keeled as you'd expect a naval officer to be (if you'll pardon the pun). I'm glad he's here. Not just because I can hide behind him when things go bang, but because he's calm and great company.
We were talking about our wives back home (I got married to Glenda in December) and he was telling me about his wife, his daughters (who sound lovely) and his upbringing in Kenya.
It's good to think about positive things here, otherwise you'd go mad. But of course we (in theory - if the missile strikes don't cut the roads off completely) can and will leave soon.
The utter desperation that is felt by people here who have done nothing wrong, who are dying, had their homes destroyed and lost all means of support, must be incredible. And it must feel exactly the same for those innocent Israelis (both Jews and Arabs - for BOTH communities are getting hit by Hezbollah missiles) trapped in northern Israel.
Today Christian Aid warned that displaced Lebanese civilians returning home after a ceasefire is agreed will need to be on their guard against unexploded cluster bombs and other munitions.
According to experts, Israeli forces have been firing around 3,000 rockets, artillery shells, cluster bombs and other munitions into Lebanon each day for the past 27 days of the conflict.
It's estimated that around 10 per cent of these munitions have not exploded, so it is likely there are more than 7,000 unexploded munitions across the conflict zone.
There is a danger that when people are able to return home they could be injured or killed by unexplodedordnance, including cluster bombs.
And more bad news - the UN has warned that there is only seven to eight days' worth of fuel left in Lebanon.
I will probably be gone before the fuel runs out as my mission comes to an end fairly soon. When I leave I know what to expect. I will be grumpy and guilty and feel grey and flat and will whinge about irrelevancies and then, suddenly, from nowhere, a few days later I will suddenly explode with rage and something completely irrelevant. Poor Glenda.
Normally, after a trip like this, I get angry at shampoo adverts. Don't ask me why. I just do.
Donate to Christian Aids Middle East crisis appeal:
http://www.christianaid.org.uk/middle_east
Written by dominicnutt06 Blog about this entry |
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Don't just count the rockets that Israel has fired in self defence during the last 28 days.
Instead count the thousands of rockets that Hisbollah have been firing into norhtern Israel during the past six years!!!
Enough was enough. This is not the time to turn the other cheek. Lebanon can only turn a blind eye for so long. -
I have always supported the Jews in their quest for a Homeland,but now this must stop they are becoming worst than the Nazis and they must be stopped. even if it means Iran nucking them .....
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Hi Dom,
Glad to see that you are still telling it like it is - Israeli response is definitely OTT, even though I sympathis with their stance on terrorism. Will the UN resolution be passed?
Kate.
http://journals.aol.co.uk/bobandkate/AnAnalysisofLife/ -
Hi Dom.
How about listening to Bill Withers while you're under fire. Nothing better for the soul in my (humble) opinion!
I guesss the car alarm irritation takes your sub-conscious brain back to England when all is quiet except for that regular racket going off every night with it's owner obliviously sleeping through it in a back room.
I take your point about BOTH communities getting hit at random, but at least the Israelis have roads and bridges to escape by...thus they aren't really trapped as such? Nit picking I know....but it's a fair point?
Can't see this one-sided UN claptrap being accepted by the Arab nations....and nor should it. These nations are no longer '3rd. world countries' who are stupid enough to believe what they are told to believe. So come you Yanks, get real and give some GENUINE ground to Lebanon....otherwise it will be more of the same for decades to come.
Mind you....having said that, will the Yanks be prepared to lose all of those arms sales if peace breaks out?
12/08/06 18:25