Lebanon - no bravery ... only sadness

Was listening to my James Blunt CD in the car it struck me that the words of this song is really applicable to the current situation in Lebanon and its neighbour - and it is applicable to both sides - nice one oh mighty leaders of our world, hope you are really proud of the bravery you are showing in order to advance your own political, economical and religious agendas but remember the people on the ground, knows in Blunt's words 'Only sadness'.

There are children standing here,
Arms outstretched into the sky,
Tears drying on their face.
He has been here.
Brothers lie in shallow graves.
Fathers lost without a trace.
A nation blind to their disgrace,
Since he's been here.

And I see no bravery,
No bravery in your eyes anymore.
Only sadness.

Houses burnt beyond repair.
The smell of death is in the air.
A woman weeping in despair says,
He has been here.
Tracer lighting up the sky.
It's another families‚ turn to die.
A child afraid to even cry out says,
He has been here.

And I see no bravery,
No bravery in your eyes anymore.
Only sadness.

There are children standing here,
Arms outstretched into the sky,
But no one asks the question why,
He has been here.
Old men kneel and accept their fate.
Wives and daughters cut and raped.
A generation drenched in hate.
Yes, he has been here.

And I see no bravery,
No bravery in your eyes anymore.
Only sadness.

Click the following for The James Blunt web site.

Only in Dubai ...

Thought I saw everything in Dubai till this afternoon - 12:45 comming from Dubai side over the Garhoud bridge, direction Jebel Ali on out beloved Sheik Zahed Road.

As usual at that time of the day lots of traffic and the normal road works just before the bridge helps to create the normal confussion and bottleneck with the normal culprits in Sunny's and Landcruisers (maybe all car manufacturers should include an Introduction to driving course with their cars) weaving from lane to lane, when we where overtaken by a policeman on his bike, blue lights flashing. First though that crossed my mind that if there was an accident up ahead it would just stuff up the traffic completely - little did I know.

Just as I got off the bridge this scene out a Hollywood movie played it off in front off me
- Picture this - just the traffic gets released from the bottleneck that is the bridge and everybody is jockeying to get into position - as close as possible to the car in front, in the normal Dubai tradition when the Policeman mentioned earlier stop in the left hand lane - and proceeds to stop all five (or is it six) lanes of the high way to allow 2 female pedestrians standing on the middle lane of SZ to be able to cross. What happened next was like a slow motions replay - screeching tyres, smoke and cars swerving all over the road, glass flying and the net effect - a three car pile-up, a few thousand Dirhams damage, major traffic jam and a funny looking cop.

To the policeman - what were you thinking!!! But on the other hand - you where on hand to take the traffic accident details right there and then, no waiting for those involved - good work! By the way, did you fine the pedestrians for crossing a highway - sorry - stupid question.

All I can say is - Only in Dubai!