What's cooking?

In the middle of the current political hodgepodge, I (a calculated sigh) was worrying about what to cook for dinner yesterday.
In the bus on my way to Beirut, I listened to the news. The presenter was warning of an “orgy” of divisions, partitioning, dissections and bisections (which all more or less mean the same thing); The whole jumble was said in a fluctuating somber tone inspiring anxiety over a nearby black future i.e. the upcoming presidential elections.
Meanwhile, I was exchanging SMSs with my long-awaited date about food.
Once at home, I browsed through the Yahoo Lebanon News articles stumbling upon another series of split, chaos, tension and other related terms as I prepared a list of groceries to buy and looked for enticing recipes.
In the kitchen, tears flooded in my eyes as I chopped onions trying to picture what will come after dinner. In the next room, the background noise of the holly 8 o’clock news bulletin roared with meaningless news.
I was suddenly struck by the thought that I might have become totally indifferent to the fate of “my” country.
I decided to boycott Berri’s interview on LBC.
Have I actually lost any sense of responsibility because I don’t feel concerned about our politicians’ daily warnings?
Maybe! But around me that day, I sensed complicity with the whole community. Everybody was preparing for his first Iftar. (Of course, I was buying wine instead of Amar-Eddine juice, but that’s not the point.) Nobody really cared about the positions of a one so-called man-of-state or another politician announcing his “presidential program”. (We should really learn to use more humble terms especially when all of us have access to channels around the world and can watch a presidential debate in France.)
We have simply become politically numb, I guess. The people of this country, all grouped under the generic word Lebanese, do not really care about “freedom, independence and sovereignty,” simply because our dear politicians have used them in all possible combinations and declinations to the point of revealing their true intentions: engaging in a Zajal competition. Our political class has mastered the art of the hollow rhetoric and we can’t but clap for such an achievement.
Lately, I liked to point out that my biggest fear these days was not being blown-up by a bomb but getting stuck in an elevator because of an unexpected electricity cut. Maybe I am exaggerating. Security is an issue not to be taken lightly. But so is electricity!
Everyday, I dig for any decent coverage of the recurrent electricity cuts. All I find instead is detailed accountings of the blabbering of X and Y. We are honestly fed-up.
Or let me speak for myself. I think this country is much less divided than they want us to believe. I freely move from North to South and East to West. I rarely feel threatened.
It’s time to tackle the real day-to-day issues and problems… Because everyone has at some point an important dinner to prepare for! © El Periodista