Bambi called her parents this morning to check on them.
Well, she learned about the latest saga in her country of birth.
Luckily she learned about this public “fight” before reading her sister’s tweet as she would have thought that tiny Lebanon (10, 452 km2) is huge Canada with its numerous time zones :).
First, what is happening in Lebanon’s caretaker government today? The Prime Minister there unilaterally announced a decision “that took many by surprise“, according to l’Orient Today. It was “adopted almost unilaterally, after an almost surreal discussion between caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and House Speaker Nabih Berri” (https://bit.ly/42DuCvN).
As a response, “TV channels, media outlets announce they will not abide by decision to postpone daylight savings shift” (https://bit.ly/42DuCvN).
Furthermore (https://bit.ly/42DuCvN), local network operators have asked their mobile phone customers to adjust their settings, disabling the automatic time function; (to avoid automatic time change today at midnight.
In addition, one may wonder how will this decision affects other business sectors, including those related to travels or those relying on computers (provided they have access to power!)?
Bambi’s sister is a journalist and here is her tweet in French followed by an English translation:
The above means: “A fake country, a real problem. If the four institutions where I currently work adopt different times at midnight, like all the companies of the country, I will have serious conflicting schedules, which will be hard to manage”.
Roula’s tweet makes sense, especially if we recall that the start of daylight savings (in countries where it is observed) can affect people’s sleep, attention, and even memory from hours to up to a few days, that is until their brains’ circadian rhythms re-adjust.
Mmm, it would be interesting to conduct a study on Lebanese people now to see how this variation in daylight saving times will affect their internal circadian clock and, consequently, their circadian rhythms. The latter literally means about 24 hours (roughly about a day or “circa diem” in Latin). It refers to daily cycles of sleep and wakefulness as well as hormonal activity, and other bodily processes like hunger/ digestion, etc. Talking about digestion, hunger and different time changes, what will practically happen in the context of adjustment time to Ramadan in those who happen to be observant Muslims? Which time will they be following in their spirituality and most importantly in their jobs, if they still have one that can afford to pay them?
Anyhow, given the no-unity with regard to time, let’s put the latter aside for a few minutes. Yes, let’s resort to music to find a resemblance of unity in the Lebanese national anthem: “All for the nation” [“Koulouna Lil Watan”] and in a famous song to its capital. Yes, how about ending this post with two masterpieces of the Philokalia Choir, conducted by Ms. S. Marana Saad (who seems to be a nun), with Lebanese Orchestra Byblos?
The first song is the anthem of Lebanon, as mentioned above. The second is the famous song Li Beirut, based on Mr. Nizzar Kabbani’s poem. The latter gives Bambi goosebumps every time she has listened to it since it was released at the height of civil war and, more recently, following the Beirut surrealistic yet unaccountable port explosion.
To conclude this post, after listening to the talent below, reading l’Orient Today‘s article and Ms. Roula Azar-Douglas’ tweet, and beyond the current saga, Bambi could not help not to wonder once again: Why is Lebanon ruled by “idiots” (the same morally, financially, and intellectually corrupt warlords), with all due respect to everyone, which is none? Why is it not led by talented people like most of its creative and highly resilient citizens?
