Anthony Bourdain, celebrity chef, arrived in Beirut not too long ago with a camera crew to shoot footage for his Discovery Travel Channel show, No Reservations. His aim was to show the revival of Beirut’s cultural and culinary life after years of war and occupation. Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out as expected, as he writes in Salon:
Then, in the blink of an eye, everything went sideways: Relaxed smiles froze and disappeared. Suddenly, there was the sound of automatic weapons firing randomly in the air from a nearby neighborhood. And fireworks. Then cars — a few of them — teenage kids, women and adults, some leaning out the windows and waving Hezbollah flags and flashing the “V” for victory sign, celebrating what we were told, after a few quick cellphone calls, was the grabbing of two Israeli soldiers. Our fixer, a Sunni; Ali, a Shiite; and “Marwan,” a Christian, who’d just minutes ago been pointing proudly at the mural — all three looked down in embarrassment, a look of sorrow, shame and then resignation on their faces. Someone muttered “assholes” bitterly. They knew — right away — what was going to happen next.
Be sure to read the whole thing.