In Lebanon, football is a religion that transcends religion

These words I wrote date back to October 22, 2022 (here):

"Sometime in 1993, at AUB, I pretended to be interested in football. It was a Monday, and for some obscure reason, I knew Ansar had a match during the weekend, and so I asked "so what did Ansar do?" - my friend - a bit incredulous at my knowledge - answered back "they won 2-0". Then a light went up and I remembered that someone else told me they were watching a Safa match during the weekend, so I pushed my luck and asked again "and what did Safa do?" - this is when my friend cocked his head in exasperation and said - "Tarek, they were playing against Ansar!".

And this ended my pretention knowing anything about football. Until I was branded non-feminist (I am still reeling for this!) for commenting on the ad for Le Mall which dates back to 2010 when Le Mall had a series of ads for women and football. Just to be clear I had to google Mannschaft to understand the joke in the ad." (here)

If I am repeating these words that is because in Lebanon, there is religion, and football religion. Whereas sects, and then religions (the first comes before the latter) are able to unify people against one another (tried and tested, just look at current Lebanon or at any part of its past - starting from the city-states that the Greek labelled Phoenicia as a hodge-podge lump-sum) and flame the deep hatred people can have for one another based precisely on which interpretation of the "deity" they belong to.

And then there's football. A cross-over, all-encompassing, parasol-agglomerating "faith" capable of transcending that small detail as to which denomination of "God/Allah" you were born under. To be clear, there are many small fandoms. But the Brazil-Germany rivalry (more like total and complete hatred) runs very deep. Sure, you have splinters of "les Bleus" (France), some Argentina fans (put that under Messi lovers), oddly very few Portugal supporters (I guess the Ronaldo effect did not encompass love for a whole nation), and perhaps there are others (never seen any England fans truth be told anywhere, and despite the current craze about Erling Haaland, Norway is still shy from being a sensation anywhere).

So to go back to the original thesis, yes, football can create interlaps where religion cannot. Also, this is perhaps - other than politics and elections - where the notion of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" applies to a T. Let's be honest Paraguay is not high on top of anyone's fandom this World Cup. But who eliminated Germany? Paraguay. By pure sheer twisted logic, any Brazilian fan becomes a Paraguay supporter. Conversely who is enamored by Croatia? German fans obviously - same reasoning - it threw Brazil out of the tournament.

Now of course, what I described above is an understatement. The convoys led by Brazilian fans with a huge coffin baring the German flag when Germany lost, or the humongous Brazilian flag which covers a complete street as it is drawn between two opposing buildings (with the help of a truck-mounted lift, borrowed from the man who has the diesel generator in the street or from the cousin who works at the municipality outright) or the car with a decal of the Portuguese flag on its hood are much more indicative of the magnitude of the fandom.

It is Liverpool FC manager Bill Shankly who famously said, "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." 

And also to quote the same club (after the Gerry & The Pacemakers) song (funnily popularized by the same Mister Shankly) "you'll never walk alone". This World Cup, no respectable German or Brazilian fan will have to bow out alone. This being said:

¡Felicidades, campeones!

Malak Al Tawouk hilariously opens in Paris

"Bonjour, Bonsoir, tres bon, oh lala, magnifique! Frensewe top! Fikoun tkhabro 2raybinkoun l honik la belle khabriye!" - Can you top this announcement? Franco-Arabic gibberish that any respectable Lebanese polyglot can understand, though French people might want to abstain from understanding it having it translated. Oh and Malak Al Tawouk is now gloriously now in France (though I doubt it can name its products the same way it did in Lebanon). And if this was not enough, their headline has a whiff on the famous "his dad's fez is hanging on the Eiffel tower".... Self-depreciating and funny? Am all for....

French government offers poisoned gift as consolation prize to the Lebanese

 

Remember this post? About the sided love from Lebanon to France? 

Let me begin by saying that Israelis do not need Schengen visas. And that to enter the Schengen space one needs to apply the same papers to all concerned embassies. The papers include: a letter from employer, bank statement, copies of previous visas and passports (with current passport having two additional blank pages and three months valid beyond return date), family civil extract, plane ticket (with return ticket) and hotel booking, the usual travel insurance, 2 photos, means of subsistence (65 Euros per day minimum),  a completed application of several pages, and honestly all this needs to be translated. 

Last time I went in a business trip to the Netherlands that was already 60 papers.

The communique above from the French government offers visas, ability to fly and return and what not... Brilliant one might say. But the devil is in the details. The detail in question? 

"Sans autre restriction que les conditions habituelles d'admission de sejour".

"With no other restriction but the usual conditions of admission for entry".

The conditions I just listed above. Oh and with unemployment rampant and money stuck in the bank, what employer letter and what bank statement do we talk about?

A poisoned gift as consolation prize, don't you think?