Share Beirut

On Saturday, my roommate and I went to a conference called SHARE Beirut, centered around internet freedom and activism. Located at Solea V, a boxy concrete building covered in elegant graffiti, SHARE Beirut featured a number of international speakers from as close as Egypt and as far away as Iceland. It was a much different crowd than I've seen so far here: girls with close cropped hair, fauxhawks, piercings, guys with long hair, gauged ears, wearing Darth Vader or NPR or stop censorship t-shirts.

What I've experienced of this city so far has been its surface, the sights and sounds of the street, short interactions with strangers. Share Beirut was a window into the city's underground life, another one of its many layers, and a side of the Arab world that I believe it can be hard for Westerners to conceive of. As I've said before, the ideas that I've encountered of Lebanon seem actually to be general ideas of "the Middle East." People don't see Lebanon as a unique place but a part of a monolithic society that is characterized by violence, religious extremism, restrictions on womens' rights, et cetera. These things do exist here, it's true, (one) they also exist in our beloved US of A and (two) it would be extremely ignorant to say they mark everything about the country. The issues, personalities, and interests represented at Share Beirut are integral parts of Lebanese culture - engineers and makers, activists and artists, hackers and journalists discussing censorship, collaboration, robots, music, and a number of other concerns. 

Much of what we heard was positive, like members of newly-formed hackerspace Lamba Labs telling us about their projects, combinations of artistry and engineering. Much of what we heard was worrisome, like Egyptian anti-torture activist Wael Abbas speaking about how conservative elements in his country are trying to limit the rights of the populace and targeting activists through religious rhetoric. Overall, it was an amazing experience, and I'm glad I got the chance to see so many interesting people speak about what they love and fear.

The next day, my other two roommates and I visited Baalbek and Anjar and explored ruins thousands of years old. I'll probably put a post up about that experience sometime soon.

I'm afraid this isn't my most coherent post, but I'm trying to get a lot of thoughts down and they're not all in order in my head.