On the Road

I was walking in a neighboring area. I saw two women on the road, each carrying a child who seemed to me to be her grandchild. The grandmother is an icon of sacrificial love. I passed by a little. The voice of a man entering a store reached me. Addressing the shop owner the way one addresses a friend, he said, "I was told that you were inviting me to a cheese pie. What are you watching on TV? The air conditioner is also working!”! With this threefold banter, he summed up some of our problems in Lebanon. On my way back, I came across a friend carrying a bundle of bread. This is a treasure in a country that begrudges the bread to its people! I asked him. He told me about the bakery that distinguishes, when selling bread, between the Lebanese and others. He said: "The Lebanese enters the bakery without waiting in a queue"! I was hurt by what I heard. My friend tried to cool my wound with words I do not want to write down now. What can be said to intelligent people about the foolishness of racism?!