There is, apparently, a saying in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the effect that anyone who says that he understands the Lebanon does not understand the Lebanon. I am not sure that this saying does not apply to most countries, possibly even to Liechtenstein. Nevertheless, human beings are compelled by their nature to try to understand what cannot be understood; and therefore when, after a visit, my brother-in-law left behind him a magazine devoted to the Middle East with a long series of articles devoted to the Lebanon, I began to read it. Even a single article had the power to confuse. One must not mistake the baltajiya for the qabadayat or the dhahiye, but I did not find it easy to keep them apart in my mind: who they were and what exactly they did, though none of it seemed very good.
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