George Wassouf and Ramallah epidemics

I love George Wassouf. I love his crazy, deep, husky voice. I have been sick with bronchitis for the past week, which according to the doctor I saw yesterday is a big epidemic in Ramallah lately.

The other epidemic going on here these days is a string of robberies. Yes my friends, Ramallah is no longer the safe place it once was. In the past two weeks alone, 4 of my friends have had their cars stolen and everyday you hear someone mention that someone or other's car disappeared in front of their house, or restaurant, or at the checkpoint. There have also been several purse snatchings in the city (now you have to keep an eye on your belongings all the time when in restaurants or in the market, etc.). I have heard of several house break-in's. One of those break-in's include dear Vera Tamari who awoke in the middle of the night to find a man standing in the doorway of her bedroom! Luckily nothing bad happened and he ran out of the house.
A funny aside is that when the shurta (police) arrived to search her house and around outside they did not come equipped with flashlights. Not a single one of them. So Vera had a huge gang of shurta searching all around the outside of her house in the dark using the light of their cell phones as flashlights!

This is the store where the Wassouf debates take place, right next to the pharmacy.

Anyways, I had enough strength to make my way to my favorite music store in Ramallah yesterday to engage the owner in our usual argument as to whether George Wassouf is Syrian or Lebanese. I say Syrian. He says Lebanese. This has been an ongoing debate between us for the last several years. I don't want to put an end to it, I like this tradition of ours. I welcome anyone's comments on this matter.

(I also had enough strength to make it to my friend Shuruq's birthday party but left rather early. Dancing while coughing up your lungs is NOT sexy. Dancing in a living room thick with cigarette smoke also doesn't help when one is sick. I don't recommend it.)

Lastly, I have not written about the political situation on the ground here for awhile and I am sorry. It is just too depressing. The mainstream media focuses on pretend news stories about unity governments, Abu Mazen's meetings, and the endless stream of so-called ceasefires, meanwhile the real news takes place in the shadows. The journalists focus on reporting on what happened in the latest round of unity talks......meanwhile the march of death and destruction goes seemingly unrecorded. The real story (among MANY others) is the fact that there are entire sections of Beit Hanoun gone.
Just like that.
Disappeared.