We Do Not Need to Be Assholes to Be Great

Richie Incognito, professional asshole, got his certification today. A full dossier was released documenting his abuse of teammate Jonathan Martin. He appears to be a better asshole than a left guard, and he was a pretty good left guard.

The behavior detailed in the report outlines a Miami Dolphins locker room that formed a united front of racial slurs and sometimes physical sexual harassment against Jonathan Martin and another player.

Up until last week, Incognito was still confident he had done nothing wrong. There are others who believe this is misconstrued, old-timey locker room ribbing, and that Incognito needed to behave this way to feed his insatiable ego and be a world-class football player.

So do we need to be assholes to be great at what we do? Do others need to eschew their own dignity to allow assholes to exist comfortably?

The answer is no. There is no other answer.

The part of the world defending Incognito is citing the wussification of America. Incognito defenders are talking about recent overreaction to the dos and don’ts of language in the name of social justice. Those people do exist — they’re called “social justice warriors ,” and their thought process is that language is so desperately broken that every single sentence uttered aloud is an affront to their identity.

These people are offended by passive uses of common phrases. They may have a point. They probably do not. We can argue about the utility of them later.

Nothing Richie Incognito and the Miami Dolphins did to Jonathan Martin was passive. Incognito was aggressive in his abuse of Jonathan Martin, and his team enabled him.

Let there be no confusion: Richie Incognito is an asshole, and the Miami Dolphins are assholes for defending him.

Martin’s teammates called him a n****r repeatedly. They said they were going have sex with his sister in ways that would be deleted from comments sections on some porn sites. This went on for months. Then the Miami Dolphins took Jonathan Martin on a boat and taunted him so mercilessly he spent the trip crying in the bathroom.

Martin, a smarter guy in the presence of idiots, texted somebody asking why he even puts up with it anymore.

This is not about the toughness of Jonathan Martin. It’s barely about football anymore. This is now about what the point is in being on this big, dumb moving sphere, which Jonathan Martin questioned in emails to his parents.

I just don't really see the point in things. It's a major accomplishment for me if I brush my teeth or eat more than 1 meal in a day on off days."

Nobody can know the point of it all, but one of the goals is to make everyone else's days mildly more livable, and not the opposite. That is one of the larger tenants of this whole thing. It’s what makes it so all of the green stuff isn’t one big fire right now.

Martin was around people who believed the point of waking up every day was to play a game better than everybody else, and to tear down everybody around them -- including their supposed friends and allies -- in order to get there.

We may not know the point of this whole thing, but a potential divine creator did not put us on this Earth to protect the quarterback.

Still, Martin was made to feel stupid or weak or wrong for thinking the less destructive thought — or thinking at all. And when he left the team to deal with it, every single person with whom he’d spent the last 16 months of his life took the side of a man who said he would “bang the shit out of (Martin’s sister) and spit on her and treat her like shit.”

Again, that is just the start of it.

It is possible that Richie Incognito needed to be an asshole to get where he was. It is possible he needed to bully everyone around him for years to become a left guard in the NFL. (He had been suspended and kicked off of teams for it in the past, anyway.) It is possible that he needed to perpetually berate those around him to excuse his left guard size, to motivate himself, and to handcuff others to him with his abuse and call it community. We all need community.

It is even possible to have team full of asshole professional athletes. We just learned that with the Miami Dolphins.

But that team finished 8-8. That team was not very good — not as a football team, and especially not as men.

Hariri vows to keep Sunnis out of conflict

BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri delivered an impassioned plea Friday for moderation, lashing out against extremism and Hezbollah, vowing never to drag Lebanon’s Sunni community into a sectarian war.

He also urged Speaker Nabih Berri and top Shiite religious leaders to use their influence with Hezbollah to convince the group to end its military intervention in Syria. Hariri blamed Hezbollah for “sabotaging inter-Muslim ties” between Sunnis and Shiites by refusing to withdraw from the war in Syria.

“We assume that people’s suffering – the scenes of booby-trapped cars, suicide attacks that claimed innocent lives, the hundreds of coffins carrying those killed in the battles, the panic and anxiety haunting citizens, the sectarian tensions ... are enough to reconsider decisions that brought only death and destruction to Lebanon,” he said.

Speaking via video link during an event to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the assassination of his father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Saad Hariri issued a renewed demand for Hezbollah’s withdrawal from Syria to combat sectarianism that has taken hold in Lebanon.

“I address the wise men of the Shiite sect, the Higher Shiite Council, the sons of Imam Musa Sadr, Sheikh Mohammad Mahdi Shamseddine, Sayyed Mohammad Fadlallah, and Muslim scholars who claim righteousness,” Hariri said. “In particular, I address Speaker Nabih Berri, in his capacity as a pillar of the Shiite sect in Lebanon, and as a leader who has always found ways to come up with solutions and bridge gaps.”

Hariri, who held talks with Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh Friday, said that Hezbollah’s participation in the Syrian war posed a threat to Lebanon’s security and “national partnership,” as well as driving a wedge between Sunnis and Shiites in the country.

The party’s role alongside regime forces has created an unprecedented wave of suicide bombers infiltrating Lebanese neighborhoods where the party enjoys broad support, he said.

“But the most dangerous of all is the growing sectarian aspect of the Lebanese involvement in this war, which is also affecting the Army and security forces,” he said.

“Fighting terrorism requires an immediate decision by Hezbollah to withdraw from Syria, abandon the illusion of its pre-emptive war and recognize that the Lebanese state is responsible for the safety of its borders and citizens,” he said.

He added that combating the rise of terrorism in Lebanon also required national unity to restore commitment to the Baabda declaration, an agreement signed in 2012 by rival groups, including Hezbollah, to adopt a position of neutrality toward the war in Syria.

Hariri has repeatedly urged Hezbollah to withdraw from Syria and has blamed the resistance group for the series of terrorist attacks that has targeted predominantly-Shiite areas controlled by the party.

“We will not stop betting on the voice of logic and the brave national stance that breaks the wall of political stubbornness,” he said.

Hariri, who has been outside the country for almost three years, also rejected attempts to drag Lebanon and the Sunni sect into a war between Hezbollah and extremist Sunni groups.

“As the Future Movement, we will confront provocations and suspicious calls to involve Lebanon, and the Sunni sect in particular, in insane wars that will only drag Lebanon into a sectarian inferno,” Hariri said.

“Just as we refuse to fashion ourselves in the image of Hezbollah, so we refuse to create ourselves in the image of ISIS [The Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria] and the Nusra Front,” he said. “We refuse to drag the Future Movement into a war between Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda.”

Hariri also spoke about the upcoming presidential polls, voicing his party’s opposition to allowing a vacuum at the country’s top post, which, Hariri noted, is the only presidency in the Arab world reserved for a Christian.

“We consider the Lebanese Christian Maronite president a symbol of coexistence between Muslims and Christians,” he said.

Commemorating the start of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon probing the 2005 assassination of his father, Hariri said revenge was never a policy of Rafik Hariri.

“Can you imagine that [the martyrs including Hariri] would seek revenge, or respond to political assassinations with political assassinations, or take up weapons against those carrying weapons and violate the national consensus?” Hariri said.

At the start of the rally, the Future Movement said its MPs had signed a document that will be delivered to the U.N. secretary-general demanding an expansion of the STL’s mandate to include assassinations carried out after 2005.

Hariri said the March 14 coalition should protect national unity and keep Lebanon neutral for the sake of the country despite Hezbollah’s actions in Syria.

He urged his supporters follow his late father’s example. “The Future Movement will either be in the image of Rafik Hariri, or will cease to exist.”

Late-night contacts revive Cabinet formation hopes

BEIRUT: Late-night contacts have revived hopes for forming a new Cabinet, hours after a dispute over the Interior Ministry portfolio between the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition and the Future Movement delayed the birth of the government, political sources said Friday.

The Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition’s rejection of the Future Movement’s nomination of retired Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi for the sovereign Interior Ministry earlier in the day appeared to have thwarted the Cabinet formation efforts.

Contacts between the rival political factions late Friday night focused on naming a more moderate Future candidate for the Interior Ministry, while allotting a different ministerial post to Rifi, the sources said.

A final agreement on a substitute for Rifi in the Interior Ministry could pave the way for an imminent formation of a new Cabinet based on an 8-8-8 lineup, the sources added. Among candidates for the Interior Ministry post are Future MPs Nuhaq Mashnouq and Samir Jisr.

However, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said the Future Movement upheld Rifi’s nomination for the Interior Ministry for now, while leaving the door open for negotiations on another candidate.

“So far, there has been no change in our position on Rifi’s nomination for the Interior Ministry,” Siniora, head of the parliamentary Future bloc, told The Daily Star late Friday.

He said he consulted by phone with Speaker Nabih Berri Friday on the Cabinet crisis, adding that contacts were ongoing to break the 10-month-old deadlock by forming an 8-8-8 government.

Asked if he expected a breakthrough that would lead to the Cabinet formation Saturday, Siniora said: “We will wait and see. I cannot express an opinion now.”

Hours before Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam was supposed to present an all-embracing Cabinet based on an 8-8-8 lineup to President Michel Sleiman Friday morning, the Future Movement proposed the name of Rifi for the Interior Ministry. Berri and Hezbollah rejected Rifi’s nomination.

Earlier in the day, a senior March 8 source said the Cabinet formation bid has returned to square one following the row over naming Rifi for the Interior Ministry.

“The dispute over Rifi’s nomination has led to the breakdown of the Cabinet formation efforts,” the source told The Daily Star.

The source added that Berri’s Amal Movement and Hezbollah were irked by the agreement reached by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun to resolve the rift over the rotation of ministerial portfolios.

“The 8-8-8 Cabinet agreement called for a just and comprehensive rotation of ministerial portfolios,” the source said.

The dispute over the Interior Ministry portfolio prompted Salam to cancel a visit to Baabda Palace Friday during which he was supposed to announce his 8-8-8 Cabinet lineup.

The Future Movement announced its intention to name Rifi for the post during a 2:30 a.m. phone call to Salam, who in turn contacted Berri about the decision.

Palestinians between the right of return and earning a living

BEIRUT: An ambulance races away from the Palestinian refugee camp in south Beirut. A rumor circulates that the man in the ambulance may have suffered an electric shock, a casualty of the dangerous mesh of naked wires that snake their way through the narrow lanes and small homes. “He will die on the road,” said a man by the camp’s entrance, lamenting the lack of a medical center in this one square kilometer of land that today houses around 40,000 Palestinians.

The mud puddles running through the camp stand in stark contrast to the airbrushed photos of Palestinian leaders – President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal and the late Yasser Arafat.

“The official’s son lives abroad and the poor man’s son lives here,” said Ismail Yahia, a local resident.

Yahia, who asked that his name be changed to avoid reprimands from the local Palestinian leadership, took part in a demonstration last week at Burj al-Barajneh demanding the right to mass immigration for Palestinian refugees.

That demand has stirred to life a fundamental debate within the community here that touches upon the essence of Palestinian nationalism.

Those who oppose the mass migration of Palestinians from Lebanon see in such a movement a betrayal of the “right of return,” an existential goal for many in the Palestinian resistance movement and its supporters who demand that refugees that fled their homes during the 1948 war with Israel be allowed to return home.

Israel rejects this proposition, saying it would threaten the state’s Jewish character.

Palestinians who oppose the right of mass immigration see it as a ploy to induce refugees to leave their homes in Arab states for the West or take up new nationalities, where the right of return will be buried as the diaspora disperses abroad.

But those who want to leave bristle at the suggestion, saying they would never forget Palestine, but they are fed up with the lack of civil rights, jobs and good living conditions in Lebanon.

“I would not abandon Palestine but they should not abandon us,” Yahia said, in reference to Palestinian officials.

Yahia is 50 – he was born and raised in Lebanon, working in carpentry since he was 10, and has six children that he can no longer afford to raise because he was laid off. His eldest son, a 24-year-old graduate in management, is unemployed.

He said he did not want to go to Europe, because they abandoned the Palestinian cause.

“I would not sell Palestine.”

Palestinians in Lebanon face great hurdles in finding professional work because of restrictions on joining syndicates and they are not allowed to own land outside the camps.

But these are long-standing grievances. The impetus for the latest protest appeared to be a growing insecurity over what many say is “incitement” against the camps.

The largest refugee camp near Sidon, Ain al-Hilweh, has often been labeled a haven for extremists, though no camp residents have been implicated in recent bombings targeting the southern suburbs or the northern town of Hermel.

Residents of Burj al-Barajneh now speak ominously of the possibility of a repeat of the so-called “War of the Camps,” when Palestinian refugees were besieged by fighters from the Amal Movement near the end of the Lebanese Civil War.

“What is important is that we leave,” said Salim, another resident who refused to give his last name. “They don’t like us. It is more dignified to just leave.”

Salim lives on a salary from Fatah, the Palestinian movement, of $200 a month to feed his eight children. He used to be a tile layer, but building contractors now refuse to hire him because of his nationality, he said.

“I never go home with a salary for my wife,” he said.

Dib al-Atout, a local official in charge of political affairs in the camp, said most of the participants in the recent demonstration were young men. Though from a political viewpoint he recognized the reasoning behind restricting immigration to preserve the right of return, he said he also saw that many of these young men had no choice but to look after their livelihood.

“We have graduates with no jobs, top students, engineers,” he said, adding that many were still not allowed to work because of their nationality.

While mass migration is a “very dangerous thing,” Atout said, youth who have job opportunities will not think of migrating.

But he also acknowledged there was a campaign to put pressure on the camps, despite what he said was an absence of terrorists and extremists in their midst. The camps, he said, are more moderate than the rest of Lebanon.

In a sign of the mistrust that the demand for open migration elicits, Ali Barakeh, the Hamas politburo official in Lebanon, said the demonstrations were instigated by Palestinians who wished to make concessions on the right of return.

“Regardless of the pressures on us in Lebanon, we cannot abandon the right of return,” he told The Daily Star. “We must hold on to the right of return and reject nationalization and emigration.”

Barakeh said such pressures were part of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s proposals, which he says seek to circumvent the right of return by encouraging Palestinians to take up new nationalities or migrate abroad.

Kamel al-Saleh, an engineering graduate from Arab University who has been unemployed for the last two years, embodies the debate that pits national causes against livelihoods.

“I work as a painter every now and then. We have to feed ourselves.”

Saleh said that unemployment was a challenge due to the enormous pressures on Lebanon created by the Syrian refugee crisis.

“We cannot blame discrimination as the main cause and hide behind it,” he said.

He is against opening the door for mass migration, but rather wants it to be easier for individual Palestinians to travel and seek out job opportunities in places like the Gulf.

He said the right of return must be preserved, but acknowledged that successful Palestinians who find jobs abroad could become more eloquent spokespeople for the Palestinian cause.

“Palestinian refugees, and particularly youth, have a lot of challenges,” he said. “You look up, but there’s a ceiling that you cannot get through.”

Christian land issue raises decades-old anxieties

AL-QAA/BEIRUT: Samir Awad laid out the documents one by one; some ordained ownership of three morsels of land in Wadi al-Khanazir, another representing nine in Bayoun and another three in Nahmet al-Fouah.

Altogether the mukhtar has 40 units in the vast agricultural tract of Masharih al-Qaa, but only five are accessible to him. The rest, Awad says, were appropriated illegally right under his nose.

He lost his lands gradually beginning in his boyhood years before the Civil War. Now Awad is a middle-aged man and can’t quite recall which plots in Masharih al-Qaa are his, but is nonetheless adamant that he is their rightful owner.

Part of the problem is that the 180 million square meters of land – divided into 1,440 real estate units – in the majority Christian border town of Al-Qaa is communally owned. Awad is a shareholder among many. Some have taken advantage of legal loopholes and sold their plots of land, disfranchising others in the process.

The mukhtar says his lands in Masharih al-Qaa were arrogated by illegally constructed residential buildings or sold without his consent. The area is inhabited by residents from the neighboring Sunni majority town of Arsal and the mostly Shiite Hermel, a demographic feature that has also given rise to decades-old Christian anxieties that, in many ways, is epitomized by the land issue.

“The land was never distributed,” Awad says.

“Everyone knows what he owns on paper, but in reality it’s messy.”

In reality, the land issue in Al-Qaa is one of corruption and poor governmental regulation, but the fact that it happens to affect a majority Christian town has transmuted it into a political one, in which an increasingly marginalized sect interprets land loss as an existential threat.

The issue is not singular to the border town, as Christian municipalities in Zghorta, Jezzine and Jbeil have also rallied against what they perceive to be the seizure of their lands by their Muslim neighbors.

Bashir Matar, a municipal council member in Al-Qaa and land activist, describes the Muslim presence in the agricultural areas of the town as an “occupation” and “rape,” an indication that the Syrian occupation of the town, which began in 1978 when its army massacred more than 30 young men and ended in April 2005, still colors how locals perceive their Muslim neighbors in Masharih al-Qaa.

On Sept. 25, according to Matar, the Interior Ministry bequeathed municipalities with the right to manage construction permits in their own communities, presumably to focus on anti-terrorism measures in and around the area. At that point, Internal Security Forces personnel were tasked with managing such permits. The decision was revoked about a month and half later, but Matar says “the damage had been done.”

Matar says about 150 new residential complexes were built in Masharih al-Qaa during the brief window of time as the ministry decision greatly facilitated the construction process. In total, he estimates there are 1,200 illegal constructions in the area.

“It’s not that I think it’s wrong that some people are selling, it’s that they are selling land that belongs to others as well,” he says, explaining why he believes the constructions, which stand on lands that were sold willingly by their owners, are illegal. “They don’t have this right.”

“People are silent about this issue because they are getting paid,” he alleges, pointing a finger at March 8 supporters who sit on the municipal council, among them Mayor Milad Rizk, whom Matar accuses of profiting “indirectly.”

“Since he [Rizk] took charge things have gone downhill, largely because people are unaware of their [land] rights, and he [Rizk] isn’t doing anything about it,” Matar says. The municipal council is divided with seven members against and seven for Rizk’s resignation.

“Rizk always uses the excuse that he doesn’t want to start a sectarian problem for not taking charge and fighting illegal construction,” he adds.

But other residents in Al-Qaa question lobbyists like Matar and his assertion that the constructions in Masharih al-Qaa are in fact illegal.

A well-informed source who has family in the town told The Daily Star that most Christians who sold their lands did so years ago, but have only recently charged that the transaction was illegal.

“The prices [of those lands] have changed, so now they want those lands back,” said the source, who requested anonymity.

“The Army has erected checkpoints in Masharih al-Qaa to stop these people from constructing on lands that don’t belong to them,” the source said.

An Army Intelligence officer stationed close to the checkpoint told The Daily Star that “the municipality is selling land, but the people have also sold their own land.”

From the outset, Masharih al-Qaa appears surprisingly vacant for an area where there are supposedly thousands of new constructions. The skeletal frames of a handful of new houses dot the main road, just before the last checkpoint toward the Syrian border, nowhere near the number that Matar claims have been erected in the past few years.

While the sincerity of the legal concerns surrounding the land issue in Al-Qaa is moot, the selling of Christian lands in general is a source of disquiet.

According to Talal al-Doueihy, head of the “Lebanese Land – Our Land Movement,” Christians once owned 8,130 kilometers of land in Lebanon after independence. “Today, Christians own approximately 4,000 kilometers of land, including surveyed land,” Doueihy said. “They lost 50 percent of their lands.”

Due to successive wars, many Christians emigrated, compelling them to sell their lands, he said.

Another problem Christian land owners suffer from is the revocation of their right to pre-emption, a contractual right under which a party has a primary opportunity to buy an asset or piece of land before it is offered to a third party, in this case a non-Christian.

Former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, however, terminated the right after he took office in 1997, Doueihy claimed.

“They [Hariri’s administration] wanted to let Arabs from the Gulf invest in the country,” he said.

“Almost 100 percent of land buying is done by Muslims from Christians,” Doueihy added. “This has created a sort of panic for Christians.”

From the regulation side, there are four draft laws that have been submitted to Parliament’s committees for review that relate to the issue of land.

The first was submitted by Butrous Harb, which calls for ceasing the selling Christian-owned property altogether. It’s less controversial equivalent was proposed by MP Joseph Maalouf, which calls for ceasing the sale of lands over 3,000 meters and outlawing intermediaries from purchasing land.

MPs Sami Gemayel and Ibrahim Kanaan have also submitted laws regulating the rights of foreigners to purchase lands.

“The law I submitted is directed against the selling of lands and is not oriented toward a specific religion; rather it is meant to create some hurdles to impede the crooked practices that exist today,” Maalouf says.

According to the MP, legal loopholes, such as the ability of a third party to purchase land meant for someone else “who might have malicious intentions,” and a lack of registration and other hidden fees facilitate dubious land transactions. In addition, Maalouf believes the selling of land should require a majority municipal vote.

In cases like Al-Qaa, where municipal division have actually exacerbated land issues, the MP recommends involving the local governorate to temper disagreements.

Maalouf says illegal construction is a ubiquitous problem but that “Christians are losing the most.”

For author Pierre Atallah the Christian land issue symbolizes the extent of the sect’s anxieties in the country, a condition that has been mounting since the signing of the Taif Accord that ended the Civil War.

“The Taif ended the war, yes,” he says. “But at the end of the day Christians lost the role the once played as a real partner in Lebanese affairs, the role of the president for instance has diminished. And in one way or another has influenced the feelings of the Christian community and pushed about 20 percent of them to sell their lands.”

“These Christians gave up on the idea of Lebanon,” he said.

Reflecting on the pluralistic principles upon which the country was founded, Atallah says: “It’s not just land, it’s the idea of Lebanon that is at stake.”

Refugees rush into Arsal, more expected

BEIRUT: The U.N. and its partner organizations are bracing themselves for what could be another massive influx of refugees into the northeastern border town of Arsal, as fighting escalates in the nearby Syrian town of Yabroud, prompting hundreds of civilians to flee.

Since Feb. 10 there has been an influx of 600 Syrian refugee families, as well as unaccompanied children, to Arsal from Yabroud, said Lisa Abou Khaled, UNHCR’s information officer in the Bekaa Valley.

“However, today I heard about 100 [individuals] that arrived in the afternoon,” Abou Khaled told The Daily Star by phone. “And there are many families beyond the checkpoint who have lined up to enter.”

Abou Khaled said the number of newly arrived refugees was relatively moderate, but the agency was bracing for more as the battles in neighboring Syria intensify.

“It’s no secret that the situation seems to be deteriorating beyond the border, but we’ve always had a contingency plan in place,” she said.

To speed up the registration process, UNHCR recently implemented a barcode system, whereby the identification documents of incoming Syrians are scanned instead of manually recorded.

Finding shelter options for refugees remains the chief challenge for humanitarian organizations.

Abou Khaled said many recent arrivals were staying with families that had previously settled in Arsal, while others have found temporary options in tented settlements.

“In October we had eight informal tent settlements in Arsal, now we have more than 30,” she said. Arsal saw a major influx of refugees after the Qalamoun battles began in November, severely straining the town’s infrastructure. There are 38,000 Syrian refugees in the border town, according to UNHCR.

“We don’t have enough land in Arsal, in the area within the last Army checkpoint, to erect more tents so we have to erect these tents outside the area of the checkpoint,” Arsal’s Deputy Mayor Ahmad Fliti said. International organizations are not permitted to cross the checkpoint located a few kilometers before the Syrian frontier for security reasons.

“We have information that another 140 families are stranded between [the Syrian town of Flita] and Yabroud, on their way to Arsal.”

Haret Hreik uses flower power to generate love

BEIRUT: “Do you really love her?” asks a Lebanese advert carried on TV and Twitter in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day. If so, it challenges, head to Beirut’s troubled southern suburbs and show your feelings by buying her a flower from Haret Hreik. After two suicide car bomb attacks just weeks apart in January, the usually busy residential neighborhood of Haret Hreik has suddenly become synonymous with violence, death and danger. Checkpoints erected in the area add to a sense of heightened security, and make traveling to the neighborhood a lengthy and difficult process.

But at Flower Town, the small Sfeir flower shop chosen to be the face of the campaign, business is booming.

Trampling over a layer of discarded foliage, by early evening Friday a crowd of men and women are still jostling to place orders for their various Valentines.

“We’ve had to restock three times today,” says Majida Fawwaz, one of three sisters who run the shop in the Haret Hreik municipality. “Our sales are up by around 30 percent this year because of that advert.”

She grabs a sheet of red tissue paper and deftly wraps up a handful of scarlet tulips, lilies and branches of blood red berries. She adds the finishing touch – a green sticker with the shop’s name and the slogan, “I would die for you” – before handing the bundle to a woman in a bright green hijab.

“And thank God,” she adds, as she begins on the next order, “because all the businesses around here have been paralyzed by the explosions.”

Done in cooperation with a PR firm called Impact BBDO, the idea for the advertising campaign is to encourage people to overcome their fear of going to Beirut’s southern suburbs and return once again to the shops, restaurants and other businesses that desperately need their customers.

“People have come from Batroun, Koura, all parts of Beirut,” Sara Fawwaz says as she pins a red teddy bear to the outside of a bouquet of roses. “We’ve had lots of people come on top of our regular customers, and all of them mention the advert.”

Clutching an enormous bunch of lilies, carnations, anthuriums and irises with a shiny heart-shaped balloon poking out of the top, Zahra from Tariq al-Jadideh explains that she came to get a present for her husband after she saw the advert on TV.

“I’m ready to sacrifice for my beloved,” she says with a smile, echoing the motto that has appeared in the broadcast campaign.

Unlike most of the customers who leave the shop with giant, lurid bouquets, Elie Kettaneh is only buying three flowers: a rose each for his girlfriend of 40 years, his mother’s grave and his disabled sister.

“I’m ready to die for my beloved,” he agrees.

When asked whether the attacks in Beirut’s southern suburbs have made him afraid of going to the area, he just laughs. “Why would I be?”