20080614

Clean Beirut





Arofish, a stencil artist living in the UK, has tagged our funky town Beirut. Here is the Sukleen man he drew; he explains how he got inspired for this stencil graffiti. More of his work in Beirut here.
"These Syrian guys who tirelessly clean the streets here are the true heroes of the city if you ask me. I filled in the cracks on this wall and painted it white one fine morning in front of half the Lebanese army and a crowd of protesters. Tony Blair was in town for a spot of hypocritical mumbling and the city became even more of a militarized zone for the day. Martyrs Square and most of central Beirut was off limits.
Another great day for democracy.
I went back home covered in crap, put on the TV and there was Caiomhe Butterly (whom I'd said goodbye to in Aita al-Shaab the day before) inside the conference hall. She was unfurling a banner about Israeli apartheid while security bustled around her and Tony stood behind, guiltily fumbling his fingers and trying to look unruffled. Next day, I did a dawn assault on the wall as I'd been clocked by a few plain clothes guys with radios the day before. Thanks go to May for writing the Arabic and for negotiating so skillfully with the roaming security guards."

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