‘Call me when you land. Angry demonstrations. Airport highway interrupted. Rocks and stunt grenades being thrown at flash point. Road blocks of burning tyres everywhere. Massive military presence in the streets. Contact me urgently.’ Nic, my friend from CNN Beirut, was clearly worried. I had come to ski Lebanon but, alas, the country had got out of hand again, and I was in the middle of it.‘Welcome in Lebanon,’ the driver from my hotel, Le Gray, greeted me, unmoved and with a welcoming smile. ‘Did you have a good flight?’ He steered his limousine swiftly through checkpoints, barricades and angry demonstrators to the hotel downtown. Through the tinted windows of his luxury car, the mayhem on the streets outside was dimmed to the mere flicker of a news programme, and deposed prime minister Hariri’s ‘day of rage’ just another Levantine comic opera…Continue Reading