32 Years After Civil War, Mundane Moments Trigger Awful Memories
The New York Times
Cards. Candles. Sunsets. For this New York Times correspondent and other children of Beirut in the 1980s, traumatic reminders of the war are still there in everyday activities.
When you’re a child, how do you get through a war?
A lot of Monopoly, Scrabble, card games, candles and windowless bathrooms turned into family bomb shelters, almost like a big sleepover — if you can ignore the hard tiles and loud shelling of some group trying to kill you for reasons you don’t quite understand.
Yes, war is pulverized buildings, the screech of ambulances, blood, funerals. But war can be boring for long stretches, and you pass the time by falling back on the trite and familiar.
Residents of Syria’s capital are picnicking on a once-forbidden mountaintop and trading openly in dollars and imported Nescafe. They say the city seems theirs again.
A government push to modernize taxi services comes up against the habits of drivers known for driving fast and accepting only cash.
Christian converts in Kosovo, where the vast majority of people are Muslim, hope to revive a pre-Islamic past they see as a key to their European identity.
Right-wing YouTubers helped President Yoon Suk Yeol win his election. They are now his allies in the wake of his botched imposition of martial law.
Blocked by bodyguards, officials retreated after several hours without serving a court warrant to hold President Yoon Suk Yeol for questioning on insurrection charges.