Colour Wars

Francoise has always liked bold colours whether it be on walls, on paintings or on herself. Wherever she goes, she enjoys surprising, standing out, and making people look twice. In a city of grey, of cement, of somberness and of dust, she feels she has a duty to enliven it with a spark of colour. One of her favorite, perhaps due to its unconventionality is orange; bright, cheerful, vivacious orange. A few weeks ago, she found a head-to-toe orange outfit, one that would definitely brighten her grim surroundings and make those she encounter smile. As she walked to the bank, dressed in her sparkling new clothes she received a response she did not expect. Cars honked, people swore, she was being insulted. A few minutes later, after leaving the bank and crossing to another part of the city, she was greeted differently. Cars still honked, people shouted, but this time she was being applauded. Francoise has never left Lebanon, has always dressed boldly. She was well-aware of the political connotation of her preferred colour, but never thought it would brand her as it did a few weeks ago.

As you walk around Beirut, strolling across several neighborhoods, you are assailed by faded flags of all colours, stained murals and torn posters of political personalities each of them a display of allegiance. In some areas a shade dominates, in others they cohabit. In a country, where only a few years ago, the wrong identity could get you killed, the earnestness of Lebanese to display their affiliation is startling. Disturbing too are those homes I've seen with a white cross painted on their doors which offered a disquieting resemblance to the swastikas Nazis used to brand the homes of their victims; except this time, it was the owners of those houses who drew the distinctive Christian sign on their gates.

In Canada, a show of political colours would seem appropriate during an election year. Afterall, for that occasion each streetlight is adorned by a campaign poster of one or the other candidate. In Lebanon, I feel it is provocative, a reckless show of force transforming anyone deliberately holding a flag or inopportunely dressed in a certain colour into an easy target if the situation was to deteriorate.