my deepest sympathies

i am so proud to be from lebanon. i have learned so much about life here and the culture. i admire the people of this country so very much. they deal with things on a daily basis that we dont even think about. i think, as americans, we tend to take a lot for granted. anyway, i want to send my deepest sympathies out to all the families who lost someone in the earthquake in iran. last i heard, 20,000 were found dead and over 60,000 were critically injured. imagine the feelings that you felt after the attack of 911 and multiply those feelings by thousands. i wish the families of those lost the best.

also, a plane on its way from africa to lebanon crashed yesterday. many, many lives were lost and of those lives over a 100 people were lebanese. yesterday, there was a huge procession through lebanon. there was a red cross van for each person that died. they were taking each person to their home village to be buried. it was quite an amazing and sad sight. all the flags in lebanon and the lebanese flags at all the lebanese embassies across the world are at half mast today. again, i send out my most deepest sympathies to those lost and their families.

i firmly believe that the middle east has had to deal with so much tragedy. i admire so much how the people here continue to thrive and rebuild their lives again and again. it is unimaginable to me what they have been through. for those of you who dont do it often, take some time to remember how fortunate we all are. i hope you all have a great new year. lets start the year off right.