Those Wonderful Words of The Levant

I think my lifelong interest in the Middle East, Eastern Med and North Africa was sparked by the amazingly bobbly words that spring forth from arabic, turkish, and other regional languages. Looking in the fridge at work today I saw a tub of 'baba ganoush', a name that sparked mild rapture in my geek soul.But far and beyond foodstuffs, the remergence of Walid Jumblat as a force in Lebanese politics has sent me off into paroxysms of joy. Such fun to say, "Walid Jumblat". My dad is responsible for this mindless and inane glee I think as he liked to sing songs along the lines of "Oooooh Walid Jumblat, stick it up your jumper..." etc.

If he had sung about Dr Hastings Banda of Malawi things could have been very different.
 

Walid and his favorite guns