Lenin, Walid and Me.
Or as I like to call it "Two socialists meeting a capitalist in Lebanon but they had a bigger gun."
When I met Walid Joumblatt last month in Lebanon he told me that he is worried about feeding his people - because people are beginning to starve.
A self-described socialist, he told me he missed the Cold War. Because at least then you knew who the enemy was.
He gave me a book - one I know and love - A Gentleman in Moscow. I asked him what would happen to the country...he said he hoped that we wouldn't be waiting for a government to form as long as Count Rostov stayed a guest of the Hotel Metropol...
Walid told me he was prepared to deal with anyone in order to protect his people. In the Chouf, the lights were on, the roads were paved and it was clean.
He has said the system in Lebanon is corrupt - himself included - but that is how things are done. No outside influence will change that - and Hezbollah is there to stay.
When I asked him his biggest regret he said "what is regret? destiny is destiny."
