The chant that the Shi'ite Lebanese have taken up in the past few days in their re-emergence into the streets has some significance. They chant "Shi'a, Shi'a", which thus far has been interpreted as a sectarian chant with the intent of provocation, but I think it goes deeper.

This chant is in fact a suitable microcosm of the general feeling among the Shi'ite population as a whole towards the protest movement, and is a statement of presence, and indeed of defiance.

On the first hand, the Sayyid calling upon his people to leave the streets in order to avoid clashes has had an unfortunate but inevitable byproduct: the Shi'a population generally feel isolated from the movements and alienated from the movement on the streets.