Just yesterday I was reading this article from November "Beirut is Back...
Today I went down to the University to meet with some math(s) faculty members. I had an appointment at 1PM and my cousin dropped me off at 9:45 AM which gave me three hours to kill. I usually walk around in a big city for a few hours before actually doing anything. So I spent my three hours basically walking around trying to figure out anything about where I was. What I observed about Beirut is that it is a bizarre city.
Status is everything. Without nice clothing and nice cars and nice jewelery you aren't anything. So the first synopsis I can offer is that Beirut is like New York, Paris, and Miami thrown into a blender then distilled down to a pure drug. Throw in with that some snow capped mountains in the immediate background, religious zealots and armed militia men and you're starting to get the picture.
I visited the memorial to Rafic Hariri, Lebanon former prime minister when he was killed in 2005. He was at that time rated as 11th richest man in the world. Everywhere I have been people tell me Hariri built this and he built that (before he died). He built a beautiful mosque just behind martyr's square in downtown beirut and on the back of it is his memorial. With him lie the men with him who were killed when he was. Everyday they change the flowers for his memorial and those of his fallen comrades. He was by many regarded as the champion of the people because he spent his money to build things for the people. More importantly he was against Syrian army "protection" also known as military control of Lebanon. Certainly he was controversial because many people believe that Lebanon needs Syria to protect them from Israel, but I'm not among them. One of my cousins attends a university built by Hariri. In my eyes he was a champion to the people. It is a testament to the strength of Lebanon that on the back of a mosque anyone can come to pay homage to Hariri and I did just that. I'm told that he had 1.5 million visitors at his funeral and the week surrounding it. That's nearly half of the country's population.
After visiting the memorial I had plenty of time to kill so I went searching for 961beer. It's a microbrewery in the land of wine that opened in Beirut's bar district immediately after the war in 2006 (when Israel ransacked the beirut airport because Hezbollah((not a fan)) kidnapped some israeli soldiers and israel kidnapped some Hezbollah in response, then bombed the airport.) I didn't have any idea where I was going and I was going with an out of date map (in french) so I didn't find it, but I'm here another 12 days, so I've got a shot still. Walking around I noticed a lot of things. I saw the old Holiday Inn, once beirut's finest hotel (in 1968) completely riddled with bullet holes and mortar attacks. All around it are fancy shops and new condos and apartment buildings rivaling anything you will see in Europe. Shops are selling French fashions and the newest styles from New York and Paris. My guess is they are exactly one day behind paris because that's how long it takes to ship the clothing here. Beirut of course is right on the Mediterranean sea which means it's also Lebanon's biggest shipping port. Can you say fresh anything from anywhere in the mediterranean? The traffic is busy like New York, and the abundance of restaurants (especially sea side) is astounding. I looked like a bum wearing my button down striped shirt and Sebago's around the campus of AUB.
They say, in Beirut there is everything. If you want it, Beirut has it. Food, parties, clothing, religion, extremism, relaxed smoking lounges, mountains, ocean, politics, beautiful ladies, beautiful men, remnants of war, signs of progress, actual progress, world class hospitals, dingy slums, etc, you name, Beirut has got it. It's a confusing place to me for now. It has nearly nothing in common with India. When I mentioned earlier today that bribery in India is out in the open, he remarked "we have that here too." I said, not quite in the same way. He said, "Yes, here I believe it must be more discrete." He's right, baksheesh, in Lebanon is completely ramppant, to you won't see the actual act happening. You'll see it in a restaurant where you can get daily fresh blue fin tuna from Japan, an endangered species (except in Lebanon, see article linked above). I think I could spend a long time learning how to live in Beirut. One could spend a whole lifetime learning how to do it too.
Status is everything here. Negotiation is life. Lebanese people are entrepreneurial and enterprising. In India things are the way they are and you just have to go with it. In Lebanon you make it how you want it.
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That article is hilarious! I'd held the belief that Beirut was as dangerous as it is beautiful, the kind of place where half of the nightlife excitement comes from the possibility that the club you're dancing in might get bombed. This is admittedly unfair since it seems most explosions are simply the sound of someone ordering Cristal.
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