Method in the madness

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A Blog from Beirut


‘You should know, there is only one rule in Beirut, there are no rules.’
This slogan was more or less the first thing my taxi driver said to me as he picked me up from Rafik Hariri International airport on my arrival into Lebanon and the Middle East. At the time I thought little of this rather dramatic cliche as the conversation moved to more trivial matters such as why was it that I hadn’t taken my National Service yet and why exactly had I come to Lebanon to study politics! However, during my first week here in Beyrouth I have heard this slogan on several occasions, from University professors to street venders. This made me wonder, why is this expression so common and what exactly does it mean? After all, 40 years ago Beirut was known as the, ‘Paris of the Middle East,’ and I’m fairly sure that it was not given this title because of the shared sense of anarchy!!
It took but one trip into Hamra, the neighbourhood next to the University campus to begin to understand what it all meant. As you leave the tranquil setting of the University you are immediately greeted with the incessant blaring of car horns that drown out all noises including even the call to prayer. The reason for such noise is simple, the highway code is essentially non-existent as mopeds roar up the wrong side of the road and the only priority system in place at junctions seems to be for those who honk the loudest.
At first I was overawed by the magnitude of this culture shock yet after a few days exploring the city I came to understand this slogan I was hearing. The fact of the matter is that, like all systems, it has its disadvantages but on the most part it really works and this makes the region a unique place to visit. As an example to illustrate my point: although you may be frequently stuck in traffic because someone has decided to double park on a duel carriageway (it happens!), you have no traffic wardens to worry about and certainly no pay and display to think about.
For me, this is what the slogan is all about. Although traffic is just one example, you can find many instances in daily life here of how people live without the stranglehold of bureaucracy that has seemed to have engulfed and engorged the west. How refreshing it is to get a coffee from a machine that doesn’t have on the side in huge letters that reads, ‘CAUTION, CONTENTS MAY BE HOT!’

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