Paris of the Middle East

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More often than not, I can get the feeling of a place as soon as I arrive. Within minutes, I know that I love it, or that I want to leave on the next available bus. Beirut has not been such a place for me. I’ve been here for over a week and I’m still confused as to whether or not I like it; still confused as to what Lebanon is all about. It’s a country of incongruities with a complex national psyche that short-stay visitors will struggle to wrap their heads around. I’m not wholly convinced that life-long residents fully understand it.

Like most of the Middle East, Lebanon has a long history of occupation that dates back to the dawn of civilization. From the Babylonians to the Ottomans, the Phoenicians to the Persians, almost every major empire has ruled the area that is Lebanon today. Since winning their independence from France in 1943, the country has known only a few short years of peace and prosperity. It became involved early in the Israeli-Palestine drama, entangled in its own bloody civil war in the 70s and occupied by foreign military until as recently as 2005. This turbulent past has attributed to the intangible nature of Lebanese culture, and has set the stage for Beirut to be the international scene it is today.

Worthy of its moniker the “Paris of the Middle East,” Beirut has a distinctly cultured, multinational air. It’s home to Asian nannies and African fruit stockers, Palestinian refugees and Armenian exiles. There are followers of 18 official religious sects, divided – Christians in the east and Muslims in the west – by the infamous Green Line. I stayed in the eastern district of Achrafiye, where you never hear a call to prayer or see a covered head. The city is a veritable stew with its many different ethnic and religious enclaves the vegetables that lend their flavor to the broth, while retaining their own unique identity. Even if I’m growing accustomed to its peculiar flavor, I’m still not sure about all of this stew’s ingredients, and I’m left questioning, who are the Lebanese?

It takes no effort to see that the Lebanese are kind, hospitable, and well educated. They speak Arabic, French and English with equal ease. In fact, I’ve been exceedingly impressed by their highly nuanced English. They know what it means to arrive “in the nick of time,” to “hold your horses,” and to “get with the program.” I can speak like I’m home, without slowing things down or using simplified grammar. The down side is that I’m not motivated to study the new sounds, letters or numbers of Arabic. But with electricity only available in three-hour blocks, studying would be hard to do anyway. Yet, the Lebanese seem adaptable to the situation, to any situation. They also seem to be intentionally amnesiac. With the construction of the shiny new downtown shopping area and high-rise luxury apartments they are fabricating a new image for themselves – one without bloodstains or bullet holes.

Although the tenuous Lebanese culture is hard to get a grasp on, there are many other features that make Lebanon a convenient tourist destination. It’s one of the smallest sovereign states in the world, yet it contains everything a tourist wants. From the beach to snow-capped mountains, with ruins scattered in between, everything can be seen on day-trips from Beirut. The entire country covers only a slightly larger square mileage than the greater Istanbul area. And with only 1/5 of Istanbul’s population it’s easy to understand why it took so long for me to find a crowd my first few days here. This little country is definitely growing on me, and I plan on sticking around to see if I can figure it out a bit more.

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