Blogs from Lebanon, Middle East - page 7

Beirut is everything I thought it would be – a city of ramshackle, industrial-looking structures – and nothing I thought it would be – an über-cosmopolitan metropolis of chic stores and trendy cafes bedecked in Christmas decorations. Churches outnumber mosques three-to-one, which is the same ratio that M-16 toting soldiers outnumber civilians, at least as far as I’ve seen. But, then, I haven’t seen anyone. Beirut is eerily empty. There are no crowds and hardly any traffic. There doesn’t even appear to be places for people to occupy, to eat, to drink, to hang-out. There’s no historical center, no real downtown, no parks or small, cheap eateries. It took me the entire day to find falafel! Where are the street vendors? Where are the street musicians? Where, indeed, are the people?... read more

It was with a heavy, yet beautifully unburdened heart that I boarded a plane that would carry me away from Istanbul – a place that was beginning to feel like home. I knew the side streets and shortcuts, where to find the best tahinli and cheapest tea. I’d built a small community of friends and established a routine of sorts. But rested and empty, it was time to see something new. The destination was Beirut and the company was unexpected. A spunky young Canadian teaching English in Istanbul, Ada, and I had found the same cheap flight to Beirut and the same person to host us there. The only thing of note on our short flight to Beirut was the screening of the pre-fight safety video. I normally block out the seatbelt fastening instructions, but Pegasus ... read more

Geçen Bayram Lübnana gittik... read more

The last thing Lebanon needs is 400 000 Palestinians refugees. For as long anyone can remember the country has been at war with itself or its neighbours. Sometimes both at the same time. Now the country is at peace but the cost of conflict has been high. The country is broke and deeply in debt. The currency has been devalued a thousandfold. The infrastructure is slowly returning but even in Beirut the supply of water is interrupted and electricity is turned off for six hours every day. Construction is everywhere. But so are piles of rubble. Buildings with spectacular views stand next to ones that look like a bomb destroyed it. Because that is what happened. Beirut has fallen a long way since being the "Paris of the Middle East". There is hope that Lebanon will ... read more

Lebanon, one of the smallest Middle Eastern countries – smaller than the state of Connecticut – is one of those crazy creations that emerged out of the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire post-WWI, a result of the wranglings of the British and French over the territory between Anatolia in the north and the Arabian Peninsula to the south. One look at a map will show just what an odd jigsaw puzzle this region is. That weird wedge wedged into Jordan? That is often termed “Winston’s Hiccup” due to the most likely apocryphal story that the map was drawn on a dinner napkin by Winston Churchill – who then felt his dinner a bit too well. Lebanon, at least from a geographical perspective, also seems an odd gouge out of the coast, a bite into Syria. Why ... read more