Goodbye Amman, Hello Beirut
If Jordan is the Switzerland of the Middle East, perhaps Beirut is the New York City.
We often talked in Amman about Jordan as the Switzerland of the region. Stable government, always talking to multiple parties, trying to be on neutral ground and contributing to peace talks, little major internal struggle and overall a relatively boring place. (While clearly there are a million holes in this comparison, there were enough similarities for it to be an interesting discussion :)
I have only been in Beirut for a few days but it is so drastically different from Jordan and what I saw of Egypt that I have to compare it to NYC. Everyone is very trendy and fashion-oriented, including a wide range of styles including everything from trendy hijabs to brightly colored mini-skirts. I have walked the streets without a single comment tossed in my direction and the city seems to bustle at all hours of the day. Walking around or turning on the television results in an onslaught of languages with Arabic, French and English all spoken fluently by a large portion of the population...often all at the same time. Any given conversation includes comments or partial sentences in each of the three (I feel so ignorant!). There are shops filled with handmade items, expensive cars, and people from around the world.
There are also trees again. The city is nestled between the Mediterranean and the sharp rise of the mountains, and the view is stunning. Goodbye desert, hello water and mountains!! I am so excited to be back around lush vegetation and cannot wait to make some time for exploring the coast. I have always wanted to live by the water.
All of this being said, there is another major aspect of Beirut. The chaos. There is not a section of the city that was not ravaged by the war and it is starkly evident on every street and in every neighborhood. It is not that there are buildings you should visit or areas preserved to remember the war, it is that every building was a part of it. The buildings are diverse in size, color and design; a welcome contrast to the monochrome monotony of the Amman landscape. Some painted in bright colors with elegant curved white trimming, while shiny new skyscrapers rise up as cranes put the gleaming pieces into place. But these buildings are not just a mix of restored antiquities and modern architectural endeavors. There are other buildings, maybe a third of the structures, which remain untouched since the end of the war. And it is important to say they remain untouched since the war because they were clearly touched by and during the war. Virtually every unrenovated building I have walked by shows scars from the fighting. Mostly in the form of bullet holes. Some buildings display a scattering of small holes while others are riddled with them. Another portion of the structures sport gaping holes left by more severe or targeted attacks. The newly renovated and reconstructed buildings juxtaposed with the untouched buildings presents such a strong contrast that it stopped me in my tracks several times.
This contrast is not an abnormality. It is not the characteristic signature of a particular street or neighborhood. This mixture is the reality of an average block in Beirut.
No matter who you are or what your status you were affected by the war. The fighting may be over but the fallout is still occurring in a very real and fresh way. The war is still on the minds and in the lives of the Lebanese. Not just in the constant reminder offered by their daily surroundings, but also because everyone was touched personally and emotionally by the fighting. Some left the country, including my boss, Eliane Metni, and her husband. They were gone for nine years and her first son was born outside Lebanon. They had stayed for years, avoiding mortars and shells on the way to classes, making weekend plans (and contingency weekend plans) based on the information or rumors they would hear about where and when shellings would take place.
It is all so fresh. The war is still a strong presence every day. And change is in the air. The string of assassinations that have wracked this country are horrific and more widespread than most people have probably heard about, obviously culminating in last year's assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri, which resulted in the long overdue pullout of Syrian troops. But that was neither the end of the struggle or the assassinations. There have been several other assassinations since then, fights internally among members of parliament and protests both for and against the Syrians, Western involvement and Hezbollah. The problems are widespread, complicated and ongoing (just this weekend there were protests because of Assistant Secretary of State David Welsh's visit) and I am just beginning to scratch the surface of the history I need to know to fully understand. But I am looking forward to learning as much as possible and helping a country that is on the brink of what could be truly positive change. It is going to be an interesting year!
**p.s. for those of you who may not know, I have moved to Beirut and will be working in Lebanon until July**
We often talked in Amman about Jordan as the Switzerland of the region. Stable government, always talking to multiple parties, trying to be on neutral ground and contributing to peace talks, little major internal struggle and overall a relatively boring place. (While clearly there are a million holes in this comparison, there were enough similarities for it to be an interesting discussion :)
I have only been in Beirut for a few days but it is so drastically different from Jordan and what I saw of Egypt that I have to compare it to NYC. Everyone is very trendy and fashion-oriented, including a wide range of styles including everything from trendy hijabs to brightly colored mini-skirts. I have walked the streets without a single comment tossed in my direction and the city seems to bustle at all hours of the day. Walking around or turning on the television results in an onslaught of languages with Arabic, French and English all spoken fluently by a large portion of the population...often all at the same time. Any given conversation includes comments or partial sentences in each of the three (I feel so ignorant!). There are shops filled with handmade items, expensive cars, and people from around the world.
There are also trees again. The city is nestled between the Mediterranean and the sharp rise of the mountains, and the view is stunning. Goodbye desert, hello water and mountains!! I am so excited to be back around lush vegetation and cannot wait to make some time for exploring the coast. I have always wanted to live by the water.
All of this being said, there is another major aspect of Beirut. The chaos. There is not a section of the city that was not ravaged by the war and it is starkly evident on every street and in every neighborhood. It is not that there are buildings you should visit or areas preserved to remember the war, it is that every building was a part of it. The buildings are diverse in size, color and design; a welcome contrast to the monochrome monotony of the Amman landscape. Some painted in bright colors with elegant curved white trimming, while shiny new skyscrapers rise up as cranes put the gleaming pieces into place. But these buildings are not just a mix of restored antiquities and modern architectural endeavors. There are other buildings, maybe a third of the structures, which remain untouched since the end of the war. And it is important to say they remain untouched since the war because they were clearly touched by and during the war. Virtually every unrenovated building I have walked by shows scars from the fighting. Mostly in the form of bullet holes. Some buildings display a scattering of small holes while others are riddled with them. Another portion of the structures sport gaping holes left by more severe or targeted attacks. The newly renovated and reconstructed buildings juxtaposed with the untouched buildings presents such a strong contrast that it stopped me in my tracks several times.
This contrast is not an abnormality. It is not the characteristic signature of a particular street or neighborhood. This mixture is the reality of an average block in Beirut.
No matter who you are or what your status you were affected by the war. The fighting may be over but the fallout is still occurring in a very real and fresh way. The war is still on the minds and in the lives of the Lebanese. Not just in the constant reminder offered by their daily surroundings, but also because everyone was touched personally and emotionally by the fighting. Some left the country, including my boss, Eliane Metni, and her husband. They were gone for nine years and her first son was born outside Lebanon. They had stayed for years, avoiding mortars and shells on the way to classes, making weekend plans (and contingency weekend plans) based on the information or rumors they would hear about where and when shellings would take place.
It is all so fresh. The war is still a strong presence every day. And change is in the air. The string of assassinations that have wracked this country are horrific and more widespread than most people have probably heard about, obviously culminating in last year's assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri, which resulted in the long overdue pullout of Syrian troops. But that was neither the end of the struggle or the assassinations. There have been several other assassinations since then, fights internally among members of parliament and protests both for and against the Syrians, Western involvement and Hezbollah. The problems are widespread, complicated and ongoing (just this weekend there were protests because of Assistant Secretary of State David Welsh's visit) and I am just beginning to scratch the surface of the history I need to know to fully understand. But I am looking forward to learning as much as possible and helping a country that is on the brink of what could be truly positive change. It is going to be an interesting year!
**p.s. for those of you who may not know, I have moved to Beirut and will be working in Lebanon until July**
posted by prairie at
12:21 PM
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