Michael J. Totten: Arrival

September 30, 2005

Arrival

Lebanon makes the same mistake almost every country and major city in the entire world makes: the international airport is in the worst possible place. It isn’t only in the worst part of Beirut. It’s arguably in the worst part of the country.

This is a nation of apartment towers. Even villages up in the mountains are small clusters of towers. A lot of them – and I mean a lot of them – were built in the seventies. They’re basically slabs of concrete embedded with cavernous skull-socket-like balconies. Those in the south of Beirut around the airport – the first neighborhoods you will ever see in this country unless you cross a land border from Syria - somehow manage to be the ugliest. The curtains are dirtier. Laundry is strung more haphazardly on the balcony ropes. The storefronts at street level are dingy. These neighborhoods are not where you want to spend your next holiday. Throw a rock to the east and you’ll hit Hezbollahland.

Keep going north a few minutes, though, and all of a sudden, bam. You’re in the Emerald City. Well-lit towers reflect other well-lit towers on their shiny glass sides. Beautifully sculpted steeples and minarets ascend toward the stars. Reconstructed low-rise Ottoman and French-mandate architecture in the downtown core is so perfect it looks like a stage set. Or, perhaps, a Middle Eastern Disneyland. It almost looks fake. But it isn’t. It looks fake because it’s brand new. Some of it is still under construction.

(Here are some pictures I took at 6:30 this morning while most people slept.)

Solideire 2.jpg

Solideire Building.jpg

Downtown Beirut was destroyed during the war. For years it was a shattered post-apocalyptic ghost town overgrown with weeds and infested with rats. It was perhaps darkly appropriate that this area suffered the most. It was the one urban mixmaster place where all the Lebanese met in their lush variety: Sunni, Maronite, Palestinian, Orthodox, Shia, and Druze. Lebanon exploded when the center couldn’t hold. And the center became a black hole.

The center is mostly rebuilt now, and it looks more or less like it did back in its heyday. The brand new buildings are the same as the old buildings, minus the wear and the aging. Fifty years from now downtown will look like it did fifty years ago. Many of the buildings in the neighborhoods adjacent to downtown – Ras Beirut, Hamra, Gemayzeh, and Achrafieh – look a hundred years old because they are.

From downtown near the waterfront you can see halfway up the coast to the Syrian border, even at night. That’s because the shore of the Mediterranean is almost entirely urban. On the map it looks like there are empty spaces between coastal cities and towns. There aren’t. Mountain-shaped clusters of lights glisten like stars to the horizon. Beirut is only one piece of the coastal megalopolis. My American friend who foolishly asked if Lebanon has electricity would be embarrassed if he could see what I’m seeing right now.

Posted by Michael J. Totten at September 30, 2005 12:37 AM

Comments

"Or, perhaps, a Middle Eastern Disneyland. It almost looks fake. But it isn’t. It looks fake because it’s brand new.'
Michael it may not look fake but in reality it is a false image of Lebanon. The real lebanon is what you seen on the way in from the Airport , the buildings look ols and dirty because poverty cuases buildings to be badly maintained. Downtown is very like going to a amusment park it is great fun while you there but eventually you have to leave. To coin a phrase it is all "Fur coat and no knickers" The good thing is that while some of the other parts look bad the people are great and are the best part of Beirut. Hope yopu get to sample some of the Nightlife which is second to none.

Posted by: MacDara at September 30, 2005 01:33 AM

Macdara,

It is sort of amusement-parkish (hence my Disneyland comment). But, then, so is the center of Paris.

I don't think the rest of Lebanon looks bad. Only some parts do. Jounieh, Mount Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, the rural South are all very nice places I think.

Posted by: Michael J. Totten at September 30, 2005 02:20 AM

I have to agree there are some lovely places especially the mountains and Down south and the Beeka, although it does seem as if the entire coast is ruined. Anyway dont get me wrong I love going down Town there are some great restaurants, Also the nightlife in Monot and now Germayze is hard to beat anywhere.

Posted by: MacDara at September 30, 2005 04:29 AM

Michael, those of us who have come to know you well, await all your Lebanon posts with bated breath. God speed amigo. This first one is a winner, as I fully expect all of your posts to be.

Posted by: GM Roper at September 30, 2005 04:57 AM

The airport had a worse location that was even closer to the city. There were pre-war plans to move it south near Nabatiyeh, but they were killed by those who didn't want to travel through Muslim areas to get to the airport (it would have led to some development in the south- anathema in pre-war in Lebanon, which was and probably still is an extended city state run from Beirut) and they ended up building it in Khalde instead. Most of the buildings (aka monstrosities) you mentioned cropped up in the 70s shortly before and during the war and are illegal. They're mostly poor Shia who were either refugees or who left their under-developed villages to seek employment in the city (the famous poverty belt).

They tore down some that were dangerously close to the runways, but many remain and Hizbullah and speaker Berri have stonewalled a development project (Elissar) that would have removed some of those buildings and transformed the area into something habitable and safe.

Welcome to Lebanon!!

Posted by: Kais at September 30, 2005 05:09 AM

Thanks for the 6am photos. They are lovely. It's a special light, though I don't manage to get up to use it very often. Thanks for the reminder. Even fetid swamps stink less at sunrise.

Posted by: Against the Wind at September 30, 2005 05:44 AM

Great fotos, fine info.

A bit wrong on airports -- usually undesirable real estate is chosen BECAUSE it is undesirable, and therefore cheap. Airports need lots of land.

Since airports are noisy, it's usually undesirable to live nearby -- nearby stays cheap, under developed, undesirable. Available, like McDonald's jobs, to those without better options.

Enjoy; write; post!

Posted by: Tom Grey - Liberty Dad at September 30, 2005 07:08 AM

MJT,

Thanks for the pics and the post - glad you arrived safely.

Looking forward to the next 6 months. Keep up the great work!

Cheers.

Posted by: SoCalJustice at September 30, 2005 07:10 AM

Michael:

Best of luck. You are on a great journey, and I can't help but feel a little jealous.

I went to Prague in early '92 for three months to work on a film and see the lay of the land post-Berlin Wall. I ended up staying for 5 years, got married and had a baby.

I realize that you are already past the "married" part, but you're in for a treat, nonetheless. I'll actually be surprised if you return on-schedule.

So much seems to be hanging in the balance in the ME, right now. It's good to know that a trustworthy observer like yourself will be posting from the region.

Posted by: SWLiP at September 30, 2005 07:20 AM

Michael --

Thanks for the great posts. If possible, it would be great if you could visit some of the Christian monasteries in the north -- the Maronite monks live there -- and report back. If you desire I can ask my priest for the monastery name(s). It would be interesting to review the status of this faith with all that has gone on in that country over the several decades. God be with you,

Michael of Portland

Posted by: Michael at September 30, 2005 07:34 AM

Ditto what GMRoper said!!

Posted by: Maggie at September 30, 2005 07:55 AM

Michael, I'm curious to hear what the Lebanese people think about American involvement in Iraq... do they feel it was necessary? Do they fear it could happen to them under the right circumstances?

Is there any of the same feeling of anti-war protest there?

I just wonder what the opinions are from those who live in the area, but are not directly involved. Is it common for Lebanese and Iraqis family groups to be related? Are there expat Iraqis living in Lebanon?

Posted by: Barry at September 30, 2005 08:05 AM

heyy welcome to lebanon.
(kod)

Posted by: Wissam at September 30, 2005 08:31 AM

Michael,

When I was in Beirut in 1972, airplanes flew so close to the city as they landed that conversation had to be halted until the noise passed. Have they found a solution that?

Jim Bass

Posted by: Jim Bass at September 30, 2005 08:51 AM

Welcome to Lebanon!
You'll like it here, trust me.

Posted by: Hassan at September 30, 2005 09:14 AM

and now in portland it's pouring down rain.

Posted by: Todd Grimson at September 30, 2005 10:22 AM

Great stuff, Michael. I'm looking forward to more posts. You've awakened the travel bug in all of us.

(BTW saw the film version of Serenity last night and really liked it. I got the DVD last summer based on your post.)

Posted by: Patricia at September 30, 2005 11:54 AM

Airports are often where they are because the ground has to be flat. It's also easier to develop and build if few building are there already, and certainly easier if those buldings are not expensive real estate. Upscale houses with views aren't usually near airports.

Posted by: CJ at September 30, 2005 02:50 PM

Part of the Beirut airport is on reclaimed land. The runways extend into the ocean.

There are few flat areas in Lebanon, and the ones that do exist are far from Beirut.

Hezbollah and Berri stopped the Elissar Project Kais mentions because they feared Hariri moving into the area. Part of the reason for blocking the reconstruction is the fear that other sects are trying to build racist impediments to Shia access to the city. There is some truth to that.

No one with less than $20 in his wallet feels comfortable walking around downtown Beirut, but that area was still under construction when the Elissar Project was proposed. The Shia parties had no idea that few of the residents of the communities in the SOuthern suburbs would be going downtown for financial reasons, that they thought that Hariri was going to try to block them out for sectarian reasons.

And since Sunni Corniche al Mazraa was ablaze with light at night while Christian Ashrafieh and Shia Dahieh sank in the darkness of mid-nineties evenings, one could logical propose that Hariri was enacting changes to benefit Sunnis.

Regardless, Dahieh is still under-developed, but the reason for that is not just because Hezbollah and Amal are stupid. It plays into the whole Lebanese sectarian game.

Posted by: lebanon.profile at September 30, 2005 04:30 PM

I probably won't comment much, but I will be a regular reader. Just want to acknowledge, right-winger that I am, that there's at least one Liberal in the world who has my respect. Best of luck, sir.

Posted by: Bill Faith at September 30, 2005 08:00 PM

Hey, glad to see you made it safely! And I admit I'm extremely jealous! I do hope to have a visit on my next trip over to Jordan and Iraq. I'll be following closely, and maybe I can even trade you a few days visit in Beirut for a few days visit in Kurdistan?
Take care Michael.

Posted by: Kerry at September 30, 2005 08:10 PM

Michael,
Are you going to bump into Joumanna Nasr and the University students in Beirut again?
Are they still set up there or did that fade off after Syria 'withdrew'?

Can you email or post any more pics of her?
You can tell her her future husband didn't come because you told him you didn't need any co-travelers for a week.

Take care.

Mike

Posted by: Mike Nargizian at September 30, 2005 09:47 PM

Again, good for you getting out there amongst it! History is happening big time in the Middle East and I'm looking foward to hear what you have to report. It is quite remarkable that the MSM has gotten so predictable and meme ridden that that your readers trust you even if they have differnt politics like the conservative commenter above. What a compliment and what good news that Pajymas media has been sucessful enough already to make it worth your while. That's a story in itself. God bless and Godspeed.

Posted by: lgude at October 1, 2005 12:12 PM

Nice bookend posts, departure and arrival.

the near hotel architecture in every city
could use some work. i'm in mexico and when
I arrived in ciudad del carmen I thought, oh oh
shanty town.

Posted by: at October 1, 2005 08:59 PM

I ended up at your blog following several others. I'm glad I got here, because I had some unresolved pain with respect to Beirut. My boyfriend from high school's parents were transferred there. He was subsequently killed in a car bombing there. I think following your time in Lebanon will help an overdue need for healing.

Posted by: Windfall Woman at October 2, 2005 06:38 PM

A little late but... welcome!

Posted by: Vox P. at October 2, 2005 08:20 PM

Amazing architecture brought back to life!
I am looking forward to your posts when you've visited the Bekaa valley. You can write about some of the no go zones you espy from afar, or visit on the sly as Louis L'amour visited Siberia while the USSR still existed. :)

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Actually, downtown DOESN'T look exactly as it did before the war. Take a look at old pictures .. you will see normal shops- tailors, cobblers, small grocers, shwarma sellers .. that is gone now, and you see nothing but cafes which most Lebanese cannot afford and high end shops like Tiffany's.

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