What's Next?

By Christopher Robbins

One of the most disturbing problems with Lebanon is the outlook of the people here. Whenever you ask about the future, the answers are predictable – war, whether from Israel or within, and then a period of rebuilding.

I can’t blame the people here for feeling that way. Since 1920, Lebanon has only had 17 years of peace. Here we are eating like kings and drinking like a fish on the battlefield of the Arab world. That may be why the Lebanese favor big meals and strong drinks, they never know when the tenuous peace will collapse and their country will slide into another conflict.

What you don’t often hear when asking Lebanese about the future is any plans – no plans for infrastructure. No plans for the advancement of civil liberties. No plans for secularization.

Lebanon lives for today.

Lebanese leaders are so busy trying to solve the problems of their confessional system and trying to remain engaged in the politics of the Middle East that very little attention is paid to where Lebanon is going as a country.

Apparently it has been that way here for a long time. The roads are choked with congestion. Adel Nayfeh, our guide, driver and friend, described being stuck on a highway for 4 hours just to travel 27 miles. Beirut’s narrow, crooked streets are bumper-to-bumper madness for allof the day and most of the night.

Lebanon’s density and small size make it ideal for passenger rail. The city of Beirut itself is starved for a functional bus system, light rail or a metro. Either of these systems would take cars off the road and reduce air pollution.

Clearly the Lebanese and the foreigners here are spending money, almost every block has a construction project where a new state-of-the-art building is going up. Even in the mountains and the Beka’a, new residential and commercial developments are going up almost everywhere you look.

No zoning laws control where and how these buildings are erected. Green space is disappearing rapidly and many families occupy structurally unsafe houses and apartments.

Lebanon may be weak, but it is far from a poor country. No disincentive exists against doing things cheaply and poorly.

People here can pay taxes to fund Lebanon’s future - money seems to flow freely here.

But a lot of people don’t bother to pay, and there are few enforcement mechanisms to follow up with Lebanese citizens who owe. No disincentive exists which motivates people to pay.

The water system is deficient – water from the taps is untreated and undrinkable, often salty because of the proximity to the sea. In  small towns well water is generally drinkable, and some mountain villages have fresh mineral water flowing from natural springs through fountains.

In Beirut and along the coast clean water and the disposal of wastewater are problems. Wastewater is often dumped directly into the ocean. There are few laws governing the safe disposal of waste products, and the ones that exist are poorly enforced.

There are police here but it is not clear what their function is beyond clearing a lane in the road for government officials and visiting dignitaries to drive down. Occasionally an officer might be seen writing a ticket for double or triple parked cars, but generally the police are nowhere to be found. Security for government officials is provided by the army.

Lebanese drivers even ignore traffic lights.

Beirut will never resemble Dubai or Doha, Qatar as long as the government does not take responsibility for coordination and regulation.

How do you plan for the future with so few and such weak institutions of state?

It is no wonder that Lebanese people are reluctant to talk about their future – war could come at any time as sectarian conflict and oligarchical powers regularly deadlock the government. Yet Lebanon survives.

It doesn’t progress. It just survives.