Leaving Lebanon, Bereaving Beirut

By Christopher Robbins

The time has come for a few final thoughts. I write this on my last day in Lebanon with one hour before I leave to the airport. I am ready to wave farewell to Beirut.

 My trip showed me the joy and sorrow of the people here. This is a country of kind, happy people struck by cynicism and apprehension. As I leave I can’t help but feel elated to be going back to Kentucky and my wife, but I also look upon Lebanon and wonder if the country will look the same when I return.

Historically, Lebanon is a land in flux. Countless invasions and wars coupled with lurching demographic shifts have made this little jewel stretched between the Mediterranean and the Arab worlds a land of change.

The contemporary reasons for Lebanon’s instability have already been stated on this blog - as money pours into Lebanon from the oil-rich gulf states and the west, massive construction projects are swallowing its green space whole. As Israel and Hezbollah play Russian roulette in the south of Lebanon, the specter of a devastating war constantly looms close.

The Lebanon I bring my wife to in the future is likely to not be the Lebanon I’ve come to love.

I’ve learned quite a few things in my short month here, and have had some prior assumptions confirmed,

The media and the government in the United States cannot be trusted to speak the truth about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I do not know the exact reason for this, but speculation usually sheds light on the power of the Israeli lobby in the United States and the ownership of much of the media by Israel-friendly Jewish people. In the Palestinian camps, the Hezbollah stronghold of Balbeck, and the free-wheeling secular nightlife of Beirut the general consensus is that Israel controls a lot of what the United States does and dictates what the media says.

Most Arabs do not hate the United States or Americans. I think this should be common sense to most people, but I was given all sorts of warnings by family and friend before coming here that were completely unfounded and ridiculous. I was treated like family by most of the people I met in Lebanon. I have never met a warmer and more friendly people – they put ‘southern hospitality’ to shame.

The United States government functions efficiently and competently when compared to Lebanon. Those who argue for making government small and weak have probably never spent a month in a weak state. Despite some ridiculous bureaucracy, the US is efficient and takes good care of most of it’s citizens. Arguing for a weaker government is irrational, private enterprise can never replace the infrastructure and organization that a strong central government enables.

Lebanon is a place that cannot be learned. Since the experience is always changing and the society is fathomlessly complex, there is no one who really knows Lebanon. Even the most well traveled and educated Lebanese person who has spent their whole lives experiencing the country does not know everything about this place. A good example is asking for directions. We’ve found that Lebanese people don’t know the streets and businesses in their own neighborhoods. Sometimes even the taxi drivers get lost.

It is dangerous to make generalizations about Arabs. I’ve met and seen such a diverse cross-section of people - Christian, Druze, Sunni, Shi’ite, and secular – Syrian, Saudi, Lebanese, Palestinian, Turkish, Iranian, Greek, Spanish, German, Austrian – and most of them harbor no hatred for each other. Many Arabs from states that enforce strict standards of modesty and Islamic jurisprudence resent their government meddling in affairs that are personal and religious. Most want what we all want, to live in peace and relative freedom, to raise families and to prosper.

I look back at all of my experiences over the last month and I only wish I had done one thing differently - spend more time traveling by myself without my group. Not that I do not like the people I came here with, Terry, Ralph, Noha, Katie, Ashley and Kelsey are all wonderful and charming people with whom I have had a lot of fun. However it is difficult to meet Lebanese people when traveling with a group of Americans (and one Austrian). I was also more restricted in where I could go and what I could see because it always seemed like a few dissenters prevented me from exploring as I’d wanted to. Next time I come to Beirut it will be on my own terms and I will see a lot more.

I know that change here is inevitable as hammers meet iron and clashes erupt., but I hope that some day I will once again see the sunset over the Corniche. I hope that I will climb the steps at Byblos and marvel at the birthplace of writing. I hope to see the towering columns of the Temple of Jupiter and the arms of the cedars spread wide in a gesture of welcome. I hope to visit the monastery again perched on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. I hope to meet strangers in cafes and bars and leave as friends. I hope to dance all night at BO-18. I hope to have mezze so big that I need to loosen my belt and arak strong enough to make my head swim.

I hope this is all still here.

I hope to come back.

I hope Lebanon will wait for me.