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<div class=Section1>
<h1 style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><font size=5 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:18.0pt'>An Ostrich Farm Takes Wing Again In <st1:place w:st="on">South
Lebanon</st1:place></span></font></b><font size=5 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'><o:p></o:p></span></font></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.75pt'><b><font size=3 color="#666666"
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:#666666;font-weight:
bold'>Delicacies and Handbags in Mr. Yassine's Future; Hezbollah Helps Rebuild<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.75pt'><b><font size=1
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-weight:bold'>By BILL
SPINDLE<br>
<span class=atime1><i><font face="Times New Roman">June 12,
2007; Page A1</font></i></span></span><o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=times><st1:City w:st="on"><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>BEIRUT</span></font></st1:City>, <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:country-region> -- Not far from piles of rubble still
being cleared after last year's war with <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>, Mohamad Yassine recently
took an important step in his own effort to rebuild. Middle East Ostrich, his
first retail shop, got ready for its grand opening.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=times><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Passersby
peered curiously through the window at his display of delicacies -- ostrich
sausage, ostrich mortadella, and a basket of big ostrich eggs. Heat-and-eat
ostrich <i><span style='font-style:italic'>cordon bleu</span></i> and ostrich <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Kiev</st1:place></st1:City> were stacked in a
freezer nearby. Souvenir plumes adorned a vase near the doorway.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=times><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Before
the war, Mr. Yassine planned a much larger business expansion than this
storefront. For now, though, it will have to do. "The war was a disaster
for us," said the 52-year-old Mr. Yassine. "We're continuing on. But
we don't know how long we'll make it."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<table class=MsoNormalTable border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 align=left
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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame'><font size=3 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial'><a
href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118056037254019085.html"><font
color="#0253b7" face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:#0253B7;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=257 height=186
id="_x0000_i1027" src="cid:image001.jpg@01C7ACE5.EF1AAEA0"
alt="[battered buildings - promo]"></span></font></a><sup>1</sup><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'>
<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='text-align:right;mso-element:frame'><font
size=1 color="#999999" face=Arial><span style='font-size:7.0pt;font-family:
Arial;color:#999999'>Bill Spindle <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style='padding:.75pt 0in 0in 0in'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame'><font size=1 color="#990000"
face=Arial><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:#990000'>Some
of the worst bombing damage during last summer's fighting occurred in <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Beirut</st1:place></st1:City>'s southern
suburbs, where support for Hezbollah runs strongest.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p class=times><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>That's
a sentiment shared by many Lebanese. Their hopes for prosperity, so real last
year, were pummeled by 34 days of fighting between the militant group Hezbollah
and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s
military in July and August. The aftermath of the war has brought political
gridlock, rising sectarian tensions and, recently, street battles between armed
groups and the military.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=times><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Last
year's war left deep scars on both sides. In <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>, nearly 4,000 Hezbollah
rockets landed, killing 43 civilians and damaging thousands of homes. Another
115 soldiers died in the fighting. Many Israelis were left feeling more
vulnerable than ever in a hostile region.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=times><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><REPRINTSDISCLAIMER>Lebanon</span></font></st1:place></st1:country-region>
took the brunt of the physical damage. The southern suburbs of <st1:City w:st="on">Beirut</st1:City>
and the rural south, where Hezbollah fired off most of its rockets and <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s air
force dropped most of its ordnance, were devastated. More than 1,000 Lebanese
died, mostly civilians, and hundreds of thousands were out of their homes for
months, according to the International Red Cross.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=times><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
Lebanese have spent much of the past year rebuilding, drawing on funds from
Hezbollah, the Lebanese government and donations from countries ranging from
the <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> to <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Qatar</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The
rebuilding has gone slowly, hampered by political paralysis in the country's
government and a sharp downturn in the economy. Though Mr. Yassine's business
is unusual -- it's the only ostrich farm in the country -- his tale of
destruction and rebuilding isn't.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=times><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>For
a decade, he had poured everything he had into building a flock of the African
birds on a farm in Maaroub in southern <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>. His brood numbered about
2,400 when the fighting started. Mr. Yassine, who wasn't at the farm when the
Israeli jets began streaking overhead, phoned his son, who was there. Mehdi
Yassine was on a summer break from the <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType>
of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Toledo</st1:PlaceName> in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Ohio</st1:place></st1:State>, where he is studying biomedical
engineering. The 27-year-old agreed to stay and try to keep the birds fed.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=times><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
bombing was so intense that Mehdi couldn't leave the house most days, he says.
On day 15, he spread all the ostrich food he could find onto the driveway,
filled the swimming pool with drinking water, and then let the ostriches out of
their pens. He and his father hoped the birds would forage enough to stay
alive. Then Mehdi took off for the relative safety of the north.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=times><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Rebuilding
started immediately with the cease-fire that took effect on Aug. 14. The elder
Mr. Yassine drove through an obstacle course of battered roads and collapsed
bridges to get to his farm. He was aghast at what he found: Of 1,200 chicks in
cages lining the farm's long driveway, just 10 were alive (and they died within
days); 2,000 incubating eggs were ruined; and six tons of fetid meat sat
rotting in freezers long deprived of electricity.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=times><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Adult
ostriches wandered about the nearby hills and fields. Dozens lay dead. Some had
been killed by shrapnel from the bombings. Others survived the initial blitz
but were killed later when they kicked or pecked at the hundreds of unexploded,
ostrich egg-size bomblets scattered over the property from Israeli cluster
bombs. The controversial munitions are designed to spread smaller bombs that
detonate through a wide area. Bomblets that didn't explode, but that could at
any time, remain a major problem in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s south.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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class=imglftbdy border=0 v:shapes="_x0000_s1026"><![endif]><font size=3
face="Times New Roman">"We were surprised that any of the ostriches were
alive," says Zaki Hussein, a 37-year-old employee who helped Mr. Yassine.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class=times><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Mohamad
Yassine had worked in construction in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Kuwait</st1:place></st1:country-region> since he was in his
twenties, first as a laborer and then a contractor. He saved money even while
sending some back home to his family. In 1996, he was hired by a Kuwaiti to
build an ostrich farm in that country. He eventually became a partner of the
owner in starting a similar farm in his native <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>. That brought him home.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=times><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>His
first 35 chicks, breed stock, came from <st1:country-region w:st="on">Namibia</st1:country-region>
in southern <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>. He says he poured almost
$3 million into the business. It grew steadily, especially after the Israeli military
pulled out of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s
south in 2000 and the economy gained steam. By last summer, just before the
war, he had decided to take the business to the next level: culling significant
numbers from his flock to bring in some profits. He rustled up several large
orders in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Kuwait</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
and cut a deal with a local poultry processor to produce frozen burgers,
patties, sausages and other ostrich products.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=times><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>But
after the war, he had to hire locals just to help him round up surviving birds.
Some had wandered into villages two miles away.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=times><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Mr.
Yassine began piecing things back together, as best he could. He got more than
$10,000 in cash from Hezbollah to rent an apartment -- his home was also
destroyed in the fighting -- and $5,000 from the Lebanese government to help him
rebuild his home. But to get his business back on its feet, he has had to
borrow $400,000 from friends. That helped him pay for the cleaning, repair and
disinfecting of the cages. The United Nations and Hezbollah separately
dispatched teams to remove most of the dozens of cluster bomblets on his land.
Still, ostriches that had eaten sticks and rocks continued to die for weeks
after the war ended, he says.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=times><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
females among the 900 adult ostriches that survived have laid 2,000 eggs so far
this year. He hopes that by next year he'll have enough birds to begin culling
them again for sale in significant numbers.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=times><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>He's
also making arrangements to go well beyond food. He's negotiating with several
local Armenian leather workers to make ostrich-skin handbags and backpacks, and
he hopes <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s
well-developed soap and skin-care makers can be talked into adding ostrich oils
and salves to the wares they offer in stores here. He has contacted artisans as
far away as <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Sudan</st1:place></st1:country-region>
about etching designs into ostrich eggs that would then be sold in art shops.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=times><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Still,
the worsening political situation and rising sectarianism in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region> are
taking a toll on the business. Increasingly, ethnic groups are staying within
the areas of the country where their numbers are strongest. When tensions have
been highest, for example, that's made it difficult to keep up with ostrich
orders in mountain villages populated by Christians and ethnic Druze Lebanese.
"They're scared to come down and we're afraid to go up there," says
Mehdi Yassine, who plans to return to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region> after he graduates in
December to help his father run the ostrich farm.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=times><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Still,
he says, "We probably have a good chance to get back on our feet again --
if there's not another war."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=times><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Write to </span></font></b>Bill Spindle at <a
href="mailto:bill.spindle@wsj.com">bill.spindle@wsj.com</a><sup>2</sup><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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