[LCM Articles] Beirut among "New Arrivals" (Business Week)

[Randa Seif]

 The issue was the tourist's view, perception, and
attitude, more specifically the fact that he sees a
city like Beirut as an extension of his territory,
both geographical and cultural. 

 It is precisely the tourist whom one expects most "to
be curious, ..., to be open, reach out to and learn
from the stranger", as you advocate while wrongly
assuming that 
he is not representative of a cocoonist culture which
you find worth opening up to and (sadly) copying.

 Therefore, the problem is the lack of mutual and
genuine exchange, not the exchange itself.
 
 Also, another way to look at the savage war in
Lebanon 
is to see that what triggered and sustained it is that
willingness (natural or conditioned) to value the West

more, so as to want to blindly serve it, which drew
hatred demarcation lines between a Lebanese and the
brother sharing his country. 
 For instance, around that time, a French historian
wrote something to the effect that the malaise which
shows in Lebanon's recent history stems from the fact
that its Christians are trying to live a culture they
don't understand (that is the western one). 
Make it food for thought from a European academic who
must have known that Europa is originally a Phoenician
goddess!

  --Randa

*****************************************************
 

--- Mark Farha <farha at fas.harvard.edu> wrote:

> Clearly the article reflected some vulgarity, a
weakness of human - and in this case perhaps male -
nature (rather than any specific culture or time).

> But then again a tourist report really does not
merit all the hullabaloo. Even for us citizens of the
world, who take issue with Said Aql's justifications
for war, there is a
certain irony in the fact that the legendary Europa is
said to hail from beautiful Tyre:

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_%28mythology%29
 
> It makes little sense to want to sever Lebanon
country from the mare nostrum even as it makes no
sense to close
oneselves to the contributions of the East.
> One should accept the good and true regardless of
origin.

> To cling to a parochial Arab, Phoenician, Jewish,
Muslim,
Christian identity, and to thereby close oneself to
others, is a mark of poverty.
> All cultures grow insofar as they are open, ready to
learn and expand as life does;  they wither and
shrivel, as soon as they retreat into ethnic,
religious or other cocoons of xenophobia and hubris.

> The Zionists, Germany's 3rd Reich, and yes, Lebanon
during the savage war showed what suffering and evil
such
3assabiyya has wrought.
 
> Lebanon's (or any other country's) beauty and
strength comes from its affair with hetereogeneity,
its willingness to explore, absorb and learn, and not
to be locked into "deadly", and ultimately
debilitating debate on identities", to paraphrase Amin
Maalouf.
> To be curious, to be grateful for the other, to
welcome, reach out to and learn from the stranger.
These are the best of Arab and Lebanese traits.

> bili7tiraam,
> Mark
 
> On Mon, 5 Dec 2005, R///H wrote:

> > --- Mona M Fawaz <mfawaz at MIT.EDU> wrote:

> > > why is beirut listed in europe again?


********************************************************************

> >  As a pure mind extrapolation for "Paris of the
Middle
East", and so as not to shortchange "nightclubbing
hedonists from the West"; after all "the stunning
Lebanese girls" are yet another variety of women on
the globe, which trumps any geographical reality for
the said hedonists.

> >  Also note that the criteria applied for what's
hot,
beautiful, and fun are purely European as well.

> >  --Randa



















		
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