[LCM Articles] An Ostrich Farm Takes Wing Again In South Lebanon

[Farrah Haidar]

An Ostrich Farm Takes Wing Again In South Lebanon


Delicacies and Handbags in Mr. Yassine's Future; Hezbollah Helps Rebuild

By BILL SPINDLE
June 12, 2007; Page A1

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Not far from piles of rubble still being cleared after
last year's war with Israel, 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.

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 cordon bleu and ostrich Kiev were stacked in a freezer
nearby. Souvenir plumes adorned a vase near the doorway.

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."


 <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118056037254019085.html> [battered
buildings - promo]1


Bill Spindle 


Some of the worst bombing damage during last summer's fighting occurred in
Beirut's southern suburbs, where support for Hezbollah runs strongest.

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 Israel'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.

Last year's war left deep scars on both sides. In Israel, 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.

Lebanon took the brunt of the physical damage. The southern suburbs of
Beirut and the rural south, where Hezbollah fired off most of its rockets
and Israel'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.

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 U.S. to Qatar. 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.

For a decade, he had poured everything he had into building a flock of the
African birds on a farm in Maaroub in southern Lebanon. 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 University of Toledo in
Ohio, where he is studying biomedical engineering. The 27-year-old agreed to
stay and try to keep the birds fed.

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.

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.

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
Lebanon's south.

[M Y]"We were surprised that any of the ostriches were alive," says Zaki
Hussein, a 37-year-old employee who helped Mr. Yassine.

Mohamad Yassine had worked in construction in Kuwait 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 Lebanon. That
brought him home.

His first 35 chicks, breed stock, came from Namibia in southern Africa. He
says he poured almost $3 million into the business. It grew steadily,
especially after the Israeli military pulled out of Lebanon'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 Kuwait, and cut a deal with a local poultry processor to produce frozen
burgers, patties, sausages and other ostrich products.

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.

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.

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.

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 Lebanon'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 Sudan about etching
designs into ostrich eggs that would then be sold in art shops.

Still, the worsening political situation and rising sectarianism in Lebanon
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 Lebanon after he
graduates in December to help his father run the ostrich farm.

Still, he says, "We probably have a good chance to get back on our feet
again -- if there's not another war."

Write to Bill Spindle at bill.spindle at wsj.com2

 

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