Lebanon Through a Looking Glass

The Lebanon Cauldron

Lebanon is our neighbor. The world is getting so small these days, what with the Internet, the blogosphere, MySpace and YouTube, we can experience the lives of people all over the globe. I think it's instructive from time to time to "go" to places that are the hotspots and see what the locals are thinking and doing. This can open up our minds and inform our thinking on politics and war and trade.

One of my commenters, Tarek El Khatib, a 23-yr.-old consultant in Beirut, Lebanon, authors a blog, rambling and blabbering, that is instructive because it gives the honest viewpoints of a young man caught up in war and its aftermath in a country that has a tradition of democracy. While this democracy is quite violent at times, people like Tarek are allowed to speak out. Yet, leaders get assassinated when their enemies grow intolerant of free speech and political movements they view as threatening to them.


Lebanon the Country

Lebanon is a country that very much wants to succeed as a democracy in the Middle East. Its difficulty is that its geography and political makeup make it a hotbed crossroad for the world's present political tensions.

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Lebanon:

officially the Lebanese Republic, is a small, largely mountainous country in the Middle East, located at the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea. Lebanon is bordered by Syria to the north and east, and Israel to the south. The flag of Lebanon features the Lebanon Cedar in green against a white backdrop, with two horizontal red stripes on the top and bottom.

Until the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), the country enjoyed relative calm and prosperity, driven by the tourism, agriculture, and banking sectors of the economy. It was considered the banking capital of the Arab world and was widely known as the "Switzerland of the Middle East" due to its financial power. Lebanon also attracted large numbers of tourists, to the point that the capital Beirut became widely referred to as the "Paris of the Middle East."

Immediately following the end of the war, there were widespread efforts to revive the economy and rebuild national infrastructure. By early 2006, a considerable degree of stability had been achieved throughout much of the country, Beirut's reconstruction was almost complete, and an increasing number of foreign tourists were pouring into Lebanon's resorts. However, the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict brought mounting civilian and military casualties, extensive damage to civilian infrastructure, and massive population displacement from July 12, 2006 until a ceasefire went into effect on August 14, 2006. As of September 2006, the Lebanese government has been acting out an early recovery plan aimed at reconstructing property destroyed by Israeli attacks in Beirut, Tyre, and other villages in southern Lebanon.

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Recent Assassinations

Rafik Hariri:

Rafic Bahaa Edine Hariri (November 1, 1944 to February 14, 2005), a self-made billionaire and business tycoon, was the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998 and again from 2000 until his resignation on 20 October 2004.

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He headed five cabinets during his tenure. Hariri played a leading role in the reconstruction of Beirut. Hariri was assassinated on 14 February 2005 when explosives equivalent to around 1000 kg of TNT were detonated as his motorcade drove past the St George Hotel in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. The Syrian government is the focus of international suspicion of having committed the murder.