Adonis Diaries

Beirut is for sale, stock and lock; (September 14, 2009)

Beirut is no longer the Capital of Lebanon.  If you are visualizing tourist brochures on Lebanon, dating a decade ago, or if you are planning to open a business branch in Beirut based on promotional “official intelligence”, you are being misled big time. 

The only promotional materials are disseminated by the Hariri clan, primarily focused on Real Estates and nothing much.  For over two decades, this governing clan, called “The Future Party” or Al Mustakbal regarded Beirut as prime real estates venture and demolished historical merchant shops (souks) and residences for newer sky rises.

            Beirut by day is a string of eateries; mostly fast food restaurants.  By night, all the rooftops of the sky rises are transformed into night clubs.  A youth who managed to find a job barely topping $700, spend his nights on these tops.  Everyday, there is a new “night club top”.  The average Lebanese citizen, not associated to the Hariri clan, is financially banned from purchasing anything in Beirut, except a sandwich of falafel.

            In 1993, architects were assigned to select historical sites and residences; those architects listed 1,016 residences.  By 1999, that list shrank to 200 “historical residences”, on the ground that this time around the “clan” is serious about rehabilitating anything “old”: the Hariri clan is just waiting for juicy offers. 

The very few green spaces are gone to real estates developers. The gardens of the villa Sursock are gone. The last gardens of the Sioufi and the Sanayeh are tendered for, and waiting for the appropriate political climate to vanish.  Infrastructures in Beirut are frequently “redone” and you cannot circulate even by foot.

            Actually, you cannot locate any embassy in the Capital: embassies are out of Beirut because you cannot do business in Beirut.  If you need to rent an apartment in an old residence with no air conditioning, no generator (public power supply is not reliable), and no hot water on the ground that rent might be cheaper, you are hugely mistaken: the owner will dissuade you by asking $50, 000 per year.  The owner is actually waiting for real estates developers or promoters to buy his house since the municipality and the ministry of “culture” (in charge of rehabilitating historical heritage) are simply figure-heads for the Hariri clan. 

The motto for this “Saudi Wahhabi clan” is “We are in Real Estates business; that is what we do best. We buy and demolish and resell for the rich Arab Gulf prince and princesses. Lebanon economy and its budget are harnessed to develop our business. We intend to go forward full speed; the hell with Lebanon heritage and all that crap. South Lebanon is for Hezbollah or Israel, we don’t care. We own Beirut stock and lock; we are doing our best to own the rest of Lebanon.”

            The remodeled only airport is called “Rafic Hariri International Airport”; the only public hospital in Beirut is called “Rafic Hariri Hospital”; the remodeled sport stadium has been renamed “Rafic Hariri Stadium”; the remodeled public university is renamed “Rafic Hariri University”; any major highways leading to any of these “institutions” are called Rafic Hariri and you get confused. 

Rafic Hariri built his monster Palace by a university owned by the USA Administration and called “The Lebanese American University”.  Guess what, the entire square area of ten blocks around, are cordoned off by cement barricades and watched by public and private security guards and called “The Hariri Residence”. 

            There is this one that the Hariri clan selected to replace late assassinated Rafic Hariri PM; the successor of assassinated “martyred” Rafic Hariri is called Saad Rafic Hariri. 

Saad turned out to be an idiot: he failed to even form a government offered to him on a gold plate; otherwise the government Palace would have been renamed “Saad Hariri Palace of Lebanon”.

            Saad turned out to be an idiot; he is not Lebanese and never lived in Lebanon; he barely speaks Arabic. Saad is a Saudi by birth and by residence; he emulates the looks of the Saudi Monarchs and visits Saudi Arabia for frequent blessings of their monarchs.

After 6 years of trying to convince the Lebanese that he is of leadership material by hammering out the motto “My name is Saad Rafic Hariri, the son of martyr Rafic Hariri, my dear father and father of all Lebanon, especially of the Sunni Moslem sect”.  “In the name of my martyred father, I demand of the Lebanese citizens to elect me, elect my clan, elect the Al Mustakbal, elect for Lebanon, elect for Beirut the prime real estates location in the Middle East.

            Saad turned out to be an idiot. In every one of the recent “Eftar” dinners during Ramadan Saad would say “Let me refresh your memory. I am Saad Rafic Hariri”.  When Saad was appointed to form a government 3 months ago, he kept learning the Lebanese Constitution by his political counselors.  Thus, Saad stunned us by fresh information “I am Saad Rafic Hariri and the Constitution permits me to name ministers”

            Fuck Beirut if the constituents of Beirut want the Hariri clan to stay in power. I don’t need Beirut; I cannot afford Beirut; I hate the look of Beirut. Beirut is for sale, stock and lock for the idiots.