beirut

I asked a local if he thought there would be another war in Lebanon. He told me rather casually that if there is one, it won't be for another eight months — the summer is almost over and war is most effective in the summertime... I am not sure if that is a sentiment shared by most, but somehow, it's telling... What I found interesting about Beirut was its delicate, in some cases, frail balance between East and West, modernity and tradition, stability and instability.

Though I would not say that Beirut's development lacks the sensitivity of the past, its rich architectural heritage appears threatened... If not by the effects of war, then neglect, and now, big development.

Now that there's been a period of stability and prosperity, luxury condos and hotels are popping up everywhere you look, quietly and quickly replacing the Ottoman and French Colonial era buildings preceding them.

Something else you can't help to notice are the traces of war. One of the most dramatic reminders of past conflict is the concrete skeleton that remains of the Holiday Inn. In the chic centre of Beirut, it appears as this painful monument of the not-too-distant civil war that destroyed the "Paris of the Middle East".

What makes it an even more ominous landmark, is the fact that the hotel was completed just a few weeks before the start of the civil war, quickly becoming a prime residence of snipers, and not the well-off tourists it was intended for.

Much of Beirut has been beautifully restored and is now brimming with sophisticated life.

And the most interesting thing of all is that, even though Beirut was occupied again as recently as four years ago, and there are some periodic clashes in the region, life just goes on in a lively manner...