As Anthony Bourdain said on CNN in his last report from Beirut and as he was quoted in The New York Times, “It makes absolutely no sense, in a wonderful way.”
Because he is definitely onto a truth here, I would like to give him a little assistance by citing a few examples, beginning with one he pointed out himself:
“Bikinis and hijabs mingle freely.”
Nightclubs blaze with light and action in a city bursting at the seams with needy refugees.
ISIS threatens to invade on the northern frontier and the Israeli army threatens to come again from the south while the summer music festivals begin in Beirut and Bisharri, within no more than three-hour drive of one border or another.
A music group performs in T shirts bearing the words “Holy Shit” while the remains of a Christian saint are taken on a tour of the country before burial in Bkirki and Muslims fast in obedience to the Quran.
A militia with more members and more firepower than the national army thrives within its borders, earning praise from half the population.
A Christian presidential candidate, who was once banished from the country after leading a bloody revolt against the Syrian Army (which occupied Lebanon and bled its economy for 29 years until finally expelled by a popular uprising) is now supported by The Party of God, representing the Shiite population and…loyal to Syria!
Men who once came as enemy soldiers and stood in the streets as an occupying army come back as refugees and receive love (as well as some grudging assistance).
A cheap sandwich sold from sidewalk stands on city streets and along the beaches is declared the world’s best sandwich in an international contest.
Businesses experience 50 power cuts per month, and the country continues to be recommended by foreign governments as a place to invest.
In May the U.S. State Department urges its citizens to avoid all travel to Lebanon because of ongoing security concerns, just after the American ambassador, David Hale, announces that the United States will construct a new $1,000,000,000 embassy, a pleasant place with “space to advance our common interests,” next door to the embassy with the fortress mentality that was bombed in 1984 after replacing the one by the sea that was bombed in 1983.
The only country in the Middle East that can have a Christian president has no president at all for more than a year because of a stalemate in the electoral body. Parliamentarians and commentators warn that the country is falling apart, and it keeps humming merrily down the road.
Everything that exists anywhere in the Middle East—an idea, a gadget, a philosophy, a religion, a sin, a delectable dish can be found within the tiny 10,462 square kilometers of a country so beautiful and fascinating that an occupying soldier with a gun in his hand told a comrade, “You have to be careful; this place will get under your skin.”
As Bourdain said, “It makes no sense.” But that’s Lebanon.