Brazil Beat Ghana
I fell asleep this afternoon, and when I woke up after my long nap, the first thought that came to my mind was "ah, Brazil must have won its game in the World Cup." I could hear the people celebrating on the Corniniche from my room. I went down to look for a few minutes, and the celebrations that I watched for Italy's victory were nothing compared with this one. The police were out trying to keep things under control, but I don't know how successful they really were. There were dozens of cars out full of people waving the Brazilian flag while fireworks were set off in the street. I didn't stay too long because alcohol, cars, and overly excited people don't mix well in any country, and I wasn't able to get any pictures, so just use your imagination. I have a hard time imagining people behaving this way in the United States for a team half a world a way - actually, it is kind of hard to imagine people in the United States getting this excited at all.
I was able to snap some pictures today walking around town of all of the construction going on here. Unemployment is very high here (I think around 20%) and many educated people leave the country to get better jobs, while cheap labor floods in from Syria. According to one estimate, there are one million Syrian laborers in Lebanon, while the total population of Lebanon is a little over 3 million. Additionally, Syrian law dictated that any large goods purchased outside of Syria could not be brought into the country, meaning if a Syrian bought a car in Lebanon they couldn't take it home, discouraging spending outside of Syria. I don't know how much of this has changed after the so-called Cedar Revolution of 2004 (when Lebanon effectively asked Syria to butt-out after the death of Rafik Hariri). Beirutis are furiously trying to rebuild the city in an effort to restore its former glory and to attrack more businesses and jobs. A few of the towers are hotels and condos - one of the largest will be a Four Seasons hotel. I took these two pictures from one spot near downtown Beirut.
What gets me a little is seeing all of the renovations and new construction, and then only a few steps away is the stereotypical squalor. Here is one example: we stumbled across this beautiful home surrounded by gardens and a high fence, and directly across from it were crowded apartment buildings in the picture below.
I was able to snap some pictures today walking around town of all of the construction going on here. Unemployment is very high here (I think around 20%) and many educated people leave the country to get better jobs, while cheap labor floods in from Syria. According to one estimate, there are one million Syrian laborers in Lebanon, while the total population of Lebanon is a little over 3 million. Additionally, Syrian law dictated that any large goods purchased outside of Syria could not be brought into the country, meaning if a Syrian bought a car in Lebanon they couldn't take it home, discouraging spending outside of Syria. I don't know how much of this has changed after the so-called Cedar Revolution of 2004 (when Lebanon effectively asked Syria to butt-out after the death of Rafik Hariri). Beirutis are furiously trying to rebuild the city in an effort to restore its former glory and to attrack more businesses and jobs. A few of the towers are hotels and condos - one of the largest will be a Four Seasons hotel. I took these two pictures from one spot near downtown Beirut.
What gets me a little is seeing all of the renovations and new construction, and then only a few steps away is the stereotypical squalor. Here is one example: we stumbled across this beautiful home surrounded by gardens and a high fence, and directly across from it were crowded apartment buildings in the picture below.
posted by Courtney at 11:12 AM
1 Comments:
There aren't really slums in the city, I think you would see more of that in the south of Lebanon where the Palestinian refugee camps are, or in the more rural farming communities. Mostly you just see run down apartment buildings, but not so much what I would call slums. I also haven't made it to the suburbs, so I can't speak for the entire city.
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