Right now as I used to be studying an article in The Guardian (right here) a sentence popped up describing a dilapidated home “like Beirut”… and bam all of it introduced again to me that award that Jad Aoun (on the time often known as the blogger “beneath rug swept”) used to distribute for articles mentioning the expression “appears like Beirut” – which after all on the time was ironic contemplating Beirut was thriving thank-you-very-much. So “identical to Beirut” was an oddity to say because it didn’t resemble something of the Beirut identified at the moment.
Jad, very similar to lots of the different bloggers has gone to higher pastures – on this case Canada – the place he blogged intermittently – after which not blogged in any respect. Really in his web site, there’s a part which known as “new weblog” which ends up in… nothing.
Naturally, in at this time’s Beirut, the irony might need all gone. The concept one thing is “identical to Beirut” which, in contrast to the 80s comparability (that means war-torn and a whole chaos) has been changed by a soulless entity, one that isn’t lifeless however barely respiration to be thought-about a full functioning entity. And please spare me the “you are unfavorable” connotations – look past the foolish pubs and see the faces of individuals, these nearly unable to pay their generator for the scraps of electrical energy they’re supplied with, or those that attempt to make meals out of nothing in any respect, or the massive fragment of the inhabitants which is now beneath the poverty stage, or fairly merely the person who significantly requested in a grocery store “can we do tabbouleh with out cucumbers?” upon seeing their worth.
So sure, Jad. Deliver again these awards however make them about individuals feeling helpless, and apply them to conditions the place they’re barely making it. Surviving, however solely simply…. like Beirut.