Beirut Ablaze

On Saturday night, the news spread like fire among Beirut’s revelers. The whole city was “ablaze”. Nothing to be alarmed about. This is just how young trendy Lebanese like to describe a place when music is ear-splitting and people are drinking and dancing shoulder-to-shoulder in an ambiance of fiesta.
It was a holiday weekend and many Lebanese were back in town to see their friends and family. After a fulfilling meal at a pleasant restaurant, I took a Greek friend, who was visiting Lebanon for the first time, on a tour of Beirut’s hot spots. We were moving slowly along the busy streets of Monot and Gemmayze, packed with fancy cars and flamboyant partygoers. Funky music and colorful lights were pouring out from pubs and restaurants. Beirut felt like genuinely exuberant.
I found myself sarcastically repeating to my friend, “you see how rough the days are in Beirut. You see how strained people look.”
Secretly, I wished this vision of Beirut, literally ebullient that night, would be strong enough to erase from his mind the numerous images of a city in distress and conflict he must have seen so many times on TV.
But deep inside, I think I was addressing these comments mainly to myself. When we, reporters, spend too much time listening to political news, we tend to forget that people’s realities could be so much different from the gloomy images portrayed by politicians.
In the past weeks, even months, my mind has been subjected to a plethora of speeches and statements revolving around division, conflict, tension and other terms drawing a somber future for the country.
Sometimes, it takes just a night out to realize how much more resilient Beirut is than anyone would wish. © El Periodista