Taste the Reconciliation

I had a hard time running along the corniche yesterday evening. It was more crowded than ever. Families sitting by the railing drinking coffee and smoking nargileh; men, women, and children walking six abreast--slowly--gazing at the sunset and soaking in the warm summer air; little kids on bikes swerving through the crowds; and kamikaze rollerbladers barely avoiding running over everyone made for quite an obstacle course.

A friend of mine said that the corniche is a good barometer for the mood in Lebanon. When things are tense, few people will be found by the sea; when the political situation improves, the pedestrians return. So perhaps the crowds yesterday, which seem to be growing on a daily basis and are matched by equally congested masses of people downtown, are a good sign of the confidence Beirutis and tourists hold for their country's political situation.

The confidence is echoed in Lebanon's stock market, which has surged since the Doha settlement last month, and the corresponding real estate market, as I mentioned in earlier posts.

Visually, thanks in part to President Suleiman's orders, political posters have been replaced by corporate advertisements, while corporate advertisements have playfully incorporated the political (see photo above, from www.theharbins.info/julieblog)

Yet beneath this glossy surface, significant levels of political tension and violence remain:

• Heavy fighting broke out last night in the Bekaa Valley between pro-government and opposition supporters. Naharnet reports that "at least 50 [rocket propelled grenades] and mortal shells fell on the Saadnayel and Taalbaya villages."
• A game-ending fight broke out during Game 3 of the Lebanese Basketball Federation's Final Playoff Series. Supporters of the Hariri-funded Riyadi-Beirut club fought amongst themselves and with Internal Security Forces after a chant of "Ali, Ali, Ali" was interpreted by some fans not as an homage to Riyadi star Ali Mahmoud but rather as an anti-Shia taunt (for videos of parts of the fight, see this and this; for an overview of the intersection of politics, sectarianism, and Lebanese basketball, see this piece from Time Magazine).
  
• A flurry of violence in Beirut last week is delaying the formation of President Michel Suleiman's cabinet.
  

Some may ask, why the continued violence? But perhaps a more appropriate question is, why the optimism--both manufactured and real? As for the real confidence, it seems that people had been couped up in their apartments and in their neighborhoods for too long. They avoided the heart of the city for a year and a half, stayed in after more than a dozen assassination bombings, and endured three days of the heaviest internal fighting since the 1975-1990 Civil War. The Doha settlement, if nothing else, gave everyone an excuse to forget the recent past and enjoy everything Beirut has to offer once again. As for the manufactured, it's quite simple: peace and stability sell. And for a country whose most powerful economic players are in tourism and real estate, the production of peace and stability--particularly during the summer vacation months--is all the more essential for jump-starting the flow of customers and cash.