10th August 2020

Oh Beirut, what has been done to you now?

Forgive me for going a bit off piste with this?

Back in the early seventies, the world was a different time and place, and in my travels, Beirut was often a much-treasured stop over. 

It was, at the time, THE most sophisticated, truly cosmopolitan city in the middle east. Forget the Emirates, at that time places like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Oman were simply cockroach riden dust bowls with frankly no redeeming features other than an airport to get out.

When I first heard about the explosion, I noticed that the blast maps seem to take in an area around what was then known as St George’s Bay. And at St George’s Bay the place to go and be seen in the 70's was the St George Club.

I am not sure how badly it may have been damaged in the blast, but when I checked their website this very ominous entry was to be found.

“The Saint-George Hotel is located on Saint George’s Bay, named after the legendary hero who slew the dragon terrorizing its shores.

Today the bay and its inhabitants are under renewed attack from a hybrid corporate monster: Solidere; which – neither private nor public – is devouring public and people’s property to line the pockets of its backers.

The giant development firm has driven all legal owners and leaseholders of property from the shores of Saint George’s Bay, leaving only the Saint-George Hotel fighting a ‘David and Goliath’ battle to stop Solidere’s long term plans to land fill the bay and build more high-rises”.

Corruption was, is and will for some time be a problem for the Lebanon and it's stability is made more uncertain with the political issues that prevail.

But, the entry on the website made me think, was this explosion due to the seemingly unknown contents of the storage facility?

Or was it the desperate final act of a development firm to clear a site once and for all that went just a bit too far? 

Conspiracy theory?

Questions should be asked, answers may be an expectation too far?

Panacea Comment