Once upon a Time in Beirut

Eng 202 – Dr. Omar Baz Radwan

Once upon a time in Beirut

Lana Al Akkad

LAU

         Beirut has changed to be a city of no title recognition; every city is bound to change however change does not necessarily have to be in the form of hostility and inhumation. A city like Beirut was built upon the Parisian like style and regime back in the old days, now with the current redevelopment and decree system, we no longer look at Beirut in the same way. This is constructed under the economical impact through three major elements such as everyday resources, health provisions, and employment factors.

             It’s unlikely for a similar society as Beirut’s to achieve its once lost dominance. Due to the current reside war in Syria, the Syrians were left with no other choice but to take a step and become a part of Lebanese territory. Beirut is open to all kinds of aid under any cost for no specific time period; however, little did it know that it would be opening doors to an entire nation and not a few civilians. As this continued to grow further more over the months, so did the economic failures in trying to meet the demands of both entities – Syria and Lebanon. First, Lebanon’s everyday resources started to diminish more and more by the number as the Syrians consumption patterns started to increase.  In the imbalance of things, everyday resources were the key necessities to survive in the country for every individual, irrelevant of nationalities, which included food, water, and shelter. “They are putting enormous pressure on water, sanitation, education, and health care systems. Wages are plummeting. Lebanese workers complain that they can no longer find jobs, which Syrians will do for much less” (Kelley, 2013, p.1).   As mentioned, this not only conveys the effects of the Syrian refugees stay, yet the degree to which things have changed 360 to the Lebanese nationals. This shows the major role that the Syrian refugees play when it comes to the usage levels of Lebanon’s resources. Also, it is important to note that Beirut struggles in trying to maintain peace in its homeland despite of Syrian forces. This is shown when Hussein Ibish says “when Hezbollah made its fateful decision to intervene militarily in the Syrian civil war, it was only a matter of time before the war would follow them back home and ignite a fire in Lebanon” (Ibish, 2013, p.1).  This is to further embark on where everything and how everything first started, one of Lebanon’s highly authoritative figures decided to take a step and hand in a helping hand with the Syrian crises, however this only led to the fatal fate of Lebanon’s once happy and safe environment to become one of the most terrified lands to step foot into and live in.