BEIRUT: MPs are taking their summer holidays early and young Beirutis are taking to the rooftops of hip clubs as fear fills the air in the normally buzzing Lebanese capital.“We have been asked to be extra vigilant,” said an anti-Syrian deputy, asking not to be named for his security.“Like other MPs, I have sent my family to Europe, and I’m getting ready to do the same. Things are just getting worse and worse,” he said, adding that more than 20 of his colleagues had already flown out.
Political scientist Ghassan al-Azzi of the Lebanese University said the fear born of Lebanon’s longstanding political crisis, along with a string of bomb and grenade attacks in Beirut since the start of the year, was only natural.
Now another dark cloud looms on the horizon, with a September deadline for a presidential election in parliament for which the divided pro- and anti-Syrian camps are nowhere near agreement on a candidate.
Azzi explained that people fear that outgoing President Emile Lahoud, a Damascus protege, could dissolve parliament and form a second, parallel government to rival that of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.
“There could even be ministries occupied by gunmen,” he said.
Just to be on the safe side, and for the sake of extended families abroad on the invitation lists, several couples have postponed their summer weddings until after the election dispute is resolved.
At night, the fashionable Monot and Jemayzeh areas are free of the hustle and bustle of normal weekends, while busy Hamra Street has bargain sales for the second summer in a row, following last year’s Israel-Hezbollah war.
“I cancelled half of my orders. The Lebanese are trying to save money and the foreign tourists haven’t come to town,” sighed men’s clothing store owner Fuad Haim, 36.
While many Christian schools closed early, also for fear of more bomb attacks, Beirut’s famous nightlife has taken to the roofs where revellers still dance the night away.
At the Sky Bar, a restaurant and bar at the BIEL centre near the capital’s port, from which tens of thousands of foreign nationals were evacuated last summer, Beirut’s party animals feel safe from any car-bomb at street level.
“They feel much safer here. We have sniffer dogs, cameras, guards, and of course the fabulous view of the sea,” said assistant manager Rabih Mockbiel.
“People come here to forget what’s happening down there.” The Sky Bar attracts crowds of up to 3,000 on weekend nights, with droves of people still turned away, and competes with other rooftop clubs such as White and Bubbles.On the corniche, a favourite of joggers, walkers or less energetic people out for a seafront promenade, cousins Ralph and Marwan Abu Nasser, owners of the Sporting Club, are finding it hard to look on the bright side.
A nearby June 13 bombing killed one of the club’s most prominent members, MP Walid Eido, and nine other people.
“The number of customers here has since been divided by five or six,” said Ralph, as a group of Beirutis joined in a moving rendition of a love song, accompanied by the oud, the Arab lute.
“We are living day to day. Things can change dramatically from one day to the next,” explained lawyer Sherine Haddad, 28.
Business is down for the family firm, which specialises in real estate and other commercial deals with clients from the oil-rich Gulf Arab states who are staying away in droves this summer.
Paul Aryss, president of Lebanon’s restaurant owners’ association, has complained of the sorry state of restaurants and hotels in a capital with one of the world’s most highly-rated service sectors.
“Many restaurant owners are on the verge of bankruptcy,” he warned.
Five-star hotels are running on occupancy rates of about 15 per cent in what should have been the peak season. Some hoteliers are warning of possible industrial action unless the government comes to their rescue.—AFP