From e.d.wardini@easteur-orient.uio.no Mon Jun 5 21:19:10 1995
Date: Sun, 28 May 1995 16:19:31 +0200
From: Elie Wardini <e.d.wardini@easteur-orient.uio.no>
To: borrel@mashallah.ludvigsen.hiof.no
Subject: Re: Ancient Beirut vs Beirut development
A news report:
[ Posted on Wed, 14 Sep 94 6:20:10 PDT ]
BEIRUT, Lebanon (Reuter) - The rebuilding of Beirut has
begun in a style typical of the Lebanese capital's notorious
reputation: tons of explosives and lots of bangs.
SOLIDERE, the company entrusted with restoring Beirut's past
glory, is blowing up buildings in the war-damaged old Levantine
city to make way for futuristic avenues, esplanades and a
financial district.
Most of the explosives experts learned the trade working at
quarries before they were hired to work under the supervision of
Lebanese army officers.
A few were members of militias which blew up houses and
whole villages during Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war. Now they are
blowing up for peace.
``It is a hundred times more satisfying to blow up buildings
for the sake of peace rather than in war,'' one said. ``At
least once it is done, smiles are seen everywhere.''
Explosives, wrecking balls and bulldozers have demolished
120 buildings, creating a vast empty lot in the heart of the
city open to the Mediterranean shore.
An estimated three million tons of rubble have so far been
cleared and mostly dumped into the sea to create a 650,000
square-yard landfill on which SOLIDERE will build parks and a
modern financial district.
Smiles were everywhere when SOLIDERE brought down the Fattal
building after blowing up its foundations with 1,430 pounds of
dynamite.
Such explosives had been repeatedly used during the war --
to take out a Beirut street and kill scores of civilians.
``A symbol of war has just crumbled ... It is the most
satisfying feeling,'' Hisham Karameh, a SOLIDERE engineer, said
after the seven-story building went down with a deafening bang
in a huge cloud of smoke and dust.
``This war monument comes down to pave the way for the
construction of an avenue; the instruments of war are now used
for peace and development'' Karameh added.
The heavily-fortified Fattal building was a key part of the
defenses of Christian army units defending Christian east Beirut
during the war days.
But the days of fighting are long gone and central Beirut is
becoming a vast construction site.
The demolition, which started in early July, is clearing
most of the buildings from the 1.8 million square-yard site to
make way for infrastructure rebuilding to begin later this
month.
It will be heralded by an open air concert amid the ruins by
the First Lady of Lebanese Song, Feyrouz, and a groundbreaking
ceremony sponsored by Lebanese President Elias Hrawi.
Then a further 260 buildings will be demolished in the next
five to six months. Only 266 of the original buildings of the
central district will be preserved and restored to take their
place in the new heart of Beirut.
Some of the old buildings are being saved for architectural
merit and others because they are inhabited.
Tiny souks (markets) and a banking district made up most of
the downtown area before the civil war broke out in 1975. The
then-bustling capital was known as the Paris of the Middle East,
its nightlife legendary.
The reconstruction plan, billed as the world's biggest urban
development project of the 1990s, is expected to take 25 years
during which SOLIDERE will build skyscrapers, office blocks,
seafront avenues and public parks.
Transport Minister Omar Miskawi last month complained that
SOLIDERE's dumping of rubble into the sea threatened Beirut
port.
He said work at the Normandy landfill, which approaches the
jetty of the port's first basin, was ``a direct and imminent''
danger to the harbor.
Miskawi said the rubble could endanger navigation especially
in winter when high waves could carry it into the port basins.
He said rubble also threatened undersea telephone cables
linking Lebanon to Cyprus and France.
But SOLIDERE wrote back saying all precautions were taken
and denied navigation at the port would be endangered.