“To the sea,” a veiled lady said to stop the taxi I was riding to the same place she wanted to go to. I had asked him to go to “Raouché” a common name for the coastal area overlooking the infamous Pigeon Rocks of Beirut. I preferred her way of telling him where she wanted to go, and thought I should tell my taxis to take me to the sea from now on, but in a few years they would probably think I’m joking and drive off.
In Lebanon, we don’t like the sea. It’s probably too blue, too relaxing and causes too many problems to melt away that it’s hazardous to what we consider daily life to be. Daliyeh, a huge area extending from the coastal corniche downwards to the sea has been fenced off during the past few weeks. It has been owned since the 1990s by late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and is now run by companies owned by his legal beneficiaries. Now, walking along the corniche, you feel like you’re looking across a rather transparent apartheid wall that lets you see what was once yours before it transforms into your worst nightmare. The area’s wild greens have been trimmed. Its fishermen residents have been shaved off as well. A vernacular, public space has been confiscated and it’s all okay. We [are supposed to] love it.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/daliyeh-case-study-rebuild-beirut