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New Myths in an Ancient Land
// The price of the question
As it discusses peacekeeping in Lebanon, once the “Switzerland of the Middle East,” the world is engaging in mythmaking. Myth No. 1: Beirut is gone. In place of that beautiful, Westernized city, so different from the dismal Arab capitals like neighboring Damascus, is only a heap of ruins. Myth No. 2: Lebanon is getting by only because of the crates and packages we see being unloaded on television to show that the world community has warded off a “humanitarian catastrophe” there. Myth No. 3: It will take many years, even decades t restore Lebanon. Myth No. 4, which is most common in media close to the Israeli authorities: the radical Shiite Hezbollah movement, although not destroyed, has been fundamentally undermined. Instead of playing a leading role in Lebanese politics, it will now lick its wounds and only later try to restore its position.
The myths about today's Lebanon that pour out of television sets the world over sometimes prevent million of people from understanding what is really going on there. The repetitious images and statements by high-placed officials who happily report on funds allotted and aid delivered are all the sources of information about Lebanon that we have. The paradox is that we live in an age of all-powerful media and triumphant information technology. But when the reporters who make it to Lebanon are not anxious to pump up myths and reinforce what already exists in the mass consciousness, something curious happens. They discover that not all of Beirut is in ruins, that the humanitarian aid coming in is not always what is most needed but what the donor countries simply had on hand to ship out. And that's not all. The gloomy prognosticators who say that Lebanon can give up any ambitions of being Switzerland-by-the-sea for another 20 years are exaggerating heavily. It is clear there that the rebuilding of the country is proceeding rapidly. Finally, the main thing that is clear is that Hezbollah, far from being weakened in the conflict, has come out of it stronger and possibly with more influence than it had before the conflict began. But the world, enshrouded by myths about Lebanon, is almost ready to believe a new one, that, after the peacekeepers arrive, pace and stability will reign instantly, in spite of Hezbollah's new strength and the Israeli politicians' and generals' itchy trigger fingers. But in Lebanon, they have always built with one hands and wrecked with the other.
Sergey Strokan
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 28, 2006
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