Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online Volume 1, Issue 1 | Page 33

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Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online

Lebanon Adrift: From Battleground to Playground
By: Samir Khalaf
Lebanon Adrift: From Battleground to Playground. London: Saqi Books, 2012. 294pp. $27.95. ISBN: 0863564348.
Volume: 1 Issue: 1
April 2013
Review by
Maria Holt, PhD
Westminster University
UK
Although the name “Lebanon” tends to be more readily associated with violence and chaos, in recent years it has become an increasingly attractive
tourist destination. I remember travelling to Beirut in July 2006 on a plane full of rambunctious families and eager holiday-makers; a few days later,
the country was engulfed once again in terrifying warfare. Despite episodes such as this, Lebanon is starting to evolve a new identity. But it is, as
Samir Khalaf’s latest book reveals, a complex and multi-faceted identity—on the one hand, a “hedonist’s paradise” yet, on the other, the site of the
widely respected Islamic resistance movement of Hizbullah, which succeeded in 2000 in defeating the region’s most powerful army and forcing
Israel to withdraw from all Lebanese territory. While Beirut has unexpectedly been transformed into the “party capital” of the Arab world, it is
mired in contradictions, and it is these contradictions that Khalaf’s book explores in fascinating and highly scholarly detail. His style is a rich
mixture of anecdote and theoretical exposition.
Khalaf focuses on the “duality” of Lebanon, reflected in its image ‘as a proxy battlefield for unresolved regional rivalries and breeding ground for
Islamic militants and resistance groups, but also as a permissive playground and tourist destination for pleasure-seekers and itinerant tycoons’ (p.
231). Having experienced a decade and a half of ferocious and apparently “meaningless” conflict, Khalaf argues, the Lebanese have been unable or
unwilling to engage in necessary processes of “truth and reconciliation”, as occurred in South Africa and elsewhere. As a result, the country finds
itself “adrift”, subject to the whims and priorities of selfish individuals; it is, as he says, “at a fateful crossroads in its political and socio-cultural
history’ and ‘continues to be imperiled by a set of overwhelming predicaments and unsettling transformations” (p. 77).
In some ways, this book appears to be a culmination of the many strands of scholarship Khalaf has been investigating over the years: the
transformation of urban space, the dangers of “uncivil” violence, and the role of collective memory and nostalgia. He mourns the loss of the
convivial and democratic space of the centre of Beirut, the Bourj, taken over now by megalomaniac development schemes and a frantic and
apparently uncaring quest for pleasure. It is as if the Lebanese, in their desire to “forget” the violence of war and the insecurity of “peace”, are
throwing themselves into untrammeled consumerism. But he is also looking ahead and assessing more positive developments and initiatives.
The book is structured around the concept of “being adrift” and how this affects both the Lebanese and their country. It begins with a discussion of
violence. The “savagery of violence”, as Khalaf notes, was “compounded by its randomness. In this sense, there is hardly a Lebanese today who is
exempt from these atrocities either directly or vicariously” (p. 35). Such extremities of violence, inevitably, shape individual and collective identity,
and lead to particular forms of behaviour. In Lebanon, these are characterized by an “unprecedented surge in mass consumerism, particularly its
stylized, sensational and hedonistic features” (p. 27). Khalaf draws a stark contrast between the beauty of the country and its artistic heritage and the
tacky, profit-driven developments that have sprung up since the ending of the civil war, particularly in Beirut, and also the casual indifference
shown towards the environment, for example the reckless driving and ubiquitous smoking. He is critical of the excesses of consumerism and the
evident abandon with which many Lebanese embrace it; these, he argues, are manifested in “two extreme by-products of excessive
commodification and global consumerism: the spectacle and kitsch” (p. 29).
A final chapter considers “the prospects for transforming the consumer into a citizen”. Although evidently gloomy about Lebanon’s future
prospects, Khalaf describes some more promising recent developments, such as the creation of organizations dedicated to preserving the
environment, creating greater social awareness among young people, and improving the country’s architecture and public spaces. He has faith in the
resilience of the Lebanese public.
Clearly, times are changing. Four events in recent years have had a profound effect on the Lebanese collective identity and modes of coping. The
first was the assassination in February 2005 of Rafik Hariri, a towering figure in post-war Lebanese history, elected several times as prime minister;
neighbouring Syria was implicated in his murder. The second event, following on the first, has been called the “Cedars Revolution”, a spontaneous
uprising, described by Khalaf as “one of the most momentous and spontaneous collective demonstrations in Lebanon’s recent history” (p. 44);
people from all walks of life poured into the centre of Beirut to call for the removal of Syrian forces from their territory; this is interpreted by
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