LEBANON

“Please take care of yourself in that scary place :)” writes a friend from California.

“It’s not scary at all;” I write back, “at least not now. Over the past few days, I have walked in many parts of Beirut, in day and late at night, feeling very secure.

“In spite of the recent bloodshed, the Lebanese people are restoring their lives with the same positive spirit which impresses all visitors to this beautiful country.

“Today, I took a long walk in Ras Beirut, literally ‘the head of Beirut’, still a most important center of art and culture, including cuisine and fashion, where life is picking up, including a modest traffic jam and a mini-chorus of car horns.

“I then walked along the seaside promenade, from the site of the massive explosion three years ago that killed the former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, and 22 others, all the way to the port area. The latter stretch, about 2 kilometres, was on a new walkway built alongside a large area of reclaimed land which is due to be turned into a park.

“The sun was bright; the Mediterranean breeze was refreshing; and it was reassuring to see ships and planes once again reaching Lebanon.

“In the evening, I had dinner in a small Italian restaurant, Casa Di Pasta, that stays open until midnight, followed by desert at the Broadway, an open-air balcony restaurant, on Hamra Street, overlooking Costa Coffee, which had its own customers both inside and on the sidewalk.

“True, Hamra was not exactly crowded that late at night, but there were more pedestrians and cars than I had seen on at the same time on some evenings before last week’s clashes. As things stand, at least this part of Beirut is not at all scary.”