This is the visible and most publicized side of Beirut. But another darker reality exists at the other end of the city βthe slums. Slums are not ghettoes. They are areas or regions within Beirut where non-privileged families live and where the rule of law is suspended. They are spaces where the survival of the fittest law applies. I first met Ali, a forty-year-old contractor who works in house restoration, when my friend was painting her house.
He suggested taking me on a tour of the slums, offering his protection as an insider. I agreed. Heading to my destination in a cab, I suddenly found myself in a different world. Children in dirty clothing played on the streets during school time while teenage gangs stood on corners. Empty soft drink cans and plastic garbage bags were thrown here and there and housewives in sleeping gowns and plastic slippers shopped for groceries.
I saw one filthy building entrance after another. Cars came in from every direction while motorcycle drivers played acrobatics on the streets. As a foreign student living in Beirut, I had never seen this side of the city.
He described an incident he recently witnessed. A gang of teenagers who must have been 14 or 15 stopped a man on his motorcycle and asked him to step down. When he refused, they withdrew knives, stabbed him, and took his bike. The incident took place in daylight. As we walked, we reached a building whose walls are ridden with bullet holes. Both were standing on their balconies. The drug dealer got his AK47 and shot down his neighbor, killing him, a dog, and an innocent Sudanese on a motorcycle and injured a young man.
Few meters later, I saw a couple of generators in front of which two men were sitting smoking hubble-bubble or shisha. Ali explained that the two men distribute electricity from their generators to the entire neighborhood. I had heard that people there have to pay royalties so I asked Ali about it. He explained that one of the big tribal clans from the Bekaa obliges people to pay 5, Lebanese pounds for each satellite and non-governmental electricity subscription.
