Beirut merchants thrive in city of troubles

Press, 9 August 1988, Page 36

Beirut merchants thrive in city of troubles

NZPA-Reuter Beirut Almost oblivious to the conflict and destruction that surrounds them, the merchants of Beirut go about their business with a vigour undimmed by 13 years of civil war. From stores selling fashionable clothes and imported food to small workshops making furniture and plastics, commerce is thriving — in sharp contrast to the burdens of daily life suffered by most people. For them, power cuts, water shortages and low wages add to the misery of car bombs, sniping and militia warfare that have wreaked a terrible toll on families and buildings. “I am always amazed at the resilience of the private sector,” said a Western diplomat. “They always seem to bounce back. Some of the light industrial products like textiles and furniture do z good export business because of the weakness of the Lebanese pound,” he said. A year ago 138 Lebanese pounds would buy a dollar; today the dollar costs 348 pounds. The depressed value of the pound makes Lebanese exports attractively cheap to foreign buyers. But many Lebanese have seen minimum

eroded to the equivalent of only SUS4S ($7O) a month — the price of a meal for two in a good restaurant. Junior bank clerks are slightly better off — after buying their meal for two they would still have 5000 pounds ($23.40) for the rest of the month out of their 20,000 pounds ($93.60) salary. Many goods and services are simply beyond the reach of the masses, say social workers. Many of the million or so people who live in the Christian enclave round east Beirut struggle to keep up middle-class appearances — some even selling, furniture to make ends meet. But for many of Beirut’s businessmen, in spite of an occasional artillery shell that whistles overhead, business is booming. On the Christian side of the Green Line battlefront, in a derelict commercial block in the former hub of the city, a two-man woodworking business illustrates the determination to survive and succeed. ' ■ . “It has been quiet for more than a year now. Occasionally a shell or two comes over but we just keep working,” says a former militia fighter, Rene Badawi, holding a

half-finished table with his bullet-scarred arm. He and a colleague, George Khoury, who sell their kitchen units and furniture to big stores, agreed, “Business is good.” For Lebanese with little money to spend Beirut can be a frustrating place to live with long delays in repairs to public utilities — even getting water on tap can be a problem. The chaotic telephone system is just another aggravation for many, but for rich businessmen with SUSSO,OOO ($78,000) to spend, a private satellitelinked international line is instantly available. “For us it is bad. There are constant, long power cuts, you wait two days to have a shower, two days to get someone on the phone,” said Nada, aged 23, a teacher. "But if you are rich you have a water tank, a generator. No problem,” she said. The laissez-faire attitude to business for which Beirut was known before the war is undiminished, but some traders are under fire for taking advantage of the lack of controls. A leading weekly, “AnNahar Arab and International,” accused some food rbtailers of passing

off bad food at high prices.

“They import stocks of rotten or expired foodstuffs and change the expiry date before releasing them on to the market,” it reported on July 16.

“There is anarchv in the market... controls by the Economics Ministry on prices and quality of products in the capital are inadequate.” In Christian east Beirut at least, the signs of booming business are all around. Construction, especially, is thriving, with new residential and commercial blocks going up. A newly opened cake and ice-cream parlour has so many customers it creates a traffic jam each morning. Stores selling Japanese electronics, French fashions or West German food do good business. Restaurants in the villages above the city are full every night with well dressed ' families and groups of young people. Trucks laden with plastic kitchenware, fruit and vegetables and construction materials line up to cross from the Christian east to Muslim west Beirut daily.

Hamra Street in west Beirut, once a ritzy downtown shopping centre, (Still has its expensive stores.