Did i end up in Havanna?

I´m walking around „Armenia“, the street that is connecting Beirut´s „Martyr Square“ with Burj Hamoud, the Armenian quarter of Beirut. In a past time, the area around „Armenia“ – the harbour-quarter, must have been one oft he reasons, why they called Beirut „the Paris of the Middle East“.

But the French charme has passed away long time ago, during the civil war that destroyed not only the people, but also the substance of Lebanon. If there weren´t the quite new cars, one could get the imagination of walking somewhere in Havanna, Cuba. I´ve never been there, but the morbidity reminds me of all the pictures i have seen from there.

It´s lost glamour. Mixed up with some charme that is still alive – but destined to finally pass away. Maybe one day, they will revive some of Havanna´s charme. But the old charme if Beirut will come to an end. The colonizers oft he 21st century seem to have different playgrounds than those of the 19th and 20th. And the investors of the 3rd milennium are rich, but heartless. Their cities are cold as ice and built of concrete, glass and steel. They are not allowed to have something like a soul.

October 8, 2016