Beirut basics - part II : Social

Like almost every capital or big city in the worlds, social Beirut is very heterogeneous. People from all backgrounds, social levels, religions and sects populate its erratically positioned buildings and houses. It is also home to large amounts of expatriates from Asian countries like the Philippines, Sri Lanka and India, and Middle-Eastern countries like Syria, Jordan, Iraq or Egypt. Most these expatriates are laborers or house workers and therefore form a population of their own, even if part of the social tissue of the city. Other expatriates include Europeans (mostly French and British) and Americans, most of them here for work or familial reasons (married to Lebanese). Another large resident population, albeit invisible, are the Palestinian refugees who live in integrated camps like those of Sabra, Chatila, Mar Elias or Hay el Lija.

Most Beirutis, as the people of Beirut are called, trace their roots to other parts of Lebanon. Indeed, many of them have secondary houses in the mountain villages which sent them or their ancestors to Beirut. And many of those go back to their villages for weekends, summers, or important ceremonies like marriages or funerals.

"Original" Beirutis, or longer-generation residents of the city, are actually some three dozen families whose roots date back many hundred years back (even if these same roots can be traced back to other countries as well, especially Syria, Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula). Mostly Sunni Muslim and Orthodox Christian, they form the core of the Beiruti society and share much in common at the level of culture, history, traditions and memory. A handful of them are prominent in terms of political and financial influence, although this influence has greatly diminished over time. They still nevertheless exert some kind of political power mostly at the local level, and the Beirut Sunni population still forms the core of the Sunni electorate of the country.

At the end of the brutal Lebanese war, Beirut had underwent profound changes both at the surface and internal levels, and its population was widely affected by the war which divided their city along separation lines which now have ceased to exist but whose scars do remain in a collective psychology which has been working since 1990 on a "forget and forgive" basis. The after-war years also had an effect on the people and the city, in that the geography and boundaries have expanded to engulf the nearby suburbs, and the old city center became a modern business and entertainment center out of reach for most people (except for entertainment) and therefore lost its pre-war role as a melting pot for all Beirut's middle and lower class constituencies. Beirut today is a product of the war and the after-war.

Beirut's population at large is quite conservative and value driven although at times surprisingly open-minded, and like the rest of country has a penchant for being fairly materialistic with an apparent penchant for mercantilism and entertainment. A "live and let live" tradition is strongly anchored, provided certain limits are not crossed especially when it comes to respecting religious traditions or the territorial integrity of certain neighborhoods. Indeed, most Beirutis live in patches of fairly homogeneous quarters (in terms of religious coloration), some neighborhoods (Hamra, Ras Beirut) being much more mixed than others. Even if they do mix together freely and pride themselves in their strong tradition of openness and acceptance towards each other, they are fairly territorial and quite conscious about their religious and social origins.

This melting pot usually lives in peace, but in times of trouble things can sometimes get out of hand, without endangering the whole spirit of openness and co-existence which is quite readily reminded of by everyone, from the street dwellers to the religious scholars.