Laying Claim To Beirut - Urban Narrative and Spatial I.D in The Age of Solidere

Laying Claim to Beirut: Urban Narrative and Spatial Identity in the Age of Solidere
Author(s): Saree Makdisi

Source: Critical Inquiry, Vol. 23, No. 3, Front Lines/Border Posts (Spring, 1997), pp. 661-705
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
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Laying Clainl to Beirut:UrbanNarrativeand
SpatialIdentity in the Age of Solidere
SareeMakdisi
Asregardscoastaltowns,one mustsee to it thattheyaresituatedon

a height or amidsta people sufficientlynumerousto come to the
supportof the townwhenan enemyattacksit. The reasonfor thisis
that a townwhichis nearthe sea but does not havewithinits area
tribeswhoshareitsgroupfeeling,or is not situatedin ruggedmoun-
tainterritory,is in dangerof beingattackedat nightby surprise.Its
enemiescan easilyattackit with a fleet. They can be sure that the
cityhas no one to callto its supportand thatthe urbanpopulation,
accustomedto tranquilitydoes not knowhowto fight.
IBN KHALDUN,
The Muqaddamclh
Whenhe cameto the end of hisjourney,Abdal-Karimdidnt realize
hed traveledmorethan all the shoe shinersin the world.Not be-
causehe had comeall the wayfromMashtaHasanin Akkarto Bei-
rut, but becauseBeirutitself travels.You stay whereyou are and
All translationsare my own unless otherwisenoted.

An earlier and much shorterversion of this essay was presented at the Middle East
StudiesAssociation(MESA)conferencein Phoenix, November 1994; part of section 3 was
presentedat the MESAconferencein Washington,D.C., December 1995; part of section 4
was presentedat the "DislocatingStates"conferenceon globalizationheld at the University
of Chicago in 1996. Portionsof this essay previouslyappeared in Saree Makdisi,"Letter
from Beirut,"ANY(ArchitectureNew York)5 (Mar.-Apr.1994):56-59.
For the formationand elaborationof many of the ideas I present here, I am deeply
indebted to discussionswith my parentsand brothers,RonaldAbdelmoutalebJudy, Rich-
ard Dienst, Cesare Casarino,Paul Silverstein,David Rinck, Nadya Engler,Roger Rouse,
MahaYahya,MichaelSpeaks,Homi Bhabhaand the other coeditorsof CrtticalInquiry,Elias
CrS2calInquiry 23 (Spring 1997)

X) 1997 by The University of Chicago. 0093-1896/97/2303-0007$01.00. All rights reserved.
661
s
. : . .
;-s ,2<-tv-;; #,r'-_,---S- X <>S *;/_- ; '> s } --, - ^ ;
FIC. l(a). What used to be Martyrs'Square, facing south; the statue has been re-
moved for renovation.The excavationin the foregroundis an archaeologicaldig. The re-
mainingbuildingsin the backroundmarkSolidere'ssouthernperimeter.Photo by author.
FIG. l(b). Postcardof Martyrs'Squarebefore the war,facing north. The street lamp
in the foreground(near the buses)is visiblein its postwarruinationin the photo in fig. 5.
662 SareeMakdisi Laying Claimto Beirut
it travels. Instead of you traveling,the city travels. Look at Beirut,

transformingfrom the Switzerlandof the East to Hong Kong, to Sai-
gon, to Calcutta,to Sri Lanka. It'sas if we circled the world in ten or
twentyyears.We stayedwhere we were and the world circled around
us. Everythingaround us changed, and we have changed.
ELIASKHOURY, TheJourneyof LittleGandhi
The very center of Beirut is today a wasteland. For thousands of square

meters extending from Martyrs'Squarelittle remains of the heart of this
ancient city.Severaladjoiningareasare made up of a patchworkof build-
ings slated for recuperationand of naked sites wherebuildingsor souks
long since bulldozed or demolished once stood. Today a bold new
rebuilding project is underway, one that, under the aegis of a single
company (Solidere),promises to bring new life to the center of the city;
indeed, the company's slogan is Beirut An Ancient City for the
Future. Ironically,though, in the months since reconstructionofficially
began in earnest (summer 1994), more buildings have been demolished
than in almost twenty years of artillery bombardment and house-to-
house combat.
As of the summer of 1994, indeed, whateverone wants to say about
the reconstructionplan currentlybeing put into effect in central Beirut
is almost (but not quite) beside the point. For the object of discussion
the center of the city virtuallydoes not exist any longer; there is, in its
place, a dusty sprawlof gaping lots, excavations,exposed infrastructure,
and archeologicaldigs. Criticsof the reconstructionplan mourn the loss
of the old city center;but its supportersclaim that the old city center had
been left beyond salvationby the end of the war and that not only was
reconstructionon this scale inevitable but, for any number of reasons,
this particularreconstructionplan was and is the only possible option.
The debate has centered for the most part on how or why or whether the
current plan is the only option. In the meantime, we are losing sight of
Khoury,Ramiz Malouf(directorof informationat Solidere),ZakariaKhalil(of the Town

PlanningDeparmentat Solidere),NajahWakeem,and aboveall KamalHamdan.This essay
forms only one part of a much larger project;in subsequentessaysI more fully elaborate
the historicalquestionsraisedby the Solidereproject,and I also try to movebeyondcritique
to an elaborationof alternativesto the Solidereproject.Whatis at stakein the presentessay
is merely an outline of the projectand an overallassessmentof some of its political and
culturalramifications.
Saree Makdisi is an assistantprofessor of English and comparative

literatureat the Universityof Chicago. He is the author of UniversalEm-
pire:Romanticism andtheCultureofModernization (forthcoming).He has also
been writing a series of essays,including this one, on the politics of cul-
ture in the contemporaryArabworld.
.e l * ss..
w t s < .. h*wo Z
a "w
*
s w s
FIG. 2. The wastelandof whatused to be Martyrs'Square,with one of the ubiquitous

Mercedesdumptrucksin foregroundand a "recuperated"building in background.Photo
by author.
FIG. 3. Infrastructureinstallation.The scale of some of the workon the infrastruc-

ture can be quite overwhelming,evocative perhaps of a technologicalsublime. Photo by
author.
how it came to be the only option,how other optionswereforeclosed

longbeforethe reconstruction effortofficiallybegan,howthe wholepro-
cesshasbeenpresentedto Lebanonandthe worldbySolidereandothers
as an accomplished fact.Nowthe citycenterappearsas a blankslate,as
an "inevitable" problemwithan '4inevitable" solution,and the ''solutiorl''
itselfappearsas the fulfillmentof its ownself-fulfillingprophecy.
Blankor not, the citycenteris a surfacethatwillbe inscribedin the
comingyearsin waysthatwillhelpto determinethe unfoldingnarrative
of Lebanon's nationalidentity,whichis nowevenmoreopen to question.
Forit is in this highlycontestedspacethatvariouscompetingvisionsof
thatidentity,as wellas of Lebanon's relationshipto the regionand to the
restof the Arabworld,willbe foughtout.The battlesthis timewilltake
the formof narratives writtenin spaceandtimeon the presentlycleared-
out blanknessof the centerof Beirut;indeed, they will determinethe
extentto whichthis spacecanbe regardedas a blanknessor,instead,as
a hauntedspace:a placeof memories,ghosts.
I shouldaddat oncethatthe relationship betweenthesespatialnar-
rativesand Lebanon's nationalidentitycan neverbe reducedto a simple
equivalenceand that whatevervisionultimatelytakesshapein central
Beirutwillnot finallyhold all the answersto the questionssurrounding
thisidentity.Indeed,one cannotoveremphasize the extentto whichthis
identity,andeventhe veryexistenceof an entitycalledLebanonto which
it supposedlycorresponds, hasbeendisputed.Lebanon's narrativeof self-
understandingbegan with formativesectarianstrugglesin the 1860s
(whosesubsequentsignificance forLebanon's nationalidentitywasdeter-
minedlargelyunderthe aegisof the variousEuropeanempiresas wellas
the OttomanEmpire)land culminatedin the horrorsof the 1975-1990
war,whichleftaround150,000deadand300,000wounded.The warwas
in a sensefoughtoverdifferentconstructions of the nation.Foralthough
all nationsandall nationalisms areartificialconstructions, not all nations
havefacedthe samedifficultiesof tryingto inventa communityas has
Lebanon.Nor havemanynationspaid the terriblepricethat Lebanon
has paidfor not havingsuccessfully cometo termswithitselfas suchan
artificialentity(notthatsucha projectof self-understanding needsto be
understoodin strictlynationalistterms,norin termsthatisolateLebanon
fromthe restof the Arabworld).2
1. See Ussama Makdisi,"The Modernityof Sectarianismin Lebanon,"Middle East

Report26 (Summer1996):23-26, 30.
2. Indeed, the questionof Lebanesenationalidentityis inseparablefrom the broader
questionof nationaland communalidentityin the rest of the Arabworld.In anotheressay,
I discussthe failureof the projectof nationalismin the Arabworldand the relevanceof the
questionsof Palestineand of Lebanonfor contemporaryArabreevaluationsof nationalism
and national economic development.See Saree Makdisi,"'Post-Colonial'Literaturein a
...... ... ..... iN;i .. w . . ... .... -sBt
Critical Inquiry Spring1997 665
I. Wz N
N ! [ i q
WiS1tg
Xters
FIC.4. Wartimedamage to the city center.Photo by author.
Duringthe war,territoriesproliferated,definedaccordingto subna-

tionalcommunityor sectarianidentities.Otherspaceswereabandoned,
mostdramatically
the so-calledGreenLinedividingeastandwestBeirut,
Neocolonial World:Modern Arabic Culture and the End of Modernity,"Boundary 2 22

(Spring 1995):85-1 15.
666 SareeMakdasi LayingClaimtoBeirut
and aboveall the veryheavilydamagedcitycenter,whichfor morethan

fifteenyearsremainedan emptied-outsitemarkingthe graveyardof na-
tionaldialogueand reconciliation.3 To be sure,the questionsgenerated
by the war will continueto be contestedat variouslevelsand through
differentmodalities(ina reversalof the termsof von Clausewitz's
famous
dictum).However,centralBeirutmust,I believe,be seenas a keysitefor
the developmentand contestationof theseand otherquestions;and it is
for this reasonthatthe processof reconstruction assumesa significance
thatfarexceedsthe directlymaterialtermsin whichit hasalreadybegun
to takeshape.This shapetakesthe formof the worknowbeingunder-
takenbythe newlyinventedjoint-stockLebaneseCompanyforthe Devel-
opmentand Reconstruction of BeirutCentralDistrict,betterknownby
its FrenchacronymSolidere,whichnowhas legalor managerialcontrol
overthe land in the centerof the city.But here it becomesnecessaryto
explainwhatSolidere's proposedspatialnarrativelookslikeandwhatare
its originsand the originsof the companyitself.
1. Berytus Delenda Est;or,'XnAncientCityfor theFuture"

Followingthe close of the traumaticevents of 1975-76 (which
markedthe beginningof the Lebanesewar),the questionof whatto do
aboutthe damageto the centraldistrictof Beirutwas firstopened for
discussion.The warseemedthen to be over,and variouspublicand pri-
vateorganizationsbeganto considerproposalsfor the reconstruction ef-
fort. These discussionsculminatedin the first officialplan, in 1977,
commissionedby the Councilfor Developmentand Reconstruction
3. See Kamal Salibi,A House of Many Mansions: The Hzstoryof Lebanon Reconsidered
(Berkeley,1988). "In all but name,"Salibiwrote during the war,"Lebanontoday is a non-
country.Yet,paradoxically,there has not been a time when the Muslimsand Christiansof
Lebanonhave exhibited, on the whole, a keener consciousnessof common identity,albeit
with somewhatdifferentnuances."Thus, he goes on to say,
The people of Lebanonremainas dividedas ever;the differencesamong them have
come to be reflected geographicallyby the effective cantonizationof their country,
and by massive population movementsbetween the Christianand Muslim areas
which have hardenedthe lines of division.In the continuingnationalstruggle,how-
ever,the centralissue is no longer the questionof the Lebanesenationalallegiance,
but the termsof the politicalsettlementwhichall sides to the conflict,certainlyat the
popularlevel, generallydesire.Disgracedand abandonedby the world,it is possible
that the Lebaneseare finallybeginningto discoverthemselves.[Pp. 2-3]
Now that the war has indeed ended, it has been argued that central Beirut should
serve as a site in which the spatializedsectarianismof the war could be deconstructedand
hence as a site in which a new sense of nationalidentitycould be given spatialexpression,
by,among other things,bringingtogether membersof the differentsects in a commonand
collectivelyreinventedarea.
CriticalInquiry Spring1997 667
(CDR),to rebuildthe citycenteralongthelinesof its traditionallayout,to

restoreitscentralityin thelifeof Beirut,andto improveitsinfrastructure.
Particularemphasiswasplaced,however,on the need to reintegratethe
centerin both classand sectarianterms(thatis, to restorethe classand
communaldiversitythathad characterized it beforethe war)and on the
need to ensurethe reintegrationof the centerinto the rest of the city's
urbanfabric.Beforethe war,the downtownhad servednot only as a
commercialand culturalcenterbut also as a transporthub (allbus and
service-taxiroutesoriginatedand terminatedthere,for instance,so that
tripsto differentpartsof the cityor the countrymoreoftenthannotwere
routedthroughthe citycenter).AsJad Tabetpointsout, the 1977plan
highlighteda desire"toremoldthe centerof the Lebanesecapitalintoa
meetingplacefor the variouscommunities," whileat the sametimebear-
ing in mindthe needto "modernize the centerin an attemptto solvethe
seriousproblemsof functioningand accessBeirutfacedbeforethe war,
whilemaintainingthe specificimageof its site, history,and Mediterra-
neanand 'oriental'character."4
In anycase,the warwasnotyetover.In late 1977,fightingresumed,
punctuatedby the firstIsraeliinvasionof Lebanonin 1978and the sec-
ond Israeliinvasionin 1982,whichculminatedin the siege(andtempo-
raryIsraelioccupation)of westBeirutin the summerof thatyear.After
the massacreof Palestinianrefugeesat the Sabraand Shatilarefugee
camps,multinational"peacekeeping" forcesreturnedto Beirutin Sep-
tember1982,and the Israeliswerecompelledto withdrawfromBeirut
andto retreatto a heavilydefendedoccupiedstripof southernLebanon.
Onceagainthe warseemedto be over.
In 1983,OGERLiban,a privateengineeringfirmownedbythe Leb-
anesebillionaireRafiqHariri,took over the reconstruction projectand
commissioneda masterplan fromthe Arabconsultancygroup Dar al-
Handasah.In late 1983,andin the absenceof a newofScialplan,demoli-
tion beganin the centralareaon the pretextof cleaningup someof the
damage.This"cleaningup,"whoseperpetrators remainofficiallyuniden-
tified(thoughit has been repeatedlyallegedthat they standbehindto-
day'sreconstructionproject),5involvedthe destructionof some of the
district'smost significantsurvivingbuildingsand structures,as well as
SoukAl-Nouriyehand SoukSursuqand largesectionsof Saifi without
recourseto officialinstitutions,on whatcriticsarguewerefalsepretenses,
4. Jad Tabet, "Towardsa Master Plan for Post-WarLebanon,"in RecoveringBeirut:
UrbanDesign and Post-WarReconstruction,ed. Samir Khalafand Philip S. Khoury (Leiden,
1993),p. 91.
5. See, for example, Nabil Beyhum et al., I'amarBeirut wa'lfursa al-da'i'a [The Recon-
structionof Beirutand the Lost Opportunity](Beirut, 1992),p. 16. See also AssemSalaam,
"Le Nouveau plan directeur du centre-villede Beyrouth,"in Beyrouth:Construirel'avenir,
reconstruirele passe2 ed. Beyhum,Salaam,and Tabet(Beirut, 1996).
and in totaldisregardfor the then-existing(1977)plan for reconstruc-

tion,whichhad specificallycalledfor the rehabilitation of thoseareasof
the citycenter.6
In 1984,however,anotherroundof fightingforcedthe cessationof
planningand reconstruction activities,and intensiveshellingcausedfur-
ther damageto the downtownarea.Whenthe warenteredanotherlull
in 1986,furtherunofficialdemolitionwascarriedout in the downtown
area;the samepartiesthathadbeen behindthe 1983demolitionsalleg-
edly began implementinga plan (bearingsome distantresemblanceto
the currentSolidereproposals)thatcalledfor the destructionof a large
proportion up to 80 percent of the remainingstructuresof the city
center.Accordingto critics,thiswascarriedout withoutthe authorization
or approval or interference of any officialor governmentalinsti-
tution.7
Followingthe finalparoxysmof violencethatsignalledat lastthe end
of the warin 1990,attentiononceagainfocusedon the reconstruction of
the nowveryheavilydamagedcenterof Beirut.Andit wasin thiscontext
thatseveraldevelopmentstookplacethatenabledthe resumptionof the
6. See Beyhum et al., I'amarBeir7ltwa'lfursa al-da'i'a, pp. 15-25, esp. pp. 15-21.
7. See ibid., p. 16.
FIG. 5.- Martyrs'Square after the war but before the Solidere demolitions, facing
south; comparewith fig. l(a), which was taken from the same standpoint,to see the scale
of the demolitions.All the buildingsin the photo have been removed.Photo by author.
FIG. 6. Aerial photographof central Beirut followingthe war.Solidere'sperimeter,
markedby the largeboulevards,is clearlyvisible.Note the Normandielandfillat the north-
ern end of the photo; Placede l'Etoileand Martyrs'Squareare clearlyvisiblein the center.
Source:Solidere.
670 SareeMakdisi LayingClaimtoBeirut
kindof planningthathad firstbegunwiththe unofficialdemolitionsof

1983-86and thatultimatelyled to the formationof Solidere.Firstof all,
Fadelel-Shalaq,the headof Hariri'sOGERLiban,wasappointedas the
headof CDR.AsHashimSarkispointsout, "ineffectwhatthishasmeant
is thatthe mainprivateorganization in the buildingindustryhas taken
overthe ofiicialplanningadvisorybody.The agencythatthe government
usedto controlprivatedevelopmenthasnowreversedits role."8Indeed,
this developmentmarkedonly the beginningof the state'sabdicationof
its authorityand anydirectrole it mighthaveplayedin the reconstruc-
tionof centralBeirut,andthebeginningof a political-economic discourse
we might identifyas Harirism,whichwould culminatein 1992 when
RafiqHaririhimselfbecameprime ministerof Lebanon.It is worth
pointingout thatHaririhasalwaysregardedthereconstruction of central
Beirutas the crowningprojectof the economic"rebirth" thathe claims
to represent.
Also in 1991, a new set of masterplans for the reconstruction of
centralBeirutwas releasedby Dar al-Handasah(the consultancyfirm
thathadbeen firstcommissioned by OGERLibanin 1983).Theseplans,
whichhadbeen drawnup by the Daral-Handasah architectHenriEdde,
calledforwhathasbeen fairlyunanimously denouncedas an outrageous
rebuildingprojectto followthe virtuallytotal demolitionof whatever
structuresremainedin the citycenter.Edde'splanincludedsuchfeatures
as the creationof an artificialislandto housea "worldtradecenter"and
an eighty-meter-wide boulevardrivallingthe Champs-Elysees (whichis a
meresixtymeterswide!),as wellas a streetlayout,includingoverpasses,
bearingno resemblanceto eitherwhathad been therebeforeor to the
urbangrainof the restof Beirut.Thisplan,as Tabetargues,wouldhave
made the city centeran isolated"islandof modernity,"9 all but cut oS
fromthe restof the city.In the faceof a huge publicoutcry,the CDRand
Daral-Handasahwereforcedto scrapthe scheme,and theyset to work
on a newmasterplan.
The last keyeventof 1991had to do withthe questionof property
rightsin centralBeirut.Giventhe destructionin the citycenter,but also
theincreasedfragmentation of propertyrights,the diffusionof property-
rightsclaimantsand relatedinheritancedisputes,the idea wasput for-
wardto havea singleprivaterealestatefirmexpropriateall the landin
the city centerand take over the rebuildingprocess.l°Since the main
governmentalbody in chargeof reconstruction (the CDR)had already
8. Hashim Sarkis,"TerritorialClaims:Architectureand Post-WarAttitudesToward
the Built Environment,"in RecoveringBeirut, p. 114.
9. Tabet, "Towardsa MasterPlan for Post-WarLebanon,"p. 95. See also Beyhum,
"Beyrouthau coeur des debats,"Les Cahiersde l'Orient32-33 (1994): 103.
10. Some estimates suggested that there were as many as 250,000 property-rights
claimantsin the central district, since Lebaneselaw protects claims not only by property
ownersand their descendantsbut by lessorsand their descendantsas well.
FIG. 7. Martyrs'Square, facing north toward the sea. All the buildingshave been
removed to make way for a boulevardlinking Fouad Chehab Avenue to the port. Photo
by author.
FIG. 8. Martyrs'Square,facingnorth. Note the poster in the background,presenting

whatthis scene is supposed to look like after the reconstruction.Photoby author.
beenplacedunderthe leadershipof thoseleaningtowardthe creationof

sucha firm,thisbody(in cooperationwithproperlyprivate-sector inter-
ests, notablyHaririand OGERLiban,that werealso in supportof the
singlefirmconcept)commissioned anotherstudyfromDaral-Handasah,
which,unsurprisingly, calledfor the creationof a singlefirmto takeover
the centerof Beirut.The newplanalsocalledfor the demolitionof most
of the remainingstructuresin the centerin orderto facilitatean unfet-
teredlarge-scaledevelopmentproject.But despitethe growingsupport
for thisnewplanin certainpublic-and private-sector circles,opposition
to it alsogrewfromboththe generalpublicand a protestgroupthatwas
formedto debatetheideaandto tryto generatepossiblealternatives to it.
Evenas the planwasbeingwidelydebated,however,officialsanction
for it wasbeingconsolidated,mostimportantlyin the formof lawsand
decreescallingfor the institutionof a singlecompanyto takeover the
real-estaterightsin centralBeirut.The mostimportantof these is Law
117 of 7 December1991,whichprovidedthe legal frameworkfor the
constitutionof such a company,a law that has been repeatedlyde-
nouncedas unconstitutional." It shouldbe noted,however,thatthislaw
in no way mandatedthe creationof Soliderespecificallyor as such
that is, the collectionof privateinterestsand powerfulindividualswho
gatheredtogetheras Solidere'sboardof foundersin 1992.Thuswithout
regardto the public or even to thosewhosepropertywouldbe expro-
priatedby the company did Soliderecomeintobeing:the ultimateex-
pressionof the dissolutionof any real distinctionbetweenpublicand
privateinterestsor,moreaccurately, the decisivecolonizationof the for-
mer by the latter.As the Lebanesearchitectand publicplannerAssem
Salaamargues,"entrusting Beirut'sCentralBusinessDistrict(CBD)rede-
velopmentto the CDRis a typicalexampleof the dangersinherentin the
state'sabdicationof its role in orientingand controllingone of the most
sensitivereconstruction developmentprojectsin the country."'2
In the springof 1992,furtherdemolitionwasbegun in the down-
townarea,thistimeon behalfof the government,eventhoughthe recon-
structionplan as such hadnotyetbeenapproved orevendefined.Not only
werebuildingsthatcouldhavebeen repairedbroughtdownwith high-
explosivedemolitioncharges,but the explosivesused in each instance
werefarin excessof whatwasneededforthejob, therebycausingenough
damageto neighboringstructuresto requiretheirdemolitionas well.'3
Thus,foreachbuilding"legitimately" demolishedseveralotherbuildings
were damagedbeyondrepair,declaredhazards,and then demolished
11. See "Al-sharika al-iqariyyafi al-itaraynal-dustouriwa al-qanouni"[The Legal and
the ConstitutionalAspectsof the Real EstateCompany],in I'amarBeirut wa'lfursa al-da'i'a,
pp. 87-88.
12. Salaam,"Lebanon'sExperiencewith Urban Planning:Problemsand Prospects,"
in RecoveringBeirut, p. 198.
13. See Beyhumet al., I'amarBeirut wa'lfursa al-da'i'a, pp. 15-20.
* .4-. wXv s jEmat v a * \ f iS
FIG. 9. A map of the proposed 1991 reconstructionplan. Source: Beyhum et al.,

Reconstructionof Beirut anJlthe Lost Opportunity( 1992).
::
*e
> . . .
* t s- P -swe ...,i
ss 1vE1 tX -;,rs F- + .,:t:g-''j
v44a
<1gw
Asi*s
FIG. 10. An artist'simpressionof the proposed 1991 plan. Source: Beyhum et al.,
Reconstructionof Beirut and the Lost Opportunity( 1992).
674 SareeMakdisi Laying Claimto Beir7lt
themselveswiththe samezealfor big explosions.It is estimatedthat,as

a resultof such demolition,by the time reconstruction effortsbeganin
earnestfollowingthe formalreleaseof the newDaral-Handasah planin
1993,approximately 80 percentof the structuresin the downtownarea
hadbeendamagedbeyondrepair,whereasonlyarounda thirdhadbeen
reducedto suchcircumstances as a resultof damageinflictedduringthe
waritself.l4In otherwords, moreirreparable damage hasbeendonetothecenter
ofBeirutbythosewhoclaimtoheinterested insalvag?ng andrebuildingitthanhad
beendoneduringthecourse ofthepreceding andhouse-to-
fifteenyearsofshelling
housecombat.15
As this demolitionwasbeingcarriedout, though,oppositiongrew.
In the springof 1992,for instance,a groupof concernedarchitectswas
formedto formulatealternativesto the (stillunofficial)reconstruction
plan. In Mayof thatyear,this grouporganizeda conferenceto debate
issuesof aesthetic,cultural,social,economic,and politicalsignificance
in any reconstruction effort,and to call a halt to the demolition.l6 The
conferencealso calledfor the necessityof publicand governmentalde-
batebeforeanydecisionscouldbe madeandurgedthatappropriate con-
siderationbe given to their proposalsand to other issues of concern
raisedin the large-scalepublicdiscussionsby the holdersof property
rightsin the downtownarea.
In spiteof all thesecalls,however,and in spiteof the increasingat-
tentionandcoveragebeinggivento the nationalparliamentary elections
that year (electoralcampaigning,begun in earnestin the summerof
1992,overshadowed the debatesoverdowntownBeirut),the government
passeda seriesof lawsenablingthe creationof Solidere,whosearticlesof
incorporation wereapprovedin Julyof thatyear.One of the last actsof
the previousgovernment(shortlyafter the electionsand before it re-
signedand was replacedby the Hariricabinet),in fact,was the formal
approvalof Dar al-Handasah's brandnew masterplan on 14 October
1992.Thus in an atmosphereof nationalanxietyand concernwiththe
outcomeof the Septemberelections,andwithno publicparticipation in
decisionmaking the futureof the heartof Beirutwas decided,long
beforeany (official)investmentshad been made in it. Demolitionwas
14.Seeibid.,p.l9.
15. Salaam,for one, points out that morebuildingswere destroyedby bulldozersthan
by the war.Accordingto Salaam,"I1y a eu plus d'immeublesdetruitspar les bulldozersque
par la guerre. En 1992, des constructionsbordaientencore la place des Martyrs.Elles ont
ete demoliesen six mois"(LeMonde,3 June 1995). Some cynics,in fact, assertthat much of
the fightingin the downtownarea duringthe warwas paid for in order to achieveas much
destructionas possible;Najah Wakeemhas made this allegationpubliclyon severalocca-
sions. Such viewsare certainlycynical,but given the manytwistsand turns of the war,they
cannotbe entirelyruled out of the question;in any case, manyseeminglyequallyimproba-
ble events have been substantiallydocumented.
16. The papers from this conferenceare collectedin Beyrouth.
resumedin 1994and, by the end of thatyear,as I'vesaid,muchof the

centerof the cityhadbeen razed.
Solidereitselfmakeslittlereferenceto its prehistoryor to previous
plansfor reconstruction in the centerof Beirut.Formallyestablishedon
5 May1994,the companysaysin its informationbookletsthatit repre-
sentsthe largesturbanredevelopment projectof the l990s. Its solerefer-
ence to the recenthistoryof the citycenteris as follows:
Locatedat thehistoricalandgeographical coreof thecity,thevibrant

financial,commercial andadministrative hubof thecountry,the Bei-
rut CentralDistrictcameunderfirefromall sidesthroughoutmost
of the sixteenyearsof fighting.Atthe end of the war,thatareaof the
city was afflictedwith overwhelmingdestruction,total devastation
of the infrastructure,
the presenceof squattersin severalareas,and
extremefragmentation and entanglementof propertyrightsinvolv-
ing owners,tenantsand lease-holders. 17
Soliderethuspresentsitselfas a healingagency,designedto helpcentral

Beirutrecoverfromits "afflictions." It makesno mentionof the previous
historyof reconstruction not onlybecausethesehistoriesdo not existin
officialtermsbut alsobecauseof the company'speculiarand contradic-
toryrelationshipto history(to whichI shallreturnshortly).
Solidere'scapitalconsistsof twotypesof shares,togetherinitiallyval-
ued at U.S.$1.82billion.TypeA shares,initiallyvalued at U.S.$1.17
billion,wereissuedto the holdersof expropriated propertyin the down-
townarea,in "proportion" to the relativevalueof theirpropertyclaims,
as adjudicatedby the company's boardof founders.A furtherissueof 6.5
milliontypeB shareswasreleasedto investors,bringingin newcapitalat
an initialstockofferof U.S.$100per share(andindeedthe stockoffering
was denominatedin U.S. dollars,not Lebanesepounds).Withina few
weeks,untilits closinginJanuary1994,the stockofferinghadbeenover-
subscribedby 142 percent(thatis, U.S.$926million,offeredby some
twentythousandsubscribers). Thereis, however,an importantcaveatto
all this. Stocksmayonly be purchasedor held by certainindividualsin
the followingorder of priority:the originalholdersof propertyrights
(of all nationalities,though presumablythe majoritywould have been
Lebanese);Lebanesecitizensand companies;the Lebanesestate and
publicinstitutions;andpersonsof Lebaneseorigin,as wellas the citizens
and companiesof other Arabcountries.Non-Arabs,unless they were
originallypropertyholders, are thus not permitted to buy shares
(though,becauseof specialexemptionsto strictLebaneselawsregulating
the ownershipof landbyforeigners,theywillbe allowedto purchasereal
estatefromthe companyoncelandandbuildingsareplacedon the mar-
17. Solidere,InformationBooklet1995, p. 5; hereafterabbreviatedIB.

ketby Solidere).Furthermore, thereis a maximumindividualsharehold-

ing limitof 10 percent.
Solideresharesarenowbeingexchangedon the company's ownpri-
vatestockexchange(noton the officialBeirutStockExchange,whichthe
companyhas circumvented). As of December1994,shareshad already
appreciatedin valueby some 50 percent,thoughtheyhavecomedown
considerably sincethen.l8In additionto the expectedreturnsand divi-
dends(whichshouldaccelerateasbuildingsandlandareputon the mar-
ket),whichthe boardof foundersestimatedat approximately 18 percent
overa twenty-five yearperiod,the companyand its investorswillnot be
taxed,eitheron incomefromthe projector on capitalgains,for the first
ten years.In factthe firstsalesof landarealreadyin process,reportedly
at a priceof U.S.$950per built-upsquaremeter (consideringthat the
projectentailsa built-upareaof some4.5 millionsquaremeters,one can
get fromthissomesenseof the valueof Solidere'sproperty).l9
Solidere'smassiveadvertisingcampaignnot only plasteredhuge
postersall over Beirutand the restof Lebanonbut also tookout ads in
foreignnewspapers andmagazines."InLebanon," readsone of Solidere's
adsin the Financial Times,"everyoneknowswe mustrebuildBeirut'scity
centre.Weknowhow."20 Anotherad, in the New YorkTimes,proudlypro-
claims,"We'veinvestedin the futureof an ancientcity.''2lLarge-scale
mailingsof glossyinformationbooklets,maps,and even a miniatureset
of picturestakenfromoversizedpostershavespreadthroughoutLeba-
non ("Lecentrevillevousinvite...."). All of this,incidentally, appeared
beforethecompanyitselfhadactuallycomeintobeing(theadsweretech-
nicallysponsoredby Solidere's"boardof founders").
In anycase,whatfewpeoplein Lebanonseemto realizeis thatSoli-
dere is not going to rebuildthe downtownarea:it is going to oversee
the rebuildingof the downtownarea.Otherthanthe infrastructure, the
companywilllimititselfto at mostabouta thirdof the constructionof
actualbuildings.Tobe morespecific,Soliderewill,accordingto its infor-
mationbooklets,havefourprincipalfunctions:first,to supervisethe exe-
cution of the government-authorized reconstructionplan; second, to
financeandrebuildtheinfrastructure; third,to rehabilitate
certainbuild-
ings and structuresand the developmentof the rest of the real estate;
and, fourth,to manageand sell these properties,buildings,and other
facilities.One of the strikingfeaturesof the developmentof the infra-
structureis thatnot onlywillthe Lebanesestatedenyitselfanypossible
taxrevenuesfromthisdevelopmentfor the firstten yearsbutit willeven
18. As of February1997, sharesare tradedat around U.S.$110.

19. See al-Hayat, 4 July 1995.
20. Financial Times,9July 1993, p. 14.
21. New YorkTimes,22 Nov. 1993, p. C11.
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new Solidereplan. Source:Solidere.

FIGS. 11-12. Artists'impressionsof the
go so far as to actuallypay for the infrastructure

repairs(estimatedby
the companyat U.S.$565millionin 1993 dollars),largelyby allocating
the companyextraspacefor developmentin an areaof land to be re-
claimedfromthe sea.22
Solidere'srebuildingprojectencompasses a surfaceareaof about1.8
millionsquaremeters,whichwillincludethe reclamation of over600,000
squaremetersfrom the sea. The plan will involvethe developmentof
over 4.5 millionsquaremetersof built-upspace,of whicharoundhalf
willbe dedicatedto residentialunits.Approximately halfof the areawill
be owned,managed,and ultimatelysoldby Solidere.Muchof the restof
it willbe ceded to the state(infrastructure,
parks,open spaces),and an
additional80,000squaremetersareexemptedlots(government andreli-
giousbuildings,whichrevertto theirpreviousowners,thatis, the state
andthe variousreligiouscommunities). Some260buildingsin the center
havebeendesignatedas recoverable andhencesparedthe bulldozerand
dynamitecrews;theirformerownersor otherinterestedpartiesmayre-
developand refurbishthem.Anyone,includingformerowners(whoare
given priority),wishingto recuperatesuch a building,however,would
haveto payto thecompanya 12percentsurchargeon theestimatedvalue
of the lot;theymustalsobe preparedto repairthebuildingwithina two-
yeartime frameand subjecttheirplansto an architectural briefissued
by Solidereand underthe company'sstrictsupervision.Solidere'srecu-
perationbriefsareintendedto preserveeachrecuperatedbuilding'sorig-
inal externalfeaturesand faSadesso that the centraldistrictretainsits
previous(surface)appearanceto the greatestextentpossibleand so that
thecentraldistrictcanbe woven(visually)intotherestof the urbanfabric
of Beirut.
22. Accordingto IB, "theCompanyshallbe reimbursedby the Statefor all infrastruc-

ture costs incurred,in one or a combinationof the followingways:in cash, in State-owned
land within the BCD [BeirutCentralDistrict],in land within the reclaimedland zone, or
in concessionsfor the exploitationof infrastructureservices."Since the state is going to end
up paying for the projectin the end, many criticsof the Solidereplan argue that, at the
very least and if for no other reason than this-the state should have much more of a
direct role in the company'saffairsand even that the state should simply seek financing
from multilaterallending agenciesor from banksand manage the reconstructionby itself,
reapingat least some of the benefitsin the form of tax and other revenues,of whichit is in
considerableneed, rather than passing those on to a privatecompanyandultimately paying
for thereconstruction in any case. It should be noted that critics of the Solidere plan have
argued that the real cost for the infrastructurein the center of the city is in the range of
U.S.$50-U.S.$70million, a figure well within the reach of the Lebanesegovernment;see,
for example, Le Monde,3 June 1995. Since so much of the support for the single-firm
concept has been argued in terms of the government'ssupposed inabilityto pay for the
infrastructure and hence the need for privateinvestmentas opposed to public expendi-
ture-this is a crucialissue. Criticssuggest that the government,now firmlyin the hands
of certain private sector interests,has abandoned its own role in the city center in favor
of these same interests.
Solidere'smasterplancallsfor the creationof a livelyand attractive

urbancorein Beirut,featuringa balancedmixtureof officespace,resi-
dentialareas,commercialand retailzones,parksand tree-linedprome-
nades,as wellas beachfacilitiesand twoyachtclubs.In contrastwiththe
notorious1991Daral-Handasah plan(whichin a waylookslikea deliber-
ateredherring),a concerted effort hasbeenmadebySolidere's architects
andurbanplanners led by the Harvard-educated Oussama Kabbani-
not to departvisuallyfromthe traditionalappearanceor streetplan of
the citycenteror adjoiningneighborhoods(exceptin the areato be re-
claimedfromthe sea, whichwillbe basedon a grid layoutwith wider
streets).The company'sadvertisingbookletsrely heavilyon visualand
photographiccontrastsbetweenthe ruinedcentraldistrictas it stands
today,the bustleof the districtin the headyprewardaysof the 1960sand
1970s,and the promiseof a poisedand elegantlymanicureddowntown
sometimein the next ten or fifteenyears.
In responseto thevariouscriticismsof the previousDaral-Handasah
plan, the currentmasterplan highlightsthe intendedreintegrationof
the centraldistrictwithinthe greaterBeirutmetropolitanarea.It will
alsoincludethe plannedpreservation of certainbuildingsin the historic
core (particularlyin the relativelysmallarea from the grandSerailto
Martyrs'Square);the "reconstruction" of some of the old souks;the
plannedpreservationof the lower-classand lower-middle-class residen-
tial areaswithinthe centraldistrict(thoughit seemsfairlyobviousthat
theseareaswillnot takeon theirpreviousclassidentitiesand willproba-
bly be pricedbeyondthe reachof most Lebanesecitizens);23 and as a
nod towardthe moreculturallyand environmentally motivatedcritics-
the plannedcreationof a seasidepark(onthe landfill),whichwillinclude
whatone of the bookletsrefersto as "someculturalfacilities," including
a libraryanda centerfor the arts.In addition,thereis a policythatlimits
high-risebuildingsandcallsfora seafrontboulevard,hotels,restaurants,
cafes,gardens,anda newhighwaylinkingthe centraldistrictwithBeirut
InternationalAirport,whichis barelythreemilesawayto the south.
A majorfeatureof the Solidereplan allowsfor the preservationof
variousarchaeological finds,someof whichwillremainin theirpresent
locations,othersof whichwillbe relocatedto an archaeological parknear
Martyrs'Square.The archaeological richnessof the centraldistrictcan-
not be overestimated:the earliestsettlementsin Beirutdate to some
65,000yearsago,andthe cityhasbeen inhabitedandrebuiltby virtually
everymajorculturein the easternMediterranean. Presentarchaeological
23. Propertypricesin Beirutare todaynot only astronomicalbut out of all proportion
to the local economy;it is not unusual for a new apartmentto be priced in the region of
one million dollars. It should be said that Solidere claimsthat its residentialunits will be
aimed at a varietyof income groups,but it remainsto be seen to whatextent this claimwill
be realized.
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CriticalInquiry Sprang1997 681
q 2; ' <3;l 'S j !r- ;Ut s
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FIG. 15. An artist'simpressionof the new Solidereplan. Source:Solidere.
digs in betweenworkon the infrastructure, whichis alreadyunder-

way organizedby variousLebaneseuniversitiesand financedby Soli-
dereand international agencies,haveuncoveredmedievaland Ottoman
structures,and even earlierfinds(Mamluke,Crusader, Arab,Byzantine,
Persian,Roman,Greek,Phoenician)and Canaanite,as well as Bronze
and StoneAge),includingthe recentlyuncoveredwallsof the Phoenician
city,whichdate fromthe secondmillenniumB.C. One of the prizesthat
archaeologistsstillhope to locateis the Romanlawschool,the firstin the
RomanEmpireand one of the most importantuntil its destructionin
an earthquake.Originallysomewhatequivocalaboutthe archaeological
dimensionsof the reconstruction project,Soliderenowseemsto be taking
it veryseriously.Accordingto the archaeologists I spoketo, someof the
majorinfrastructure work(includingundergroundcanalsandpartof the
road network)will be divertedor redesignedin orderto workaround
the recentlyuncoveredancientPhoeniciancity walls.The redeveloped
soukarea(essentiallya shoppingmall)willbe constructedalongthe axes
of the ancientcity,whichhaveremainedlargelythe samesinceearlyHel-
lenistictimes.At the same time, of course,the companyis turningthe
architecturaland archaeological preservation of certainsitesto commer-
cial advantage;one Soliderestrategistwasquotedrecentlyin Le Moruie,
saying,"wehavebeen accusedof the destructionof the architectural pat-
rimonyof Beirut;that'sfalse,and,moreto the point,it'snot in our inter-
--WS:: reX-isiEa-
FIC. 16. An archaeologicalsite in the oldest part of the city. Note the ancient city
wallsand the ruins of a Crusadercastle. Photo by author.
est. Like the archaeology,it forms part of the marketing [program]of

Solidere."24
In visual terms at least (or at most), Kabbani'surban design team is
trying to ensure that the new city center will not look like a foreign body
in the heart of Beirut. However,the actual details of the actual construc-
tion of actual buildings remains, so far as one can tell, a mystery.We do
know that the appearance and faSadesof recuperated buildings cannot
be altered in any way (though internallythey can be entirelyredesigned).
But other than that we know little or nothing. There was, for instance,
no outright winner in the 1994 InternationalIdeas Competitionfor the
"reconstruction"of the souks. In reality, this subproject could only
amount to a constructionfrom scratch,since the souks were razed, either
by Solidere itself or by its variouspredecessors(though it is worth asking
why this project relentlesslyclings to the language of the re- rather than
admittingthat it is not about the resurrection,redemption,recuperation,
reinvention, remembrance of that past but rather its invention from
scratch).An internationaljury of architectsreceived 357 detailed propos-
als from 51 countries,of which 3 were named winners.In effect, however,
no one, or at least no one outside of Solidere, knows in any detailed way
what the future "souk"area will look like.
In any case, Solidere'sconcern for (indeed we might call it an obses-
sion with) appearancesshould not obscure the primaryemphasis of the
24. Jean-Paul Lebas, quoted in Le Moruie,3 June 1995.
e {: s r { . r r jeu B s ............................ ^ y
CriticalInquiry Spring 1997 683
1..,1, |
1.'''...1..1..1,o,1 | .l g
FIG. 17. Archaeologicalexcavationof ancient Romanbaths in the city center.Photo

by author.
project, which lies underneath and behind the various faSades and at
the level of infrastructure its greatest concern all along. In a sense, the
infrastructureprojectis at the heart of the matter here; it will be covered
up by faSades that may turn out to have a "Levantine"flavor but that
could just as easily have had no flavor at all (as with the original Dar
al-Handasahplan). Flavorin this context amounts to little more than a
marketing advantage, a way to sell the underlying infrastructure;the
company strategistquoted above goes on to say that the downtown'sar-
chaeological and architecturalpatrimonywill form an essential element
in the competition between the rebuilt center of Beirut and other re-
gional centers, such as Dubai, that offer a similartechnicalinfrastructure
but that lack Beirut'shistoricalrichnessand hence the kind of flavorthat
Solidere can lay claim to. "Wewill play this card,"he promises.
The reclaimed land, for instance, will require an impressiveinfra-
structureto protect it from the sea, consistingof submergedcaissonsand
a lagoon formed by artificial breakwaters.The new road network will
be backed up by a series of tunnels and extensive underground parking
facilities(for 40,000 cars).The centraldistrictwill have its own dedicated
underground power supply system. It will also have the most advanced
telecommunicationsinfrastructurein the world.The telecommunications
serviceswill allowfor high-speed data communications,transactionalda-
tabases, and of course international communicationsvia satellite earth
stationsand internationalsubmarinefiber-opticcable links. Beirut'sbasic
copperphonenetworkwillbe backedup in the centraldistrictby digital

fiber-opticlinescapableof carryingvideosignalsas wellas audio.Finally,
the districtwill be coveredwith GSMcellularserviceprovidedby no
fewerthanten basestations(GSMrepresentsthe leadingedge of digital
mobiletelecommunications).25 Finally,the centraldistrict,whichis al-
readycloseto the city'sport,willbe servedby Beirut'snewlyexpanded
international airport(whichis beingupgradedto serve6 millionpassen-
gers annually)via the new expressway. And, for those who preferthe
luxuryof travellingby yacht,two marinaswillbe directlyincorporated
intothe centraldistrict.
2. Beirut?Or,a Cityzuithout
History?
Beforeresumingmyreadingof the overallSoliderescheme,I would
liketo dwellfor a momenton the "reconstruction" of the soukareaand
on whatit mighttell us aboutSolidere'speculiarrelationshipto history.
The soukprojectformspartof the firstphaseof the overallreconstruc-
tion effort.Phaseone is designedto set up two majormagnetsto draw
life backinto the centraldistrict the bankingareaaroundRiadal-Solh
Squareand Placede l'Etoile,and the soukarea.
I havealreadymentionedthat,evenfollowingthe releaseof a sketch
of a masterplan,it remainsunclearwhatthe newsoukwilllooklike.The
company'smostrecent(1995)informationbookletsaysthatthe attempt
behindthe "souk"projectis to "recapture a lifestyleformerlyidentified
withthe citycenterand re-createa marketplace wheremerchantspros-
per andallenjoyspendinglonghours"(IB, p. 25).Elsewherein thebook-
let, we are told that "theclearingof the old souks,whichaccompanied
the clearingand demolitionof buildingsand sitesin the BCDmandated
by the MasterPlan,pavedthe wayforreconstruction of thatdistrictover
an areaof 60,000squaremeters." Thisdistrict deliberately heavilydam-
aged,we willrecall,in the demolitionsof 1983and 1986and finallypul-
verizedin the summerof 1994 will, as the bookletgoes on to say,
"incorporate departmentstores,retailoutlets,supermarkets, theaters,of-
fices,exhibitionareas,residencesand parkingfacilities.The totalbuilt-
up surfaceareawillnear 130,000squaremeters"(IB, p. 17).Clearly,the
mostpressingquestionhereis not the one abouthowa collectionof Pizza
25. With an expected 1 millionelectronicphone lines and 750,000 cellularlines, for

a populationof 3.5 million,Lebanonshould soon have the greatestnumberof phone lines
per capitaof anycountryin the world;it is here, though, that this statistic,used internation-
ally as a benchmarkof "development,"revealsits shortcomings,since these extremelyex-
pensive services will be availableonly to a relativelysmall proportion of the Lebanese
population.
-
, X
t si->i_ ^ --1 7 18 t ';!}- }- i-t; -- ! --.century
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:::LL:: ,,., ,, ;- . ,, . |! R -::{ :' Fl(;. 19.-Photograph of the excavatio

'rX . / S J; l :, - ,, creat room fbr an undergroundgarage. No
.,'0 0 ---tt 5,j--Aws - H - -. ground is eight to ten feet high. The domed
Fle;. 18.-A map of the proposed souk redevelop-

ment plan. Source:Solidere.
. . . * * s * -
Huts,Safeways,Walgreens,McDonald's, BodyShops,BurgerKings,Be-
nettons,Gaps,Blockbuster Videos,andTowerRecordsgatheredtogether
and given the benedictionof the termsouk will recaptureany lifestyle
otherthanthatof the postmodernshoppingmall,whichis clearlywhat
it wouldinevitablylook like,largelybecausethat'swhatit wouldbe. In
fact,all we knowis that,whilecallingitselfa souk,thisareacan amount
to nothingmorethana postmodernpasticheof the conceptof the souk.
Forhow,in anycase,couldone re-createsomethinglikea souk,whichis
not onlythe productof a long historicalprocessbut is alsocharacterized
andevendefinedby spontaneityand aboveall heterogeneity? Indeed,to
speakof planninga soukis somethingof a contradiction in terms.Thus,
thesouksubproject maybe takennotmerelyas symptomatic of thelarger
Solidereprojectbut as a synecdochefor it.
Solidere'spublicationsmakeuse of the languageof memoryand af-
fectto characterize whattheypromisewillbe theflavorof the newcentral
district.Butit seemsclearthatthe simulacral effectof the reconstruction
projectis to be achievedspecificallyand solelyin visual termsor, to be
precise,in termsof appearanceand faSade.Hencethe soukareawillbe
calleda soukbecauseit will(supposedly) somehowlooklikewhata souk
lookslike.Butwhatdoes a souklooklike?In particular, whatdid Beirut's
old souklooklike?
Suddenlya particularly strikingaspectof all this planningbecomes
quiteclear.Assumingall goeswellandthe soukgets"rebuilt," it willonly
be a matterof yearsbeforethe generationof Lebanesethatremembered
the old souk,the old Beirut,willbe gone.The souksand the old down-
townhavebeen gone since 1975,afterall;peopleof my owngeneration
canbarelyrememberwhattheywerelike,andanyonebornafter1970or
so can haveno ideaat all whatthe soukswerelike.(I myselfhaveonlya
fewsketchymemories.)Ofcourseone couldgo offto Tripolior Damascus
or Aleppoto see whatotherArabsouksare like,or to Istanbulor other
citiesin the regionto see whatotherLevantinesoukslook like;but it is
in the "nature" (if I mayuse thatlanguage)of souksthateachone hasits
distinctiveidentityand even that differentsouksin the samecity have
thelrownc.lstlnctlveldentltles.
Then whycallthis areaa souk?Whynotjust callit a shoppingdis-
trict,likeBaltimore's InnerHarboror othersuchprojectsin the U.S.and
Europe(of whichDisney'sU.S. historytheme park near Washington,
D.C., wouldhavebeen anothervariant),in whichtime and historyas
muchas more"material" objectsget commodifiedand effectivelyput up
for sale and consumption? Afterall,just as MTVand CNNjockeyfor
positionon Lebaneseairwaves,the streetsof Beirutare alreadywitness
to an astonishingproliferation of Americanglobalconsumer-culture out-
lets. Herethe logicof the simulacrum becomesalmostinescapable.Guy
Debord'sfamoussloganfromThe Societyof the Spectacle,"theimagehas
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C"tical Inquiry Spring 1997 687

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FIG.20.-From one of the Soliderebooklets. Note how the photo has been inserted
into the margin and seems to protrude from underneath the text, an bunderneath"that
does not exist. Source:Solidere.
becomethe finalformof commodityreification,"26

is, as FredricJameson
hasargued,now
evenmoreaptforthe "prehistory" of a societybereftof allhistoricity,
one whoseownputativepastis littlemorethana set of dustyspecta-
cles. In faithfulconformityto poststructuralistlinguistictheory,the
pastas "referent" findsitselfgraduallybracketed,and then effaced
altogether,leavingus withnothingbut texts.27
Whatwillpresumably appearin a fewyearsas the newBeirut"souk"will
presentitselfas recapturingand re-creatingthe old souk,the lifestyleof
happycustomersand ask-no-questions merchants(thatis, harkingback
to the mythof the Levantineentrepot,to the happyLebanonof the good
old days,to a never-neverland that has only ever existedin Solidere's
booklets),and henceit willclaimto re-presentthe pastand the historical
collectivememoryof the old Beirutsouksin its ownspatiality. It willap-
26. Quoted in FredricJameson, Postmodernism,or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism
(Durham,N.C., 1992),p. 18.
27. Ibid.
Sj Si B . - ^e^oFr x °. M
A <'' ^ ........................................ , s ^ i
pear or, to be precise, it will be marketed as a re-creation of what was

there before, rather than as something that is entirely novel, something
that, properly speaking, has no historicaldepth because it has no past at
all, because it is part of a much broader process that has from the begin-
ning tried to strip away the past and lay bare the surface of the city as
sheer surface spectacle and as nothing more than that.
Indeed, the representationof the past in visual or iconic terms is a
recurringtheme in Solidere'svariousinformationbooklets. One of these
booklets, appropriatelyentitled Wasatal-tasaoulat(The Center of Contro-
versy), published in 1993 in response to various criticismsof the recon-
struction project, incorporatesvisual references to the past by including
thin slices of old photographsinserted at the inside marginsof its pages.
The visual effect is to make it seem as though there is an old photograph
"underneath"each facing page, which is only partly protruding (so that
you can barely determine the content of the photograph; because it is
grainy and black and white, all that'sclear is that it is of something old).
But if you try to turn the page to see the rest of the photo, you realize
that it's not there after all; it just seemsto be there, as though it were
serving as the figurationof some kind of iconic or visual unconsciousness
of the book: there, but not there, an absent presence. As soon as you try
X :ffff;
tt ,j ; --> n
t, . :..
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s 4jssJ > ! t
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s < > r Ev
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FIG.21. The cover of Beirut: Do WeKnow itt Note how the charactersare pointing
towardsone of Solideres own sketchesof Beirut as though it were real (see fig. 12). The
wordBeirut as it appearson the cover is the company'slogo. Source:Solidere.
:-t
si t ...
z-se.
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to get accessto the full "image"of the past (foras I say the pastis pre-
sentedonly in visualterms),you realizethatit'sonly a fragmentaryim-
age, a fragmentof a largerwholethathasdisappeared"underneath" the
weightof the "present"text, and that there is no "underneath" from
whichthe printappearsto protrudebecausethe text itselfis literallyas
wellas metaphorically depthless.
But undoubtedlythe most interestingof Solidere'sbookletsis the
one calledBeirut: Do WeKnozlJIt? This colorfullittlebookletseemsto be
aimedat ajuvenileaudience,givennot onlyits cartoonformatbutabove
all its storyline.Its premiseis thata littleboycalledFaridwantsto know
"whatthiscityis."He askshismotherto explain.Hereit is worthquoting
at somelengththe initialdialoguethatsetsup the storyline.
Whatis thiscity?
I wasinvolvedin organizingmythingsandhadnot been paying
attentionto whatFaridwasdoing.I lookedup at him.
Whatcity,Farid?
Thisone!
And he pointedto a photographalbumthathe had takenfrom
my table.I cranedmy neckto see wherehis fingerwaspointing.
That'sBeirut,Farid!
Beirut>!
-le$e *
tfet, k 12 [ii - _t_j
* .s = w .1 ._e -w
= ! L . s
^ . .
o9, ,:.:: ., ^ in < aw
;^S_ .. 2SS
FIG. 22. Opening pages of BeiruZ: Do WeKnowIt? Note the postcard of Martyrs'
Squarein the top left; see fig. l(b). Source:Solidere.
At this point in the text we see a reproduction of a classic postcard of

Martyrs'Squarefrom before the war.The storylineresumes:
He looked up at me in surprise.And he said:

We live in Beirut. And I've never seen these buildings in my
life!
I smiled. His life, which had begun during the war! How could
he believe that this was indeed Beirut?So I explained.
-These are pictures of Beirut from before the war. Of course
you've never seen it.
And I turned over a few of the pages.
-Especially these, Farid;these are pictures of the heart of Bei-
rut. And all you and your friends know and experience are its ex-
tremities,like the extremitiesof the body.
He asked:
-And is the city like a body?
-Exactly like a body.A city is born, it grows,it changes, exactly
like a body.And it's the same with Beirut, our beloved city.28
It becomes clear that the booklet'sstorylineinvolves Faridtaking a tour

of the old Beirut. This is in other words not merely a narrativeof the
history of Beirut as Solidere would like that history to appear but a full-
blownguidebook,completewith a map, a legend, and a route that should
be followedthrough the center of the city,with descriptionsof the various
significantstructuresor ruins given along the way.
There is just one problem with this guidebook: the area which it
proposes to guide young Farid through no longer exists. Published in
1994-even as the center of Beirut was being wiped clean by Solidere
itself-this booklet amounts not merely to a children'shistoryof the cen-
ter of Beirut but to a guidebookwhose referent has disappearedand has
been replaced by the textual images that the book itself contains. It is a
guidebookto a space that can no longer be found anywhereexcept in the
sort of textual (and specificallyvisual) forms that so dazzle little Farid.
One can only imagine a real-life Farid taking the map and guidebook
downtown and trying to follow the meandering route that it charts
through a wastelandthat has taken the place of the actualmaterialbuild-
ings that once stood there. Or did they?
As this little guidebook gets closer to the present and starts dealing
with the war, we are presented with various dazzling examples of
computer-generatedgraphics.Above a photo of Allenby Street as it was
left after the street fighting, for example, there is a computer-generated
photo of the same street as it is supposed to appear after it has been
refurbishedand cleaned up. The computerimage is clearlybased on the
same wartime photo (for example, the perspective and the borders in
28. Solidere, Beirut:Hal na'arafha?

[Beirut? Do We Know It?] (Beirut, 1994), pp. 2-3.
;/s < ' _ 0 _ * i i 4+
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CritwalInquiry Spring 1997 691
, *i S; r ^ . ii ,, ';,4. *8.-,9 ' :° ,r: Xr.r;- iOJ J ti e < : r :'
; 0 -t -d j b St R tt - j -,; t V
_ .
FIG.23. Guidebookand map in Beirllt:Do WeKnowItt Note that the area that it
proposes to guide people through no longer exists except in such textual form. Near the
top right of the map, for example, note one of Solidere'sown artist'simpressionsof what
that area will look like a view reproducedin fig. 11. Source:Solidere.
each of the imagesare identical).However,this photographof a simu-

latedfuturejust as easilycouldbe of the old prewarAllenbyStreet(that
is, there'snothingparticularlyfuturisticaboutit; it lookslike the same
streetas in the wartimephoto only withoutthe damageand with the
additionof a fewcars,a fewtrees,andsometastefullyinterspersedpedes-
trians).Hence,onceagain,Solidere'sslogan:Beirut AnAncientCityfor
the Future,in whichfutureand past becomeall but indistinguishable,
the one a replicationof the other,onlyit is not clearwhichis the replica-
tion and whichthe originalor whetherthere was an originalto begin
with.
Whatthe Solidereprojectrepresents,in a sense, is an attemptto
spectacularize history.Thuswhatmighthavebeencalledthe flowof Bei-
rut'spastor the collectivememoriesof the cityare workedinto the Soli-
dereproposalsandbookletssolelyin visualform,in a pasticheversionof
the historyof centralBeirutand of Lebanon,one that in representing
the impositionof spatiallayersin corporealtermsas the "growth" of a

single"body"translatesthe passageof time into appearance,into spec-
tacle.29
Andyetit is worthaskingwhatalternatives theremighthavebeen to
all this or whatalternativestheremightstillbe and whetheralternative
In retrospect,it becomesquite
conceptionsof historyare stillpossible.30
clearthatfromat least 1983therehasbeena concertedeffortto wipethe
surfaceof centralBeirutclean,to purifyit of all historicalassociationsin
the formof its buildings,to renderit purespace,purecommodity, pure
realestate.The mostobviousand strikingpotentialwarmemorial(in a
countrythathas allbut forgottenits war),the shrapnel-scarred statuein
Martyrs'Square,willbe completelyrepaired itsbulletholeserasedand
coveredoverjust as the historicalreferentsin the citycenter(andhistory
itself)arebeingerasedin the reconstruction. Andin one sensethe demo-
lition crewsand the powerfulfinancialinterestsstandingbehindthem
have producedan irreversiblefait accompli.Thus, what becomesim-
portantat this stageisn'tthe materialconstruction,as such,but rather
whatthe constructionprojectrepresentsand how it ties into otherpro-
cessesandotherdiscoursesin Beirut,in Lebanon,andin theworld.What
I wantto addressnow is the political-discursive modesthroughwhich
thisactivityinscribesand makesinterventions in the surfaceof the city.
Or,Let ThemEat CellularPhones

3. "Enrichissez-vous!"
Tel semblebien etre le coeurde l'ideologiede la
"'Enrichissez-vous!'
ThuswritestheeconomistandhistorianGeorgesCorm
reconstruction."3'
in a recentissueof LesCahiersdel'Orient.In the sameissueof thejournal,
the urbansociologistNabilBeyhumarguesthatthe Solidereprojectrep-
resentsan embodimentof the "confusion" of publicandprivateinterests
symbolizedby the arrivalin powerof Haririand his cabinet.32 Indeed,
29. Here it becomes importantto bear in mind the distinctionthat Jameson makes
betweenparodyand postmodernpastiche.See Jameson,Postmodernism, or,theCulturalLogXc
ofLateCapitalism,p. 17.
30. The latterquestion,the questionof history,I plan to take up in a differentessay,
"RememberingBeirut:The Space of Memoryand the Time of War."
31. GeorgesCorm,"LaReconstruction:Ideologieset paradoxes,"LesCahiers del'Orient
32-33 (1994):85.
32. Beyhumwrites:
Le role de l'Etatcommearbitreetait decrie par les promoteurssoit par ideologiesoit
pour realiserleur objectifa courtterme. La confusionentre interetspriveset interets
publicsqui etait symboliseepar l'ariveede Haririau pouvoiravec son equipe, sans
qu'ils demissionnentde leurs postes dans leurs firmes privees, risquaitd'aggraver
encore les problemesmeme si elle pouvaitfaciliterles choses. [Beyhum,"Beyrouth
au coeur des debats,"p. 103]
a _ C I |
S..He - .
o
z P. s-., | X8|
.... _ |
11|[i - "" F
i .D@. B w o o i
FIGS. 24-26. The futureas referent:the giant poster put up at the northernend of
Martyrs Squareto projectwhat the view is supposed to be like when the reconstructionis
complete. Photosby author.
one of the mostpersistentcriticismsof the Solidereproject whichneeds

to be understoodas the centerpieceof a discourseI'midentifyingas Har-
irism hasbeen thatit not onlyconfusespublicand privateinterestsbut
thatit representsthe colonizationof the formerby the latter."How," asks
Sarkis,"do we define publicspace, now that the state is no longer the
agency keen on promoting public life, but a group of private entrepre-
neurswantingurbanlife to promotetheirbusinesses?"33
WhatSolidereand Harirismseemto representis preciselythe with-
eringawayof the state,whateverone mighthavecalleda publicsphere
or civilsociety,and theirfinaland decisivecolonizationby capital.And
perhapsit is for this reasonthat the companyavoidsany discussionof
Lebanesenationalidentityexceptin termsof visualpastiche.WhatSoli-
dereoffersinsteadof a redemptionof the competingnarratives of collec-
tive memoryor nationalidentityis an emptying-outof those collective
claimsand memoriesand the substitutionof a "collectivity" definedby a
stock-offering,in whicha strictlyindividualized formof participation is
regulatedand definedby the purchaseof stocksratherthanin termsof
historicor communaVnational identitiesand uncommodified rights.For
certainformsof publicplanning,the stateand aboveall the nationhave
been key determiningdiscourses(no matterhowproblematic), yet Soli-
dere seeksto bypassthesediscoursesin searchof a muchpurerformof
33. Sarkis, "Territorial Claims, p. 1 18.
694 SareeMakdisi LayingClaimto Beirut
+[!j-$,,llltt; - Xt* s; : *: ^ .;+

'<,l>-*'g9i<' > 5i >_^ ,t __ L
FIG.25.
intensificationthatfinallyhasonlyas muchto do withthe putativenation

as is requiredby the dictatesof marketingtechniquesandthe production
of a pastichenostalgiafor somethingthat was neverthere in the first
place,namely,an "authentic" and, moreimportantly, supposedlyuncon-
testednarrativeof Lebanesenationalidentitythatsomehowharksall the
waybackto the Phoeniciansandthatcanbe summonednowin commod-
ity form to add an unproblematictinge of local color to an otherwise
globalproject.
Emergingfromthe fierycrucibleof the warin 1990,Lebanonfound
itselfa countryvirtuallywithouta state.The statebeganto reconstitute
itselfshortlyafterthe war,however,andfollowingthe parliamentary elec-
tions in the summerof 1992 the last transitionalgovernmentresigned
andwasreplacedbya newparliamentanda newcabinetunderthe newly
appointedprimeminister,the multibillionaire engineeringtycoonHariri.
The ascendencyof the Haririadministration signalleda majorturning
pointin the historyof Lebanon.Whilethe countryhasalwayshada free-
marketeconomy,the arrivalof Hariri whoas an individualwasalready
a majorplayerin the Lebaneseeconomy(hisnet wealthis the equivalent
of a substantialproportionof the country'sGNP) representeda dra-
maticintensificationof the presenceof marketforcesin nationaleco-
nomic and politicalorganization.In fact, in the terms establishedby
Harirism,the processof postwarreconstruction has been one of aston-
ishing self-enrichmentfor the members of the governmentand their
widecircleof business associates.Forthe new government has not only
openedthe floodgates of its
privatization; members, as individuals,take
s
|
| _ s rRs
1..--21.r C e ^ ;a !
^ _ _ .. e _ - 1 _
Crit?calInquiry Spring1997 695
1E_1 B 2' i ..i,,^>t'-Y,4'r.S_ B s

_S tA/5|S | 9 { jt s Ww-t -_
- Se '%>Mo; \ {}<>>.<>2 2.5
FIG.26.
advantageof the verysamemarketliberalizations thattheymandate.At

leastuntilthe electionsof 1996,the parliamentincludedseveralopposi-
tionmembers,whowerecriticalof the governmentanditsreconstruction
planand wereableto blockcertainprojects.Duringthe 1996elections,
however,almost all of those oppositionalfigureslost their seats and
(thankslargelyto overwhelming voterigging)werereplacedbya compla-
centparliamentmadeup largelyof businessmenin pursuitof wealth(in-
cludingHariri).Today'sparliamentis one of the richestin the world;it
includesthirty-fivemillionaires and threebillionaires.
Becauseof the situationthat Lebanonfound itselfin afterthe war
(thenear-totaldeterioration of publicorder,of stateapparatuses, of civic
organizations,of the nationalinfrastructure), the processof privatization
is alreadyat a moreadvancedstagein Lebanonthan it is elsewherein
the world,wherethe forcesof privatization (suchas Berlusconiin Italy)
havehadto facethe oppositionput up preciselyby thoseformsof public
and civicand nationalorganization whichin Lebanonhad alreadybeen
erodedor destroyedby the war. In this sense,Lebanonmaybe seen as a
kindof laboratoryfor the most extreme formof laissez-faire economics
thatthe worldhaseverknown. And, moreover, Beirut itself,especiallyin
view of the reconstruction project, can be seen as a laboratory for the
currentand futureelaborations of globalcapitalism,as wellas forits own
future,thoughwhetherit is possible to speakof theimminent"Lebanoni-
zation"of the world remains to be seen (thiswouldof coursebe a differ-
ent "Lebanonization" than the one popularized by the mediain the early
1980s,whichwasused to referto an uncontainedspreadof communal

violence).
Indeed, if one can speakof a discoursecalled Harirism,it would
centeron butnotbe limitedto Lebanon's multibillionaire
primeminister,
who in the name of economicstabilityhas broughta previouslyun-
dreamt-ofintensification of profitseekingto the Lebaneseeconomy,in
whichthe apparatuses of the statehavenot so muchbeen dismantledor
circumvented as theyhavebeenput to useforprivateinterests,including
thoseof Haririhimself.Witnessfor examplethe recentpassageof a law
enablingthe greatercommercialexploitationof the previouslyhighly
regulatednationalcoastline.Shortlyafterwards (coincidentally)
camethe
announcement of a privatedevelopmentprojectcalledPortHariri,which
would center on the construction,on Beirut'sonly remainingpublic
beach,of a privatehoteland yachtclubcomplex,adjoining,it mightbe
added,a roadthatwasonlyrecentlyrenamedBoulevardRafiqHariri.34
Onecouldjust as easilypointto the impendingplansfor the reorganiza-
tion and possibleprivatization of the nationalairline,whichare contin-
gent on negotiationsbetweenleading politicians;or to the plans to
reducethe numberof televisionstationsfrom sixty to five, whichwill
basicallybe splitup amongvariousinfluentialpersonalities.
"Letthemeatcellularphones"mightsuggestitselfas Harirism's call
to arms.For,in the faceof direpovertyandsqualorat a nationallevel,in
the faceof an immensesocioeconomic crisisand an increasinglydesper-
ate standardof livingfor mostof Lebanesesociety(theminimumwageis
the equivalentof U.S.$150a month,whilepricesforrentandmanygoods
andservicesareoftencomparable to thosein NewYorkor London),Har-
irismoffersthe publica vastlyimprovedinfrastructurethe newcellular
phonelines,the new roadways,the new cabletelevision(alsoownedby
Hariri),the new airportand newlyexpandedair services whetheror
not they need or can affordto use them. Evenas the countryprepares
for a supposedeconomicboomthat is supposedto followthe regional
"peace"agreementwithIsrael,improvements in basicsocialservices,es-
peciallythose providedby the state (education,healthcare,sanitation,
housing),havefor the mostpartgone unaddressed(withthe notableex-
ceptionof municipalgarbagecollectionin Beirut,whichwasrecentlyim-
proved,followingits privatization and purchaseby none other than a
Hariricompany).Indeed,to the broadmassof the Lebanesepopulation
Harirismhas littleor nothingto offerexceptthe samehollowpromises
as thoseof the long-awaitedtrickle-down effectsof AmericanReagano-
micsor EnglishThatcherism. In fact,Harirismemploysthe sameneolib-
eralrhetoricof ReaganismandThatcherism.
Whileat one levelone couldeasilymisunderstand Harirismasrepre-
34. For more on this event, see the Beirut newspaper as-Safir, 20 Dec. 1994, p. 1.
CriticalInquiry St7zng1997 697
sentingthe witheringawayof the state,or its reductionto simplythe

maintenanceof order,and whileit is undoubtedlytruethatthe stateap-
paratuseshavebeencircumvented andto a certainextenteitherdisman-
tled or privatized,we need to extend our analysisa bit more. For at
anotherlevel,whatwe are witnessingis not so muchthe dissolutionof
the statebut ratherits reinforcement,its strengthening.In their book
LaborofDionysus, MichaelHardtandAntonioNegriarguethat"theneo-
liberalprojectinvolveda substantialincreaseof the Statein termsboth
of size and powersof intervention.The developmentof the neoliberal
Statedid not leadtowarda 'thin'formof rulein the senseof the progres-
sivedissipationor disappearance Thus,they
of the Stateas a socialactor."
of privatization
argue,in spiteof the neoliberalrhetoric and the thinstate,
"neoliberal practicemovesin the oppositedirectionto reinforceand ex-
pand the Stateas a strongand autonomoussubjectthat dominatesthe
socialfield, in the realmof publicspendingas in that of judicialand
policeactivity."35
WhileHardtand Negri'sargumentsaredirectedin the firstinstance
at the postmoderneconomiesof the firstworld,thereis a startlingdegree
of accuracyif we stretchtheiranalysisto includea statesuchas Lebanon.
Forthe momentlet mejust registerthe accuracyof theirtheoreticalas-
sessment:not only has governmentdeficitspendingincreaseddramati-
cally(withtotalpublicdebt runningat around60 percentof the 1995
grossGDP),but the repressiveapparatusesof the statehave also been
enormouslystrengthened.Forexample,old censorshiplaws,previously
ignored,are nowbeing enforced;a new educationpolicybringsschool
curriculaunder much tightergovernmentregulation;new medialaws
will,as I alreadymentioned,eliminateall but a handfulof radioandTV
stationsandbringthoseundertightcontroltherebysilencingopposition
voicesin the publicsphere;the death penaltyhas been broughtback
for civil and politicalcrimes;there are widespread(and substantiated)
allegationsof the tortureand abuseof prisonersin Lebanesejails;and
since 1993therehas been a banon streetprotestsof anykind.This last
law has been used with particulareffectivenessin the government's re-
peatedclasheswithtradeunionsseekingto organizestrikesand demon-
strations:firstin July 1995,whenthe armyand internalsecurityforces
wereorderedto suppressthe tradeuniondemonstrations againstthe re-
centincreasein the taxburdenborneby the workingclassand the paral-
lel decreasein the taxburdenof the wealthyminoritywhoconstitutethe
governmentand its circleof businessassociates;and more recentlyin
February1996,whena militarycurfewwasimposedon Beirutandother
citiesto preventa strikeand demonstrations plannedby the GeneralLa-
A Critiqueof the State-Form

35. Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Laborof Dionysus:
(Minneapolis,1994), pp. 242, 245.
698 SareeMakdssi LayingClaimtoBeirut
bor Confederationto call for an increasein the monthlyminimum

wage demandsthathadbeen rejectedby the government.In ordering
the armyto imposethe curfew,PrimeMinisterHarirideclared,"wewill
not allowthe governmentto be toppledfromthe street."
So in factLebanonhaswitnessedbothan astonishingincreasein the
activitiesof repressivestateapparatuses aswellasan increasein thestate's
role in thoseformsof publicplanningthat as opposedto healthcare,
education,andlow-income housing arecalculatedeitherto yieldimme-
diateprivateprofitsor to improvethe infrastructural conditionsfor the
generationof privateprofits.This does not entailmerelythe confusion
of publicand privateinterest,as has oftenbeen suggested.It is, rather,
the colonizationof the formerby the latter.For,to be sure,wherestate
projectsend and privateprojectsbegincan no longerbe determined-
not becausethisis a strongstatethatis organizinga commandeconomy
but becausecapitalhas become the state.Stateand capitalhavebecome
incorporatedas one and the sameforceor processdefinedby the same
discourse(Harirism).36
The transitionhas not been smoothand seamless;there has been
widespreadandongoingpopularresistanceto it, mostnotablythe work-
ers' movements.Furthermore, this is a processwith manyexteriorities;
thereare manygroupsthatit does not assimilateor even regulate.The
economystillhas a burgeoninginformalsector(forexample,the tens of
thousandsof Syrianlaborersworkingin Lebanon,but also unregulated
agricultural andindustrialproductionandeconomicactivltiesof allother
kinds,including variousformsof bankingandfinance).Onecouldsaythat
the informal,unregulatedeconomythat sprangup and persisted-
duringthe warhasnotyetbeenfullycolonizedandincorporated intothe
intensifiedformof capitalismthat the Haririststatehas cometo repre-
sent. Onceagainthis sectorof the economycarrieson with or without
regardto the presenceof the state;peopleare left to theirowndevices,
to makedo as besttheycan,forbetterandfor worse.
OnemightimaginetwoLebanonslivingsimultaneously andperhaps
evencoextensively, rhizomicallyandunevenlyintersecting or overlapping
with one another.On the one hand, thereis the modern Lebanonthat
was born duringthe war,in whichan informal,uneven,unorganized,
unregulatedcombinationof modernand traditionalpatternsof owner-
36. This is what Negri, followingMarx,identifiesas the total subsumptionof society

and the state into capital.See Negri, "TwentyTheses on Marx:Interpretationof the Class
SituationToday,"trans. Hardt, and Kenneth Surin, "'The ContinuedRelevanceof Marx-
ism' as a Question: Some Propositions,"in MarxismBeyondMarxism, ed. Makdisi,Cesare
Casarino,and Rebecca Karl (London, 1995), pp. 149-80 and 181-213. See also Ernest
Mandel,Late Capitalism,trans.Joris De Bres (London, 1987);MartinCarnoyet al., TheNew
GlobalEconomyin the InformationAge: Ref ectionson Our Changing WorZd (UniversityPark,Pa.,
1993);and PaulKnox andJohn Agnew,The Geographyof the World-Economy (London, 1989).
ship and productionpersists;and, on the otherhand,thereis the post-

modern intensificationof capital representedby the new Lebanon,
which,whileit maymakeuse of the stateand evenabsorb the state,is to
a muchgreaterextentaimedat the transnational flowsof theglobalecon
omy.Harirismseeks to set up Lebanonas a servicecenter,a regional
nodeor stagingpointfor the circulationof capital,a basethroughwhich
capitalcan be channeledinto the still highly undevelopedand unex-
ploitedmarketsof the post-peacesettlementMiddleEast.In this sense,
the statebecomesone organizingrubric,amongothers,for a discourse
and processthatgoesfarbeyondanyparticularstateand thatfinallyhas
littleinterestin states,borders,territorialities.
Tothisextent,it is no coin-
cidenceat allthatmoreandmoretransnational companies-particularly
in the informational and financialservicesector are eitheropeningor
reopeningtheirofficesin Beirut:Saatchi&SaatchiandCiticorp,to name
only two,just reopenedtheirBeirutoffices;and majorinvestmentfirms
such as Flemingsand ING/Barings(twoof the world'sleadingfirmsin
openingso-calleddevelopingmarkets)locatedregionalofficesin Beirut
(notAmman,not the Gulf,andnotTelAviv).Nor is it a coincidencethat
moreand moreinternational airlinesareflyingto Beirut.
Thus we might theorizethe presenceof a postmodernLebanon
alongsidea modernLebanon,withthe highlychargedand fluidborders
betweenthemgoingas oftenas not unmarkedand undefined.The bor-
dersdo becomemanifest,however,afterepisodessuchas the indiscrimi-
nate Israelibombardment of civiliantargetsin April1996,whenwe see
how quicklycertainareasor sectorsof the economyare repairedwhile
othersare left to shiftfor themselvesas best theycan.The postmodern
LebanonthatI havebeen identifyingwithHarirismandthe globalinfor-
mationaleconomyandSolideremayindeedbe seenas markingthephase
of therealsubsumption of societyandstateintocapital.37 Butthisanalysis
cannotaccountfor the otherLebanon,whichpersistsalongsidethe post-
modern-the Lebanonthat Israeland Syriahavebeen trying(andfail-
ing)to understandandcontrolprimarily bybruteforce.Wecanthusalso
imaginetwoLebanonsat the levelof the regionalstatesystem.The Arab-
Israeliconflict,the variousSyrianand Israeliprojectsof dominationin
Lebanon,the strugglebetweenthe Israeliarmyof occupationand the
resistancemovement,eventhe much-vaunted MiddleEastpeaceprocess
itself:theseall takeplaceat the levelof whatI am tryingto suggestis an
outmoded,worn-outlevelof international statepolitics,the residual
poli-
ticsof aprevious eraormodeofsovereignty, territoriality,
nationalism, statism,
37. Hardtand Negri argue that "capitalno longer has an outside in the sense that . . .
all productiveprocessesarise within capital itself and thus the productionand the repro-
duction of the entire social world take place within capital"(Hardt and Negri, Labor of
Dionysus,p. 15).
700 SareeMakdisi LayingClaimto Beirut
namely,the era of the modern(as opposedto postmodern)state, the

modern(asopposedto postmodern)worldsystemor worldeconomyas
embodiedin Harirism.38
Harirismrepresentsa willto privatizevirtuallyeverything,fromtele-
visionstationsto garbagecollectingto educationalinstitutionsto con-
structionprojectsto statepropertyand institutionsto realestateto the
nationalairlineto, finallyand ultimately, the centerof Beirut.At the pe-
rimeterof Solidere'sterritory,thereare todaya numberof postersde-
pictinghappyscenesfroma future"reconstructed" Beirut;the slogan
reads,BeirutIs Yours:AskaboutIt. But to mostpeople,excludedfrom
the so-calledbenefitsof a reconstructionthat is aimedat foreignand
Lebanesecapitalratherthanat peopleand the socialformationin gen-
eral,thiscanappearonlyas a meaninglessphrase,if not an actualinsult.
Cormputsit succinctly:"Clearly, it is the Lebanesepopulation,resident
or emigrant,thatis the missingelementfromthe actualprocessof recon-
Forin Soliderethediscourseof Harirismhasreacheditspin-
struction."39
nacleand climax,its ultimateexpression.
When,on 16 February1996,a familyof squatterswaskilledwhen
the buildingthey had been livingin was broughtdown by a Solidere
demolitioncrew(withthe squattersstillinside),manypeople'sworstfears
wereconfirmed:therewouldliterallybe no spacein the revitalizedand
gentrifiedcosmopolitancitycenterfor suchdestituteand "undesirable"
migrants.As Beyhumargues,this projectrepresentsnothingless thana
systemof classsegregation,wherebythe futurecentraldistrictof Beirut
willbe cut off and isolatedfromthe restof the cityand the countrypre-
ciselyin classterms.40Whilethe Soliderebookletsemphasizethe former
classdiversityof the citycenterand promiseto restorethatdiversityby
incorporatingmixed-incomeresidentialdevelopmentsinto the overall
project,Beyhumsuggeststhat whatis far morelikelyto happenis the
appearanceof a dualcityin Beirut,withthe boundarylinesof the Soli-
dereprojectmarkingthe limit."Thedualitybetweenthe citycenterand
the restof the capital,"Beyhumwrites,
willbe reinforcedirlthe mindsof ordinarypeoplebecauseimagesof

luxurywill contirlueto bombardthe popularimaginatiorlin sur-
roundingquarters.The inaugurationof the firstbuildingswill in-
38*The other states, especiallySyria and Israel,continue to exist and to operate at

this level, not realizingthat, like emperors with no clothes, they are operating within a
paradigmthat is outmodedand outmaneuvered,if not exactlyalreadyextinct:the residual
paradigmof statepowerpolitics,of negotiationsbetweenstates,of statecontrol,of borders,
occupation,sabotage,domination,in short, of raw,naked, brutal state power,a paradigm
founded upon a distinctionbetween state and civil society,or for that matterbetween the
state and capital.
39. Corm,"LaReconstruction," p. 96.
40. See Beyhum,"Beyrouthau coeur des debats,"p. 108.
0::>:
:
FIG.27. Artist'simpressionof pedestrianstreet in new city center.Source:Solidere.
creasethe signsof uncontrolledwealththatareinsultingto the rest

of the population.The logicof thisrealestatepromotionwilldomi-
nate one areaof the city,whiledeteriorationwill probablybecome
morestronglyfelt in otherareas.4'
Indeed,whatis centralto the discussionof the reconstruction of central
Beirutis a discourseof limits,of boundaries,and of frontiers.
Withthis in mind we can returnto the overallSolidereplan. The
talkof"properintegration" aside,the company'sbooklets,maps,plans,
and discussionssuggestthat this projectmayturn the centerof Beirut
into a differentzone of space-timethan thatof the rest of the city.The
entireprojecthas been focusedand discussedin the narrowestpossible
terms so that the rest of Beirutand Lebanonfade awayand become
vagueexternalitiesto the plan,muchlike the blankspaceson the com-
pany'smaps.This does not suggestmerelya preoccupation withthe city
center(whichis afterall the focusof the project).Rather,it constitutesan
effortto coveroverthe restof the citywiththis,its postmodernalterego;
in fact, one of Solidere'slogos is simplythe wordBeirut,in Arabic,as
thoughthe company's fiefdomsomehowstandsin for the restof the city,
representingit to the point of exclusion.Bearingin mind what Samir
41. Ibid., pp. 108-9.

Aminand othershave suggestedaboutthe polarizingstructureof the

worldeconomy,it is importantto recognizethe extentto whichsuchpo-
larizationsareplayedout on a localandon a globalscale.42 Or,rather,it
becomesimportant to see the development of polarizationon a simulta-
neouslylocaland globalscale and indeedto see thatthese forces are al-
waysat playwithinthe localand the globalin such a way that they help
to definethe boundariesor limitsbetweenthem(so that the globaVlocal
oppositionmustbe seen as misleadingto beginwith).43
In Beirut,as Beyhum,Sarkis,and otherspointout, thereare very
seriousfearsthata newcitycenterwillspringup in a fewyearsthatcan
havelittleto do withsurroundingareasof the cityor eventhe restof the
country.Furthermore, it shouldbe obviousto anyoneeven glancingat
the proposedmap that the old Martyrs'Square,whichonce servedto
bringthe rest of the city together,is to be effectivelysupplantedby a
wide"boulevard" runninga mere1,200metersor so fromFouadChehab
Avenueto the port.In fact,therewill,accordingto criticsof the Solidere
plan,be manymoredividinglines and notjust betweeneast and west
Beirut,but betweenthe new centraldistrictand the surroundingareas
of the city.
Naturally,the advertisingmaterialsthat haveconstitutedthe heavy
artilleryof Solidere'splanmakeextensivereferenceto the importanceof
ensuring"properintegration" betweenthe centraldistrictandthe restof
thecity.Andyetthelayoutwillplacethecenterwithina five-minutedrive
fromthe airportandhencecreateforitsinformational workersandespe-
ciallyvisitingbusinesspeople a sensethattheyarecloserto the restof the
worldthanto anypartof Beirutor Lebanon.Theseandotherconsidera-
tionssuggestthatthis areawillbe developednot as a site for the spatial
reconciliationof Lebanonand of Beirutitselfbut ratheras a meeting
placeforforeignbusinesses(American, EastAsian,European,Saudi,and
Israeli)and Lebaneseentrepreneurs, managers,financialexperts,bank-
ers, and technocrats.This, clearly,can only amountto littlemorethan
speculationfor the timebeing.On the otherhand,it hardlyseemslikely
42. See SamirAmin,Delinking:Towardsa PolycentricWorld,trans.MichaelWolfers(Lon-

don, 1990).
43. Thus, while in the current configurationof the global economy,which Manuel
Castellshas argued needs to be seen as preeminently"informational," a few cities have
emerged as world cities, or as what Knox and Agnew identifyas "basingpoints for global
capital,"and within even those cities themselvesplanning strategiesof segregationhave
become the norm (Knoxand Agnew,The Geographyof the World-Economy, p. 47). See Manuel
Castells,The InformationalCity:InformationTechnology,EconomicRestructuring,and the Urban-
Regional Process(London, 1989); hereafter abbreviatedIC. Thus, RichardSennett argues
that "thethrustof modern urbandevelopmenthas been preciselyto createcities consisting
of isolatedzones, to destroyor abandonthe urbancenter as a publicmeeting ground, leav-
ing only a core of nationalor internationalbusinessesbased on the serviceeconomy"(Rich-
ard Sennett, "Introduction," in ReclaimingBeirut, p. 4).
thatthe Solidereprojecthas nothingto do withthe currentdiscussions

of the normalization of economicand politicalrelationsbetweenIsrael
andtheArabworld;it hardlyseemslikelyas wellthatthismassiveproject
is aimedonlyat the domesticLebaneseeconomy,whichis alreadycharac-
terizedby an enormousglutof apartmentand officespace.
The "dualcity"of whichBeyhumandothersspeakmust,in anycase,
be understoodin a simultaneously localand globalcontext.For(assuming
thingsgo wellfor the Solidereplan)the frontierbetweeninsideandout-
side the centraldistrictof Beirutwouldamountto a frontierbetweena
regionalnode in the globalinformationaleconomy,to which Manuel
Castellsrefersas the "spaceof flows,"anda peripheralbackwater identi-
fiablewiththe restof the cityand the country, which would then be in-
creasinglycharacterized by the laborprocessesof the informal economy
of peripheralzonesin the worldeconomy,cut oS fromwhatever"bene-
fits"mightbe associatedwiththe "spaceof flows."44 (This,once again,is
assumingthatSolidereis rightin believingthatBeirutcanresumesome-
thingakinto the rolethatit oncehadin regionaleconomicdevelopment;
this is far froma certainty,and if the company'soptimisticpredictions
turnout to be unfounded,the entireprojectthreatensto becomea mas-
sivewhiteelephant,like the CanaryWharfurbandevelopmentscheme
in LondoWs Docklands.)45 Thus the dualityof sucha city,as Castellsar-
gues, can "beseen as the urbanexpressionof the processof increasing
differentiation of laborin twoequallydynamicsectorswithinthe growing
economy:the information-based formaleconomy,and the downgraded
labor-based informaleconomy," so that,as he says,"thedualcityopposes,
in traditional sociologicalterms,thecosmopolitanism of thenewinforma-
tionalproducersto the localismof the segmentedsectorsof restructured
labor"(IC,pp. 225, 227).This means,Castellssuggests,thatit is becom-
ing increasinglyclear that thereis an ever-proliferating distinctionbe-
44. "The space of organizationsin the informationaleconomy is a spaceoffows,"

writesCastells:
Centralizeddecision-makingcan only operateon the basisof customizedprovisionof
servicesand retrievalof information.Backofficesare the materialbasisfor decision-
making,and large-scaleinformation-processing organizationscan only work on the
basis of instructionsreceivedfrom the center.The constellationof serviceslinked to
each stage of the processof each industryalso depends on accessto the correspond-
ing level of the communication network. Thus, the linkages of the intra-orga-
nizationalnetworkare the defining linkagesof the new spatiallogic. The space of
flows among units of the organizationand among different organizationalunits is
the most significantspace for the functioning,the performance,and ultimately,the
very existenceof any given organization.[ C, p. 169]
45. Of course,as Castellsputs it elsewhere,the worldeconomycan bypassentirecoun-
tries;hence the threatof a fall from exploitationto irrelevancein the globalsystem,which
to Amin pushes us to think of modes of "delinking,"by which he does not mean a version
of autarky.See Amin, Delinking,and Surin, "'The Continued Relevanceof Marxism'as a
Question."
tweenthe global"spaceof flows"and morelocallyunderstoodsensesof

place.46Whatall this suggests,then, is that the homogenizingpressures
of capital(whichstandat one pole of a globalantagonism)generatethe
proliferation of a "spaceof flows"characterized primarilyby a technical
kind of homogeneity;for example,the most advancedtelecommuni-
cationssystemslinktogethervariousnodesof intensityin the globaleco-
nomicsystemin such a waythat these nodes are in fact closerto each
otherthaneach is to its own immediate"hinterland." At the otherpole
standvariouslocalspacesandeconomiesnot directlylinkedto the "space
of flows,"thoughit shouldbe clearthatthisdistinction,thispolarization,
no longersignifiesan oppositionbetweenthe globalsystemand its out-
sideand others,but ratheran oppositionbuiltintothe systemitself.
In a sense,then,the distinctionbetweenthe futurecenterof Beirut
and the restof the citycouldbe foundedon preciselysucha distinction,
namely,a kindof frontierbetween(butreallywithin)the globaleconomy
andone of itslocalizedbackwaters. If fulfilled,the Solidereprojectwould
redefinethe citycenter'shistoricalassociations,as indeedit has already
done by flatteningmost of its remainingstructures.Moreprecisely,it
wouldredefinethoseassociations in theformof a visualpasticheof tradi-
tionalformsandvalues,a pastichethatwouldbe integratedintotheproj-
ect at the levelof marketingand aestheticsand aboveall at the level of
buildingfaSades,on whichthe companyplacessucha heavyemphasis.
The city centerwouldthen be presentedas pure appearance,as pure
surface,ostensiblyhardwiredto theglobalcircuitsof transnational capital
or to "thespaceof flows."
Butwhatthe fluidandmultidimensional "frontier" betweenthe Bei-
rut of Solidereand the restof the citywouldrepresentis nothingother
thanthe frontierbetweenthe space-timeof a globalpostmodernity and
an antitheticalmodernspace-time.The latter,however,cannotsimplybe
understoodin narrowlyoppositionaltermsas a localspaceto the extent
46.
This is becausethe ultimatelogic of restructuringis basedon the avoidanceof histor-
icallyestablishedmechanismsof social,economic,and politicalcontrolby the power-
holding organizations.Since most of these mechanismsof control depend upon
territorially-basedinstitutionsof society,escapingfrom the sociallogic embedded in
any particularlocale becomes the means of achievingfreedom in a space of flows
connected only to other power-holders,who share the social logic, the values, and
the criteria for performanceinstitutionalizedin the programsof the information
systemsthat constitutethe architectureof the space of flows.The emergenceof the
space of flowsactuallyexpressesthe disarticulationof place-basedsocietiesand cul-
tures from the organizationsof power and production that continue to dominate
societywithoutsubmittingto its control.In the end, even democraciesbecome pow-
erless confrontedwith the abilityof capitalto circulateglobally,of informationto be
transferredsecretly,of marketsto be penetratedor neglected,of planetarystrategies
of political-militarypower to be decided without the knowledgeof nations, and of
culturalmessagesto be marketed,packaged,recorded, and beamed in and out of
people'sminds. [IC, p. 349]
thatit overlapswith,or ratheris embeddedwithin,the globalspaceof

the postmodern,as its simultaneous andnecessarycounterpart. Whatwe
are dealingwith here, in otherwords,is not so muchthe spuriousand
misleadingdistinctionbetweenglobaland local,but rathera cleavage,a
frontier,one of the structurallimitsandcontradictions of the globalecon-
omy,a contradiction marking the tensionbetween firstworldand third
world: a contradiction that must be understood also, perhaps aboveall,
in classterms. Only now the limit between these two "worlds" mustbe
seen to inhabit and even to define the of
spatiality what might otherwise
seem to be the "same"city,whichis at oneandthesametimethirdworld
and firstworld.For the full force of what I am tryingto suggesthere
becomesclearonlyif we considerBeirutno longerto be identicalto itself
(ifit everwas)butratherto havetakenon in itsownspacethe disarticula-
tionsof the globaleconomy,to haveliteralizedtheproblematics of uneven
development.47 No longerdefined againstsome outside world, the city
willhavebecomeits ownfrontier,its own limit.
47. As Neil Smith points out, "unevendevelopment[is] the geographicalexpression

of the contradictionsof capital"(Neil Smith, UnevenDevelopment:Nature, Capital,and thePro-
ductionof Space [Oxford, 1991], p. 252).

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Laying Claim to Beirut: Urban Narrative and Spatial Identity in the Age of Solidere

Author(s): Saree Makdisi

Asregardscoastaltowns,one mustsee to it thattheyaresituatedon

All translationsare my own unless otherwisenoted.

CrS2calInquiry 23 (Spring 1997)

;-s ,2<-tv-;; #,r'-_,---S- X <>S *;/_- ; '> s } --, - ^ ;

it travels. Instead of you traveling,the city travels. Look at Beirut,

The very center of Beirut is today a wasteland. For thousands of square

Khoury,Ramiz Malouf(directorof informationat Solidere),ZakariaKhalil(of the Town

Saree Makdisi is an assistantprofessor of English and comparative

FIG. 2. The wastelandof whatused to be Martyrs'Square,with one of the ubiquitous

FIG. 3. Infrastructureinstallation.The scale of some of the workon the infrastruc-

how it came to be the only option,how other optionswereforeclosed

1. See Ussama Makdisi,"The Modernityof Sectarianismin Lebanon,"Middle East

Critical Inquiry Spring1997 665

FIC.4. Wartimedamage to the city center.Photo by author.

Duringthe war,territoriesproliferated,definedaccordingto subna-

Neocolonial World:Modern Arabic Culture and the End of Modernity,"Boundary 2 22

and aboveall the veryheavilydamagedcitycenter,whichfor morethan

1. Berytus Delenda Est;or,'XnAncientCityfor theFuture"

(CDR),to rebuildthe citycenteralongthelinesof its traditionallayout,to

and in totaldisregardfor the then-existing(1977)plan for reconstruc-

kindof planningthathad firstbegunwiththe unofficialdemolitionsof

FIG. 8. Martyrs'Square,facingnorth. Note the poster in the background,presenting

beenplacedunderthe leadershipof thoseleaningtowardthe creationof

FIG. 9. A map of the proposed 1991 reconstructionplan. Source: Beyhum et al.,

ss 1vE1 tX -;,rs F- + .,:t:g-''j

themselveswiththe samezealfor big explosions.It is estimatedthat,as

resumedin 1994and, by the end of thatyear,as I'vesaid,muchof the

Locatedat thehistoricalandgeographical coreof thecity,thevibrant

Soliderethuspresentsitselfas a healingagency,designedto helpcentral

17. Solidere,InformationBooklet1995, p. 5; hereafterabbreviatedIB.

ketby Solidere).Furthermore, thereis a maximumindividualsharehold-

18. As of February1997, sharesare tradedat around U.S.$110.

<, " '"."i--

.. > > 4, .,., :: . _

new Solidereplan. Source:Solidere.

go so far as to actuallypay for the infrastructure

22. Accordingto IB, "theCompanyshallbe reimbursedby the Statefor all infrastruc-

Solidere'smasterplancallsfor the creationof a livelyand attractive

"i't'; §'l. ': .1z3;;7i 1 o

,:^t.'...s, .g ,{..,..1t, .., 6 .._1i. }M *D Q X

CriticalInquiry Sprang1997 681

q 2; ' <3;l 'S j !r- ;Ut s

FIG. 15. An artist'simpressionof the new Solidereplan. Source:Solidere.

digs in betweenworkon the infrastructure, whichis alreadyunder-

est. Like the archaeology,it forms part of the marketing [program]of

CriticalInquiry Spring 1997 683

FIG. 17. Archaeologicalexcavationof ancient Romanbaths in the city center.Photo

copperphonenetworkwillbe backedup in the centraldistrictby digital

25. With an expected 1 millionelectronicphone lines and 750,000 cellularlines, for

:::LL:: ,,., ,, ;- . ,, . |! R -::{ :' Fl(;. 19.-Photograph of the excavatio

Fle;. 18.-A map of the proposed souk redevelop-

686 SareeMakdisi LayingClaimtoBeirut

C"tical Inquiry Spring 1997 687

J J ;n}- - < -- <-< | .:--; e : | >: SE ,,.,_. S . ,,

becomethe finalformof commodityreification,"26

688 SareeMakdisi LayingClaimtoBeirut

pear or, to be precise, it will be marketed as a re-creation of what was

CriticalInquiry Spring 1997 689

o9, ,:.:: ., ^ in < aw

At this point in the text we see a reproduction of a classic postcard of

, i S; r ^ . ii ,, ';,4. 8.-,9 ' :° ,r: Xr.r;- iOJ J ti e < : r :'