Lebanon’s Government Is Destroying A Phoenician Beach In Adloun To Build A Port

  
About 15 minutes south of Saida is a small coastal Lebanese town in the South called Adloun. Most of us hadn’t heard of it before, but it’s actually one of the longest inhabited areas in our country with evidence pointing to human activity there around 70,000BC; it’s a little town filled with prehistoric caves and Phoenician ruins.

And those are not even what make it special.

Being a coastal town, Adloun has one of the few remaining beaches in the area that have not been privatized yet, and is now being actively destroyed by Lebanon’s government.

According to this study, the governmental project will affect the following areas of the beach:

  • The location of the prehistoric caves,
  • The location of an ancient Phoenician port,
  • The location of ancient Phoenician ruins and ornaments.

And, because that is not enough, our government will also do a little of land reclamation, effectively killing off one of the last remaining habitats for sea turtles in Lebanon, as well as affecting the ecology of the entire area with its diverse plants.

What is this governmental project that our government has been hell-bent for years to do, and are currently doing as you can see by the following pictures?

Adloun Beach Lebanon - 1
Adloun Beach Lebanon - 2
Adloun Beach Lebanon - 3
Adloun Beach Lebanon - 4
Adloun Beach Lebanon - 5
Adloun Beach Lebanon - 6
Adloun Beach Lebanon - 7

They are building a port that is bigger than that of Saida and Sour, in a town that houses far less people, none of whom are fishermen who operate boats in the first place.

So what will the purpose of that port be? It’s going to be turned into a “touristic” yacht docking site for those who can afford yachts in the first place and who want to come to the area for visits. The town’s mayor says that is not the case. What is true, however, is that the port is officially named after “Nabih Berri.” Maybe our speaker of parliament wants a place closer to home to dock his boat?

As it is with Lebanon, the project is also riddled with corruption. The bidding process for the project was canceled once because the initial prices were deemed unacceptable before finally hiring Khoury Contracting at a fee around 1.66 million dollars higher than the one they offered in the initial bidding. I guess the ministry in question felt generous?

On January 15th, 2016, Khoury Contracting sent its bulldozers to the beach and started work without prior notification. They’re currently establishing access to the beach by digging up a road for more bulldozers to come and finish what’s already started.

Who Cares About Sea Turtles And Phoenician Stuff Anyway?

Good job Lebanon’s government. Those sea turtles can always find another country to go and become unwanted pests in. Those plants? Who needs them. It’s not like ecology or the environment matter anyway. Phoenicia? Do we really want some Lebanese to further cling to that unwanted part of our history?

Keeping a free beach for the people of the area to visit? Who’d want that as well, bring in the money!

Let them destroy the beach. Let them destroy everything as they’ve done to the country for years now. They’ve actively destroyed countless similar sites before, why not this one too? It’s not like anything is relevant when you have the prospects of a port named after a politician!

Let them destroy the beach. It’s better for that beach and for that heritage not to see how abysmal the country our ancestors called home has become à la famous saying: عين لا ترى، قلب لا يوجع.

For a government that has shown repeatedly how apt it is at failing, it should come as no wonder that they’d not only do such a thing but also make sure that it passes by unnoticed. 

For a government and people that went up in a fit about the destruction of heritage at the hands of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, how is this any difference? Or does our own history not matter enough because it’s not called Palmyra?

There has been no back to back coverage for Adloun’s heritage. Is it not juicy enough for Lebanon’s media because it cannot be spun into attractive بالصور and بالفيديو headlines?

Among the many travesties taking place in the country today, this is a massacre of heritage and environment. The sad part is? It’s too late to do anything now.

Say bye to the turtles; say bye to that ancient site. They were present in a country that didn’t deserve them anyway. 

 

Filed under: Lebanon Tagged: Adloun, Beach, corruption, Ecology, Environment, Government, heritage, Lebanon, Phoenician Site, South Lebanon

Brief Disorganized Ramblings

Imagen

Whenever I feel hurt by someone, I immediately turn to myself and only myself, to make sure I know I’m loved by this one person: me. I typically need to do an action after the inner check-in, such as leave the house, or take a shower plus do oil massage, or clean up a room… Just do something that is for me and only me.

These kinds of antagonistic situations leave me feeling extra isolated from the entire world (not just from the person who hurt me), but also feeling extra strong. I have this unshakeable sense of aloneness. It’s not to be confused with loneliness; I can’t remember the last time I felt lonely, it’s been years.

I feel deeply (and happily) removed from my family at an emotional level. I don’t have a sense of belonging, nor do I have a sense of wanting to belong. I just don’t care. 

I also feel numb when it comes to other human beings. They are like furniture in my everyday life; furniture that sometimes makes you a gift or sometimes talks shit behind your back, whatever, furniture in all cases. Irrelevant beings in my life. I can think of how a co-worker that I like and another one that I absolutely despise both gave me Christmas presents without me expecting it. I felt the exact same thing in both situations: first dread (“Why are you doing this? Now you want something back from me, bitch!”), then numb (“Pppfff whatever, I’m too tired to think or feel or anything”). I couldn’t care. I didn’t give them gifts because it didn’t feel honest to me. We’re not friends, and the moment this job ends we will never talk to each other again. Social interaction is weird to me. It’s like being surrounded by aliens I don’t understand. I can’t communicate, but what’s more: I don’t care. 

I also don’t have a sense of “fusion” with my partner, in that way that I see so many couples have. I don’t ask for his opinion about anything that I consider to be “mine”, such as career choices, creativity, style, clothes, my presentation to the world… things that have to do exclusively with my individual existence in this world. I find that he asks my opinion about almost everything. This is bizarre to me, so alien to how my brain works.

I experience myself as alone. And I feel most alive that way. The moment I feel like people want me to a part of their something, a light gets turned off inside me and the more they push, the dimmer my light gets, because it’s not real to me. What’s real is I am alone, depend only on myself, can count only on myself.

I’m not saying this is the universal truth. This is how I experience life.

Auckland by Dwam

A tiny tiny old lady stopped me at the art gallery, to tell me that seeing me so tattooed, wandering among the paintings, made her feel I was like "walking art". Then she profusely apologized for "bothering me" and "being rude" while saying again and again how beautiful she thought I was. I explained her that indeed, I’m often commented in insensitive, objectifying and rude ways, whereas hers was actually the sweetest encounter of the sort I’ve ever had ! She made my day. Then she shied away without further ado from my blushing thanks.

Of course it echoed the last time some white untattooed Parisian dudes tried to "compliment" Tarmasz and me in the bus… Those ones who stated "but I work at the museum, I love art, so I can’t help commenting when I see beautiful THINGS around", and who did not understand that it infuriated me so much to be called "a thing", especially after undergoing his annoying, unwanted stream of stupid questions and sexist comments for 15minutes.

If you really want to compliment someone, remember always that they are not beautiful THINGS, but people. Don’t expect anything, know that you might bother the complimented, check their body language and respect it, be nice and walk away.
In case of tattooed people, keep in mind you might be the 154th "nice" person asking the exact same ignorant-but-well-intentioned questions. Not everyone is an extravert, not everyone is patient.

via Flickr http://flic.kr/p/CNNyWe

off the coast of Jalisco, Mexico

Category: Information
Bulletin Issue Time: 2016.01.21 18:13:37 UTC
Preliminary Magnitude: 6.9(Mwp)
Lat/Lon: 18.600 / -107.000
Affected Region: off the coast of Jalisco, Mexico
Note: * There is no tsunami danger for the U.S. West Coast, British Columbia, or Alaska. * Based on earthquake information and historic tsunami records, the earthquake was not sufficient to generate a tsunami.
Definition: An information statement indicates that an earthquake has occurred, but does not pose a tsunami threat, or that a tsunami warning, advisory, or watch has been issued for another section of the ocean. View bulletinEnergy MapTravel Time Map

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