I was really touched by the story of Massaya written by Brad Haskel. There is a particular part of the story which really hit home, and I quote:
"The Tanail Estate was acquired by my parents Michel and Amal in the early 1970s. We grew up there, playing in the fields, riding horses, chasing our dogs and pets, hunting, enjoying endless festive mezze and barbeque lunches with homemade arak. In 1975 (civil war had erupted) we were forced to evacuate from the Bekaa Valley estate when shooting started. We rushed away in my mother's white Volvo... uprooted, in tears and fears, leaving our childhood memories and dreams behind. I was eight years old, and my brother Ramzi was six.
This incident never left me, neither through my years studying in Paris; where I studied architecture, nor later when I had moved to the U.S. working as an architect in LA first and then NY. Early in the 1990s as my parents were pressingly approached to sell the estate, I went back to the Bekaa, leaving my green card behind at JFK (not to be tempted to take a U-Turn back to the US) and evacuated the squatters from our estate...
I was about 27 years old at the time and guess they (the squatters) saw and felt the drive and conviction in my eyes and guts. It was either them out or me, but with my feet horizontal. I made my choice clear, and they had made theirs. In the meantime, I had built a shelter on the rooftop of the house, slept next to an AK-47 before they finally were persuaded to evacuate. This is now history."
And here I say, what if ... The Ghosn brothers inherited not only a land, but a way of life.
Please continue reading the article, it's valuable.
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| Women from the Bekaa baking manakish for the Sunday lunch |
