Why do Americans yearn for the romance of Paris? Why do young men in Lahore dream of experiencing the hustle and bustle of New York City? Why would the children of Gaza vigorously support a football team in Barcelona that they would love to go see play live? I only truly understood these phenomena when I found myself endlessly attracted to the life, stories, and politics of Beirut, Lebanon. People are not drawn to countries simply for the sentimentality of family and memories, but rather due to the mental image they have created from media, art, and news about these places. From Fairuz’s hit single “Le Beirut” to Nizar Qabbani’s moving poem “Beirut: The mistress of the world”, few cities in the world have been sung to and written about as much as Beirut, Lebanon from Fairuz’s hit single “Le Beirut” to Nizar Qabbani’s moving poem “Beirut: The mistress of the world”. While I am typically not one for romanticism and melodrama, it truly seems like something extraordinary keeps pulling my mind back to Beirut, a city I have never had the privilege of visiting myself. After exactly one year…
