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Lebanon was once a watchword for intractable conflict, a symbol of allthe troubles plaguing the region. But before the catastrophic civil war of the‘70s and ‘80s, the little nation was called the “Switzerland of the MiddleEast” and its capital, Beirut, was compared to Paris. BBC correspondent TimLlewellyn can only begin to unpack the complexity of his nation with its manycontending religious and ethnic groups, but makes many trenchant observations.He sees the rapid reconstruction of war-shattered Beirut as a symbol of acan-do attitude rivaling that of America. And yet he wonders if the Lebaneseare too eager to ignore unresolved problems rather than confront and solvethem. “The Lebanese not only live with this constant tension, but seem tothrive on it,” he writes.
