Isabel Roberts, who has lived in the area for 38 years, added: “These were lovely houses. People wanted these houses. They were lovely and clean. I mean you can see a house there in the middle of it. It’s like Beirut. It’s absolutely disgraceful.”
This is an excerpt from an article on a UK town called Country Durham, which was once a thriving mining community and is now a deserted town. Over 150 homes were left empty and the town now “looks like Beirut”. People have been unfortunately using this slogan for quite some time to refer to abandoned, destroyed or insecure places.
The use of the “Looks like Beirut” cliché was documented by a Lebanese blogger called Jad Aoun, who used to track down all articles and reports that used this worn-out slogan and send the authors “Looks Like Beirut” certificates “in recognition of the work done to keep the overused, worn-out, tired cliché “Looks like Beirut” alive” and where he’d thank them for their dedication to unoriginal comments.
Looks Like Beirut – Google Map
A lot of people answered back and apologized to Jad but as you can see, the cliché is still alive and people are still using it in 2015 even though the civil war was over some 25 years ago.
Civil war is over; yes! But people in the west are always seeing refresher. 2006 war…2008 “mini civil war”…Hariri and the other assassinations…Now; ISIS etc… You get the drift?
I agree with Gianni, the assassinations, bombings and terrorist activities,wars, have never ceased in Beirut and the country has never really experienced true peace since pre-civil war.
If we want the image of Lebanon to change throughout the world, its going to take more than Solidere and Zaituny Bay. It needs to start at the government level and trickle down to every citizen to feel safe and secure in their own homes.
it still is like Beirut ,admit it ,dead ,abandoned ,deserted …Thank Good there are a couple of our generation left to make it look like alive buut thats not enough
Since the article writer is as delusional as maya is, maybe a campaign can be started to troll the hell out of that guy On social media with the hashtag #its_like_beirut to show him what beirut really looks like. If the color of a stupid dress can get that much attention, I’m sure such a hashtag can spread quickly too
http://www.thenational.ae/business/the-life/how-beirut-can-shake-off-that-war-torn-image