As one of Lebanon’s most fascinating literary figures, it’s always interesting to see what Charif Majdalani is working on. After all, this is a 61-year-old writer who, through many award-winning novels, has deftly chronicled his people and the place he calls home. But even he couldn’t have foreseen the exact shape of his next project when he began walking the streets of Beirut last summer, keen to document a city he loved, but was increasingly worried about.
“I started to write a diary in early July, because I felt that we were living something incredible, something really absurd, Kafkaesque,” he says of a country he saw mired in social, political and economic crises. But even then, what would become Beyrouth 2020: Journal d’un effondrement (which has just been speedily translated by Ruth Diver as Beirut 2020: The Collapse of a Civilisation, a Journal) started out as fiction, until Majdalani realised everything he was writing came from his everyday life.
“Everything was collapsing around us, and we carried on living as if nothing was happening. It seemed so unreal. I decided to turn it into an actual diary. And then August 4 happened and my text became urgent testimony.”
It’s certainly that. In his short, critical snapshot of an existence in Beirut he likens to “living at the foot of a volcano”, the explosion a year ago is, in his profound prose, merely the culmination, the physical manifestation, of a worrying trend of denial and obfuscation regarding how the country was being led and run. The rumble of the volcano was ignored, he says.
“I believe that the history of Lebanon and of the Lebanese people is a history of permanent denial,” says Majdalani. “It is impossible to live in a country poisoned by corruption, with no economic prospect other than speculation, and with such debt, without suspecting that this wouldn’t all come crashing down. Deep down, everyone must have suspected it.
“But we carried on regardless, because for years the country offered us an exceptional quality of life. And yet, that quality of life was hiding an explosive situation of growing decay. This is why I consider the explosion of the port a metaphor for the situation of the country.”
At the time of the explosion at Beirut port, when the city collapsed under the force of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, Majdalani was – perhaps aptly – writing an entry for the diary on his terrace. About to take a plate of fruit he’d just finished back to the kitchen, he was interrupted by a voicemail. And then, out of such mundane, quotidian details, the floor began to move with “incredible violence, accompanied by a sort of hideous roar”.
The days that followed the explosion were just as traumatic as the moment itself, because they were rocked by relentless news from friends and acquaintances, and they were all the same: the casualties, the dead, destruction
Charif Majdalani,
author
The terrace came and went beneath him “like an old swing”; he thought of an earthquake and “the children, the children”. They were inside, his wife holding them “together in her arms like a rampart against who knows what”. And yet he stood stock still, mind frozen.
“What I lived was relatively less violent,” he says, “so I was therefore fully conscious in that moment. But the impression of time slowing down was very real. Because what you are living, what you are feeling, what you are seeing in those instants doesn’t immediately reach your consciousness, you are paralysed by your emotions. You can only make sense of it gradually, and that is why, afterwards, you feel like time is being stretched, and that everything happens in slow motion, like in a movie.”
Every viewpoint of the explosion was unique. But Majdalani makes sense of the totality of the experience in the most virtuosic passage of the book, in which a chorus of unnamed Beirut voices blends into one testimony. Interestingly, through others, Majdalani was able to better process August 4 himself.
“The days that followed the explosion were just as traumatic as the moment itself, because they were rocked by relentless news from friends and acquaintances, and it was all the same: the casualties, the dead, destruction,” he says. “I needed to find a way not to say what was happening, but to convey the impact it had on me.”
That impact quickly travelled from the personal to the political. In the immediate aftermath, it seemed as if the enormity of the event would perhaps elicit change in Lebanon. Whether that has actually happened, whether the good governance that Majladani craved has really been addressed, is in flux a year on.
“Some of the destruction has been repaired, Beirut has tended to some of its wounds,” he says. “But there is still so much to do, and the financial crisis isn’t helping. We thought the political class would be blown away, when in fact it was the country and the people.
“The real wounds are emotional and psychological. Within each of us, that’s where the real damage lies. So even when everything has been repaired, we don’t feel like being here; carrying on here. It is the first time our confidence in the future has been so low, and that is the worst of all.”
Yet one of the incredible achievements of this book is its celebration of a strong, hopeful and passionate people. At the very least in translation, it will shine a light on the country Lebanon is – and could be – to the English-speaking world.
“I live with the constant feeling that the country we knew has been lost for ever,” he says, concern in his voice. “And I am very anxious about what the future might hold for us, and what kind of country we’re going to have to live in from now on.
“But what I saw in the reaction of Lebanese readers was gratitude for having described our everyday life, for putting it into historical context and establishing a timeline of the disaster. And I believe that this is also something that non-Lebanese readers will appreciate.”
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
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- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Company Profile:
Name: The Protein Bakeshop
Date of start: 2013
Founders: Rashi Chowdhary and Saad Umerani
Based: Dubai
Size, number of employees: 12
Funding/investors: $400,000 (2018)
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
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Difference between fractional ownership and timeshare
Although similar in its appearance, the concept of a fractional title deed is unlike that of a timeshare, which usually involves multiple investors buying “time” in a property whereby the owner has the right to occupation for a specified period of time in any year, as opposed to the actual real estate, said John Peacock, Head of Indirect Tax and Conveyancing, BSA Ahmad Bin Hezeem & Associates, a law firm.
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
MATCH INFO
Bangla Tigers 108-5 (10 ovs)
Ingram 37, Rossouw 26, Pretorius 2-10
Deccan Gladiators 109-4 (9.5 ovs)
Watson 41, Devcich 27, Wiese 2-15
Gladiators win by six wickets
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
How to register as a donor
1) Organ donors can register on the Hayat app, run by the Ministry of Health and Prevention
2) There are about 11,000 patients in the country in need of organ transplants
3) People must be over 21. Emiratis and residents can register.
4) The campaign uses the hashtag #donate_hope
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Results
4.30pm Jebel Jais – Maiden (PA) Dh60,000 (Turf) 1,000m; Winner: MM Al Balqaa, Bernardo Pinheiro (jockey), Qaiss Aboud (trainer)
5pm: Jabel Faya – Maiden (PA) Dh60,000 (T) 1,000m; Winner: AF Rasam, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
5.30pm: Al Wathba Stallions Cup – Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 2,200m; Winner: AF Mukhrej, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
6pm: The President’s Cup Prep – Conditions (PA) Dh100,000 (T) 2,200m; Winner: Mujeeb, Richard Mullen, Salem Al Ketbi
6.30pm: Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club – Prestige (PA) Dh125,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Jawal Al Reef, Antonio Fresu, Abubakar Daud
7pm: Al Ruwais – Group 3 (PA) Dh300,000 (T) 1,200m; Winner: Ashton Tourettes, Pat Dobbs, Ibrahim Aseel
7.30pm: Jebel Hafeet – Maiden (TB) Dh80,000 (T) 1,400m; Winner: Nibraas, Richard Mullen, Nicholas Bachalard
Ain Dubai in numbers
126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure
1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch
16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.
9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.
5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place
192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.
Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Read more about the coronavirus
The specs: 2019 GMC Yukon Denali
Price, base: Dh306,500
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Power: 420hp @ 5,600rpm
Torque: 621Nm @ 4,100rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.9L / 100km
Naga
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
