The Woman's Voice Roundtable: "The Problems of Summering in Lebanon"

Talk of summering in Lebanon is always delightful and full of ramifications, and The Woman's Voice in particular keeps wishing for Lebanon to become the golden dream of every tourist and summer visitor — out of devotion to this good country and its good citizens, and out of its belief that it lies within Lebanon's power to rival the most advanced countries of the world in this field. So its "roundtable" convened this month to take up this subject in the salon of Mrs. Samia Dimashqiya Abu al-Jabin, and joining the hostess in the discussion were Mesdames Anna Jacques Tabet, Linda Naim Majdalani, Nadia Mohammed Sabra, and Charlotte Edouard Osseily — all of them women who, in addition to their culture, have had the chance to go out to the West and become acquainted with the famous summer resorts of the world.

The "plan of the roundtable" laid out a general attack by the ladies on the Commissioner of Tourism and Summering, Ustad Michel Toma, who is known in Lebanese and international circles for his devotion and his vigilance over the interests of tourism and summering in general, and in Lebanon in particular. Perhaps Ustad Toma was afraid to meet this "heated" attack alone, for he came in the company of his secretary-general, Mr. Shahin — but he did not call on anyone's help... "and he measured up to the attack, and then some!"

... The first to attack was Anna Tabet, the most ardent of them all on the subject, and she began raining accusations down on Ustad Toma before the circle of the gathering was even complete!: "I am happy we were invited to this roundtable, because the subject of summering concerns me greatly. And I have no patience to wait!

"... Three problems in the summering season get on my nerves to the last degree. The excessive use of loudspeakers in the cafés and pleasure haunts,

which creates in our beautiful, quiet summer resorts the hateful din of Burj Square. And although this is forbidden by law, you have not taken legal measures against the offenders, and this is intolerable. What are you people actually doing over there at Tourism and Summering??"

"Allow me, Madam, to answer this point," Michel Toma interrupted her. "I do not deny..." But Anna Tabet cut him off: "Please, let me finish enumerating those matters that turn summering into a hell. The honking of cars never stops, night or day, until you would think you were at a honking contest among the drivers — and the vendors of ice cream, kerosene, and vegetables answer them... The clatter, the shrieking, and the honking rise from dawn, and no sooner do they end than they begin and start all over again.

"Let me finish," Anna went on, as Michel Toma seemed to her to be shifting in his seat as though itching on hot coals to interrupt her. "Then there is the problem of the mazout cars... What a distressing state of affairs! Last year you promised us that this summer we would not see those hateful black clouds rising behind a great number of cars. It is true that this year we have not seen them rising from below upward — but we now see them coming down upon us as a terrifying black rain. And what justification do you, in the Commissariat of Tourism and Summering, have for permitting this recklessness, which spoils our beautiful mountain scenery, fouls the limpid air of our villages, and makes us flee from one din to another still uglier and more hateful? What is your answer, Monsieur Toma?" said Anna in something like anger and indignation, turning to the company to see the effect of her words on their faces!!

Expressions of agreement and noddings of heads rose from everyone. The Commissioner of Tourism and Summering smiled his well-practiced smile in the face of this critical ardor and said: "Ah, Madam, how glad I am to hear such frank criticisms. I am with you in everything you have mentioned... and more... I see all these shortcomings and I strive as far as possible to remedy them. Summer today is no longer the summer of twenty years ago... And the question of noise is truly one of the most vexing of vexations. For this reason we met a month ago with all the responsible officials at the Ministry of the Interior to study that problem, and I asked to be given the necessary powers. Loudspeakers are forbidden by law, night and day, and we shall forbid them in practice, God willing —

by confiscating the loudspeakers, cutting off the electric current from the pleasure haunts that persist in disturbing people, and confiscating the radio sets from houses that play them at high volume... We have begun this policy in Bhamdoun and we shall extend it in turn to all the villages... What do you ladies think of this idea?"

"It is a splendid idea," answered Linda Majdalani, "but what might you do about the drivers and their horns? Will you impound their cars!"

"It is a good idea, if we could apply it. But up to now the responsible officials have not agreed on any particular effective way of punishing the drivers, especially since among them there are decent fellows and criminals alike."

"Then how do they come to hold driving licenses?" Anna interrupted him. "This is a problem that must be solved quickly... They must be made to pay very heavy fines, so that they keep to the straight path..."

"This method is followed in Ireland, and it is very successful," Charlotte Osseily remarked. "Why do we not follow it here in Lebanon? What is the worth of the five liras with which a driver is penalized — and which he may never even pay!... He must pay dearly, and at once..."

"There are many methods," Michel Toma added, "but the important thing is that opinion should settle on one of them and that it be applied!..."

"Why does opinion not settle?" Anna asked him. "Is the government afraid of the drivers?"

"... Perhaps," answered Michel Toma with a broad laugh, "and I am glad that ladies like yourselves take an interest in these questions. This interest ought to be broader and stronger still, for the government heeds the voice of the people and listens to it. If you want reform, you have only to demand it and raise your voices high!"

"We are greatly interested," answered Samia Abu al-Jabin, "and I should now like to call your attention to Beirut International Airport. The way the drivers there treat tourists and foreigners gives no good impression of the people of this country..."

"The only solution to this problem," Toma answered, "is the founding of a company of metered cars, to which the driver would be bound, and..."

"Yes," Samia interrupted him, "but the fare they collect now is rather small... Three liras is really a trifling sum for that ride... It must be no less than five liras, or the drivers' condition will remain as it is."

"Quite so," answered Michel Toma warmly, "and that was my idea from the very first. I wanted to establish a company at the airport whose meter fare would be no less than 460 piasters — for a small fare teaches the driver to steal... and other things besides... Meters must be made general in Beirut! The Directorate of Tourism and Summering bought seventy thousand Lebanese liras' worth of car meters in order to distribute them free of charge, but the drivers' syndicate refused flatly... until the Zakhour and Rebeiz companies came along and we began this organized work. I have no wish but that this method be followed, especially in front of the hotels, at the port and the airport, and in Ras Beirut, so that we may present an orderly face to the world and make travel easier. But do you know, ladies, that every metered car that stands in front of the hotels gets smashed?!"

"And how do you tolerate this?" cried Anna, Samia, and Linda together! "And why do you not act on this sound idea — and the Directorate of Tourism and Summering is the one responsible for that, in order to encourage tourism?..."

"No, it is not the one responsible," Toma replied with a sigh of regret; "its hands are shackled."

"To whom, then, shall we direct the accusation? To the government?" Linda Majdalani asked him...

"Yes, to the government," Anna answered her, "for if the government laid down a strict law, everyone would follow it!!"

"But the important side of it, in my view," added Nadia Sabra, "is the bad conduct of the drivers and the harshness of their manners..."

"Yes, it is the 'etiquette' they lack," Charlotte agreed, "and it is handed down from generation to generation, and the road to it is not an easy one."

"There are two ways of acquiring it," Michel Toma concluded: "first, from the home and the school; and second, by way of force, firmness, and the law..."

"Let us return to the mazout question," said Anna. "The government and the Commissariat of Tourism promised to solve this question this year. What is your answer to that?"

Toma answered: "Last year we studied the mazout question and found that from the technical side it is very simple. The cause of that thick black cloud is that the mazout is not burned to the last drop... and that is because the driver opens the car's réglage to its fullest, using mazout heavily so that the car's small engine can carry its load. When we learned the cause, we bought the government a réglage machine that prevents drivers from tampering with their cars' engines. But tampering occurred at the garage the government set up for this task..."

"Are we to understand from this," said Anna, "that the solution is very easy, and that the government has only to make up its mind and act — so that we may have some peace..."

"And does the present government know of this solution and of the cause?" asked Nadia Sabra, the wife of the Minister of Works! "Some time ago I was discussing this problem with my husband, and he mentioned to me that he would study it to find a way to solve it..."

"Its simple solution is that machine we bought," Toma affirmed, "and I should be very glad to inform His Excellency the Minister of it, so that we may settle that crisis once and for all..."

"There is a matter I should like to call your attention to," said Charlotte, "and that is the beaches — the plages. Compared with the plages of Europe, even in its poor countries, they are a farce. They are a disgrace to us — they meet neither sanitary nor moral standards."

"You are right, Mrs. Osseily; we know it, and we are working with all our strength to reach the rank to which we aspire. But do not forget that Lebanon has grown and expanded rapidly in these last years — no fewer than a million persons entered it this year — and its administration is still small and weak in proportion to its rapid growth. But, God willing, we shall soon reach what we are striving for..."

"God willing," Nadia Sabra agreed, "but I want to ask you about another problem that is important in my view. Last summer I wanted to spend the summer season with my family in a family hotel offering every convenience and the comfort of home, but I could not find one. Our hotels are either 'de luxe' hotels or third and fourth class. In every country of the world there are

hotels for families — except in Lebanon. What do you say to that?"

"This is a deficiency; we know it too, but it has its reasons... The season in Lebanon falls into two parts — the international tourist season, in winter and spring, which is the one that carries the economic weight; and the summer season, which lasts two or three months. For this reason there is a shortage among us of this kind of 'chalet,' because its profit does not match the cost of building it."

"But," Charlotte interrupted him, "that is not the idea of the 'chalets'... In Europe the chalet is run by the family that owns it; they do its work themselves, and their profit is then pure profit. That is the kind we lack — though it will never come into being unless the mentality of the people of this country changes!"

"They say that summering in Europe and Turkey is cheaper than in Lebanon. What do you say to that?" asked Nadia.

"That is false propaganda," Charlotte broke in hotly. "Prices in Europe are outrageously high, especially in the night haunts and the bars and the other places of amusement — whereas in Lebanon prices are moderate, and..."

"Lebanon need fear no competition whatever in summering," Michel Toma affirmed. "There is no country in the world as beautiful! And its beauty is not natural beauty alone; it is a human beauty as well — these villages scattered on the shoulders of the mountains are not the product of a day or two, but the harvest of years of toil and resolve that have brought them to this splendor of theirs."

... On these encouraging words the meeting broke up, and we went out thanking Mr. Michel Toma for the effort he is making for the sake of beautifying the face of Lebanon — after we had been all fired up to attack him and charge him with every manner of accusation!

This roundtable dispersed with hope in our hearts that we shall see our Lebanon, in the near future, God's paradise on earth — in summer and in all the seasons of the year...