— 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...
On the eve of July 31 last we were among the temples of Baalbek, listening to the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra play a concerto by the Lebanese composer Anis Fuleihan. When it ended, a storm of applause thundered through the hall, and the audience began calling for Fuleihan to mount the platform, repeating his name...
And I heard a "Baalbek" lady sitting in front of me say to her companion in astonishment:
"I never knew Said Freiha made music!!"