Once called "Paris of the Middle East", a Pearl whose shine has never stopped even through the toughest times, Beirut was rebuilt 7 times through history! And now, a twin suicide-bomb attacked the small capital which lead to the death of 43 people and the injury of 240 on Thursday November 12 2015. Beirut is now hurt, and few westerns are expressing compassion with the city that was one the capital of tourism and on the top 10 list of most beautiful places to visit.
The day after the bombing, Paris was also attacked by terrorists as a series of attacks took place on Friday November 13 2015 after 9 pm, leaving 14 dead in the city's 10th arrondissement and around a dozen others in the 11th arrondissement. There was a series of explosions near Stade de France, the stadium where France and Germany are playing before a crowd of up to 80,000. French President Francois Hollande was evacuated while the game continued. Final numbers counted around 140 dead.
Two tragedies happened during two days in a row. Yet what really shocked Lebanese citizens, is that the world did not respond to their tragedy the same way it responded to Paris's.
Why we ask?
Maybe because the West attitude towards Beirut is related to the attitude toward the Middle East, which is related to attitudes shaped by many factors such as ignorance, pre-judgment, racism, and media that shows one specific angle of the Middle East which is Terrorism.
Or maybe because of the timing of the attacks in Paris on Friday during the game that the President was attending. Also might be because there were more attack sites in Paris than in Beirut which lead to deadlier attacks in Paris while in Beirut a third bomber was killed before the explosive belt detonated.
More of a reason why the West did not respond to Beirut might be because of Social Media which played a huge role in breaking the news. While Facebook served a special feature after Paris attacks, Beirut was not yet given that option. Mark Zuckerberg explained himself by stating that the Safety Check feature was originally reserved for natural disasters, but was extended to be used for terrorist attacks after the attacks in Paris on Friday.
Tourism has been quite flat in Beirut, but we stay together and unite trying to rise again with our country, so we go back to being the Switzerland of the Middle East, the shining pearl that will never lose its worth.
