A Garbage Crisis

KARL KARAM (MArch ’16)

A garbage crisis, a missing president, an economy that’s dwindling into chaos, social disparity and some repercussions from the current geopolitical situation: The Lebanon. Herzog & De Meuron, Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel, and Norman Foster all have a building currently under construction there. Some friends are skiing just a forty minute drive away from the city, others are by the beach drinking a beer, while others are giving out Christmas gifts to some of the 1,200,000 Syrian refugees that have been welcomed into the country. The bell rings for lunch recess in a Francophone school; a suicide explosion rocks the city. A firework goes off to celebrate a wedding, an unnoticed citizen burns the pile of garbage that has now almost blocked his doorway. A new waterfront art space designed by David Adjaye and curated by Massimiliano Gioni opens its doors to the public, while construction stops on the tallest tower some two kilometers away. These are a few of the accounts that occur. Beirut has all the time, and no time at all. At Home, everyone lives that multiplicity. Realities separated by extremes but connected in people. Wake up; catch a plane; land in New Haven.