When you walk in the heart of the city center of warsaw, you will wind up on Krakowskie Przedmieście. It is a nice street near the old town that was rebuilt after WWII, when the Nazis destroyed about 97% of all the buildings in Warsaw. What rings a bell for me, is the Beirut so called (Downtown) reconstructed after the civil war by the private Solidere company, but unlike Beirut the old town in Warsaw still got character due to the many citizens who lived there after the war, therefore creating much more dynamic streets with small local businesses and tourists attractions at the same time. We lost that battle in Beirut's newly reconstructed illusionary view of the downtown where houses( I am talking huge houses) were sold to the wealthy ( Needless to say that mostly Gulf wealth) who brought nothing more than a heavily secured streets and buildings, a bunch of exclusive restaurants, hotels, and a newly finished shopping center called Beirut souks.( I am not downsizing downtown, but if people want to feel proud of something meaningful to their original culture, old photographs of the real life in the pre-war Beirut souks would be the only consolation for pride and innocence) . Far from the reality of Downtown Beirut, what is usually impressive about cultures is their ability to bring much of the painful past to the midst of modernity, because as they say " you cannot go into the future if you don't look into your past". So recurrent historic themes that make up the bulk of intellectual consciousness of much of the art scenes all over the world usually take place in restored places where wars have ravaged and killed. Therefore I bring the next example only to highlight the obvious, yet I feel it is necessary not to compromise modernity for the sake of History or the other way around, but some compromises are worth doing on both sides ( I am talking about one significant civil war memorial to be allowed in the heart of the glitzy downtown. And let's forget about the martyr square because it has really lost its meaning). In Warsaw there are currently a load of exhibitions, events, and countless other activities aimed at cementing the public absolute brave" fights" and "battles" they went through to defeat the communists, and the Nazis. Particularly the movement called Solidarność. But way before that in 1920 there was a different kind of battle going on in the spring and summer aimed by Lenin to conquer Poland by way of drowning it in the Bolshevik wave, hoping to get into Germany and the rest of Europe. Lenin failed and so the relevance of the street mentioned above comes into the picture. The man in the picture is Piłsudzki the man who is given much of the credit for the way the Poles conducted their war, and won. It is a huge image of this man, and on the other side of the street is also a huge one of Lenin. The contrast may be a cliche, but it is important for the tourists to see, and the locals alike. So I am thinking that it is great to be able to have a portrait of a man who can be attributed to the salvation of not only a nation, but the European continent (even if only for the 25 years following the 1920 defeat of the Ruskis). So let me think who of our Lebanese politician we can commemorate in such an honorable portrait? Well we can put many portraits of those who actually destroyed not only Beirut but the rest of the country, yet I dare we find one man who defeated one national threat. ( Now look at that portrait, I am not sure if it is the mustache or the cigarette, but they defiantly go well together).
