I am putting together a photo essay that asks what remains of the Beirut that Kim Philby once knew. Philby was a senior British intelligence official who was secretly spying for the Soviet Union, and who fled to Moscow from Beirut in January 1963. His betrayal was one of the most significant episodes of the Cold War, and fascinates to this day.
My effort to discover Philby's Beirut really comes from a desire to determine what remains of the city when it was at the height of its appeal during the 1960s. That was when Beirut developed a mythology all of its own, as a cosmopolitan outpost, a playground for the jet set, a laboratory for free ideas and a platform for the clashing ideologies of the region.
It was also, as Philby's experience made clear, an ideal listening post to follow the affairs of the Middle East. He had come to Beirut in 1956 as a journalist, though he still occasionally worked as a spy. After having been accused publicly of being a Soviet agent, before being exonerated by British foreign secretary Harold Macmillan, Philby's friends intervened to have him sent to Lebanon as a correspondent for The Observer and The Economist. Macmillan was wrong about Philby's innocence, but it would take the British many more years to find that out.
Little remains of Philby’s Beirut. As I drove around the city in search of the places in his world – the old British embassy building, his apartment, his bars and restaurants, his father’s tomb – it was demoralising to see how much was falling apart. Philby’s apartment is still there, though the building is empty and decaying. The bars are not, though the ruined buildings that housed two of them remain. And the apartment building of Nicholas Elliott – Philby’s colleague who returned to Beirut to out him – is deteriorating, even if it is about to be renovated.
My permanent arrival in Beirut came only seven years after Philby had flown the coop. Until the end of Lebanon's civil war in 1990, many parts of his city could still be seen – which is why my fascination with his story is really one about the place that I discovered in 1970 and that has been mercilessly erased by Beirut's postwar redevelopment.
When visitors think of Beirut's reconstruction, they tend to focus on the destroyed old city centre that was resurrected after the war. While there was much angry debate about that project, one can make a convincing case for its aesthetic soundness. Yet people forget that much of the rest of the city went through a process of much more hideous construction, as blocs of old and charming neighbourhoods were torn down to be replaced by architecturally inconsequential and soulless high-rises.
Today's Beirut has character, but little else. It is often rundown and severed from much of its past, with only a few crumbling islands acting as a reminder of how charming the city once was. Only money seems to matter, and while money does matter in a city, so too does preserving some aspect of a previous identity. But what is being put up today will have no lingering legacy. Nobody will one day take students on a tour of the more recent buildings to point out an innovation or a bright design idea.
Which is not to say that the Beirut of the 1950s and 1960s – Philby’s city – represents some sort of cultural apogee. But in those days Beirut was much more in harmony with itself. The old houses surrounded by gardens with palm or tangerine trees, like the low-rise buildings with outdoor landings, high roofs and large sun-drenched windows, made much more sense in a city on the Mediterranean.
If a city reflects the character of its inhabitants, Beirut was a less mercenary, more relaxed, more hospitable place than it is today, suffocated by concrete, cars and generator fumes. Even the Mediterranean, which once profoundly defined the city, has instead been contaminated by it. By some remarkable wisdom, Lebanon's political class decided that the best place to deposit the nation's waste was near the seashore.
Lebanese mercantilism thrived in the 1960s, but it was not synonymous with wholesale urban destruction. Today, the warped thinking of the municipal authorities can be summed up in a recent decision to uproot one of Beirut’s rare public parks to build a parking garage. The officials insist the park will be rebuilt over the garage, without explaining how hundreds of trees will be replanted. Nowhere is there any interest in the well-being of Beirutis, let alone ensuring that those who cannot afford a club membership have a space for their children to play.
So, it may sound a bit odd to go on the trail of one of the 20th century’s great traitors to revive a personal nostalgia for the Beirut of the past. But there you have it. In many regards Philby still represents a much more authentic aspect of Beirut’s ambiguous history, its exciting amorality and stimulating shadow games, than what the mundane developers and urban authorities have created today.
Philby’s Beirut was still a city of exciting, if questionable, possibilities – of a double agent who could take to the sea on a rainy night, lying to wife and friends, to escape his past. Now, Beirut is a city that behaves as if it has no past, taking pleasure in its pointless immediateness. That is what happens when daily life unfolds amid buildings and streets signifying nothing.
Michael Young is editor of Diwan, the blog of the Carnegie Middle East programme, in Beirut
Company profile
Name: Dukkantek
Started: January 2021
Founders: Sanad Yaghi, Ali Al Sayegh and Shadi Joulani
Based: UAE
Number of employees: 140
Sector: B2B Vertical SaaS(software as a service)
Investment: $5.2 million
Funding stage: Seed round
Investors: Global Founders Capital, Colle Capital Partners, Wamda Capital, Plug and Play, Comma Capital, Nowais Capital, Annex Investments and AMK Investment Office
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EA Sports FC 25
Developer: EA Vancouver, EA Romania
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
UAE’s revised Cricket World Cup League Two schedule
August, 2021: Host - United States; Teams - UAE, United States and Scotland
Between September and November, 2021 (dates TBC): Host - Namibia; Teams - Namibia, Oman, UAE
December, 2021: Host - UAE; Teams - UAE, Namibia, Oman
February, 2022: Hosts - Nepal; Teams - UAE, Nepal, PNG
June, 2022: Hosts - Scotland; Teams - UAE, United States, Scotland
September, 2022: Hosts - PNG; Teams - UAE, PNG, Nepal
February, 2023: Hosts - UAE; Teams - UAE, PNG, Nepal
ENGLAND TEAM
Alastair Cook, Mark Stoneman, James Vince, Joe Root (captain), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Craig Overton, Stuart Broad, James Anderson
World record transfers
1. Kylian Mbappe - to Real Madrid in 2017/18 - €180 million (Dh770.4m - if a deal goes through)
2. Paul Pogba - to Manchester United in 2016/17 - €105m
3. Gareth Bale - to Real Madrid in 2013/14 - €101m
4. Cristiano Ronaldo - to Real Madrid in 2009/10 - €94m
5. Gonzalo Higuain - to Juventus in 2016/17 - €90m
6. Neymar - to Barcelona in 2013/14 - €88.2m
7. Romelu Lukaku - to Manchester United in 2017/18 - €84.7m
8. Luis Suarez - to Barcelona in 2014/15 - €81.72m
9. Angel di Maria - to Manchester United in 2014/15 - €75m
10. James Rodriguez - to Real Madrid in 2014/15 - €75m
Visit Abu Dhabi culinary team's top Emirati restaurants in Abu Dhabi
Yadoo’s House Restaurant & Cafe
For the karak and Yoodo's house platter with includes eggs, balaleet, khamir and chebab bread.
Golden Dallah
For the cappuccino, luqaimat and aseeda.
Al Mrzab Restaurant
For the shrimp murabian and Kuwaiti options including Kuwaiti machboos with kebab and spicy sauce.
Al Derwaza
For the fish hubul, regag bread, biryani and special seafood soup.
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
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Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
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Ireland v Denmark: The last two years
Denmark 1-1 Ireland
7/06/19, Euro 2020 qualifier
Denmark 0-0 Ireland
19/11/2018, Nations League
Ireland 0-0 Denmark
13/10/2018, Nations League
Ireland 1 Denmark 5
14/11/2017, World Cup qualifier
Denmark 0-0 Ireland
11/11/2017, World Cup qualifier
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
The 12 breakaway clubs
England
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur
Italy
AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus
Spain
Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Real Madrid
HEADLINE HERE
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BlacKkKlansman
Director: Spike Lee
Starring: John David Washington; Adam Driver
Five stars