In Germany’s Dresden, it was a statue of an open-armed woman looking over the ruined city. In Japan’s Hiroshima, it was the walls of a church, and in New York, it was steel beams of the World Trade Centre.
Those were iconic photos of parts left standing of obliterated structures after massive carnage.
The disaster at the Beirut port this week was not as deadly, but the explosion was huge and one strong building at its epicentre survived enough to make out what it was.
It is the grain silos building, the brainchild of Palestinian banker Yusuf Beidas, whose rise and fall as one of the world’s prominent businessmen in the 1960s was a defining chapter in Lebanon’s turbulent history.
Although 158 people died in the explosion and more than 5,000 were wounded, military specialists said the silos were crucial in shielding half of Beirut from greater destruction, in particular the heavily populated areas along the coast in the western part of the city.
“That building made a major difference. Without it the casualties could have been much worse,” said a Western security official, who has been looking into the explosion.
Beidas's Intra Bank empire collapsed in 1966, and Lebanon’s politicians divided large parts of its assets, marking new levels of dubious overreach in a system many Lebanese consider as failing them spectacularly today.
The once white silos appear to have taken the brunt of the explosion, limiting the damage to the Beirut Corniche and the mostly Muslim western half of the city.
The building’s concrete walls, facing east, collapsed and the ones facing west remained standing.
Retired lorry driver George Bassil, who used to transport supplies from the silos to mills in Beirut, said he grew up hearing how strong the 50-metre high structure was from his father, who had also worked there.
"I did not realise what he meant until I saw for myself. The silos were built correctly to take the pressure of the wheat and barley and corn inside it," Mr Bassil told The National. "They stopped the destruction from being far worse."
The silos were eventually funded by the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development and built after Beidas died in exile in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 1968. They had a capacity of 120,000 tonnes, or 10 per cent of Lebanon’s annual imports, before the explosion.
Beidas's son Marwan told The National that the silos were part of his father's drive to expand Beirut as the trading and financial centre of the Middle East.
“My father rarely went out after work, preferring to stay at home, and his friends came over there,” Marwan Beidas, who is in his 70s, said.
“But he greatly loved Beirut, and its hardworking, civil people. The decent people. Not the indecent politicians,” he said.
By the time a run on Intra forced the bank to halt paying its depositors in October 1966, the bank was the largest in the Middle East. It accounted for 40 per cent of deposits in Lebanon’s domestic banks.
Beidas set up International Traders, whose Telex code was Intra, when he fled from Jerusalem to Beirut after the founding of Israel in 1948.
He was so tight with margins and meticulous with numbers that International Traders soon took over most of the currency exchange market in Lebanon, providing Beidas with the capital to set up Intra.
Beidas outflanked established Lebanese and Syrian families that had dominated banking in Beirut.
He focused on external expansion, and Intra soon had 40 branches abroad, amassing more petrodollar deposits than the competition, as well as from the Palestinian diaspora and the many Syrians who did not trust the Baathist rulers of their country.
He rubbed shoulders with the who’s who of the East and West, from Charles de Gaulle, to Jamal Addel Nasser, and King Faisal of Saudi Arabia.
Intra owned a skyscraper on Fifth Avenue in New York, real estate on the Champs Elysee, Chantiers Navals de la Ciotat, one of France’s biggest shipyards, and assets across Europe and in Africa.
In Lebanon, Intra controlled Lebanon’s flagship Middle East Airlines, the famed Casino du Liban, and the Phoenicia Intercontinental Hotel, one of the world’s busiest hotels.
Another landmark was the Beirut port that the explosion engulfed last week. The port was run by Intra’s subsidiary, Cie de Gestion et d'Exploitation du Port de Beyrouth.
It may never be known what exactly prompted the run on Intra. A sharp increase in interest rates in Europe and the US may have prompted some big Saudi depositors to shift their money westward. Intra had also invested heavily in fixed assets and had a too-low of a liquidity ratio.
For disputed reasons, the then newly established central bank, Banque du Liban, did not provide enough cash to boost Intra’s liquidity, although Intra had no shortage of assets.
In an interview with Life Magazine in 1967, Beidas had a very low opinion in the Lebanese political class, and the Association of Banks in Lebanon, the same one that demonstrations overran on Saturday in Beirut.
He said his competitors “knifed him” and that he could not return to Lebanon because he would not be awarded the right to defend himself “freely and fully in a fair and open court”.
“No one can create a huge financial empire without some mistakes But I will not return to be gagged and jailed without trial, to be silenced – perhaps forever,” he said.
Marwan Bedas said that when the run on Intra started, his father was in Europe, and received a call from Yusuf Salameh, a late Palestinian-Lebanese merchant banker and writer, who headed Intra’s branch in New York.
Salameh, who was the brother of Wedad, Beidas’s wife, asked him what to do with $4 million that were in Beidas’s personal account in New York, Marwan said.
The $4 million in today’s money is equivalent to at least $32 million.
“My father instructed my uncle to transfer the $4m to Beirut, to pay the depositors. My uncle made the transfer, and the money later evaporated," he said.
In the Palestinian national psyche, Beidas embodied resilience.
He also became a symbol of the failure of Lebanon to turn into a melting pot as Michel Chiha, the Lebanese statesman who laid the foundations of the republic after independence in the 1940s, intended.
Chiha envisaged a country where anyone could rise in its laissez-faire system, provided the advancement was based on merit.
Even Beidas’s enemies did not dispute that the “genius from Jerusalem” was immensely qualified.
Five months before Intra collapsed, Lebanese publisher Kamel Mroueh was assassinated in his office, at the Al Hayat newspaper in Beirut.
Two men behind the assassinations, who served as enforcers for Jamal Abdel Nasser, were convicted. One was released, and the second escaped.
Mroueh’s son Kamel, who continued in the same line as his father, regards the killing of Mroueh as the day the rule of law collapsed in Lebanon, and the date to which the Lebanese civil war can be traced.
One of Beidas’s best friends, the late Lebanese business executive Najib Alamiudin, former chairman of Middle East airlines, said that the 1975-1990 civil war started with the collapse of Intra.
The two events marked immense failures in a system that were never remedied.
Beidas intended for the silos to become the nucleus of a regional distribution centre, capitalising on Beirut’s advantage in logistics, marketing and modern finance. Few, after his death at age 55, had an integrated vision for the economy of Lebanon, and the international connections to pursue it.
The silos did not fulfil their mission, becoming one of the few storage facilities in the country for domestic consumption. But they saved lives in a city with bittersweet memories for the man who had envisaged them, and who did not live long after his half-realised dreams were brought down.
THE SPECS
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: seven-speed dual clutch
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'Project Power'
Stars: Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dominique Fishback
Director: Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman
Rating: 3.5/5
Company Profile:
Name: The Protein Bakeshop
Date of start: 2013
Founders: Rashi Chowdhary and Saad Umerani
Based: Dubai
Size, number of employees: 12
Funding/investors: $400,000 (2018)
Game Changer
Director: Shankar
Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram
Rating: 2/5
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Profile Idealz
Company: Idealz
Founded: January 2018
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Size: (employees): 22
Investors: Co-founders and Venture Partners (9 per cent)
First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Cricket World Cup League Two
Oman, UAE, Namibia
Al Amerat, Muscat
Results
Oman beat UAE by five wickets
UAE beat Namibia by eight runs
Fixtures
Wednesday January 8 –Oman v Namibia
Thursday January 9 – Oman v UAE
Saturday January 11 – UAE v Namibia
Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia
Diriyah%20project%20at%20a%20glance
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Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
Kat Wightman's tips on how to create zones in large spaces
- Area carpets or rugs are the easiest way to segregate spaces while also unifying them.
- Lighting can help define areas. Try pendant lighting over dining tables, and side and floor lamps in living areas.
- Keep the colour palette the same in a room, but combine different tones and textures in different zone. A common accent colour dotted throughout the space brings it together.
- Don’t be afraid to use furniture to break up the space. For example, if you have a sofa placed in the middle of the room, a console unit behind it will give good punctuation.
- Use a considered collection of prints and artworks that work together to form a cohesive journey.
World Cricket League Division 2
In Windhoek, Namibia - Top two teams qualify for the World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe, which starts on March 4.
UAE fixtures
Thursday, February 8 v Kenya; Friday, February 9 v Canada; Sunday, February 11 v Nepal; Monday, February 12 v Oman; Wednesday, February 14 v Namibia; Thursday, February 15 final
A new relationship with the old country
Treaty of Friendship between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates
The United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates; Considering that the United Arab Emirates has assumed full responsibility as a sovereign and independent State; Determined that the long-standing and traditional relations of close friendship and cooperation between their peoples shall continue; Desiring to give expression to this intention in the form of a Treaty Friendship; Have agreed as follows:
ARTICLE 1 The relations between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates shall be governed by a spirit of close friendship. In recognition of this, the Contracting Parties, conscious of their common interest in the peace and stability of the region, shall: (a) consult together on matters of mutual concern in time of need; (b) settle all their disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 2 The Contracting Parties shall encourage education, scientific and cultural cooperation between the two States in accordance with arrangements to be agreed. Such arrangements shall cover among other things: (a) the promotion of mutual understanding of their respective cultures, civilisations and languages, the promotion of contacts among professional bodies, universities and cultural institutions; (c) the encouragement of technical, scientific and cultural exchanges.
ARTICLE 3 The Contracting Parties shall maintain the close relationship already existing between them in the field of trade and commerce. Representatives of the Contracting Parties shall meet from time to time to consider means by which such relations can be further developed and strengthened, including the possibility of concluding treaties or agreements on matters of mutual concern.
ARTICLE 4 This Treaty shall enter into force on today’s date and shall remain in force for a period of ten years. Unless twelve months before the expiry of the said period of ten years either Contracting Party shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the Treaty, this Treaty shall remain in force thereafter until the expiry of twelve months from the date on which notice of such intention is given.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned have signed this Treaty.
DONE in duplicate at Dubai the second day of December 1971AD, corresponding to the fifteenth day of Shawwal 1391H, in the English and Arabic languages, both texts being equally authoritative.
Signed
Geoffrey Arthur Sheikh Zayed
Business Insights
- As per the document, there are six filing options, including choosing to report on a realisation basis and transitional rules for pre-tax period gains or losses.
- SMEs with revenue below Dh3 million per annum can opt for transitional relief until 2026, treating them as having no taxable income.
- Larger entities have specific provisions for asset and liability movements, business restructuring, and handling foreign permanent establishments.
The specs: 2017 Lotus Evora Sport 410
Price, base / as tested Dh395,000 / Dh420,000
Engine 3.5L V6
Transmission Six-speed manual
Power 410hp @ 7,000rpm
Torque 420Nm @ 3,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined 9.7L / 100km
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
The Word for Woman is Wilderness
Abi Andrews, Serpent’s Tail
Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
GYAN’S ASIAN OUTPUT
2011-2015: Al Ain – 123 apps, 128 goals
2015-2017: Shanghai SIPG – 20 apps, 7 goals
2016-2017: Al Ahli (loan) – 25 apps, 11 goals
The specs
Price, base: Dh228,000 / Dh232,000 (est)
Engine: 5.7-litre Hemi V8
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 395hp @ 5,600rpm
Torque: 552Nm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.5L / 100km
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
Analysis
Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000