[montaigne]

(07-29-2018 09:10 AM)Beirut Wrote:  

^ I have a hard time saying Lebanon is beautiful because it should be way more beautiful than it currently is. I go to Southern France and Italy and i see the same landscapes i see back home, and Lebanon has 3x the history. But there i see tiled rooftops, clean streets, urban planning, preservation of the character and here i see rubbish on badly paved streets, chaotic construction, polluted sea, deforested mountains, etc... Still you have a lot of beautiful spots but if we were not so idiotic we could have made this place a paradise.

Its quite heartbreaking. To me the Jounieh bay area for example could have been one of the most beautiful spots in the world.

Do you think there's any sorts of initiative or laws that could be set in place to bring back or add some layers of beauty? I've seen online that they're literally cutting away the mountains, which is opposite to where i'm going with this, but surely some law could be implemented that demands say, a certain amount of trees are planted and not cut down, perhaps in an effort to bolster tourism to areas outside of Beirut (just as a weak start). I think with the right people on board, especially people with links to tourism of some kind, there /could/ potentially be a regeneration of sorts. There's nothing I care about more in life than beauty, so this is probably going to be something I try and do something about, even if it's just planting 1 tree or adding some food colouring to certain parts of the sea. I definitely feel the country's in a position to get better and not worse. So why not start with beautifying places, under the guise of 'for the tourism potential.'

[montaigne]

I can finally consider myself a borderline expert with Lebanese women. Had a good time there. Can sum up my most worthy insight with this - stick to the girls with the smallest friendship groups, if any friendship groups at all. The girls contracted to the big groups all have a really weird pack mentality where they tear apart any man or woman who expresses any 'rough around the edges' viewpoint. They condemn their own, so harshly, for making jokes that would be fine anywhere in the West; and these are groups who do drink, and smoke weed, so i don't understand why they're so limited in this regard. It's also very easy for word to spread around that someone new (you, me) is in town - these friendship groups are massive, and extent across the whole country, and they're constantly in a social media echo chamber with eachother.

Further, they're smart in terms of...the paper they can show that says 'psychologist', 'nutritionist', etc, but there's a real lack of social intelligence, and a real lack of individual characters. Loads of insecure men who white-knight on social media in the most awful, overt ways 'RAPE IS NEVER OK GUYS, COME ON, SHE WAS ONLY WEARING A SKIRT, YOU THINK ITS OK IF YOUR LITTLE SISTER GETS RAPED?' etc, to massive applause from the girl groups on their peripheral. Of course rape isn't good, but the way in which they state the bleeding obvious - to actual applause instead of 'fuck sake - look at this peacocking virtue-signaller' - is annoying - and ignorant. I can't get on with it.

This is a place where someone with a big, worldly mind, will have to bite their tongue daily, unless they come across one of the few 'indie' girls who're overtly Trump, slightly more masculine outfits and hair than the other girls, etc. These girls too, lack something. But i suppose women everywhere do.

If i want a wife, i'll definitely consider here. I've totally reconsidered though the idea of bonding with a group of guys or girls here. I think both ways, groups here end up in the extremes. Extremely fake, or, extremely unable to get along with the fake.

Love the place in more ways than I dislike it.