|
|
Article: Beirut's rebirth: blossoms in the rubble
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- February 14, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1993 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
|
BEIRUT -- Walid Jumblat picks at his sushi in a just-reopened
Japanese restaurant in West Beirut and says: "I miss my days as a
warlord."
The balding, droop-eyed, rail-thin Druse chieftain once surrounded
by five bodyguards, the man who until last year had 80 tanks at his
disposal and helped make Lebanon synonymous with societal
disintegration, adds: "We used to collect our own taxes. I had my
fiefdom. We were obsessed that they were trying to kill us,"
referring to the Christian Falange forces.
Now Jumblat, a man of wit and vast family fortune, is a minister
in a new Lebanese government trying to piece the place back together.
He says: "Today, all we want is electricity, jobs and money."
...