Frozen in the past

There are so many things we need here,” says Seera Hablas, surveying the small, run-down village of Zouq Al Habalssa from the vantage point of the overgrown hillside, on which she keeps the hives of her beekeeping business. “We need the government to acknowledge that this part of Lebanon exists and needs attention — it’s as if the state only sees it as a place for martyrs and terrorists.” Akkar, Lebanon’s northernmost province, with a population close to 300,000 people, has the air of a land forgotten. Covering nearly 800 square kilometers, it provides a large portion of the Lebanese Armed Forces’ recruits and militant Salafist networks are known to be active in the area, but for the most part this primarily agricultural governorate simply doesn’t feature on the mental maps of most Lebanese. Tourists don’t visit, investors don’t invest, and the government is conspicuously absent. As former Member of