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Believe in the Lebanese Way

Whatever happens to Lebanon, its instinctive desire to trade and make money will win through in the end

by Michael Karam

Like many Lebanese at the time, my grandfather, Esper Karam, left Lebanon at the end of the 19th century and headed for Brazil to make his fortune. He established Esperadio Karam Trading and, by all accounts, he prospered – he was a senior freemason in the Sao Paulo lodge, learnt Portuguese and married a Swedish dressmaker.

This is the Lebanese way.

In 1915, he returned to Lebanon with his young family, only to be caught in the blockade of Beirut and the ensuing famine. In his village, people survived by eating radishes and grass. My grandmother took in starving children who would otherwise have died, cared for them and returned them to their families when better times came.

This is the Lebanese way.

Esper lost his company in Sao Paulo, but with the Lebanese pioneering spirit still thundering through his veins, he headed off to Mali, where, with his brother, he established another trading concern in Koulikoro. Working in Mali today would be no picnic; quite what it was like in the late 1920s is unimaginable. But the heat, the malaria and the ever-present threat of violence did not deter a man, who despite his habit of losing money at cards, was not afraid of hard work.

This is the Lebanese way.

I did not inherit my grandfather’s knack for making money, but the entrepreneurial gene remains dominant in the Lebanese DNA. They cannot travel abroad and not do anything. Dump them in a foreign country, give them minimal capital and they will start a business, any business. They have to work; for their family and their future.

This is the Lebanese way.

During the civil war, Lebanese of all religious stripes fanned out across the globe – to Africa, Australia, Canada, the US, the Gulf and Europe. They established communities and opened businesses: restaurants, supermarkets hardware stores, car dealerships, dry cleaning operations, even petrol stations. Their kids were the products of a foreign education system but were drilled by Lebanese parents for whom education was a religion. They became doctors, lawyers and engineers, while others simply got a business degree and joined the family firm. And when the fighting finished, many came back.

This is the Lebanese way.

Once back, they were hungry to share new ideas and techniques. They opened restaurants and bars and, out of nothing, created beach resorts. They grew grapes and made wines that made the world blink in surprise. They established IT companies and developed property. They worked in advertising, banking, finance and tourism. They established factories and agro-industrial plants and they opened department stores and shopping malls. All this they did with little or no government help or incentive.

This is the Lebanese way.

For Lebanon’s bankers, financiers, entrepreneurs, developers, traders and wine producers are the real Lebanese: brilliant, educated, hard working people, who, like generations before them, want to make a better life. This year, in the course of my work, I have been encouraged by the energy and determination of the Kassem family, the foresight of Lebanese Canadian Bank’s George Zard Abou Jaoude, the vision of Exotica’s Etienne Debbane and the entrepreneurial energy of Akram and Nayef Kassatly.

This is the Lebanese way.

From the wine industry, I have been privileged to be allowed into the inner sanctum of Chateau Ksara to see how Lebanon’s oldest winery operates. I have been moved by the bravery of Massaya’s Ramzi Ghosn, who stayed with his winery as the bombs rained around him. Selim Wardy, owner of Domaine Wardy, told me over the phone of how he was helping coordinate relief efforts in his beloved Zahleh, while Serge Hochar, who in 1982, harvested his grapes under the Israeli, Syrian and Palestinian guns, defiantly announced that that it was “business as usual.” They are all fatalistic, but they still have faith.

This is the Lebanese way.

And the bombs continue to fall on Lebanon. The heroes of the private sector, their achievements, their shattered vision and their material loss, are also victims of a futile, vainglorious adventure and the obscenely disproportionate response it has provoked. But they will be back.

This is the Lebanese way.

Now it is time for all Lebanese to show their commitment to the Lebanese way once and for all by putting national consensus before sectarian allegiances and be inspired by the Lebanese work ethic. The government must now draft a concrete economic plan, not only for the immediate reconstruction needs, but for sustainable future economic development in all areas of the country, including the Akkar, the Bekaa and especially South Lebanon. It must no longer avoid privatization and it must identify and develop areas of undisputed potential, such as tourism and wine as well as harness vital natural resources such as water. Lebanon, more than ever, must be developed as a brand, a country that is investment-friendly and an oasis of progressive, liberal values in a traditionally conservative region.

This is the Lebanese way.

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Michael Karam

Michael Karam is the author of Wines of Lebanon.
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