More than blind hope

The sun reflects the facades of designer stores that flaunt Prada, Chanel and Armani. Women in Dior sipping iced lattes and chatting to friends could be absolutely anywhere in the developed world, affluent and totally at ease in their surroundings; Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, Kings Road in London, Champs Elysees in Paris or Gran Via in Madrid. But this isn’t Europe or North America and for that matter it’s in no other part of the developed world. A little over a year ago Lebanon was at war. The bombardment suffered at the hands of Israel’s military wasn’t the country’s first taste of war in recent memory, but it did knock a burgeoning economy off its feet. Leading local bank, Audi-Saradar, recently issued a report on the country’s economic conditions, summing up its plight with cold-hearted brevity when it described 2007 as a ‘lost year.’ A sentiment echoed by Prime Minister