The Lebanese Middle Class: Gone and Out

Many countries have marked their stability by the size of their middle class. American democracy and power was spurred by growth in the middle class. Even in Communist China the new burgeoning middle class of 200 million wants more stability and rule of law. To quote Ayn Rand, "upper classes are a nation's past; the middle class is its future." However, in Lebanon a middle class is almost nonexistent. Beirut is a have or have not world; if Rand was correct, the Lebanese are definitely retrogressing.

Lebanese people are like peacocks, they love to display their tail feathers. Only, in Lebanon they usually cannot afford the plumage they have bought.Everyday I see at least 3 high end Mercedes or BMWs, and that's just in Hamra. While I've been in Lebanon, I've seen everything from Hummer H2s, $90,000 BMWs and Maybachs, to Armani shirts, designer jeans, and $400 Gucci sunglasses. Regardless of the fact that 28% of the population lives below the poverty line (remember Lebanon has a population of almost 4 million).

I asked one of my Lebanese friends why so many Lebanese find it necessary to get cars and clothing they can't afford, the answer, "to get girls." Attracting the opposite sex aside, there is an underlying cultural current that makes Lebanese go and get extravagant things and live far beyond their means. Because the culture is one of "haves and have nots", all in this country, even the poorest Shi'ite from Dahiyia finds the need to live beyond his means.

Before the Lebanese War (1976-1990) Downtown Beirut was a place for the middle class. Neighborhoods thrived, and so did small shops. Following the war and Rafik Hariri's Solidere project the new downtown is one of high end boutiques, million dollar apartments, and one devoid of Lebanese. Who has moved into downtown? Arabs from the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait. All of the Gulf's oil oligarchs (I call them oilgarchs) who need a place to pass through, own property and cruise around in their BMWs in the downtown. Beirut has passed from being "Paris of the Middle East" to "Grand Central Station of the Levant." The oilgarchs use Beirut as a little resting stop before they head to Geneve, or go back to their own countries.

I wondered where the money came from for Lebanese to buy all of these luxury goods, some have bank loans up to their ears, others turn to a different source of cash: expatriates (in Africa, South America, Europe, and the US) or the Lebanese "mafia". I use the term mafia to describe thugs in Lebanon that peddle drugs and knock people off. expatriates returning to Lebanon aren't the doctors, lawyers, or the educated middle class, they are the super rich who want a house in their ancestral village. The others who return are the thugs who see Lebanon as a new place to peddle his goods.

Recalling history, the first people to leave the British Mandate of Palestine in 1947-1948 were the Arab middle class followed by the extremely wealthy. Without the leadership of an intellectual community that wanted and needed stability, the remaining Arabs in the Mandate were put at an extreme disadvantage, and eventual failure. Here in Lebanon the only two groups of (Lebanese) people left are the zuama (sectarian feudal lords) and the poor hard working Lebanese. Everyone wants to be a zuama, only in this place that is impossible. The next best thing is to try to put on a facade. Just remember, no matter how beautiful a facade is, if its covering something that is disintegrating, it too will eventually be destroyed.

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