It's been party time in Lebanon. At the Baalbek music festival, Vanessa Mae, the violinist renowned at least as much for her sexy image as for her playing, wowed 4,000 at the Temple of Jupiter. At the Beiteddine palace, Tito Puente and Celia Cruz brought salsa and mambo to the Chouf. And in Tyre, Iraqi-born Kazem al-Saher drew the biggest crowd of all, packing 5,000 people into the Hippodrome on a sultry Friday evening.
Sadly, the Monday morning after this weekend of international glitterdom would have brought many partygoers back down to earth with a bump. Fifteen years of civil war have left much of Beirut still bullet-scarred and potholed despite the recent reconstruction efforts. The shoreline and promenade, which in any other city would be the centre of a lucrative tourist trade, still front a landscape of empty plots littered with rubble. Recent Israeli bombing raids on non-military targets - in particular power stations - have left most streets unlit and every business and household at the mercy of frequent power cuts. Fortunately most - including the Blue Note jazz café on Rue Mahoul - have kept the generators that powered the city during the war and so carry on regardless.