From a Lebanese sitting room

for waiting, watching and sleeping

The concept of Mediterranean living brings to mind many images – olive groves, orange blossom, a certain style of shutters. For me it is also now embodied in the white plastic chair. This inherently second-rate and usually battered looking article is ubiquitous in Lebanon. Too cheap to bother about it being pilfered, it sits on uneven pavements, on balconies, outside tiny stores, on building sites.

It speaks volumes about a climate for outside living, where people sit on the balcony and watch their neighbours instead of TV soap operas. It comes into its own during the periods of intense inertia prescribed by the heat of a summer afternoon.

The plastic chair plays a key role in the esteemed Lebanese activity of waiting. Shopkeepers waiting outside to tell you not to park on the two metre stretch of road outside their shop (they’re saving it for customers); traffic police, bored of signalling, waiting for their colleagues to relieve them; guards watching over building sites, idly playing cards, waiting for the high-rise to be completed to then move their young family on into the ground floor of another skeleton tower; soldiers languidly draped at checkpoints and on street corners waiting for something – anything – to happen, waiting for a war.  

It is a staple in a world which hankers not after hustle and bustle. It says, We have time to sit down; and we are happy to be seen doing so. There is no guilt culture about taking time out to do nothing here.

It also says, This is our space; we belong here. It is the same communal space shared by country folk the world over, but armed with the plastic chair the Lebanese have hung onto their shared space in villages and cities alike. The street is their sitting room.

7 Responses to “From a Lebanese sitting room”

  1. [...] Great observation from Ginger Beirut: The plastic chair plays a key role in the esteemed Lebanese activity of waiting. Shopkeepers waiting outside to tell you not to park on the two metre stretch of road outside their shop (they’re saving it for customers); traffic police, bored of signalling, waiting for their colleagues to relieve them; guards watching over building sites, idly playing cards, waiting for the high-rise to be completed to then move their young family on into the ground floor of another skeleton tower; soldiers languidly draped at checkpoints and on street corners waiting for something – anything – to happen, waiting for a war. [...]

  2. Nice says:

    We can see from the picture that even the Beiruti cats possess the happy/ lazy knack for sleeping in the plastic chair in sitting room…
    How I envy them all ;)

  3. [...] From a Lebanese sitting room Ginger Beirut [...]

  4. a guy.... says:

    well Georgia

    ur descriptive text, might give the impression that lebanese people are lazy/passive “by culture”….which is not the case, as i am sure you know.

    life and action are at every corner of beirut…and cannot be overshadowed by “few people sitting on platic chairs”…

    by the way, i like your writing style and your keen sense of observation throghout your articles on your website….(just curious: what is the book u r currently reading?)

    take good care…enjoy beirut…but mostly enjoy life…

    • @ a guy,
      I hardly think anyone will judge the Lebanese as lazy for having a sit-down in the heat of a Beirut summer afternoon! I love living in a culture which knows how to take time out, whether it be to rest or to get involved in different activities.
      To assuage your curiosity, I recently started Identités meutrières by Amin Maalouf.
      Thanks for reading.

      • a guy says:

        thank you for “assuaging” (est ce que cette version du mot existe en anglais?!!) my curiosity; ill buy the book

        keep writing. may be your texts will all end-up making a great book to read. i hope this is ur intention

        sorry for being curious….

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