VOA慢速英语--从黄金时代到战争和毁灭:黎巴嫩100岁

From Golden Age to War and Ruin: Lebanon at 100

At the age of 92, Salah Tizani is almost as old as Lebanon. The country was founded in 1920.

He believes his country never had a chance. He thinks back to the days when France set the country's borders.

Tizani told Reuters, "people went to bed one day thinking they were Syrians or Ottomans... and the next day they woke up to find themselves in the Lebanese state."

After years of wars, bombings and killings¹, Lebanon's latest disaster was the August 4 Beirut port explosion that killed some 180 people, injured 6,000 and destroyed a large part of the city.

On September 1, the country marks its 100 anniversary. It comes at a difficult time. The economy has collapsed². There is great poverty. And people are leaving Lebanon in large numbers.

For Lebanon's biggest Christian³ community, the Maronites, the creation of Greater Lebanon was a welcome move towards independence. But many Muslims found themselves cut off from Syria and Palestine.

Growing up in the northern city of Tripoli, Tizani saw the sectarian divisions everywhere. He recalls the census⁵ of 1932, Lebanon's last. Many refused to take part.

"They told them ‘we don't want to be Lebanese'," he said.

From the earliest days, people were forced to ask religious or ethnic⁶ leaders if they needed a job or if they ran into trouble with the law.

When Lebanon declared independence in 1943, the French tried to stop the move by arresting its new government. The arrests started protests that became a rare moment of national unity⁴.

The country created a National Pact⁷. It was agreed the president must be a Maronite, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of parliament a Shi'ite Muslim.

The 1960s are widely seen as a golden age. Tourists came from the Arab world. Beirut was often compared to Paris for its beauty. Theater, poetry, cinema and music were everywhere.

But sectarian politics left many parts of Lebanon poor and forgotten. There was widespread discontent and the 1975 to 1990 civil war broke out, said Nadya Sbaiti. She is an assistant professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the American University of Beirut.

"The other side of the 1960s is not just Hollywood actors... but includes guerrilla training in...parts of the country," she said.

Also, the creation of Israel in 1948 sent 100,000 Palestinian refugees into Lebanon where they lived in extreme poverty.

In 1968, Israeli soldiers destroyed 12 passenger planes at Beirut airport. It came after an attack on an Israeli airliner⁸ by a Lebanon-based Palestinian group.

The Israeli attack "showed us we are not a state. We are an international playground," Salim Haidar, a member of parliament, said at the time.

Disaster came in 1975 with a civil war that began as a conflict between Christian militias⁹ and Palestinian groups allied¹⁰ with Lebanese Muslim factions¹¹. It was followed by many other conflicts. Some of those were fought among Christian groups and among Muslim groups.

The United States, Russia and Syria were pulled into the conflicts. Israel invaded twice and occupied Beirut in 1982. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their homes. When peace finally arrived in 1990, there were about 150,000 dead and more than 17,000 missing.

In the post-war period, Rafik al-Hariri took the lead in rebuilding Beirut's devastated¹³ city center. A Saudi-backed billionaire, Hariri was one of the only Lebanese post-war leaders who had not fought in the conflict. He announced a general amnesty.

Nayla Hamadeh, president of the Lebanese Association for History, said Hariri was saying, "...Let's forget and move (on)."

But many could not forget. A car bomb explosion killed Hariri in 2005. Many believe the Iran-backed Shi'ite group Hezbollah was responsible. But the group denies it.

For many, the port explosion is a continuation of the past. They blamed the same sectarian rulers that have led the country from crisis to crisis since its birth.

"You live between a war and another, and you rebuild and then everything is destroyed and then you rebuild again," said theater director Nidal Al Achkar. "That's why I lost hope."

I'm John Russell.

Words in This Story

sectarian - adj. to group people based on their ethnicity, faith or beliefs

census - n. a counting of citizens, their ages, backgrounds, jobs etc.

golden age - n. a time when everything seems to be of high quality and happiness

guerrilla -.n. militiamen, not regular army

devastate¹² - v. to destroy

amnesty - n. a decision to forgive

1 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

2 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

3 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

4 unity   

n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调

参考例句：

• When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结，并非一团和气。
• We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前，我们必须加强团结。

5 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

6 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

7 pact   

n.合同，条约，公约，协定

参考例句：

• The two opposition parties made an electoral pact.那两个反对党订了一个有关选举的协定。
• The trade pact between those two countries came to an end.那两国的通商协定宣告结束。

8 airliner   

n.客机，班机

参考例句：

• The pilot landed the airliner safely.驾驶员使客机安全着陆。
• The passengers were shepherded across the tarmac to the airliner.旅客们被引导走过跑道去上飞机。

9 militias   

n.民兵组织，民兵( militia的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The troops will not attempt to disarm the warring militias. 部队并不打算解除战斗中的民兵武装。 来自辞典例句
• The neighborhood was a battleground for Shiite and Sunni militias. 那里曾是什叶派和逊尼派武装分子的战场。 来自互联网

10 allied   

adj.协约国的；同盟国的

参考例句：

• Britain was allied with the United States many times in history.历史上英国曾多次与美国结盟。
• Allied forces sustained heavy losses in the first few weeks of the campaign.同盟国在最初几周内遭受了巨大的损失。

11 factions   

组织中的小派别，派系( faction的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gens also lives on in the "factions." 氏族此外还继续存在于“factions〔“帮”〕中。 来自英汉非文学 - 家庭、私有制和国家的起源
• rival factions within the administration 政府中的对立派别

12 devastate   

v.使荒芜，破坏，压倒

参考例句：

• A few days before,a fire had devastated large parts of Windsor Castle.几天前，温莎城堡的大部分被一场大火烧毁。
• Earthquakes can also cause tsunamis,which devastate coastal regions.地震还引发海啸，它直接破坏海岸地区。

13 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。