Editor:
I vacationed in Lebanon for a week in mid-January. To my surprise, I found the country to be perfectly safe.
When I initially announced to family, friends and work colleagues that I was Beirut-bound, the common question asked was: Why would you go there? Family implored: "Don't go there, it's dangerous." Friends teased: "Enjoy your time in the war zone." Work colleagues quipped: "Interesting vacation choice - your skills as a negotiator will serve you well!" My wife (who is of Jewish heritage), keeper of the passports, would not release mine for travel until my will and power of attorney were updated. As you can appreciate, these unfavourable cautions led me to attend to some considerable due diligence prior to my departure.
Naturally, I turned to the Internet. What I discovered there was less than reassuring. The Government of Canada's travel advisory, for example, advised (and still does) "against nonessential travel to Lebanon, due to the unpredictable security situation."
I also happened upon pictures of barbaric beheadings recently carried out by soldiers in neighbouring Syria. They had their intended effect on my relatively mild mannered Canadian psyche.
This led to me to seek out assurances I would be safe, which I found on numerous travel blogs, and by calling prominent retired aboriginal law lawyer Andrew Schuck, who I was to visit in Beirut with his son David.
Schuck, who alternates residences between Beirut and Vancouver with his Lebanese-born wife, assured me that barring an unforeseen conflict, all would be safe, and certainly more so than visiting a number of major cities in North America and Europe.
I took a leap of faith, and resisted the temptation to cancel the ticket I had purchased.
Once in Lebanon, what I discovered was a warm, generous and complex nation of people inhabiting a very scenic land steeped in nuanced culture and religion.
I discovered cosmopolitan cities and remote villages where Christians and Muslims lived side-by-side in relative harmony, much as they do in Canada.
On one trip to the mountain village of Harissa, as it happens, I witnessed many Muslim women paying homage to the Virgin Mary at the Our Lady of Lebanon Shrine.
It is not uncommon in Lebanon, I discovered, to see Christian churches and mosques built beside each other, or near (and in some cases upon) Roman and Phoenician ruins.
I walked the inner and outer city core of Beirut in near absolute safety, and travelled by car first to Mount Lebanon, and then the Bekaa Valley without incident or fear of same. To my amazement, the Bekaa, as it is commonly referred to, bore many resemblances to British Columbia's orchard-laden Okanagan Valley.
Throughout my vacation, I was asked by locals why I had come to Lebanon, given all the substantive negative media coverage of the country. I provided the same answer I provided the puzzled customs officer who interrogated me as I entered the country: "To learn about your culture, to see the sights and to eat all the good food."
On the last day of my vacation, to my surprise, two young men in their early 20 asked me: "Do you believe all Muslims are terrorists?" I answered: "Of course not. I'm Canadian. We don't look at the world in black and white absolutes." They nodded.
Malcolm MacPherson
