06 November 2006
BEIRUT: Embattled business owners in Beirut's Central District braced on Sunday for yet another run of losses, this time stemming from beefed-up security measures to accompany the launch of the national "consultations" this week. Though the government has not officially mandated that all stores and restaurants close during the meetings, many merchants - who over the past year-and-a-half have grown used to customer levels fluctuating according to the political situation - are truncating their hours of operation or cutting down on staff in anticipation of a steep drop in business.
"It's been going on ever since they killed Hariri," the manager of La Posta, Michelle Cherabeh, told The Daily Star, "Whenever things started to pick up they would kill someone else or they would bomb somewhere and downtown would be empty for two or three weeks."
With "repetition" customers have also grown more impervious to instability, Cherabeh said, and began returning downtown sooner with each successive disruption. While customers only stay away for an average of three days now, owners of restaurants and stores downtown are expecting to suffer from their absence yet again.
"Whenever they were debating a new location each politician wanted it to belong to one of them. This is mentality here. The image of the Parliament is more adequate," Cherabeh added.
La Posta, which recently added to its staff after a year of layoffs, will be giving most of its employees the day off on Monday but plans to remain open just in case. Neighboring Lebanese restaurant Karamna also plans to maintain regular hours, while halving its normal staff.
A letter from the Syndicate of Cafe, Hotel, and Restaurant Owners asking that the talks be relocated was published in several Lebanese dailies last week. The letter said downtown vendors are ill-equipped to handle yet another interruption after a year of closures accompanying the dialogue sessions earlier in 2006 and the summer war.
Politicians were unresponsive to the plea, said the president of the syndicate, though they did send security officials to meet with a delegation of members to discuss minimizing the impact of additional security - including road closures, reduced parking, an increased army presence, and more checkpoints - on businesses.
"If it lasts only one week it will be kind of OK," Paul Ariss said in an interview Sunday, "But I don't want to say OK."
"Everyone is very upset and wondering how many customers will stay away, but what can you do? Politicians live in one world and restaurant owners live in another. They don't care about politics, they just want to do business."
But it looks as if business will be dead downtown this week, since only one of the half-dozen shops and restaurants surveyed by The Daily Star on Sunday was planning on maintaining regular schedules and staff.
"Stores are closing on their own now because we have learned that nobody comes here during the dialogue. The parking lots are closed, and you get searched," said a salesman who gave his name as Jihad.
"Most of the stores are like us. They will open when the [consulations are] over at six in the evening and probably close around 10," he said, adding that things had just started to pick up this month.
According to the Kafalat lending institution, 408 restaurants accumulated a total of LL 51,159 billion of debt as a result of the war. The syndicate has asked the government to exempt the sector from paying VAT and municipal taxes from mid-2006 until the end of 2007.
