The Things That Can't Speak
Kerning Cultures
Kerning Cultures Network
4.9 • 529 Ratings
🗓️ 31 August 2018
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ronnie Chatah started giving his walking tours of Beirut in 2008, during a period of stability for the city. He would guide tourists through the city, telling stories of Phoenician ruins, French architecture and Ottoman houses. He'd also talk about Lebanon's civil war, and the political unrest that came to follow it. But these were stories about other people, other eras and other lives. Until December of 2013, when Ronnie's personal life was sucked into the tapestry of Beirut's history.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In New York, and you're listening to |
| 0:03.0 | The world and is predictable. They've seen it happen. |
| 0:05.0 | And one story that always kind of captures my imagination. |
| 0:08.0 | In the streets lost culture. |
| 0:13.0 | And you're listening to Kearning cultures. |
| 0:19.0 | In 2009, headlines across Western media were celebrating what they called a Beirut comeback. |
| 0:26.5 | Lebanon's capital was being revered as a top tourism destination. |
| 0:31.4 | But the truth often lies in the things that can't speak. |
| 0:36.4 | So today, we have a story for you |
| 0:39.0 | about trying to capture the voices of the voiceless, |
| 0:42.8 | the stories of the monuments, |
| 0:45.3 | the homes, the buildings that bore witness to the city's past, |
| 0:48.8 | and there remains that stand today as proof. |
| 0:52.5 | Join us now on this tour of Beirut with our guide, Ronishth. |
| 0:58.6 | I'm Hibah Fisher, and you're listening to Kearning Cultures, Radio Documentaries from the Middle East. |
| 1:04.8 | It can get a bit louder at this stop. If you can't hear what I'm saying, just tell me to project. |
| 1:09.0 | Can everyone hear me? |
| 1:11.6 | So we're standing in front of the Holiday Inn in downtown Beirut. |
| 1:15.6 | Our story today comes to us from producer Alex Aetak. |
| 1:18.6 | Which is basically seen as one of the city's most obvious reminders of the Civil War. |
| 1:23.6 | It stands shelled out and dotted with bullet holes. |
| 1:26.6 | It's this kind of gray hunk of tower. |
... |
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