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The
Middle East, 1953
I arrived in Beirut, Lebanon, from Damascus in Syria,
and had to find some means of keeping the wolf
from the door.
Hastily, I decided to set up a shoe-shining business.
First of all, I purchased two sets of brushes and some
jars of shoe polish, then a small stool on which to
sit. Then I created a cardboard billboard that
proclaimed:
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Shoes Shined by U.K. Traveller
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Close to me, I had a small Union Jack which
fluttered gaily in the breeze.
I was now in business in the central area of Beirut!
Within minutes of commencing, I had a long stream of
wealthy Arabic citizens, all eager to have their shoes
shined by a European. It seems that nothing of this
nature had ever happened before in an Arab land.
My recompense was by individual tips only. At the end
of my first day, I had accumulated a good quantity of
coins and notes. My Arab customers chatted away to me
as I busily brushed a gleaming shine on their shoes.
They all wanted to know where I had been to and where I
was going next.
On the third day, a large black limousine drew up close
to me, and out stepped an immaculately dressed
gentleman.
Striding over to me, this person declared in an
strident, authoritative tone, “My man, what do you think
you are doing? Don’t you realise you are letting the
jolly side down, permitting the Lebanese to see a
European shining shoes?”
I quickly realised that he was a pompous official from
the British Embassy, so instantly I replied, “Go and
get stuffed!”
The official looked aghast and went very red in the
face and exploded, “You have not heard the last of this
incident, my man!”
On numerous occasions in the past, during my travels, I
had been confronted by British Embassy staff and,
mostly, I had been treated like a piece of garbage, and
made to feel inferior. Indeed these officials sit
secluded in their ivory towers, situated far away from
any convenient location for visitors needing to find
information. Generally, they haven’t a clue about what is
going on around them. No wonder so many disasters
happen in the Middle East!
Nothing ever happened about this incident and, later
on, I was asked to write an article on my travels by
the editor of the Beirut newspaper The Daily Star.
I followed this up with a travel talk on a Beirut Radio
Station, the consequence of which I was invited to the
homes of many Lebanese citizens, and enjoyed an insight
into typical Middle Eastern hospitality and food.
This was a wonderful time in Lebanon, long before all
the fighting there had commenced. Beirut was known as
the 'Paris of the East'. One of my hosts took me to the
Roman ruins of Baalbeck where, purely by chance, I
encountered a Dutch television company filming the
site. At once, they asked me to pose and included me in
their filming.
After a few days, I said goodbye to all my wonderful
friends, and travelled north to the Syrian border, and
onwards to Turkey.
- Nomad |
