European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 15, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A City that refuses to die byjoe Nedlin associated press milk and morning newspapers Are delivered daily to apartments and houses still standing among the ruins and rubble of Beirut a City that stubbornly refuses to succumb to More than one in 40 of the have lost their lives in 10 years of civil War and a just ended three year occupation by but most of Beirut inhabitants in Gar bag strewn slums or Palm fringed boulevards have Learned to live with the anarchy and agony that has transformed the onetime Middle East playground into a three television channels and 14 English and French language newspapers devoted much of their time and space to the 14day drama of the hijacking of an american plane and the holding of 39 of its passengers and crime has and the Economy once founded on banking and transit Trade for other Arab nations has slumped As Law and order and a photo moslem militiamen take cover in warring West business Confidence have militias of half a dozen rival moslem and Christian factions or opportunist roam the otherwise deserted streets at but there Are few easy pickings for the Many wealthy lebanese having transferred Money shuttered their Facto Ries and shops or fled to safer countries in the Middle Europe and North i want to get said Moussa who Sells fire i cant take it any its All so the Taxman adds to the woes of the 60 percent of adult lebanese Lucky enough to have wage earn their buying Power axed two thirds through devaluations of the Pound in the past 18 routinely have an average 30 percent deducted from their but the once bustling Beirut port has Long been robbing the customs department of much government now less than actual some of the armed militiamen exact taxes from restaurants and even on imports offloaded at the Northern port of War has Haemorrhage a the Middle easts most free distr buted by King features Syndicate heeling business and play once it was the vault for much of Oil Rich nations a favored scene for Rich arabs in quest of surf and Casino and a breadbasket for the nervous Bankers scan Rock Bottom Deposit bal ances and keep a wary Eye open for the beaches and casinos and the few luxury hotels that survived shellings Are statistics Tell part of the while Lebanon traditionally boasted a healthy balance of payments surplus it had a deficit of billion in 1983 followed by a further deficit of billion last and foreign reserves have plunged from billion in 1982 to less than million by the beginning of this were reduced to a Basic Economy of Small Mer industrialists and Street lamented a who noted that most Arab clients had transferred their wealth to places like London and yet untold millions of dollars pour into Leb anon to finance the militia armies to the amass from expatriate shiite to the christians from and to the sunnis and druse from the Money coming in for arms is All that keeping the Pound from collapsing said the banker who requested some people profit from the chaos owners of battered Mercedes taxis replacing state run buses driven off the roads by the smugglers trafficking in anything from italian suits to japanese stereo and scores of entree Peers who rent out video people Are staying Home and watching said Chafic whose business is in the heart of West few people go out any so were doing gone Are the Days when Beirut residents went out after dark to the strolled the dined in elegant French sent children to Corner stores for bread and milk or crowded into casinos that once attracted 2 million tourists a by Day Beirut ignores the push carts through the Busy streets Selling anything from peanuts to boutiques Are stuffed with French fashions and English delicatessens Stock Canadian smoked Salm Camembert new zealand Lamb and Amer ican hot and Ahmed who once peddled leather wallets and handbags to now Sells pistol holsters and ammunition belts to we have to change with the Hassan a Bride and Groom the other Day gyrated to music in a downtown Beirut hotel As christians and moslem exchanged mortars and machine gun fire across the nearby Green line which divides the we cant let the fighting worry us too the Bride told a we have to carry on As Best we july 1985 the stars and stripes Page 13