Dec 22, 2011 | Beirut

If Beirut had an anthem, it would be performed with only two instruments—the car horn and the jackhammer. The city seems to be in a mad rush, trying to make up for all the years lost to civil war, occupation, and stagnation. Today's skyline is beyond the imagining of anyone who watched TV news in the 1970s and '80s. But despite all the outward signs of repair and renewal, Beirut is still a city on edge. Photo cameras invite warnings, and during Christmas weekend, every church was guarded by heavily armed soldiers. On Christmas Day, I hopscotched from service to service—first Greek Orthodox, then Maronite Christian, then Latin Catholic. The Beirut on display was wealthy, chic, multilingual, and confident. But the Beirut I saw later on the way to the airport was an entirely different matter: grindingly poor, controlled by Hezbollah, and presumably empty of Christmas worshippers and foreign visitors.