NBA Players In LeBanon - Lebanese Daily Star

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

                      Opinion
                      The golden fleece

                      If basketball coach Anthony Ronzone had wanted an
                      easy life, he would never have dreamed up the idea
                      of bring a North American team led by NBA players
                      from Portland, Sacramento and Vancouver. Come to
                      that, he probably wouldn’t have carved out a career
                      in the highly competitive world of basketball
                      either.
                      A measure of the misinformation abroad about Lebanon
                      and the depth to which its reputation had sunk is
                      that even eight years after the civil war finished
                      the first question Ronzone faced from the players as
                      he laboured to get a team together was: “Is it
                      safe?”  Happily for Lebanon and all basketball fans,
                      Ronzone took the difficulties in his stride, writing
                      the initial fears off as “understandable” as he
                      spent two months persuading not only players but
                      also their wives and families that the trip would be
                      perfectly OK.
                      Judging from Ronzone’s comment on Tuesday ­ “Now
                      that they’re here, everything they’re getting is
                      outstanding” ­ we seem to be doing once again
                      something we’ve always been good at ­ providing
                      genuine and warm hospitality. We’re happy to welcome
                      the basketball players and even happier that they
                      are being well treated.
                      Two other star visitors who popped into Beirut this
                      week are Stewart Copeland, founder of the British
                      1970s rock group Police, and his brother, Ian, who
                      were both graduates of the American Community
                      School. Presidents, princes and the pope, musicians,
                      ministers and millionaires have all made the effort
                      over the past few years to help restore Lebanon to
                      the map of civilisation and these ever-growing signs
                      of support make it all the more important that we
                      get our own house in order.
               [Image]Tourism, of high or low profile, will be a major
                      source of income for Lebanon in the next millennium
                      and no matter how much money is spent on hotels,
                      leisure facilities, infrastructure, shiny new
                      airports of cleaning up historic monuments, in the
                      end it is a basically a service industry and that
                      means it’s people-based.
                      Some of the service offered in shops, restaurants,
                      hotels and taxis is certainly attentive and
                      courteous. Sadly, a lot of it is not. Restaurant
                      bills that contain unordered items or that simply
                      display a total that’s too high are common. Taxi
                      drivers whose fares to foreigners border on
                      extortion abound. “Roman” artefacts in some cases
                      seem to have benefitted in the manufacture from
                      1990s technology.
                      The absence of mainstream visitors for nearly 20
                      years undoubtedly encouraged the introduction of
                      these shady practices. Since high-profile visitors
                      are now putting their faith in us and beating a path
                      for others to follow we should seize the opportunity
                      to squeeze the rogues out of business.

                                                              DS: 02/10/98
                    

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