Roque Auque. Archive photo AFP
On Oct. 31, 1983, Roger Auque appeared for the first time in L'Orient-Le Jour. He posed for the camera, his shirt unbuttoned, staring into the distance. The Frenchman, 27 at the time, had been in Lebanon for a few years and he elaborated in the newspaper's pages on how he believed the people of Lebanon should be acting. He lamented a lack of "civic sense" in a country where, according to him, no one understood "the meaning of the word 'nation.'"Auque had arrived in Lebanon — in the middle of the Civil War — somewhat by chance and tried to make a name for himself as a freelance journalist, though the industry largely shut him out. So instead he made Lebanon his playground.'Drunk on his status'In the late 1970s, Auque, then a student at Paris' Arabic language faculty, fell in love with a...
On Oct. 31, 1983, Roger Auque appeared for the first time in L'Orient-Le Jour. He posed for the camera, his shirt unbuttoned, staring into the distance. The Frenchman, 27 at the time, had been in Lebanon for a few years and he elaborated in the newspaper's pages on how he believed the people of Lebanon should be acting. He lamented a lack of "civic sense" in a country where, according to him, no one understood "the meaning of the word 'nation.'"Auque had arrived in Lebanon — in the middle of the Civil War — somewhat by chance and tried to make a name for himself as a freelance journalist, though the industry largely shut him out. So instead he made Lebanon his playground.'Drunk on his status'In the late 1970s, Auque, then a student at Paris' Arabic language faculty, fell in love with...