Our Hariri years

In the summer of 1992, students, interns, early career workers and young couples received the same directive: "Come back, the war is over!" It hadn't been easy to leave. Each of us had our own incredible story of how we fled Lebanon, some through a border post with Syria, others by hovercraft to Cyprus on a stormy night amidst targeted bombings. The airport was often closed or inaccessible. Returning, after having braved real dangers and overcome numerous administrative hurdles, after having struggled to finally find the reassuring routine called security abroad? Coming back seemed inconceivable.Signed in 1989, the Taif Agreement was supposed to have ended the so-called civil war that had shaped our lives for 15 years. But the actual end of the fighting wouldn't occur until a year later, with Michel Aoun's exile,...