Illustration by Jaimee Lee Haddad.
Like memory, numbers blur over the yearsHow does one count war deaths, for instance?In a study of Civil War era deaths spanning 1975 to 1990, the Lebanon Renaissance Foundation concluded that the death toll had been vastly over-reported, claiming the correct number is closer to 48,049 killed, compared to the usual claims that often put the number at 250,000. This number was reached by reviewing the archives of Al-Nahar and Al-Safir newspapers.As the old adage says, “If it bleeds, it leads.”But did the child who died of malnutrition get counted by these newspapers? Or the teenage son who went out to fetch water and never returned? Read more Suicide, Arafat with LF and Joan Collins: What was on TV during the Lebanese Civil War? Fawwaz Traboulsi, in his comprehensive “A History of Modern Lebanon,” arrived at a higher death toll. He...
Like memory, numbers blur over the yearsHow does one count war deaths, for instance?In a study of Civil War era deaths spanning 1975 to 1990, the Lebanon Renaissance Foundation concluded that the death toll had been vastly over-reported, claiming the correct number is closer to 48,049 killed, compared to the usual claims that often put the number at 250,000. This number was reached by reviewing the archives of Al-Nahar and Al-Safir newspapers.As the old adage says, “If it bleeds, it leads.”But did the child who died of malnutrition get counted by these newspapers? Or the teenage son who went out to fetch water and never returned? Read more Suicide, Arafat with LF and Joan Collins: What was on TV during the Lebanese Civil War? Fawwaz Traboulsi, in his comprehensive “A History of Modern Lebanon,” arrived at a higher death...