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There's Always One

Fascinating account, and a very good point for how this could be used to avoid too much "As you know, Bob" exposition. A journalist or someone who's just come to a place like that is someone who really would want the current political situation explained to them in excruciating detail to avoid putting a foot wrong...
 
I have to ask about the Europa, given its accolade as "the most bombed Hotel in the world" it seems to have been directly attacked a few times. Though I suppose given the amount of bombs compared to the amount of dead people may well argue it was a slightly more bangy game of the grenade tip from the Commodore.
 
There are details in this article that if you put them in a story, I'd go "well that's a funny absurd thing he put in as light relief" until I got to the afterword and saw "Coco was real, here is a photo"
 
It reminds me of the fantasy trope of 'the one Inn where all the disreputable adventurers gather' in having that same utility of being able to get all your characters in one place with good reason, only this one actually happened.

Isn't there a Pratchett book (might not be Discworld, maybe Good Omens) where he opens a paragraph with the exact line 'there's always one'?
 
For obvious reasons, for those who read it, I am strongly reminded of The Death of Lt Arthur Windsor, RN.

The bodyguard, in particular. Academically speaking, the concept of such a place makes sense. The dynamics of it coalescing interest me. Presumably, nobody just declares it to be the case; it develops somewhat organically, and is increasingly recognised as a place to do business, until it's recgonised as such by all. Or almost all. It's a reinforcing feedback loop, but presumably, there were dozens of other hotels in Beirut that it could have been.

I'm not expecting there to be an answer here. This is just idle speculation. There's always one indeed, but why that one?
 
There were indeed dozens of hotels in Beirut. That is, until the Battle of the Hotels (1975-1977). Rough summary: the Minet-el-Hosn hotel district had a lot of high-rise hotels (some completed, some not) that overlooked several militia areas. Naturally, these hotels became the objectives of some heavy fighting in order to gain access to areas from which one could fire unmolested into enemy territory.

The hotel district became an uncomfortable place to be. The Commodore wasn't in this district.
Definitely a logic there. I look forward to the follow up article.
 
I'll take a stab at answering that in an upcoming article in the series. I can only really talk about Beirut; circumstances elsewhere might be different.

There were indeed dozens of hotels in Beirut. That is, until the Battle of the Hotels (1975-1977). Rough summary: the Minet-el-Hosn hotel district had a lot of high-rise hotels (some completed, some not) that overlooked several militia areas. Naturally, these hotels became the objectives of some heavy fighting in order to gain access to areas from which one could fire unmolested into enemy territory.

The hotel district became an uncomfortable place to be. The Commodore wasn't in this district.

Nonetheless, the issue of why a particular place becomes a neutral zone is an interesting one.

Looking at a map, being close enough to the city centre to be accessible while not being next to any really strategic or significant targets (Parliament buildings, ports, railway station etc.) must be in the mix as well.
 
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