How To Preserve Heritage Buildings

Topic: Preserving heritage buildings in Lebanon
General purpose: To persuade
Specific purpose: To persuade the audience of the disadvantages of demolishing heritage buildings and why we should act to preserve them for the gain of our country.
Method of organization: Problem-Solution

Bombs, Bullets, Wars and civil conflict all aimed to destroy our beloved city of Tripoli. Several major blows straight to its core, this core is characterized as the rich historical old city of Tripoli. As my grandmother remembers her city and vividly describes it to me, as a city rich in greenery and more specifically orange trees rendering the most beautiful ottoman and French mandate buildings and the enchanting Mamluk mosques, khans and hammams. One cannot

One of the major problems in achieving a revitalization of our city is the dominant private ownership. Ownership in Tripoli is divided into either tripolian old family’s ownership that lived in the historical city at one point of their lives or another. This kind of ownership of old heritage buildings is rather quite complicated because of its fragmented authority and that is due to specific laws of inheritance. The other kind of ownership is the Sunni Waqf properties that include mosques, madrassas and many historical monuments. Both further complicate the procedure of renovating a building or saving it from destruction. An old Lebanese law is also a major problem since it states that the people who have signed a rent contract before the law was passed will have that specific rent rate fixed and the landlords cannot do anything about reclaiming their property from the renting occupants. “The old rent law doesn 't allow the owners to reclaim what is theirs, as long as the tenant lives and brings family to live with them forever, in return for revenue too meager to keep the house in good shape,” explains Pascale Ingea, This law vitally brings down the economic revenues by being stuck in a state in the past that does not apply to current conditions and circumstances and further blocks attempts at revitalization and renovation of heritage

Tripoli is having a hard time protecting its own heritage; the monuments are not maintained and are all near collapsing. To become a proper city, one that is not scaring people away, one must start with simple laws of civil norms. This city must attain an image of peace desperately, one aspect of this acquired peace is saving Tripoli’s rich historical image that is being murdered and brought down. We must avoid corruption and personal gain interests. For example many organizations, are trying to protect the Tal square, a square that is rich with gardens and ottoman and French mandate structures. Yet some government officials are completely not interested in that matter, a recently destroyed monument that is the famous Inja theater, was demolished after its owner who is a government official and is transforming it into a mall in the middle of this historic quarter. “The city of Tripoli is besieged, economically, socially and industrially. It can only be “released” through tourist activities… The city is poor and needs to be reconnected with the exterior. When I travel to Cairo I visit a hundred cultural sites and at night I can have dinner somewhere or visit a public garden… the tourist wants to have leisure as well as cultural activities and these things are missing in Tripoli” says Mufti Sabounji, a representative of the Sunni Waqf group. We need a law to achieve that and for that law to be precise, and for it not be another way for the businessmen to find tricks