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L'Orient-Le Jour
4 days ago
- Politics
- L'Orient-Le Jour
35 years after the Christians, the Shiites face the twilight of their domination
On Feb. 17, 1974, in Bednayel, near Baalbek, the spiritual leader of the Shiite community, Musa Sadr, no longer minced his words. 'From today onwards, we will weep no more,' he warned. In his speech, the charismatic cleric listed the problems of the Bekaa and southern Lebanon — the long-neglected Shiite-majority, mired in poverty and insecurity at a time when the community's political weight was still quite small. 'The people of our faith should no longer be treated as second-class citizens,' he said. 'And unfortunately, the state understands only the language of violence.' A month later, the Amal Movement was born. It was the first cry of a future Shiite followed was a long series of local and regional upheavals: the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the inception of Hezbollah after a...
New Statesman
16-07-2025
- Politics
- New Statesman
Who is an acceptable migrant?
Illustration by Roy Scott / Ikon Images In the spring of 2016, as Britain hung like a drop of sweat off the nose of the European project, French riot police squelched into the Calais Jungle and began tearing it down. I was there reporting on the refugee camp. We parked outside a makeshift terrace of corrugated iron and tarpaulin huts, and when we returned a few hours later it was all gone. Left behind was a wasteland, studded with the detritus of living: a toothbrush, odd shoes, magazines, mattresses, a chubby-cheeked doll. It took months to destroy the slum city. What struck me most from that time was a young man – no older than his early twenties – I saw sitting on an upturned tyre where his temporary home had stood, with his head in his hands. He looked just like my dad did in his youth. Moustache, curly black hair, fuzz of stubble, turned-up trousers and a too-tight T-shirt. Numerous refugees in Calais at that time were fleeing Syria, Iraq, Iran – the same part of the world my dad had escaped when he was 21. In August 1976, he fled the Lebanese Civil War by smuggling himself on to a boat from Beirut to Cyprus. And like many of those scrambling on to dinghies to make the Channel crossing to English shores today, he didn't stop in the first European country he reached. He carried on: another boat to Athens, and then a flight to London. I often wonder how the arrival of my dad would be received in today's Britain, with its psychological scorecard of attributes for the acceptable migrant. Facing 'genuine' danger? Pass. Didn't stay in the first safe country on his journey? Fail. Had links to the UK? Pass – one of his brothers had already moved here, and he spoke English. High-skilled? Pass – the war cut short his mechanical engineering studies in Beirut; he came to the UK on a student visa to finish his degree. Black-economy activity? Fail. While studying, he worked illegally as an usher in West End theatres (more of a technicolour than black market, granted). A single young man? Fail, fail, fail. Ironically for a country that for decades forgot to measure how many people were arriving at airports besides Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester, Britain is obsessed with immigration and asylum numbers. Struggling to bring down those numbers, politicians now fixate on defining the deserving and undeserving newcomer: those with 'legitimate' asylum claims vs those who are 'economic migrants'; those with 'family ties' vs those without; those who follow an official process vs those who try 'irregular' routes. Keir Starmer's new 'one-in one-out' deal with France reflects this: it aims to return Channel crossers (undeserving, according to the government) in exchange for asylum seekers with links to the UK (deserving). But people are not so easily categorised. When a farmer leaves climate-change-parched land for northern Europe, are they a refugee or an economic migrant? When a doctor has to start out in a new country making money Deliveroo-ing pizza, are they high- or low-skilled? People, as my dad was, can be many things at once. Not everyone will be eligible for this hazy 'new legal route' for asylum seekers waiting in France – just as existing resettlement schemes aren't open to all cases, however urgent. People fleeing war and persecution are still likely to attempt the crossing. 'A functioning asylum system doesn't operate by guest list,' warned Minnie Rahman, head of the migrant rights charity Praxis. 'After a decade of failed deterrence policies, it's baffling that our political leaders still refuse to accept they don't work.' Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe 'It's silly – it won't work at all,' said Mo, 28, whose family paid smugglers €2,000 for him to cross the Channel in an inflatable boat from Wimereux on the northern French coast in 2022. An English teacher in his home country, Iran, he faced prison after converting to Christianity. He now works at a chapel in London, having gained refugee status. He believes those in similar positions will keep boarding small boats. 'These are human beings – the idea of trading someone for someone else: if you do that, you're just human trafficking too!' To him, it makes more sense to focus on integration: 'We should respect your culture because we came to your country to live: if there is something that the government wants to do, they could just make people learn the language.' Ashraf, a 40-year-old Afghan refugee – who as a human rights worker had to flee religious extremists in Afghanistan – crossed the Channel from Calais in 2021. He travelled through Turkey, Serbia, Romania, Austria and Germany before reaching the UK, and believes no government deal will work while Britain still sits outside the Dublin Regulation (an agreement to process asylum seekers in the first EU country they reach, which the UK left after Brexit). 'The UK's out of the Dublin rules, and everybody knows that,' he said. 'Unlike European countries, you have many chances [to get here].' What would he say to those who, like he did, spend weeks sleeping in the forests around Calais waiting for a good-weather day to set sail, now that the French can turn them back? 'I am a refugee, so I know this feeling: we left our country, family and life, and to do that we accepted every danger; we accepted we could die. They have taken those risks, so they accept this one.' Nine years after I watched French police demolish the Jungle, migrants continue to camp out in Calais. While those running our asylum system still see numbers instead of human beings in all their complexity, footage of officers slashing dinghies is unlikely to signal the end of the small boats story. [See also: Britain's billionaire tax problem] Related
Leaders
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Leaders
Abbas Dahouk: Unconventional Path of Military Acumen, Diplomatic Vision
A distinguished career has positioned Colonel (Ret.) Abbas Dahouk as one of the select few experts who combine diplomatic wisdom and military prowess. Born and raised in Lebanon, Col. Dahouk experienced the brutal realities of the Lebanese Civil War firsthand, before making the pivotal decision of moving to the US. There, he enlisted in the US Army, establishing an esteemed career that saw him holding numerous senior roles. His contributions have been instrumental in shaping US defense strategy in the Middle East. Lebanon Civil War: A Defining Experience Col. Abbas Dahouk was born in Bakline, a prominent Druze town located about 45 kilometers southeast of Beirut, Lebanon. Living through the horrors of the Lebanese Civil War during the late 1970s and 1980s, Col. Dahouk joined a local militia, known as the People's Liberation Army, at the age of 15. He also completed his unconventional military training in Crimea, in the former Soviet Union, at the age of 17. However, the brutality of the war left him deeply frustrated, prompting him to seek a new path. At this critical juncture, Col. Dahouk decided to travel to the US to pursue his higher education. The American Dream At the age of 21, Col. Dahouk moved to the US, seeking to enroll in a university for one year. 'I was born in Lebanon and when I came to the US, I could barely speak English. My plan was to have one year of university study,' he recounted in an interview. 'I was 20, almost 21, when I came to the US. And I grew up through the Civil War, so my chance to come and stay in the US was a dream. This American dream still captivates many across the world,' Col. Dahouk said. In a turning point, he decided to enlist in the US Army, where he served for over 33 years. Col. Dahouk takes pride in his military service, as few Arabs could join the US Army in the 1980s. Remarkable Military Career Col. Abbas Dahouk joined the US Army as an Airborne Cavalry Scout. Upon his graduation from the Officer Candidate School (OCS) in 1991, he was commissioned as a Field Artillery Officer. He began his military career at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, serving as a Fire Support Officer with A Company, 3rd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, part of the 82nd Airborne Division. His key assignments included serving as Platoon Leader, and Battalion Intelligencer Officer with 3rd Battalion 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Col. Dahouk's military career included holding several leadership roles in countries across the Middle East and Europe, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Afghanistan, and Germany. Military Expertise in Diplomatic Service Building upon his distinguished military career, Col. Abbas Dahouk entered the realm of international relations where he drew upon his remarkable strategic acumen and operational insight. Bridging uniform and diplomacy, Col. Dahouk played a pivotal role at the intersection of defense policy and foreign affairs, assuming key senior positions where his military expertise in diplomatic service proved invaluable. Col. Dahouk served as a Senior Political-Military Advisor to the Bureau of the Near Eastern Affairs at the US Department of State, from July 2017 to December 2018, where he played a key role in supporting policy with CENTCOM, EUCOM, and AFRICOM. Before that, he was the Defense and Army Attaché at the US Embassy in Riyadh, from December 2013 to July 2017. From November 2010 to November 2013, Col. Dahouk served as a Senior Military Advisor on Pakistan and Afghanistan Security Assistance for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs at the US Department of State. He was also Military Programs Director at the US Embassy in Abu Dhabi, from June 2006 to June 2008, and Director of US- Saudi Mission Relations and Political-Military Affairs at the US Military Training Mission in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from April 2004 to June 2006. Academic Path Beyond his military and diplomatic accomplishments, Col. Abbas Dahouk boasts an esteemed academic path which further solidified his expertise. He holds a BS in Mathematics and a BA in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Arizona. Moreover, he has a BA in Military Science from the Sultanate of Oman Joint Command and Staff College. Col. Dahouk also holds an MA in Strategic Studies from the Army War College, and an MA in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University. Furthermore, he worked as an Assistant Professor of Arabic and Persian (Farsi) at the US Military Academy in West Point, from June 2008 to October 2010. Bridging US-Arab Relations Col. Abbas Dahouk has made great contributions to promoting US-Arab strategic ties, harnessing his unparalleled expertise and knowledge of both American and Middle Eastern affairs. 'The experiences of my key engagements from Washington DC to the Middle East have enabled me to hone my ability to describe, analyze, comprehend and assess a range of phenomena, factors, and forces that most Americans are seldom if ever exposed to,' Dahouk said. He is the founder and President of HyphenPoint LLC, an advisory firm that helps in developing partnerships between US security and private sectors and their counterparts in the MENA region. Moreover, Col. Dahouk is a member of the Board of Directors at the National Council on US-Arab Relations, a non-profit, non-governmental, educational organization that aims to improve American awareness, knowledge, and understanding of the Arab countries, the Middle East, and the Islamic world. He is also a member of the Advisory Board at the Arab-American Business and Professional Association, and a founding member of the Princeton Veterans Alumni Association. Honors and Recognition Col. Dahouk's impressive achievements have earned him multiple accolades and awards. His dedication and exceptional service culminated in his induction in the OCS Hall of Fame in 2019. Furthermore, he received numerous medals and honors, including the Defense Superior Service Medal; the Legion of Merit Medal; and National Intelligence Meritorious Unit Citation. He also earned the King Salman of Saudi Arabia Military Appreciation Medal-First Class; Global War on Terrorism Medal –Expeditionary and Service; South West Asia Medal (2 BS); Kuwait Liberation Medal (Saudi Arabia); Kuwait Liberation Medal (Kuwait); Multinational Forces and Observers Medal; German Sportsman Badge; and Master Parachutist Badge and the Ranger Tab. Visionary Insights Col. Abbas Dahouk is a frequent political and military commentator for reputable media outlets. He offers far-sighted views and anticipatory analyses on current geopolitical issues, which have repeatedly proven to be correct. Just right before the Israeli attack on Iran, which took place on June 13, 2025, Col. Dahouk rightly predicted that the US movements in the Middle East signaled a preparation for a strike against Iran and at the same time a way to pressure the Iranian regime to reach a diplomatic solution. He said that the readiness level was high as 'both the US and Israel are preparing the region for either a unilateral action by Israel or an action supported by the US.' Once again, Col. Dahouk anticipated that the US would strike Iran's nuclear facilities. 'The military preparations seem to be at its peak,' he said, adding that the US military movements in the region aimed to 'prepare for what could be a major strike on specific targets inside Iran.' He precisely said that the US intervention 'will be very specific and will target certain nuclear facilities, namely the Fordo nuclear compound, which requires US assets to destroy it.' Moreover, when the US President, Donald Trump, assumed office in January 2025, Col. Dahouk foresaw a strong US military action against the Houthis. 'Trump will not tolerate any other threats to the US navy in the region and the near-daily Houthi attacks by Iranian missiles and drones,' he said. 'He will likely respond forcefully to prevent future attacks. He may also hold Iran responsible for any damage caused to the US military personnel,' Col. Dahouk predicted. Then, in March 2025, Trump ordered a 'decisive and powerful' military action against the Houthis in Yemen, in response to their attacks against US ships, aircraft and drones. Short link : Post Views: 19
Boston Globe
24-06-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
Rod Nordland, 75, dies; war reporter who also wrote of his own struggle
With a toughness rooted in his wayward childhood and the brashness of a self-made man, Mr. Nordland was from an era before 'journalism became a prestige career for a bunch of Ivy Leaguers,' as he wrote in his memoir. Advertisement When he set out to become a reporter in the early 1970s, urban daily newspapers often had the money to support overseas bureaus, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, which sent him to Southeast Asia in 1979. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up He did not move back to the United States for 40 years, until he was compelled to do so by his illness. His reporting gained reach and impact, and his life gained glamour, when he was poached by Newsweek in the mid-1980s. The perks of the job included an unlimited travel budget. He was on the scene and frequently running a news bureau during the Cambodian-Vietnamese War, the Lebanese Civil War, the Salvadoran Civil War, the Persian Gulf War, the war in Kosovo, the Iraq War, and the War in Afghanistan, among other conflicts. Advertisement He initially joined the Times in its Baghdad bureau, and he took over responsibility for the Kabul bureau in 2013. His international reporting earned him multiple George Polk and Overseas Press Club awards. His specialties were recounting violence in unflinching prose; attending to the most vulnerable people in a conflict, often women and children; and narrating everyday dramas of war zones in epic terms. In 1999, he described for Newsweek what it was like for a 36-year-old mother to survive a mass murder surrounded by her children and relatives in a restaurant in a small town of southern Kosovo. In Afghanistan, he repeatedly wrote about the danger and brutality young couples faced when marrying without family approval. One of those stories -- about an 18-year-old young woman and 21-year-old man who had never been alone in a room together but nevertheless publicly proclaimed their love for each other, provoking death threats from relatives -- became a book called 'The Lovers: Afghanistan's Romeo and Juliet' (2016). A critical review in the Times called his efforts to help the couple with money and sanctuary while also making them into major media figures a form of dubious 'Western saviordom.' In a 2016 interview with The Brown Journal of World Affairs, Mr. Nordland responded, 'What is a savior complex?' he asked. 'The notion that it would be better for me not to get involved in their case so that they could be killed, and that would be the more ethically responsible course? I don't have a right to intervene and save their lives?' In 'Waiting for the Monsoon,' he reports that the couple moved to New Haven, where the man, Mohammad Ali, has worked as a handyman and driver. Advertisement Mr. Nordland (left) interviewed a martyr's relative, in Kobani cemetery, Syria, in 2018. MAURICIO LIMA/NYT Rodney Lee Nordland was born on July 17, 1949, in Philadelphia. His father, Ronald, he wrote in his memoir, was a mechanic who beat Rod, his five siblings, and his mother, Lorine Myers. Later in life, he learned that his father was 'repeatedly arrested and often convicted of sexual assaults on children, both boys and girls,' which he said explained why the family moved so frequently from one small Southern California town to another. Around 1960, his mother left his father and took the children to her family's home in Jenkintown, a suburb of Philadelphia. She worked a series of clerical jobs and relied on welfare to help feed her children, though they still sometimes went hungry. Beginning at age 13, Rod worked multiple jobs to support the family, including as a movie theater usher, newspaper delivery boy, dishwasher, country club caddie, semipro boxer, poker player, pool hustler, and occasional burglar. Around the age of 15, he and his best friend ran away to Miami, where they were caught shoplifting and spent two weeks in the county jail. He discovered a new, productive outlet for his inner turmoil as a senior in high school after his brother Gary got into an argument with a police officer, who subsequently beat him with a billy club. Rod wrote a furious letter about the episode to The Times-Chronicle, Jenkintown's local paper. Not long after, the police officer was suspended and apologized to Gary. The experience was a 'revelation,' Mr. Nordland wrote in his memoir. 'I could write my rage,' he wrote. 'Not only that, but doing so could result in some kind of change for the better. I could find the people who were like me, cowering from my father as a kid, or like my brother, smacked around by an irresponsible cop, or like my mother, abused by a violent husband and tormented by aggressive bill collectors.' Advertisement He attended Penn State on a full scholarship and graduated in 1972 with a bachelor's degree in journalism. He was immediately hired by The Inquirer. He had an important role on the team that won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize in local reporting for coverage of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. After he became a foreign correspondent, wars came to so define his life that he associated each of his children with a different conflict, he wrote in his memoir: 'Lorine, a child of the Bosnian conflict, was born in 1992; Johanna, a child of the Iraq War, in 1995; and Jake, a child of the war in Afghanistan, in 1998.' Still, he credited his terminal illness with giving him a new perspective. Laid low in the hospital, 'I could see clearly, finally, all the mistakes I had made,' he wrote. A 'volatile temper, 'arrogance' and 'certitude that dominated my every action' had 'helped make me a successful foreign correspondent and bureau chief but denied me the opportunity of becoming so much more.' His first marriage ended in divorce. He met Segal in 2016, whom he leaves along with his three children. Segal said that Mr. Nordland had been given only 14 months to live when he received his diagnosis, but with experimental treatments, led by Dr. Eric T. Wong of the Life Cancer Institute at Rhode Island Hospital, he survived for six years. Advertisement In his memoir, he connected his sense of the purpose of journalism to his memories of growing up. 'That my father's treatment of all of us, especially Mommy, was hidden from public view, that he managed to continue his life of criminal abuse relatively unscathed, at least within our family, enraged me,' he wrote. 'What was the point of being a journalist if you didn't make hidden injustices visible?' This article originally appeared in
Sydney Morning Herald
07-05-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
Once the pinnacle of luxury, these 10 hotels now sit abandoned
2. Divine Lorraine Hotel Where: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US When did it close? 1999 Once upon a time: Initially built as apartments between 1892 and 1894, this elegant 10-storey structure in north Philadelphia was transformed into the Lorraine Hotel in 1900, in a moment when Pennsylvania's biggest city was enjoying a pre-war upswing. Yet its story was just beginning. It was sold in 1948 to an enigmatic figure; a man who may have been born in 1876 as 'George Baker' (the records are unclear), but who, by the middle of the 20th century, was living as 'Father Divine', a charismatic preacher. He added his name to the property, and turned it into the United States' first racially desegregated accommodation – a haven where all guests were considered 'equal in the sight of God'. A rooftop sign which identifies the site as the 'Divine Lorraine Hotel' is still on display. What killed it? Changing times. Divine's movement, the International Peace Mission, sold the property in 2000. Fittings and all items of value were stripped out, and the structure was soon lost to graffiti and smashed glass – although its existence was at least guaranteed in 2002, when it was added to the US's National Register of Historic Places. Hope for the future? Yes and no. Various attempts to revive the building, including converting some of it back into flats, have foundered in the last 25 years. The most recent brainwave saw the lower floors rebooted as part of the Mint House brand of furnished apartments. Alas, the 'Mint House at the Divine Lorraine' closed in January 2025 after three underwhelming years. The Mint House website currently has no mention of Philadelphia. 3. Holiday Inn Beirut Where: Beirut, Lebanon When did it close? 1975 Once upon a time: The gruesome poster-boy for ruined hotels, this one-time magnet for well-to-do tourists was open for barely a year before it was consumed by conflict. It was built between 1971 and 1974, in an era when Beirut was a playground for rich tourists seeking Mediterranean sun. With 26 storeys, it had a revolving restaurant on its top floor, a nightclub on the 25th, and was a short hop from the beach in the Minet el Hosn district. What killed it? The Lebanese Civil War, which erupted in 1975, and would keep Beirut in its grip until 1990. The Holiday Inn was quickly eviscerated, its height and location making it a coveted vantage point for rival militias, who fought for it during the 'Battle of the Hotels' – and used it as a snipers' nest thereafter. Four years after it opened, the property was riddled with craters and artillery holes. As many as 1000 people are thought to have died in this phase of the war, some thrown from the Holiday Inn's roof. Hope for the future? Who knows. The Holiday Inn is a near-literal tombstone, rearing over the next-door Phoenicia Hotel – which was also badly damaged but has since been restored. The chances of a similar comeback for its neighbour look slim. Aside from the massive structural issues caused by the fighting, the Holiday Inn is mired in bureaucracy. It is co-owned by two companies – one Lebanese, which wants to convert the hotel into apartments; one Kuwaiti, which has ambitions to demolish the building and craft a new property on its footprint. Agreement between the two has been non-existent for decades. 4. Castello di Sammezzano Where: Leccio, Tuscany, Italy When did it close? 1990 Once upon a time: Few hotels have as twisting a tale as this jewel, which sits marooned in the Tuscan countryside, 27 kilometres south-east of Florence. Indeed, referring to it simply as a 'hotel' rather underplays its history. It was originally erected in the 17th century, and then transformed between 1853 and 1889 by nobleman Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes, who remodelled it as a 'Moorish' palazzo akin to the Alhambra in Granada. Its fine mosaics and Arabesque designs made for a wonderful hotel when Castello di Sammezzano opened as such during the 1970s – its 365 rooms ringing to the chatter of wealthy guests. What killed it? The number of paying customers could never keep pace with the cost of the Castello's upkeep and maintenance. Since its closure, it has existed in a vacuum; too precious to lose, too expensive to renovate to full majesty. Hope for the future? Happily it has just been bought by the Florentine Moretti family, which owns Hotel Number Nine in Florence. They'll have a task on their hands – it is currently in a state of disrepair, to the extent that even guided tours have been impossible. However, it has periodically popped up on the big screen. In 2015 it was used as a setting for the fantasy-horror film Tale of Tales, starring Salma Hayek. 5. Grand Hotel San Pellegrino Terme Where: San Pellegrino, Lombardy, Italy When did it close? 1979 Once upon a time: A place synonymous with bottled water, the Italian spa town of San Pellegrino should be, you would think, famous enough to sustain a palatial hotel. Alas, the Grand has been in limbo for more than 40 years. Opened in 1904, it preens on the left bank of the river Brembo; a tribute to the talents of Italian architect Romolo Squadrelli and the engineer Luigi Mazzocchi. With 250 rooms and seven storeys, it was fitted with the sort of lavish accoutrements that were slotted into fine hotels in the years before the First World War. Margherita of Savoy, the Queen-consort of Italy, paid it a visit in 1905. What killed it? The usual slow creep of unappetising economic truths – failure to upgrade for modernising times, the surging costs of keeping so extravagant a hotel alive. Hope for the future? To an extent. The Grand is too beautiful a structure to demolish, and its magnificence has not been forgotten. Occasional tours allow visitors to peek at its art nouveau stylings (visit 6. Hotel Narcis Where: Strpce, Kosovo When did it close? 2008 Once upon a time: Some of the hotels in this feature used to be stately wonders. You cannot say the same of the Hotel Narcis, an unlovely slab of Communist-era accommodation which now sits mouldering in the village of Strpce, just outside the ski resort of Brezovica in Kosovo. Nominally a four-star, it was more than fit for purpose in the calm Yugoslavian era, but reality has bitten since the region fractured in the 1990s. What killed it? Not so much the wars that devoured the Balkan region from 1991 onwards as the ongoing uncertainty about the status of Kosovo (much of the world, including the UK, regards it as an independent state; neighbouring Serbia does not). Tensions between Kosovans and Serbians have seen each group boycott the other's businesses. Trade had been sluggish for Hotel Narcis long before it bolted the front door. Hope for the future? Perhaps. Brezovica is a functioning ski resort, so it is possible that the hotel will re-emerge at some juncture. The question of when is impossible to answer. 7. Jerma Palace Hotel Where: Marsaskala, Malta When did it close? 2007 Once upon a time: Some hotels have a darker story than others. The Jerma Palace is one of those. Its seeds were sown in 1976, when the land it stands on was purchased by the Libyan Foreign Investment Company – an offshoot of the Gaddafi government across the Mediterranean in Tripoli. It opened in 1982 and, at first, did well – Muammar Gaddafi even had a presidential suite within the property for his personal use. What killed it? Its location didn't help. Marsaskala sits at the south-east end of Malta's main island, somewhat removed from the main tourist areas of St Julian's and Sliema. As a result, the hotel – all 345 rooms of it – struggled with under-occupancy. It has, though, reputedly had residents since it closed. In December 2015, there were reports that people traffickers were using the property as a drop-off point for migrants smuggled into the EU. Hope for the future? None whatsoever. The hotel has crumbled since its closure. Parts of it have collapsed, anything with a resale value has been stolen, and rubbish has welled up in many of the rooms. Redevelopment plans for the site have been tethered by red tape for the best part of a decade, but whatever happens, the original hotel will be demolished. 8. Hachijo Royal Hotel Where: Hachijo-jima, Japan When did it close? 2006 Once upon a time: The 1960s was a boom time for the Izu archipelago – volcanic outcrops strewn across the Philippine Sea south of Japan's main island, Honshu. The country was recovering from the Second World War, and blessed with a new generation increasingly keen to travel farther afield. These lava-born dots in the ocean came to be a halfway house – close to home but still exotic. They were even promoted as the 'Hawaii of Japan' – and Hachijo-jima, which lies 320 kilometres south of Tokyo, was at the forefront of the rush to the beach. The Hachijo Royal Hotel appeared in 1963 as a Baroque fantasy, all Greek-style statues in the garden and fountains tinkling in soft salute to the rising sun. What killed it? Changing tastes. It was difficult for the Japanese to travel abroad before the 1960s, but it soon became clear that the world was an oyster, and the wider horizon called. The hotel limped into the new century, but has been defunct now for two decades. Hope for the future? Possible but unlikely. The island's lush vegetation has begun to reclaim the property – swamping its sculptures and swallowing its dead swimming pool. It would take enormous investment to resurrect it – and tourist interest is no longer there. 9. Hotel Claridge Where: Outside Motilla del Palancar, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain When did it close? 1999 Once upon a time: Not all abandoned hotels are flights of fancy that suffered an Icarus fate. The Hotel Claridge was a fabled workhorse of the Spanish road system, pitched roughly midway along the N-3 highway, where it connects Madrid to Valencia. It opened in 1969, and looked the part – a grey slab of concrete brutalism, very much in sync with the unflinching outlook of General Franco's regime. It became a key stop-off point for coaches travelling from the capital to the country's third-biggest city – disgorging regular hordes of hungry passengers, who would eat quickly before jumping back onto their bus. What killed it? The construction of a swifter section of the A-3, directly to the south, between Honrubia and Motilla del Palancar, which cut the Claridge from the coach route, and starved it of its customers. As it was not a destination in itself, this was a death knell. Hope for the future? None. But it is a spectacular wreck, looming large at the roadside. 10. Grande Hotel Where: Beira, Mozambique When did it close? 1963 Once upon a time: The idea that anyone would build a luxury hotel on the coast of Mozambique in the middle of the last century sounds implausible – but that is exactly what happened in the city of Beira in 1954. And it was not such a crazy scheme. At the time, this slice of south-eastern Africa was one of the jewels of (what was left of) the Portuguese Empire, and Beira, which sits midway up the country's long Indian Ocean shoreline, was able to attract expats keen to sun themselves on warm sands. The Grande was constructed in an effusive art deco style, and had a hugely decadent accessory in the form of an Olympic-sized swimming pool. It was hoped that it would become a tourism beacon, also pulling in monied visitors from neighbouring Rhodesia (modern Zimbabwe). Loading What killed it? The project was too ambitious. The hotel was awfully expensive, even for the colonial elite – and Beira was ultimately too remote for the siren call to be heard (it is more than 1100 kilometres north of the national capital, Maputo). The Grande closed down more than a decade before the curtain fell on Portuguese rule in Mozambique in 1975; prior as well to the civil war which subsequently disembowelled the country (between 1977 and 1992). Hope for the future? No. The Grande was used for occasional parties and weddings in the late 1960s – but the civil war saw it fill with refugees and those fleeing the bullets. It is now, effectively, a giant squat. More than 1000 people, including many families, currently live in its 116 rooms. The Olympic pool is still there, clogged with rubbish and dank water. North Korea's 'Hotel of Doom' Every abandoned hotel in this article at least had its glory days; those first few months of popularity. But even this brief window of success has, as yet, eluded the Ryugyong Hotel. Mockingly referred to as the 'Hotel of Doom' by amused outsiders, this 105-storey pyramid has been under construction for almost 40 years – without ever greeting a guest. It dominates the skyline in Pyongyang, towering over the rest of the North Korean capital at a height of 330 metres. Prior to the ascent of the Goldin Finance 117 skyscraper – which hits 596 metres in the northerly Chinese city of Tianjin but has been stalled as a construction project since 2015 – the hotel was the world's tallest unoccupied building. Work on the property commenced in 1987, when Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founder and 'Eternal President,' was still in power. It was supposed to open in 1989 and would have done so as the world's tallest hotel – had it managed to cut the ribbon on schedule. Instead, tools were downed in 1992, as North Korea fell into hard times – the collapse of the Soviet Union taking with it the country's leading international benefactor. Japanese newspapers reported that, by this point, the property had already cost $US750 million ($A1.2 billion); the equivalent of 2 per cent of North Korea's gross domestic product (GDP). However, without outside funding, there was no hope of completion. In the late 1990s, a discreet inspection by the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea (ECCK) deemed the hotel to be irreparable – damned by cracked concrete and crooked lift shafts. Loading Undeterred, the North Korean regime has soldiered on. In 2008, windows were finally installed, and an opening date of 2012 was announced, to coincide with the 'Eternal President's' 100th birthday (although he died in 1994). Alas, neither Kim Il-Sung's son, Kim Jong-il (who ruled until 2011), nor his grandson, Kim Jong-un, have seen the hotel to fruition. A brief partnership with the luxury hotel management company Kempinski came and went in 2013. LED screens showing the North Korean flag were added in 2018. At time of writing, the North Korean government is purportedly considering converting the site into a colossal casino.
