Building a Dam and the Issues that Follow

I was perusing the New York Times website and stumbled upon a video op-ed at the bottom of the page about plans to build a large dam in northern Lebanon.  The video said that the dam would be built to better supply water and electricity to a growing population in Lebanon.  The problem, however, is that they only other source open to funding the large-scale project was Iran.



This is an issue for the people of this Lebanese community because, according to the video, the people living around the dam are predominantly and staunchly Christian, and the Iranians are staunchly Muslim.  The Lebanese representative in the video was overwhelmingly against having an Muslims "imposed on" his Christian community to build the dam, but did welcome Iranian financial aid for the project.  "This is a 100% Christian area and we don't want another ethnicity moving in peacefully and then becoming the majority here," the Lebanese man explained furthering his point with, "We are not of the same social texture nor of the same religious [difficult to understand]."


This is an interesting conflict in one of the most politically and religiously tense areas of the world.  This discrepancy seems to layout the basis for the religiously-fueled conflicts in the Middle East.  Usually we hear about unrest between the Muslim groups such as the Hezbollah and predominantly Jewish Israel, but the seems to be strong tension between Christians and Muslims of the area as well.

Not to mention, there is a controversial environmental impact that this dam would have.  The video's narrator said the the dam would "exploit this area's most abundant natural resource."  I found it interesting that use the word "exploit" and not another word choice such as utilize.  Exploit does mean to make full use of, but it also has the negative connotation that when one exploits something, they are selfishly using it as a means to an often controversial end.  The word conjured a documentary I watched a few weeks ago called "180 Degrees South" where, similarly, a dam was discussed, only this time in Argentina.  It's a documentary mostly about enjoying mountain climbing and the outdoors, but more solemnly about the constant need to progress technologically and exploit natural resources for the betterment (or as the movie would argue destruction) of mankind.  It's a very well-filmed documentary and poses some difficult questions to ponder.  For instance, this area of Lebanon is beautiful, the landscape is starkly gorgeous, so it would be a shame to industrialize it with a dam, right?  Not necessarily, however, because people need water and electricity to live comfortably, so what should we do?

I realize that I bring up two distinctly different yet very complex issues regarding this New York Times video, but what do you think about either (or both) of them?  Why are people so intolerant of others from a differing faith?  Should we make use of our surroundings for industry or respect them the way they are?