The Mother of all Stupidities
The skirmish in the Bouj Abu Haidar district of Beirut has been dressed up by many political commentators to be much more than it probably was. Some have actually said it was a practice run for another ‘May 7th’. For the uninitiated in Levantine political parlance, that day saw Hezbollah’s armed take over of Beirut in 2008.
We like using dates this way: March 14, March 8, May 7 it makes a birthday really special. Lebanese husbands no longer have an excuse to forget their wedding anniversary, although they may need to register their special day as a political party for copyright reasons! I wonder what we will use when we run out of days of the year.
But I digress.
Back to the Bourj: some television stations said the whole thing started as a result of an argument over who has right of way. Two cars driven by two persons of different political allegiances had words which later evolved into a punch up. One guy calls his guys, the other guy calls his guys and you had rocket propelled grenades flying all over the place. Nice.
To say this sad, unfortunate, shameful footnote of a skirmish is a practice run for another May 7th is irresponsible to say the least. But then again irresponsible journalism is a hallmark of many so called news organizations in Lebanon. Scenario one: Two newspapers driving down two separate roads meet at a junction (national unity) and an argument ensues over who has right of way (who is right and who is wrong), a punch up ensues (asinine editorials are exchanged) one guy calls his guys, the other guy calls his guys and the rockets and newsprint start flying. Nice imagery, No?
Journalists should always remain above the fray, almost aloof, reporting what they see, taking on board all points of view, presenting the facts and relying on people’s common sense center in the brain to kick in to make sense of it all. Unfortunately, journalists in Lebanon are nearly always embedded into one political grouping or another. But indoctrination or taking sides happens early on for Lebanese, it can happen in the home, at the school or university or in the work place where your boss insists you join a certain party and sacks you when you don’t. (Or so I hear from the news).
If those young men who carried the AKs and RPGs on the streets of Beirut where not raised (by their political parties) to believe they had the right to shoot up the town and get away with it because their political parties will protect them, they wouldn’t have done it. Much like gang violence in the US, allegiance to the gang forces members into arguments they have no stake in. Carrying a weapon and using it against another human being becomes the ultimate test of loyalty.
One true utterance I can refer to from one local television station’s three-minute pre-news editorial is this: “The Lebanese live and die by happenstance.” Life has become so cheap these days that the Lebanese are flooding the market and trying to off load as much of it as they can.
Death on the other hand (buy mad man behind the wheel or RPG) seems attractive to the Lebanese when faced with skyrocketing prices and pathetically low salaries coupled with corruption and injustice. The Lebanese logic it seems is: “If I get paid better to carry a gun than to work in a bank, why not, a paycheck is a paycheck.”
We may have left the 15-year civil war behind us but as a nation we have not arrived at our preferred destination yet. The ground just does not seem solid enough beneath our feet and it isn’t. The trouble is, and this is a fact, the Lebanese have two different visions for the country that they want to see emerge from all the chaos. This is a problem.
If we are unwilling to compromise over our perfect vision of what Lebanon should be we will never have a country, only de facto confessional/feudal cantons. We will never have a strong central state, only confessional leaders paying homage to one regional/international power or another, depending on how the political winds blow.
The Bourj Abu Haidar incident should remind us that everyone is on a hair trigger. The car that cuts you off on the road, if you cut him off further down the road as pay back the matter may escalate, you never know! The Lebanese are like bad tempered, hibernating bears, so don’t poke the sleeping bear with a stick!
We like using dates this way: March 14, March 8, May 7 it makes a birthday really special. Lebanese husbands no longer have an excuse to forget their wedding anniversary, although they may need to register their special day as a political party for copyright reasons! I wonder what we will use when we run out of days of the year.
But I digress.
Back to the Bourj: some television stations said the whole thing started as a result of an argument over who has right of way. Two cars driven by two persons of different political allegiances had words which later evolved into a punch up. One guy calls his guys, the other guy calls his guys and you had rocket propelled grenades flying all over the place. Nice.
To say this sad, unfortunate, shameful footnote of a skirmish is a practice run for another May 7th is irresponsible to say the least. But then again irresponsible journalism is a hallmark of many so called news organizations in Lebanon. Scenario one: Two newspapers driving down two separate roads meet at a junction (national unity) and an argument ensues over who has right of way (who is right and who is wrong), a punch up ensues (asinine editorials are exchanged) one guy calls his guys, the other guy calls his guys and the rockets and newsprint start flying. Nice imagery, No?
Journalists should always remain above the fray, almost aloof, reporting what they see, taking on board all points of view, presenting the facts and relying on people’s common sense center in the brain to kick in to make sense of it all. Unfortunately, journalists in Lebanon are nearly always embedded into one political grouping or another. But indoctrination or taking sides happens early on for Lebanese, it can happen in the home, at the school or university or in the work place where your boss insists you join a certain party and sacks you when you don’t. (Or so I hear from the news).
If those young men who carried the AKs and RPGs on the streets of Beirut where not raised (by their political parties) to believe they had the right to shoot up the town and get away with it because their political parties will protect them, they wouldn’t have done it. Much like gang violence in the US, allegiance to the gang forces members into arguments they have no stake in. Carrying a weapon and using it against another human being becomes the ultimate test of loyalty.
One true utterance I can refer to from one local television station’s three-minute pre-news editorial is this: “The Lebanese live and die by happenstance.” Life has become so cheap these days that the Lebanese are flooding the market and trying to off load as much of it as they can.
Death on the other hand (buy mad man behind the wheel or RPG) seems attractive to the Lebanese when faced with skyrocketing prices and pathetically low salaries coupled with corruption and injustice. The Lebanese logic it seems is: “If I get paid better to carry a gun than to work in a bank, why not, a paycheck is a paycheck.”
We may have left the 15-year civil war behind us but as a nation we have not arrived at our preferred destination yet. The ground just does not seem solid enough beneath our feet and it isn’t. The trouble is, and this is a fact, the Lebanese have two different visions for the country that they want to see emerge from all the chaos. This is a problem.
If we are unwilling to compromise over our perfect vision of what Lebanon should be we will never have a country, only de facto confessional/feudal cantons. We will never have a strong central state, only confessional leaders paying homage to one regional/international power or another, depending on how the political winds blow.
The Bourj Abu Haidar incident should remind us that everyone is on a hair trigger. The car that cuts you off on the road, if you cut him off further down the road as pay back the matter may escalate, you never know! The Lebanese are like bad tempered, hibernating bears, so don’t poke the sleeping bear with a stick!
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