Sunday night, bright stars and the smell of gun powder in the air


It's clear that when it comes to late night fireworks in residential areas there is no one enforcing the law banning festive explosives in populated areas, perhaps those doing the enforcing are busy with other matters to care if we get enough sleep or not. It is clear that in Lebanon some people have money to burn while others starve. It is also clear that those celebrating on Sunday night do not have to get up and go to work early Monday morning.

What is needed is someone to tell those spoilt little rich kids in no uncertain terms that the party is over. What is needed is a radical redistribution of wealth away from the pockets of the idle rich and spread it around a little. The weekend fireworks budget alone could help pay off a sizable portion of our national debt.

Every so often I make it a point to visit the North of Lebanon to remember how beautiful that part of the country really is but also to remember how underdeveloped it is, unjustly so. I am always reminded by friends that Lebanon is a selfish, individualistic and cruel society, a place where people working together towards a common goal for the public good is seen as a waste of time and not good for business. All I know is that it is the poorest people in the furthest villages of the North that are the most welcoming, those with the most reason to revolt.

If citizen Antoinette was a Levantine Queen her famous refrain would not have been "Let them eat cake" but rather "let them take out a loan". The real devils buying up souls are the banks selling the Lebanese people the false promise of "pretend to live like a king today and pay for it tomorrow." The poor are getting poorer and owe more to banks than they can ever repay in a lifetime. The really successful thieves are now respectable businessmen, while the children of the old middle class beg for scraps and earn pathetic salaries that only help keep them in debt.

The banning of a documentary by Lebanese film maker De Gaulle Eid on sectarian killings during Lebanon's civil war is a clear sign the Lebanese want to keep their heads buried in the sand. Powerful people who made their fortunes and built their power bases carrying guns during the civil war do not want certain truths to emerge.

The Lebanese, busy errecting crosses atop mountain peaks to celebrate a holy feast, are, in my view, searching for their savior in the ashes whereas they should look inward. Religion is more than national identity, its a path to follow, a path that should lead to greater good, compassion and social justice. The clergy in their embroidered, bejeweled robes, drinking from golden cups would do well to remember that.

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