To the Whims of Fate We Are Subject
على كف ألقدر نمشي
This, in fact, should be our national motto. I saw those words scrolled on the side of a truck; one of those big dump trucks whose brakes seem to fail at a particularly tight corner down a steep mountain road, causing the truck to crash into and crush several cars in its path. Similarly, our country seems to lack a capable driver at the helm or a sound set of brakes.
The Lebanese rarely think of dealing with a problem until it becomes too big to ignore, only then we find out that the problem has taken on a life of its own and any solution becomes more complex and costly and takes longer to implement. The real cause of our civil war was one group’s deep feelings of disenfranchisement, a group that was getting an inordinately small piece of the national pie. In 1975, the battle cry of one camp was the preservation of the authority of the state, a state which unjustly favored one sect, keeping executive powers firmly in the hands of the Christian Presidency. The other camp wanted to topple the prevailing order and who could blame them, revolution was in the air.
The sectarian distribution of government posts from the top three jobs on down determines in a nut shell which sects get the raw end of the deal. In a country like ours dividing state wealth and resources along sectarian lines or proximity to the capital has left many parts of the country underserved by state services. In the absence of state assistance, many of the outlying areas of the country like the eastern Bekaa and the far North have been turned into a breeding ground for extremists and criminals, including highwaymen, drug barons and kidnapers.
If ever there was ever an Arab country more in need of a sweeping revolution, Lebanon is that country. But first each of us needs to start a personal revolution, we need to revolt against all the certainties we have been spoon fed from infancy and chart a different course for our lives and our country's future.
It’s little wonder that the popular movement which has emerged and is calling for the toppling of the sectarian political system in Lebanon has been ridiculed and patronized mercilessly. We, that is the mature and cynical, have seen it all before, we have seen greater men fail at transforming Lebanon into a secular democracy, so how can a bunch of kids achieve what those older and wiser could not? Will they escape being painted with the same sectarian brush by the press, by the media, indeed, by their own people? Or will they be seen as just another set of unwitting puppets in the hands of one political group or another?
Well, we were once hopeful optimists too and we too were thwarted by the die hard cynics, whether in our own families or in our wider communities. So, maybe we should be gentler with this crop of young optimists, maybe we too should dare to shed our conformist attitudes and take a few risks.
We’re not young anymore but there is always a child-like spirit in each of us that never ages, add to that our years of experience and we, the aged and cynical that is, can be of great use to the young idealists, because God only knows they need all the help they can get. Maybe we should take a leap of faith, trust in something that promises a better future for all of us.
The Lebanese have not been very good at trusting other Lebanese, we always tend to take a dim view of the people we meet for the first time, we patronize them and underestimate their skills and capabilities. There is such a broad and all encompassing malaise in the business and professional sphere in Lebanon that we make our minds up about someone even before we meet or talk to them. Banks too seldom if ever take a risk on an entrepreneur with a good idea and rarely if ever take into account a loan applicant's professional integrity, skills and capabilities.
“What risks have we taken in Lebanon lately, banks take no risk, they lend to government, if they lend to business they take twice the collateral they need before issuing a loan. No collateral, no loan. We don’t have a real economy in Lebanon,” a good friend and business owner once told me.
It’s true, if we risk nothing we gain nothing. If we don’t risk momentary instability for a non-sectarian, peaceful and prosperous future, nothing will ever change. I am sure life will go on, the sun will still rise and set, but our lives, our world will remain small, bleak and poor, and for some maybe that’s a fair price to pay for fragile stability, or maybe a better future is worth fighting for.
This, in fact, should be our national motto. I saw those words scrolled on the side of a truck; one of those big dump trucks whose brakes seem to fail at a particularly tight corner down a steep mountain road, causing the truck to crash into and crush several cars in its path. Similarly, our country seems to lack a capable driver at the helm or a sound set of brakes.
The Lebanese rarely think of dealing with a problem until it becomes too big to ignore, only then we find out that the problem has taken on a life of its own and any solution becomes more complex and costly and takes longer to implement. The real cause of our civil war was one group’s deep feelings of disenfranchisement, a group that was getting an inordinately small piece of the national pie. In 1975, the battle cry of one camp was the preservation of the authority of the state, a state which unjustly favored one sect, keeping executive powers firmly in the hands of the Christian Presidency. The other camp wanted to topple the prevailing order and who could blame them, revolution was in the air.
The sectarian distribution of government posts from the top three jobs on down determines in a nut shell which sects get the raw end of the deal. In a country like ours dividing state wealth and resources along sectarian lines or proximity to the capital has left many parts of the country underserved by state services. In the absence of state assistance, many of the outlying areas of the country like the eastern Bekaa and the far North have been turned into a breeding ground for extremists and criminals, including highwaymen, drug barons and kidnapers.
If ever there was ever an Arab country more in need of a sweeping revolution, Lebanon is that country. But first each of us needs to start a personal revolution, we need to revolt against all the certainties we have been spoon fed from infancy and chart a different course for our lives and our country's future.
It’s little wonder that the popular movement which has emerged and is calling for the toppling of the sectarian political system in Lebanon has been ridiculed and patronized mercilessly. We, that is the mature and cynical, have seen it all before, we have seen greater men fail at transforming Lebanon into a secular democracy, so how can a bunch of kids achieve what those older and wiser could not? Will they escape being painted with the same sectarian brush by the press, by the media, indeed, by their own people? Or will they be seen as just another set of unwitting puppets in the hands of one political group or another?
Well, we were once hopeful optimists too and we too were thwarted by the die hard cynics, whether in our own families or in our wider communities. So, maybe we should be gentler with this crop of young optimists, maybe we too should dare to shed our conformist attitudes and take a few risks.
We’re not young anymore but there is always a child-like spirit in each of us that never ages, add to that our years of experience and we, the aged and cynical that is, can be of great use to the young idealists, because God only knows they need all the help they can get. Maybe we should take a leap of faith, trust in something that promises a better future for all of us.
The Lebanese have not been very good at trusting other Lebanese, we always tend to take a dim view of the people we meet for the first time, we patronize them and underestimate their skills and capabilities. There is such a broad and all encompassing malaise in the business and professional sphere in Lebanon that we make our minds up about someone even before we meet or talk to them. Banks too seldom if ever take a risk on an entrepreneur with a good idea and rarely if ever take into account a loan applicant's professional integrity, skills and capabilities.
“What risks have we taken in Lebanon lately, banks take no risk, they lend to government, if they lend to business they take twice the collateral they need before issuing a loan. No collateral, no loan. We don’t have a real economy in Lebanon,” a good friend and business owner once told me.
It’s true, if we risk nothing we gain nothing. If we don’t risk momentary instability for a non-sectarian, peaceful and prosperous future, nothing will ever change. I am sure life will go on, the sun will still rise and set, but our lives, our world will remain small, bleak and poor, and for some maybe that’s a fair price to pay for fragile stability, or maybe a better future is worth fighting for.
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