Solidarity, brothers, is not a dirty word
First, may I start by congratulating the Lebanese national football team for their victory today on the hallowed grounds of a sports city that saw a brave resistance to the Israeli invader back in our darker days of civil war, Tinzakar ou ma tin3ad. You gave us all hope that the Lebanese can work together to achieve great success, you have taught us and our politicians a valuable lesson in team work, something sorely lacking in our country. Second, my congratulations to our interior ministry and our police for apprehending suspected culprits in a string of murders of taxi drivers in Lebanon recently. Good job, and may you experience many more successes.
Readers, I promised myself that I would try to find the positive in everything, that I would try to be fair when judging a situation and the attitude and behavior of the Lebanese in that situation, but I feel that without well aimed criticism no society can progress culturally or learn from its mistakes. I feel self criticism is vital for a healthy society. We should start with ourselves and that criticism should extend to the national, familial, feudal, religious, and social components that define who we are as citizens and as full participants/stake holders in what is Lebanon today.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame the republic, I only blame parts of it insofar as these parts are to blame for the mess we are in: the legislative, executive, judicial, and local and national administrative branches of the state, each in its own way has made mistakes, continues to do so, and rather than fix problems, patches up old wounds and keeps limping on.
I always found it terribly brave, back in the 1980s that MEA kept flying with its old, useless fleet of museum-quality B707s and B720s. I admired their can do attitude, in war one must find ways to keep going on and they did. But we are no longer at war and yet, in a way, we still are. The shooting war stopped, at least between the Lebanese, excluding that brief episode of ill-advised madness (on both sides) in 2008. But, we are still fighting an uphill battle each day to hang on to our sanity, we are fighting ignorance, blind hatred between sectarian groups, backwardness, nepotism, negativity in thought and action, petty jealousy (kaydiye), and a lack of a moral compass.
If I were to add corruption to the list, it would appear too vague a term. Each of us at one time or another did something that broke or bent the rules, or we took something (a job we got because of connections (wasta), someone’s place in line in a traffic jam or at a government department) that did not belong to us. We all know that voice in the back of our minds, at least I hope we all do, that tells us we did something wrong, we often ignore it and give the standard answer to assuage our burdened conscience: “Shu Wiqfit 3alayeh.”
Yes, it is in fact our duty to uphold the law. The interior ministry is responsible for enforcing the law by compulsion if necessary, but we are morally responsible to abide by the rules, to be fair to others. We are responsible for our own behavior; we are responsible to our children and other people by setting a good example. I am not asking people to sprout wings and a halo; I know some already think they are closer to sainthood than others, being that we are a country with a disproportionately high number of saints per capita, but all I ask is that we listen to that voice when it tells us we are doing something wrong.
You don’t fight corruption by participating in a broken system. We are a small country; small voices are louder here and have a greater impact than we might think. Ministers are certainly more accessible and some are actually reasonable men and really want to help. Remember, they are in the middle of a broken system, but they are not necessarily responsible for breaking it.
All I ask is that instead of shouting at a TV camera, burning tyres and blocking roads, that you prepare your case, if you do not have the language skills to do so, get someone on your side that does a journalist or civil society actor. Remember, news has monetary value and you could be the next news gold mine, you could open up a can of worms long closed and buried. Journalists are just people who like to talk a lot, have an opinion on everything, and hate injustice; we are nothing without you, the whistleblowers, those who speak out.
I know there are good people in this country still, although many have given up and have taken the easy way out: Dubai, Qatar, Africa, Europe, there are so many to choose from these days and so many ways to get there, it’s almost too easy. But there are still a few still digging in their heels, gripping the rich, red soil of their country with their fingers and toes, and standing up to the stiff wind that blows from every conceivable direction and tries to blow them down.
We have made quiet a number of mistakes, let’s face it, we are far from perfect, and our society by the admission of experts is well and truly messed up.
We still do not have a strong relationship of trust between the people and their judicial system. In this case, perception is everything and here the burden is on the judiciary to get closer to its people, to restore that trust and confidence. We have a great set of laws, but poor enforcement and almost no respect for the law.
The private sector is taking the lead everywhere; the public sector is dragging its feet for the most part. I don’t believe in government run institutions, in fact if we could privatize every utility and government service I would be a strong proponent of that. But, I am for government as the chief regulator in charge of making sure everyone follows rules, even those that may go against commercial interests. Here it gets tricky, how much regulation is too much regulation. Reaganomics: too little regulation. European Union Bureaucracy (Brussels): too much regulation.
The government should have more pressing business than to run hospitals, schools, ports, and airports, even in the best of cases, governments anywhere in the world rarely do a good job, or at least an efficient job.
The legislature too is not representative of the average man; most are in office not by popular vote, but by showing loyalty to a party or sectarian/feudal structure. There are certainly few who show genuine concern for public welfare, but the exception here should be the rule. How do you encourage people to vote? By creating a really transparent system, one that is easily understood by the least literate of us, and that shows a clear cause and effect relationship between a single vote and the end result: i.e. who gets elected. People are cynical and do not see that their votes matter and who can blame them.
We should count ourselves lucky, we have a large proportion of smart people who know what they are doing and they are running our financial institutions, we are bankers to the world today, one of very few remaining safe havens, we have expanding franchises in the banking industry and other industries, spreading their wings regionally and beyond. We have thriving exports, our skilled professionals and entrepreneurs who base themselves in Lebanon but target a global market. So we should give ourselves a break, help each other rather than hinder each other, try to find the opportunity in the darkest of situations, we owe it to ourselves, to each other. Let us stop looking towards foreign protectors to help us out, we need to understand that in a world in crisis we only have each other.
Readers, I promised myself that I would try to find the positive in everything, that I would try to be fair when judging a situation and the attitude and behavior of the Lebanese in that situation, but I feel that without well aimed criticism no society can progress culturally or learn from its mistakes. I feel self criticism is vital for a healthy society. We should start with ourselves and that criticism should extend to the national, familial, feudal, religious, and social components that define who we are as citizens and as full participants/stake holders in what is Lebanon today.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame the republic, I only blame parts of it insofar as these parts are to blame for the mess we are in: the legislative, executive, judicial, and local and national administrative branches of the state, each in its own way has made mistakes, continues to do so, and rather than fix problems, patches up old wounds and keeps limping on.
I always found it terribly brave, back in the 1980s that MEA kept flying with its old, useless fleet of museum-quality B707s and B720s. I admired their can do attitude, in war one must find ways to keep going on and they did. But we are no longer at war and yet, in a way, we still are. The shooting war stopped, at least between the Lebanese, excluding that brief episode of ill-advised madness (on both sides) in 2008. But, we are still fighting an uphill battle each day to hang on to our sanity, we are fighting ignorance, blind hatred between sectarian groups, backwardness, nepotism, negativity in thought and action, petty jealousy (kaydiye), and a lack of a moral compass.
If I were to add corruption to the list, it would appear too vague a term. Each of us at one time or another did something that broke or bent the rules, or we took something (a job we got because of connections (wasta), someone’s place in line in a traffic jam or at a government department) that did not belong to us. We all know that voice in the back of our minds, at least I hope we all do, that tells us we did something wrong, we often ignore it and give the standard answer to assuage our burdened conscience: “Shu Wiqfit 3alayeh.”
Yes, it is in fact our duty to uphold the law. The interior ministry is responsible for enforcing the law by compulsion if necessary, but we are morally responsible to abide by the rules, to be fair to others. We are responsible for our own behavior; we are responsible to our children and other people by setting a good example. I am not asking people to sprout wings and a halo; I know some already think they are closer to sainthood than others, being that we are a country with a disproportionately high number of saints per capita, but all I ask is that we listen to that voice when it tells us we are doing something wrong.
You don’t fight corruption by participating in a broken system. We are a small country; small voices are louder here and have a greater impact than we might think. Ministers are certainly more accessible and some are actually reasonable men and really want to help. Remember, they are in the middle of a broken system, but they are not necessarily responsible for breaking it.
All I ask is that instead of shouting at a TV camera, burning tyres and blocking roads, that you prepare your case, if you do not have the language skills to do so, get someone on your side that does a journalist or civil society actor. Remember, news has monetary value and you could be the next news gold mine, you could open up a can of worms long closed and buried. Journalists are just people who like to talk a lot, have an opinion on everything, and hate injustice; we are nothing without you, the whistleblowers, those who speak out.
I know there are good people in this country still, although many have given up and have taken the easy way out: Dubai, Qatar, Africa, Europe, there are so many to choose from these days and so many ways to get there, it’s almost too easy. But there are still a few still digging in their heels, gripping the rich, red soil of their country with their fingers and toes, and standing up to the stiff wind that blows from every conceivable direction and tries to blow them down.
We have made quiet a number of mistakes, let’s face it, we are far from perfect, and our society by the admission of experts is well and truly messed up.
We still do not have a strong relationship of trust between the people and their judicial system. In this case, perception is everything and here the burden is on the judiciary to get closer to its people, to restore that trust and confidence. We have a great set of laws, but poor enforcement and almost no respect for the law.
The private sector is taking the lead everywhere; the public sector is dragging its feet for the most part. I don’t believe in government run institutions, in fact if we could privatize every utility and government service I would be a strong proponent of that. But, I am for government as the chief regulator in charge of making sure everyone follows rules, even those that may go against commercial interests. Here it gets tricky, how much regulation is too much regulation. Reaganomics: too little regulation. European Union Bureaucracy (Brussels): too much regulation.
The government should have more pressing business than to run hospitals, schools, ports, and airports, even in the best of cases, governments anywhere in the world rarely do a good job, or at least an efficient job.
The legislature too is not representative of the average man; most are in office not by popular vote, but by showing loyalty to a party or sectarian/feudal structure. There are certainly few who show genuine concern for public welfare, but the exception here should be the rule. How do you encourage people to vote? By creating a really transparent system, one that is easily understood by the least literate of us, and that shows a clear cause and effect relationship between a single vote and the end result: i.e. who gets elected. People are cynical and do not see that their votes matter and who can blame them.
We should count ourselves lucky, we have a large proportion of smart people who know what they are doing and they are running our financial institutions, we are bankers to the world today, one of very few remaining safe havens, we have expanding franchises in the banking industry and other industries, spreading their wings regionally and beyond. We have thriving exports, our skilled professionals and entrepreneurs who base themselves in Lebanon but target a global market. So we should give ourselves a break, help each other rather than hinder each other, try to find the opportunity in the darkest of situations, we owe it to ourselves, to each other. Let us stop looking towards foreign protectors to help us out, we need to understand that in a world in crisis we only have each other.
You write a song for Lebanon, Hani. It's beautiful.
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