An Ignored Crime

Here is an incident that happened over a week ago. It hasn’t been given much attention – and considering the responses I got, some from people who are usually much more up-to-date with news than I am – it is safe to say that it got much less attention than it deserved.

Why should it? It’s only about a poor fisherman named Farran.

It’s only about a poor fisherman who went fishing one Saturday, and all that was found was a bullet-ridden boat which was claimed to be near an Israeli vessel. This is only about the disappearance of a Lebanese citizen, whom the authorities have neglected to follow up.

This can be seen in several angles. One of these is the lack of proper civil structure. Another is a social disease that has always existed, but is now becoming more pronounced.

Let’s just call it the Savior Complex. It may even be a subset of histrionics.

The Syrian Regime committed a crime, and for that, they must be punished. But within that chase for “justice”, there has been a lot of random noise: the Americans want to dominate us, Lebanon is becoming a Saudi stooge, the Egyptians would rather support Syria then Lebanon, Arabs have the need for dictatorships and thus are willing to sacrifice us, we should work with this group, that group, etc. There has also been a continuous call for justice for the crime – but in reality, justice should be blind with regards to the victim and the perpetrator, and only care about the crime. Yet no one has really cared about the crime on Farran.

The international opinion with regards to Lebanon is important, but some of the above noise has to be filtered. That, however, won’t happen until we truthfully seek to understand how WE view ourselves. If we can’t protect our citizens, then why should other nations, who are understandably working on their own goals, even care?

Update:Apparently, the government still hasn't done anything.

Addendum: Kais has a great (and disconcerting) post about other serious crimes in Lebanon, that haven't gained the necessary attention.

posted by Lazarus, 9:18 AM