One Year Later ...

Dear Readers,

A year ago, I indulged in my typical daily routine. Woke up. Checked email. My friend had sent an empty message with the subject "Hariri assassinated" ...

On this day, one year later, there are many things that one can write. A eulogy ... a summary of past events ... a bitter letter ... a message of hope ... a motivating piece on the strength of a nation ... maybe even simply posting a potent caricature ...

... I have decided against all that ...

... simply because there are many battles that have not yet been properly broached by the political elite nor by the public. Fighting for Lebanon consists of a war that aims at, simplistically speaking, "making Lebanon better", and in order to achieve this, all the various battles must be taken on simultaneously. Many of these are social, and achieving them is a realistic goal. Others may require more than purely social movements - however, at this time, it is necessary that the impetus comes from society.

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Civil Rights: Whether they be women, children, or gay rights, these are lacking. I've posted on a specific detail concerning women rights before, but the problem lies deeper than just that. There are negative social attitudes concerning some of these rights, but more importantly, the law is discriminatory in nature. Legal outlets should be provided to protect victims of violence and domestic abuse.

Civil rights also imply individual rights and freedoms that are independent of religious nuances. Till this day, this has not been fully realized.
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Racism: Foreign Workers. The status of the foreign working class is pitiful. It doesn't help that the media seems to ignore their plight by posting articles such as this and this. In addition to a social attitude that disregards the rights of these human beings, the legal rights of such workers are unacceptable. This phenomena is equivalent to slavery, and until we admit that, it most probably will not be solved.

Attacks on Syrian workers. Regardless of what the regime has done, this is should be followed up by the law. Yet nothing has been done to punish the guilty. The media has a strong role in this. There are countless examples, but the latest one was on Sunday 12, 2006. Annahar published the following headline: 308 arrested in Achafieh riots. 37 Palestinians, 34 Syrians. In the article they mentioned that there were 244 Lebanese, but apparently, this was not deemed worthy enough or placing in the headline.
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Media: This is a very difficult task, but worth throwing out here. There has to be some form of independent media, but more importantly, some form of accountability for what is published. Addiyar, Annahar, Al-Moustaqbal, Assafir ... present one side of the story because of the different sources of revenues. Assafir almost fired a journalist because of some threats of discontinuing funding (although this journalist later left and is apparently working on starting his own news outlet). Moreover, stories are manipulated into falsehoods, and published. An example is the case with Nasir Al-Assad and Gebran Bassil several months ago. How do we even approach this issue?
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Education: Improvements of public schools and public universities. Development of human resources in rural areas - such as providing knowledge necessary to the enhancement of life. On a more esoteric level, academic research is at a bare minimum.
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Corruption and Political Accountability: This should be placed under "Economy", but that is too broad a topic, and because it is currently completely tied in with regional and local politics, I am not going to attempt to broach it. Corruption is still infused at all levels, and we have been placed 83/158 on the Yearly Corruption Index. A legal system must allow the public to hold leaders accountable for their decisions, and lack of action. Sadly, this is not something which will be dealt with soon, simply because those who are at the top of the food chain are the ones who are corrupt and the ones who should be held accountable for past failings. Meanwhile, it is the Lebanese who suffer.
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The Palestinian Issue: I believe this does not need much elaboration, except to say that the conditions they currently live under are inhumane.
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Sectarianism: All the above is relatively unimportant if this is ignored. We have chosen to make the main groups in Lebanon based on religion, yet in the same way that I can think of myself as a Christian or a Muslim, I can also perceive myself as a man or a woman or a teacher or a student or a young adult job-hunting or a grandparent aiming at retirement. The number of groups we can divide ourselves into is infinite, yet we have decided to place emphasis on the one division that brings with it the power of God.

It is time to question the belief that sectarianism is inherent. Religions do not have to conflict. Sects, and their members, do not get along because they have unhealthy relationships, as opposed to the unhealthy relationships arising because sects do not get along - a much more dangerous and irrevocable scenario. In other words, these human divisions that seem so concrete emerge from the relations between people, and thus, when these relations change the divisions will also change. Sectarianism is a servant, and not a master.

In lengthy conflicts, as is the case in Lebanon, it seems that this may not be true, since life is organized in a number ways to prevent different divisions from forming. Part of this can be blamed on political and religious authorities, as well as historical ties and communal memories, among other things.

By exposing society to a different social order, it is possible to change these groupings. And this can be initiated by ridding Lebanon of the confessional system, which in essence, places sects in competition with each other.

One of the most persistent complaints I hear concerning this is from minority sects: We do not what Islamic rule imposed on us, etc. Yet, by delaying discussion concerning the confessional system, we are in fact placing ourselves in a catch-22 situation. Now is the time to instill a system of civil rights in the Lebanese legal system, and hopefully in Lebanese civil consciousness, as well as a process of legal checks that protect individual rights. Such a step is necessary in order to create a pluralistic society - a step above that of just a tolerant one (since tolerance implies a position of power).
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The list of issues goes on and on.

As a new generation, we have the responsibility of social change. We can, as many have done, spend our time understanding and analyzing politics, and attempt to predict the different paths politicians will take. Yet our work should not stop there, since we must also attempt to change the dialectic fault-lines set up by past generations.

The easy way out of this is to claim that understanding the sectarian game is enough because society is controlled by it. This leads us to reiterating and rehashing old arguments, and participating in the usual diatribes, but such actions will prevent a more fortunate ending to this unfortunate tale. If we believe that abolishing sectarianism (and working on the other issues above) is a justifiable cause, then the least we can do is to keep such ideas afloat. There is much that we can accomplish if we understand that having insight into sectarianism does not imply that we must live by it; however, if we have our beliefs and language enveloped by it, then we have failed.

In order to realize some of the above points, words and ideas must be followed by action. Here is a list of NGOs that operate in Lebanon. On this day, take a look, and if one of these NGOs appeals to you, take the initiative and join.

Why? Because we must actively engage ourselves in an paradigm shift that places responsibility of the country's future in our hands. Waiting for others is a not a zero-sum game, since we all lose. Unless we begin instigating change through civil society, the horizon we are working for will continue to drift further away.

And that would be a true shame.



Yours Truly,

L.

posted by Lazarus, 12:10 AM