The Sheikh, the Sayyed, the Doctor, the General and the Beyk
Every Lebanese wants peace and prosperity. No Lebanese wants war. Every Lebanese wants Lebanon First, except our politicians who all say Lebanon First but what they really mean is “Me First”.
The Sheikh, the Sayyed, the Doctor, the General and the Beyk are inherently disturbed personalities that have absolutely no regards for any of us poor folk.
They are feudal lords and their word is heaven sent. They are freedom, independence, honesty, holiness and truth incarnated.
What about the end of the month salaries of Tarek, Hussein, Tony and Adnan? What about the school fees, the health and transport costs of more than four million Lebanese? What about the fear of another civil war that is in the heart of millions of Lebanese parents and children? What about the thousands of young men and women who are escaping unemployment and misery every month?
Do you think the Sheikh, the Sayyed, the Doctor, the General and the Beyk care? No there are more important things like the truth, Israel, Syria, the presidency and pure megalomania.
What I understand when I hear Lebanon First is an increase in productivity, employment opportunities, better education, affordable healthcare, equal rights, laws that are implemented and no corruption.
Lebanon First is a clean environment, public gardens, a public transport network, better roads, 24 hour electricity, theatres and museums.
Lebanon First is a society that cares for the downtrodden, for the refugees and for the less fortunate. A society that is not sectarian and racist.
Lebanon First is a policeman that respects himself and is respected and a government that serves the public.
Lebanon First is not against anyone but for everyone living in Lebanon.
Lebanon First cannot be founded by unrepentant warlords, spoilt children, fundamentalist clerics, trigger happy generals or any of their cronies.
We acted on instinct and we chose the Sheikh, the Sayyed, the Doctor, the General and the Beyk - egos with titles - as our leaders because we lost our democratic ways back in 1975. Our wounds chose them, our instincts elected them and our fears wants us to believe them.
We forgot that they do not know how to build nations. We forgot how they destroyed, murdered and stole. We forgot how good they are at making us fear, making us hate, making us poor and making us leave the country we love.
For the last 30 years we blamed the Palestinians, the Israelis, the Syrians, the US, Europe and every other Arab for our problems, when the real problem is deeply entranched in our Lebanese souls.
The Beyk, the General, the Doctor, the Sayyed and the Sheikh today are in every one of us Lebanese. We should learn how to free ourselves from them, learn how to trust one another and learn how to vote for people who can make our lives better and not for icons who make us miserable.
We should replace them with hope and inspiration. We should replace them with someone like us who actually likes us.
The Sheikh, the Sayyed, the Doctor, the General and the Beyk are inherently disturbed personalities that have absolutely no regards for any of us poor folk.
They are feudal lords and their word is heaven sent. They are freedom, independence, honesty, holiness and truth incarnated.
What about the end of the month salaries of Tarek, Hussein, Tony and Adnan? What about the school fees, the health and transport costs of more than four million Lebanese? What about the fear of another civil war that is in the heart of millions of Lebanese parents and children? What about the thousands of young men and women who are escaping unemployment and misery every month?
Do you think the Sheikh, the Sayyed, the Doctor, the General and the Beyk care? No there are more important things like the truth, Israel, Syria, the presidency and pure megalomania.
What I understand when I hear Lebanon First is an increase in productivity, employment opportunities, better education, affordable healthcare, equal rights, laws that are implemented and no corruption.
Lebanon First is a clean environment, public gardens, a public transport network, better roads, 24 hour electricity, theatres and museums.
Lebanon First is a society that cares for the downtrodden, for the refugees and for the less fortunate. A society that is not sectarian and racist.
Lebanon First is a policeman that respects himself and is respected and a government that serves the public.
Lebanon First is not against anyone but for everyone living in Lebanon.
Lebanon First cannot be founded by unrepentant warlords, spoilt children, fundamentalist clerics, trigger happy generals or any of their cronies.
We acted on instinct and we chose the Sheikh, the Sayyed, the Doctor, the General and the Beyk - egos with titles - as our leaders because we lost our democratic ways back in 1975. Our wounds chose them, our instincts elected them and our fears wants us to believe them.
We forgot that they do not know how to build nations. We forgot how they destroyed, murdered and stole. We forgot how good they are at making us fear, making us hate, making us poor and making us leave the country we love.
For the last 30 years we blamed the Palestinians, the Israelis, the Syrians, the US, Europe and every other Arab for our problems, when the real problem is deeply entranched in our Lebanese souls.
The Beyk, the General, the Doctor, the Sayyed and the Sheikh today are in every one of us Lebanese. We should learn how to free ourselves from them, learn how to trust one another and learn how to vote for people who can make our lives better and not for icons who make us miserable.
We should replace them with hope and inspiration. We should replace them with someone like us who actually likes us.
posted by zadigvoltaire at 10:56 PM
3 Comments:
I cannot help but ask myself whether this is the same person who on Feb. 6, 2006 (only 12 days ago) spared no words to praise The Sayyed and The General:-)
IMHO you got it right this time.
"The Beyk, the General, the Doctor, the Sayyed and the Sheikh today are in every one of us Lebanese. We should learn how to free ourselves from them, learn how to trust one another and learn how to vote for people who can make our lives better and not for icons who make us miserable."
Can be simply replaced by the copyleft slogan:
BREAK FREE.
May it multiply like a cancerous growth.
clap clap, bravooo.
an election, the most fundamental exercise of democracy, scrapped in
favor of a soap opera on lbc with all the bells and whistles to
entertain the masses, all the way up to a moving phone call with may
chidiac from bkerki. the people have not spoken, for their own good.
this reminds me of a seinfeld episode about the "dating loophole" where
a guy figures out a way to go out with women without having to ask them
for a date. here they rob the people of their right to vote, w bi
rabb7ouwon jmeeleh that they saved them from a confict.
a conflict was indeed avoided, but not because of any bogus claims
about tawefo', they can't even tell us what they agreed on aside from
the person of pierre daccache, who was originally nominated by aoun
anyway, making him anything but a neutral replacement for edmond naim.
a conflict was avoided only because the march 14 coalition withdrew
from the battle before it began, with aoun and hizballah the clear
winners by default. it remains to be seen whether this is a sneak
preview of the next epic battle for the presidency, or a strategic
maneuver by the march 14 coalition to lose one battle in order to win
the war.
but the syrian axis certainly scored a victory in baabda-aley today,
and they have already switched to the defense of baabda-palace, with
naim qasem and nabil qaouq of hizballah firing the first salvos in
defense of lahoud on sunday morning. this is the first proof that
there is no consensus and no agreement on anything, that all the
sugar-coated words and the kodak moments are nothing but false
reassurances, and that the only smoke that came out is the smoke being
blown in the face of the lebanese public.
what is certain at this point is that there is a great battle looming
on the horizon, and that syria and iran will throw all their weight
behind lahoud, with dire consequences in store for the rest of us who
are supposed to be happy about all the consensus and agreements and
memos of understanding. what is also certain is that the holy spirit
has descended on the political scene, in what seems to be a direct
takeover by the religious authorities from their inept subordinates.
it seems the shepherd is finally taking over for the leader-sheep, as
evidenced by sheikh qabalan's call for a "spiritual summit" in bkerki
on saturday, and after a similar meeting with sanioura a week ago. so
it's only appropriate to say god help us.
with so much at stake being decided for us without any input from the
people and with total disregard for the democratic process, I hope we
will at least be spared further cheap productions in rabieh and 'arz
and moukhtara, if we can't ever separate church and state at least
let's separate politics from mexican soaps. not just for our own sake,
but it'd be a shame for talent like george 3adwan's to be wasted in
politics, instead of putting us to sleep with his sweet poetry full of
loving words but devoid of any political substance, he could do wonders
as the head of any soap-opera family torn by the usual romantic
ups-and-downs, he could jump right in without the need for any makeup
even.
unless of course the strategic maneuver that the march 14 coalition has
in mind is for 3adwan to bore lahoud to death with his monotonous voice
and drag him out of the palace without bloodshed. that's something I
could watch.
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