“Escaping a Sad Reality” “Escaping a Sad Reality” “Escaping a Sad Reality”

“Escaping a Sad Reality”

يناير 23, 2023

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Fear. Misery. Death. Panic. Terror. Sorrow. Sadly, all words that describe a country. We keep hearing slogans aiming for change, “Enough is enough” written all over the walls and streets of Lebanon, but what is enough? How does all of this end? Elections? Protests? War? We keep asking ourselves if it can get any worse than this. We’re constantly trying to occupy ourselves to avoid facing reality: our country is crumbling and all what most of us are doing is hiding behind screens and running away. What the Lebanese people really lack is not determination or devotion, its trust. Trust not only in our country but trust in our people and ourselves. Trust that we can one day bring back joy to the streets that were once covered with our own blood.

A massive explosion in Beirut’s port, an economic collapse, rising political instability, the Covid-19 global pandemic and a severe devaluation in currency have all crumbled the Lebanese people’s ability to access basic goods, including food, and shelter. The entire healthcare sector has spiraled into complete crisis. Electricity costs have doubled and tripled, medicine prices have insanely increased, engendering the ability of doctors to provide life-saving care for those who can’t afford it.

Public schools and hospitals have lost whatever limited funding they once had, even the National Social Security Funds no longer cover 5% of any hospital bill while the end of service indemnities have gone from millions to peanuts. Parents were forced out of retirement to feed and care for their children. While children had to watch their parents lose their life savings that have evaporated into absolutely nothing. Mental health no longer exists, people rather burn themselves than die this slow painful death.

Nowadays, the motto for living in Lebanon is the “survival of the fittest”, where politicians drown in their millions but have no money to feed the poor. For hunger makes a thief of any parent unable to feed their children and misery makes a criminal of any person having to watch their loved one die without medication. People have stopped visiting the doctor to avoid having to buy medicine that cost more than an average salary. Cab drivers, teachers, and so many more can no longer afford doing their jobs and instead have gone to the streets in protest in hopes of being able to survive the month. To what end? How long can a society survive without their basic rights? Children have learned to study in the dark with books they can’t afford.

Patients have replaced medicine with endless pleas to a God they might not believe in. Businesses have closed up, letting go of employees that didn’t even get minimum wage. Some parents had to send their children across the world, while others were forced to bury them in the ground with a part of their hearts. If we as Lebanese have learned anything, it’s the true pain in every tear, every goodbye and every farewell we have had to bid.

It is said that “the law grinds the poor and the rich rule the law”. We aim to live in a world where no man is above the law but somehow we ended up living in a country where the criminals hold the keys to the victims’ prison cells. Benjamin Franklin once said that “justice will be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are”.

The Lebanese people no longer look for wealth and luxury, all we seek for is justice for those who sacrificed their lives for a country that was unable to protect them. A republic can’t be built without an independent judiciary. The law can’t do its job if it’s simply being used to protect the strong and crumble the weak. I ask once again, to what end? What is enough? Crime is nothing but contagious, if our own government can get away with murder, what have we left for our people? With every waking day, a part of our hearts die and a small part of our souls is buried deeper and deeper in our own sadness and despair.

Hypocrisy. Corruption. Deceit. Manipulation. All words that describe a reality we’re trying to escape. We might be scattered all around the world and we might have lost hope at some point, but Lebanon will live once again. Lebanon will know love, joy, justice and prosperity once more. It might seem impossible today and it might look like the country has no future but truth is: we are the future. We might not have weapons and guns to fight, but what we do own is the tears of every mother and father who have lost a child, every heartbreak we have had to endure and every scream of despair we have had to swallow. Trust me when I say that all of this constitutes the greatest weapon of them all: Unity.