Tuesday, December 20, 2022

Lebanon: hope and fear for Christmas


A post published in 2019, the 'revolution' did not bring change, with no clear leadership it fettered away.

Martyrs Square in downtown Beirut was last Christmas place for joy and beauty.
Today it is the home of hope and fear.

It is the home of protesters trying to break the barriers of sectarianism that feeds corruption.
They have been in the square for more than two months calling peacefully for a change.
They were met by a political class that wither is not ready to hear or to understand what they hear.
They were met by political faction trying to proactively break their resolve through violence by thugs who burn tents and wheel their batons on the head of women and journalists.
They suffer attrition from an economic crisis that eats out the livelihood and hopes of all.

Will there be this year children laughing on Christmas eve and day in downtown Beirut?
Will there be hope and protesters dancing in the street?
Will there be death, violence, and despair?

As it looks now, happiness and hope will be missing in Martyrs Squares.
Yet whatever happens, the protests have heralded a new mood in the country.
The movement won and achieved its purpose. The political class is cowering, the media addressing issues that were neglected. Sectarianism is refused and all are calling for a civil state.

Change is in the air.
Do I dare to hope?



Lebanon, a country for long suffering from sectarian political power struggle is still a country where Christmas unites its citizens, independent of their religion or creed.

A small glimmer of hope for a country resilient in its love for life and doomed by geography and the game of nations, and I have to say the individualism of its people.




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