Lebanese diaspora: My people are dead

I could not think of how to express a uniting feeling I experienced, saw, read, and heard from Lebanese living abroad, even from those who grew up in countries of adoption.

This text written in 1916 by Kahlil Gebran, the author of ''The Prophet'' best express the pain.

' ' My people are dead ' - Kahlil Gebran (1916)

Mine die, and I, still living, in my solitude, I mourn them my people died and I am here, in this distant country, wandering among a joyful people who sleep on fluffy beds. My people died of a painful death and I am here who lives in abundance and in peace I do not live with my persecuted people, who walk in the procession of death towards martyrdom.

I'm here, on the other side of the ocean that lives in the shadow of peace and in the light of peace. I'm so far from the miserable arena and affliction that I can't even be proud of my tears.

The death of my people is a silent accusation; it is a crime fomented by the heads of invisible snakes, it is a tragedy without text.

My people died while their hands stretched east and west, while their empty orbits looked at the darkness of the firmament.

He died in silence because humanity remained deaf to his calls. He died because he didn't sympathize with his enemies, he died because he placed his trust in all humanity, because he was the stomped flowers and not the foot that crushes. He died because he was a builder of peace, because the monsters of hell stood up, destroyed everything, because vipers and children of vipers spit poison in space where the holy cedars, roses and the jasmines exhale their perfumes.

Artist - Allan Debs 

Lebanese youth says: I am at the stage of grief where it is just anger and fury

Malek is a young man who grew up in Lebanon during civil war years. He survived and thrived with many dreams. He succeeded carrier wise, but as many he ended up working outside Lebanon.

His favorite quotes:

"Some people see things the way they are and say, 'why?... I see things that never were and say, 'why not?' ". George Bernard Shaw

"Freedom is not worth having if it doesn't include the freedom to make mistakes". Mahatma Gandhi

"I was taught honesty from a liar" Gebran Khalil Gebran

He posted a text I found representative of a whole Lebanese generation.

I am sharing it with you, he speaks for many. 

https://www.facebook.com/malekawt/posts/10158787921843169

Today I am at the stage of grief where it is just anger and fury.

This catastrophe did not just show the profound depth of the ruling parties' level of incompetence, but their blatant disregard for human life at an unimaginable level.

Not only have they not opened up their wallets and given back a part of the money they very openly stole and plundered, but they have barely done anything in the last 48 hours to quell the fear and pain of a suffering population.

Speeches are half-assed essays that read like emails full of blame dodging, empty promises, and rinse and repeat topics. No accountability whatsoever on those clearly responsible for the catastrophe, regardless of whatever secret motive might be looming in the background, and general disregard to any sense of decency and respect to a nation in utter disarray.

Some politicians openly joke, these other ones smile, these ones hark back to the days of the civil war, and others ask secterian questions as to why certain areas were hit harder than others. All while people still fail to properly understand what has happened and the magnitude at which it has happened both in and out of Lebanon.

Even worse is that they are fully aware that the people absolutely hate and loathe them, which in part has lead to their decreased or isolated public appearances. Convoys blocking off access to the public, goons unleashed to retaliate on the rightfully expressed anger of the nation, and mindless drones that obey every command for reasons completely unknown.

This is without mentioning the fact that foreign leaders openly express their complete lack of trust in these same politicians, to their bloody faces, only to have politicians nod and smile.

I look around and see endless videos of civilians doing their best to clean up and help each other understand and cope with what has happened. Civilians banding together with civil defense sweeping glass, debris, and going through wreckage that carries utterly devastating realizations of broken realities.

All while the army chills by the side of the roads or on their tanks, and the internal security forces smoke their cigarettes and point to where civilians have missed a spot.

And every day you talk to someone new or check up on a friend or relative and the same statement constantly repeats itself. 

I am lucky to be alive.