{"id":1588,"date":"2019-12-06T06:24:08","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T10:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/?p=1588"},"modified":"2019-12-06T06:43:58","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T10:43:58","slug":"lebanon-cannot-govern-itself-could-placing-it-again-under-french-mandate-help-protect-it-reflections-by-ms-aline-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/2019\/12\/06\/lebanon-cannot-govern-itself-could-placing-it-again-under-french-mandate-help-protect-it-reflections-by-ms-aline-a\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cLebanon cannot govern itself: Could placing it again under French Mandate help protect it?\u201d (Reflections by Ms. Aline A.)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Today, Bambi spent time chatting with her good friend Aline A. about Lebanon and the Middle East. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This post reflects Ms. Aline A.\u2019s deep insights that\nsadly have much truth in them, despite the Lebanese people\u2019s revolt and\naspirations for better days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you for this food for thought Aline and for your\ngenerosity in accepting to share your thoughts on this blog:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll political parties have started with a certain\ngoal or a mission. However, not even half-way through (sometimes just \u00bc of the\nway), they all forgot about their goal and they started working for their own\ninterests, instead of the national interests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even during civil war, forces on the war front lines\nwould agree on the fighting rules: Now, your turn to attack. Now my turn to\nshell. They all robbed the population here and there. All were involved in\nbrainwashing young people, stealing their future and maybe contributing to\ntheir drug addictions. They used incentives to reward them; money may be\nappealing when our family lives in poverty. Young people died in the combats. Warlords\n(now political leaders) increased their wealth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sectarianism has been in our blood, so to speak. Even\nthose who say that we are against sectarianism, if you insult their spiritual\nbeliefs, Jesus or Prophet Mohammed, they would lose their mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Add to this, how we as Lebanese, are sometimes like\ndouble agents, serving the interests of foreign countries more than our own.\nPerhaps some were tempted by this or that reward from this or that external\nforce. They even changed their policies accordingly. This politician works for\nIran. The other for Saudi Arabia. Yet another for the United States. Some even\nwork for this and that at the same time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above is the sad reality of Lebanon. It is a tiny\ncountry at the mercy of foreign countries. How would you get out of this? Every\ntime, we try to get out of this, we fail because of our weaknesses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Money kills us. Appearances too. Some are even willing to sell everything just for money in their pocket. They may even sell their souls, even loved ones, or whole country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Innocent people have always been the silent majority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to me, with all due respect to those who\nthink they can lead Lebanon, we need another civilized country to govern us so\nwe can: (1) live in peace and (2) know that, whatever would happen in the\nregional politics surrounding us, we must remain neutral. In other terms, this\nmust not become our problem. It is our only logical solution if we want to see\na prosperous Lebanon again. If not, we will keep going through war every 30\nyears. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is as simple as that really. At least this is my\nopinion right now. We have sadly demonstrated our inability to preserve our\ncountry. A small country that we could have preserved. Why not? Whomever came\nto us, from the Palestinians to the Syrians, etc. We welcomed them in and did\nnot know how to show them the way out. Our politicians used the Palestinians\nfor their own business interests. We did the same with the Syrians. Some started\nfollowing the lead of the Syrians and the Syrians started to govern us. The\nsame story seems to be moving on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We do not deserve our country [by we, Ms. A. means the politicians]. Politicians forget their principles for the sake of money. Those who may be decent go unnoticed among the corrupt ones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seniors, from my parents\u2019 generation, would say the\nsame as I am saying now: This is sadly the story of Lebanon but had the French\nmandate [or colonization that ended in 1943] been still ongoing, we would have\nbeen living in peace and prosperity. Our children would have likely had a\nfuture ahead of them. This would have been true, even if of course France would\nbe benefitting. At least, as they say in Lebanon: \u201cGive your dough to the baker even if he will eat half of your bread<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lebanese people are proud people. They love\nthe idea that the alphabet started there [with the Phoenicians as their\nancestors], civilization, culture, and medicine too [during the Arab\nrenaissance times]. Did we know how to continue all this renaissance? No. We\nhave reached a stage where we have stopped progressing. Maybe we sold our\nconsciousness? Maybe we started being too corrupt to remain creative? Maybe\nmoney blinded us, in the whole Arab region. Maybe that is why the West knew how\nto take advantage of our weaknesses and governed us. Everyone wants a piece of\nthe regional cake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the sad truth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We say the alphabet went to the world, out\nof our shores, but we are now in a state of descent into darkness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even to get a decent graduate education, youth\ntravel abroad. We could have been stronger in pharmacy, with its beginnings in\nour area and all those herbs. We now import medication and do not produce drugs\nand medical supplies. Corruption has prevented discovery and moving forward in\npharmaceutical sciences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole world has moved forward and\nsurpassed us. In contrast, we stopped moving forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, we still have some good things\nlike our hospitality and our culture, etc. But what a loss of potential! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, we have improved in some areas but mainly superficially. We lost the deep matters, sadly\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Today, Bambi spent time chatting with her good friend Aline A. about Lebanon and the Middle East. This post reflects Ms. Aline A.\u2019s deep insights that sadly have much truth in them, despite the Lebanese […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1588"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1597,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588\/revisions\/1597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}