A couple of months back, a couple of boys (almost 20 yrs old, well they ARE young!) Karim Badra and Sherif Maktabi, decided upon a project where they tried to "make Lebanon better in the best way they can."
I came across this SUPER FANTASTIC idea of theirs in a couple of blogs I've been reading here's one and here's another, and then I read about it in the Daily Star.
The dudes, bless their young hearts, decided they would make a sort of "huge suggestion box for Lebanon" which wasn't really a box at all but a spray painted line saying "Lebanon would be better" on a wall in Ras Beirut, under which they wrote “Lebanon would be better if I” in black spray paint 25 times and added below each heading an equal number of black lines, leaving a cup full of chalk near the wall.
Of course, any one passing by would be curious to write what he or she thinks is the way to improve Lebanon in his or her opinion. How else can we arrive late everywhere? But at least this time it's for a good cause, right?
Lebanon is known for its many varied and contradictory opinions. We all know that, and somehow we seem to find that a lovable trait. If only it didn't lead to wars, displacement, corruption, elitist attitudes, ethnocentric mentalities, dogmatic souls, and things of the sort.
Anyway. Some people decided to take the initiative and remove the "I" from the "if I" and suggest a way Lebanon could be better. Some took it seriously, and some didn't, and some came a couple of days later and scribbled all over the suggestions like the immature pissing dogs that they are. Excuse my Arabic.
So to make a long and sad story, short and hopefully resuscitated, I would suggest that we start our own little wall over here.
Shoo?
Yalla?
O kay.
Tfaddalo.
I will etfaddal awwal shee, and suggest my 2 cents. or dirhams, or liras, or whatever.
In my humble thirty-two-year-old opinion, I believe Lebanon would be better ifI politicians AND the PEOPLE (i.e. the public) actually understood the meaning of public service.
Shoo ya3ne? eh shoo ya3ne??
ya3ne, service OF the people. Not the other way around like we've had it happening for generations. And all for personal benefits and re-"elections" of the same darn faces. Politicians thinking the world owes them something! "za3eem" oo kaza. It's nauseating.
(Perhaps Camel milk will help?)
Abu el Khel (Gibran Khalil Gibran) said it about a zillion years ago, I'm not trying to invent the wheel, he said in the New Frontier Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in a desert, and JFK took the credit for it of course, but being the Gibran-mentioned parasite seems appealing to most if not all of the Lebanese suits out there.
Sigh...
So what does yourself think? And please refrain from mentioning unicorns, fairies, getting laid, more asians, burning Lebanon down and starting over.. These have all been said, so let's try to be a little original, and mature. Not in that sense buddy. Mature, as in the opposite of immature.
And this post is not written in chalk, so no one can erase or scribble over it. Ha!
(come to think of it, having unicorns wouldn't be such a bad idea after all. Phallic symbolism aside, they're said to signify grace and healing.)
We could certainly do with a pinch of that.
I came across this SUPER FANTASTIC idea of theirs in a couple of blogs I've been reading here's one and here's another, and then I read about it in the Daily Star.
The dudes, bless their young hearts, decided they would make a sort of "huge suggestion box for Lebanon" which wasn't really a box at all but a spray painted line saying "Lebanon would be better" on a wall in Ras Beirut, under which they wrote “Lebanon would be better if I” in black spray paint 25 times and added below each heading an equal number of black lines, leaving a cup full of chalk near the wall.
Of course, any one passing by would be curious to write what he or she thinks is the way to improve Lebanon in his or her opinion. How else can we arrive late everywhere? But at least this time it's for a good cause, right?
Lebanon is known for its many varied and contradictory opinions. We all know that, and somehow we seem to find that a lovable trait. If only it didn't lead to wars, displacement, corruption, elitist attitudes, ethnocentric mentalities, dogmatic souls, and things of the sort.
Anyway. Some people decided to take the initiative and remove the "I" from the "if I" and suggest a way Lebanon could be better. Some took it seriously, and some didn't, and some came a couple of days later and scribbled all over the suggestions like the immature pissing dogs that they are. Excuse my Arabic.
So to make a long and sad story, short and hopefully resuscitated, I would suggest that we start our own little wall over here.
Shoo?
Yalla?
O kay.
Tfaddalo.
I will etfaddal awwal shee, and suggest my 2 cents. or dirhams, or liras, or whatever.
In my humble thirty-two-year-old opinion, I believe Lebanon would be better if
Shoo ya3ne? eh shoo ya3ne??
ya3ne, service OF the people. Not the other way around like we've had it happening for generations. And all for personal benefits and re-"elections" of the same darn faces. Politicians thinking the world owes them something! "za3eem" oo kaza. It's nauseating.
(Perhaps Camel milk will help?)
Abu el Khel (Gibran Khalil Gibran) said it about a zillion years ago, I'm not trying to invent the wheel, he said in the New Frontier Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in a desert, and JFK took the credit for it of course, but being the Gibran-mentioned parasite seems appealing to most if not all of the Lebanese suits out there.
Sigh...
So what does yourself think? And please refrain from mentioning unicorns, fairies, getting laid, more asians, burning Lebanon down and starting over.. These have all been said, so let's try to be a little original, and mature. Not in that sense buddy. Mature, as in the opposite of immature.
And this post is not written in chalk, so no one can erase or scribble over it. Ha!
(come to think of it, having unicorns wouldn't be such a bad idea after all. Phallic symbolism aside, they're said to signify grace and healing.)
We could certainly do with a pinch of that.
