EMIL, 2022-1-7
NEW YEAR 2022
MESSAGE OF SOLIDARITY
What could I possibly say to my immediate family, friends and bigger Lebanese family as we start a new year 2022?
Words are not resonant enough to describe the severity of LOSSES we have ALL experienced over the past years, particularly those brought by the Beirut port explosion of August 4, 2020. Even as we, Lebanese, had entered the “Loss” reality beforehand, this unthinkable blast became and will remain THE MAJOR LANDMARK of the accumulation of LOSSES, as we lost uncountable innocent souls in an unprecedented act of terror, not an act of nature, to the sins of commission and omission of responsible actors within and outside the Lebanese government. Let justice take its course of action. And those who are interfering with the legal/judiciary course of the investigation of the Beirut port explosion are covering up their own complicity in this act of terror.
Losing our sons and daughters, losing our city, our country, losing our families, losing our young generations to exile, losing our life-long savings, our health, our education, our nutrition, losing our economy and losing our past-present standard of living are facts that no one can contest. Without illusion, we are ALL -- Christians, Druze and Muslims -- on this ONE sinking boat.
However, one important virtue that many of us Lebanese did not and will not lose is OUR DIGNITY. For those of us who believe that DIGNITY is above all other considerations, I urge you to take a strong stand against each and every corrupted politician, leader, director of any public and private institution, head of any organization who demonstrated a clear record of corruption. Lebanon is a small country but Lebanon is one big family. We all know each other. So please, have the courage to step out from your old clientelism mentality and be FREE to express yourselves in order to regain YOUR own basic rights, and regain the Lebanon we ALL lost: a multi-cultural, multi-confessional, multi-lingual, multi-educational, and multi-multi-multi multiple times open Lebanon to ALL the civilizations of the world. With our Phoenician ancestors we sailed open seas and conquered the World.
Our ancestors, inventors of the Alphabet, cannot possibly, and will not hopefully, lose the Land of the Cedar to a close-minded ideology, that of the “Wilayet-Al-Faqih”. Lebanon has always been a land of open-dialogue, of cross-cultural exchange and of freedom of speech. My Shiite, Sunnite and Druze friends are my brothers and sisters in Christianity and in humanity. They were as such when we were all sitting on the same school bench at the Grand-Lycée Franco-Libanais in Beirut, and they remained the same some 50 years later. Citizenship is not and should not be based on religious identity. Let your own God guide you in prayers, and your un-corrupted leaders who are NOT your Gods govern your life on earth. Our constitution need NOT to be changed. It is our CORRUPTED leaders who need to be changed. They need to be removed and uprooted for ever and ever, themselves and the legacy they left behind.
As such, let us embrace the New-Year with a sense of collective responsibility by voting in the upcoming 2022 elections to the right Member of Parliament with a clean record. Let us make this change that only YOU and I can make. Nobody else will pull us out of the pit they threw us in; but OURSELVES.
In the meantime, it is the responsibility of each one of us to watch over his and her neighbor, at the micro level. We can slow down our losses by adopting a positive attitude of being active agents of change. To each within his and her own capacities: share your meal with your neighbor if this is what they need, share your medicines, your clothes, share your blankets, share a ride or two, share your warmth and love. Our losses need to be turned into gains.
Each small battle won, will add up to a successful campaign. The campaign over corruption and darkness. Remember that each small deed accomplished is a major gain.
Together we shall win each other, and win our country back.
BLESSED 2022
LINA S. MOUKHEIBER, PRESIDENT
ELIAS MOUKHEIBER INSTITUTE FOR LEBANON
