My Fellow Citizens

What amused me the most lately is a group on Facebook made by Lebanese people in response to Oprah saying that Lebanon is conservative.

My fellow citizens were shaken upside down and stirred inside out over that “offensive” statement and showed how civil they are by screaming their outrage adorned with insults.

All to prove that Lebanon is not conservative!

I wonder when will we stop making ourselves a joke! I think I can safely say that the Lebanese are the most schizophrenic society I have ever seen.

They try to prove that they are liberal to the West and that they are conservative to the East.

First things first, what does conservative mean?

According to dictionary.com (along with other meanings that are not relevant to the subject):

con⋅serv⋅a⋅tive [kuhn-sur-vuh-tiv]

–adjective

1. Disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change.

2. Cautiously moderate or purposefully low: a conservative estimate.

3. Traditional in style or manner; avoiding novelty or showiness: conservative suit.

I don’t see how this is offensive, since it is mainly true. My dear fellow citizens conservative does not only apply to dress code or drinking, not even to nightlife.

The funniest part was that all the outraged people went to brag about partying and clubs and the women’s skimpy dress code.

There was even a woman telling that the Lebanese women are the most liberated in the world.

I just wanted to ask how are we that way since there are some basic rights that we don’t even have? Being liberated does not mean you can go out and party wearing a short skirt and then go next day to work dressed in designer clothes!

Being liberated is having the right of custody of your children over your in-laws in case your husband dies.

Being liberated is having the right to travel without your husband’s permission.

Being liberated is having the right to make your own decisions and not have them influenced by family or society.

Being liberated does not mean that marriage is a set goal in a woman’s life, but it is the right to fulfill herself the way she wants or see it fit.

Being liberated is to have the right to move out because you want to not because you are getting married, or else you will be frowned upon and people will assume you have issues with your family.

Being liberated is having the highest quota of female representatives in political life (which we don’t).

That to name a few things.

We brag about a history we are making obsolete by keeping it a present. How are we not conservative when we keep a social stratification and a system of screaming feudalism, disguised as a democracy? When did a democracy have titles like Beik or Sheikh or Emir? In what democracy ministers have nobility titles and deputies are treated like kings?

How are we liberal when we refuse to see when someone dares to think outside of the box and has a different set of ideas and ideals and the best we can do is call treason upon them?

Again my fellow citizens, let me remind you that when Nancy Ajram’s first video (Akhasmak Ah) was aired, everyone called outrage at it. Let us also not forget Elissa’s bed sheet and how much controversy it caused.

And the list extends…

Last but not least I prefer the label of conservatism over some other labels we had over the years, including Lebanon being among the places to export the best drugs or a terrorist country (weird how  these did not get some 36000 Lebanese people outraged) and many other reputations I am not proud of!

Yes there are misconceptions about Lebanon, but what did we do to change them? Nothing, we just got caught up in our schizophrenic society and just get all flustered over trivialities.

And my fellow citizens, I have met a lot of Americans and Europeans who had a great idea about Lebanon.  Did we work on making it even better?

One of those images is that the Lebanese women are among the most beautiful women in the world, yet what do Lebanese women do? They try to make themselves look like playmates or at least have a Caucasian look.

The other was that Lebanon is a very beautiful country, yet we work on disfiguring it by building in every corner, killing forests and which is a more personal level: we litter!

The outrage is not caused because we are called conservative, but I think it is caused because we are like those kids in high schools who work hard on being accepted in popular circles. We have a whole population who wants to be labeled as cool.

I wonder when will be out of our teen minds and mature only to accept who we are with our flaws, then try to work on making them better.

But what can I expect from a country that never learns from its own history and that has no social memory, so it keeps repeating the same mistakes.

The pictures were taken by my friend Glenn, during his visit to Lebanon.

Baalbeck – Lebanon

Jezzine – Lebanon

Beirut – Lebanon