Scarlet Mosaic of The Lebanon

Since the inception of the White House “War on Terror” we have been fed a constant diet in the media of Middle-Eastern politics and ethnic divisions simplified to the point of reductio ad absurdum. Historical context is conveniently side-stepped with candour in order to present a picture to support our state policy du jour and render abstruse the underlying truth.

One such casualty of the war on clarity are events currently unfolding in The Lebanon but thanks to the power of the internet its still possible to get another, uncensored point of view. One such voice is that of the impassioned Sophia who has kindly translated an article by Khalid Saghiyyeh which appears in the Arabic language newspaper Al-Akhbar about the political and ethnic divisions in her homeland which form the basis of the current conflict.

Ordinary Racism in Lebanon

“Lebanese live in self denial, they venere conventions and despise truth, nothing bothers them more than a simple truth, the truth about themselves, so they buy into any narrative that embellishes this truth. But the narrative is always the same. It is that other people are responsible for their misery and that every time they go down they must call other people for help and blame some others. This is the simple Lebanese truth. Another one is that ordinary racism is acceptable in Lebanon. These people see themselves as superior and therefore despise the poor, other Arabs, the dark skinned, the homosexuals, the leftists, the atheists, the Sri-Lankan maids, they despise everything that is not Lebanese kitsch nurtured for the sake of self denial and self aggrandising. This is not a society of individuals, this is a society of sheep herded by anyone who can flatter their inflated egos and ugly selves.”