Joumana Haddad
NOW
“It's not denial. I'm just selective about the reality I accept” - Bill Watterson
An article I read recently about the accidental erasure of two murals by famous street artist Banksy in Melbourne, Australia, prompted me to revisit some of Banksy’s most prominent artworks. One drawing that had always captivated my thoughts is the one featuring a maid sweeping dust under the carpet.
How much crap are we, the Lebanese people, “sweeping under the carpet” on a daily basis, I keep wondering? Let us start with the obvious:
C for Chauvinism: We are convinced that we are superior, regardless of all the signs and proofs showing that we are nothing but a bunch of pubescent, arrogant, spoiled people who will probably never find their way to adulthood. Self-importance is an art in Lebanon, and we took it upon ourselves to master it to the point of perfection.
R for Racism: We treat people who work for us like slaves, only because they have a different skin colour. We look down on the Ethiopians in our houses (never mind they have inventedone of the oldest alphabets still in use on the planet). We make fun of the Egyptians in our gas stations (never mind they have one of the longest histories of any modern state, not to mention their great Pharaonic legacy). And, worst of all, we frown upon the Syrians in our streets and refugee camps (never mind their capital Damascus is among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world): Every Syrian is to us a project of a burglar or a murderer.
A for Antagonism: We cannot stand each other. We are more divided than ever, and we do not content ourselves to disagree: We “hate”. We hate everything and everyone who doesn’t think like us, including those who have different political or religious beliefs. Religious affiliation comes before being Lebanese; political affiliation comes before being Lebanese; hell, even our tiny birth town comes before being Lebanese.
P for Poverty: Our official institutions suffer from decay. Our parents are barely able to send their kids to school, let alone universities. Our youth is travelling abroad to find any kind of job. Our roads have more holes than a golf course. We still don’t have functional electricity and water services. And yet, we firmly believe that we are prosperous, and we keep on buying fancy cars and showing off our fancy belongings – all purchased through heavy debts – because God forbid we allow our neighbours to have more useless stuff than we do.
Wait, that’s not all. There is also a lot of S.H.I.T. under our carpet, too:
S for Sectarianism; for Sexism and Superficiality.
H for Homophobia; for Hatred and Hostility.
I for Inequality; for Illiteracy and Intolerance.
T for Terrorism; for Totalitarianism and Tribalism.
Need I continue? The whole alphabet and its rich vocabulary of defects seems to have found a way to fit under our blessed carpet of denial: A for Aggression; B for Bigotry; C for Corruption; D for Discrimination; E for Extremism; F for Feudalism; G for Gangsterism; H for Hypocrisy; I for Indifference; L for Lethargy; M for Misogyny; N for Narcissism; O for Opportunism; P for Prejudice; R for Radicalism; S for Snobbism; V for Violence; and so on and so forth.
But we don’t see all that. And as long as we do not take notice, it ceases to exist. In short: everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds as long as our women are the sexiest, our nightclubs are the hippest, and as long as we can curse in three different languages.
Now tell me: Isn’t it time to lift that carpet and start facing our problems and dealing with them? The elephant in the room/country has become so huge that we cannot even breathe from the weight of its burden on our chests.
There’s only one problem: In order to achieve that, we’d need to gird up our loins and start doing some actual work.
But then again, that’s what the Ethiopians are here for, aren’t they? So why bother?
