Day 13: Patience and Focus

It took some time to catch my breath, and with all the activity on platforms like Instagram, trying to link together efforts, events and updates from around the world where Lebanese people are exercising their right to free speech, strike and demanding the government listen to the people, not challenge and try to oppress them. It’s always good to pause and reflect though.

What’s Happened

A lot that many never expected to happen. An unshakable determination that withered all the usual attempts to deflate grassroots momentum. A celebration of a unity across the country that citizens have finally realized was a manufactured ruse, a smoke screen that allowed the current ruling parties to exert control on divided communities, driving them further into debt and dismay.

Main thoroughfares across the country and in Beirut have managed to resist any attempt to open them. A complete silence from all those in power has allowed false information and propaganda to spread and confuse many, unsure after almost two weeks, what the ruling class is up to, and what more does it need to get them to step down and allow a change that Lebanese people have been yearning for, especially its young men and women, left unemployed or waiting their turn at embassies to try and leave to somewhere they have a chance to prosper, not just survive.

Banks closed and scares of a Lira collapse are yet another indicator that change is needed, and quickly. The same faces and groups that got us in this mess, can’t and won’t be our way out of this endless debt blackhole.

Protest numbers are at this point useless to argue about, because the politicians in power simply do not care what the people want. What is significant is that throughout the country, cities and towns from north to south persist, despite a heavy-handed crack down in places like Nabatieh, Sour and Beddawi. And around the world, Lebanese are ramping up pressure and making sure the world is watching.

The Economic Collapse is What Caused the Revolution, not vice versa

Attempts to paint that the people’s revolt on a broken system, as the cause of what looks like an imminent economic collapse, are malicious if not simply misinformed. The majority of the population coming down, and staying despite everything, is because of the imminent economic collapse, with virtually nothing done to curb useless government spending, as well as suspicious spending of course.

People are in the streets because of the terrible economy and no attempts to fix it except by raising taxes on an already cash-strapped population, with the wealthiest left untouched.

Do not let anyone make you think the protests are what caused this. The protest are a result of this, and the desperation in realizing that the defiant government has zero trust from the people it is supposed to serve.

A Marathon, not a Sprint

A group of warlords will not easily abandon all that they have built over the past 3 decades. They have proven that their ill-gotten perks and cash streams are more important to them than the future of the country, and this means that we need to be prepared for a long struggle to take back control of a country ruled by warlords linked to different foreign powers, and back in the hands of Lebanese with Lebanese priorities, not personal ones.

Protests are just one way of resisting an oppressive regime, there are many others, and the Lebanese have proven their quick, measured responses that insist on non-violence and demand to be heard. You can count on them always being one step ahead.

Lebanon after October 17, 2019 is fundamentally different. Going back to before that date is impossible. The question now is, will it get better, or will it get worse? Will the ruling parties choose their own benefit over the huge threats to the country and its future?

That’s where we need to be strong, and focus. The counter-revolution campaigns are well underway, and you will be bombarded with targeted messages that seek to erode your trust in yourself and fellow Lebanese, and make you settle for much less than you deserve as a free people, an industrious one that has been kept poor, desperate and ashamed for far too long.

Organize and Think Together

The absurd demands of a 30+ year regime expecting citizens to find solutions in 2 weeks that they couldn’t in three decades, are not worth wasting time on.

The people’s demand is clear: resignation of the cabinet, and a transitional period that stabilizes the country and works for a fair election to rectify the obvious mistakes in the current political and economic system. One where voters choose their representatives, not representatives choose their voters.

Go down, sign up, discuss, propose, listen to all the different discussions happening every day. Don’t sit at home and wish, come down and propose.

This is history in the making, and we have reclaimed our pride in being Lebanese, and hope that things can get better, after decades of hopelessness and apathy.