Ronny Karam

Staying home this weekend wasn’t the best choice to make, unless you have cable. All the Lebanese TV channels had to cover the boring endless speeches of our parliament members because these speeches were more of electoral speeches aimed to enforce their campaigns; some of them placed heavy loads on the 10 months government’s back, others didn’t even read the governmental statement and was placing more loads on its head. 4 days of speeches ended yesterday (Sunday) with 2 conclusions: the government is approved but dead and useless.

There’s only one thing all the members agreed on: these sessions were made to address the public and the supporters. Not because they missed us or because they cared but it’s this time of the year where people go stupidly to elect the same parliament members who were stealing their money, taking the food out of their mouths, depriving them of all the rights/requirements needed for a good living (water, electricity, gas, etc.) and leaving them 4 years (or 3 years 6 months) to battle with poverty, sickness and internally created religious problems.
I’m not going to generalize so a friend of mine won’t take a stand against me saying that he doesn’t do that or know people that don’t do that. But the majority does…

Yes, the majority of the Lebanese people, votes for the wrong politicians. Why? ‘Cause they love to blame others for their own mistakes; they love to complain on how tough it is to live in Lebanon where salaries are so low ($200) and the prices are so high (20 Liters of gas = $22), where you can die on the streets because you don’t have a social security card or the ministry of health’s approval (yes we have so many options :), where each citizen have to kiss 100 hands to get his rights and where a stupid guy who didn’t finish first grade can make you go on your knees and kiss his boots just ‘cause he has the army or internal security suit on and he’s having a bad day.

That’s how low life is in Lebanon; it’s about the night life, the tourism and the summer carnivals & festivals when people are killing each other in Tripoli a few Kilometers away from us. It’s about owning the most beautiful cars when our families are dying of hunger. It’s about studying all our lives to travel and work abroad when our country is in need for our expertise. It’s about the people who died and are dying now and whom no one is asking about. It’s how low we are in how we act, how we live and how we think, yet pretend to be civilized.

We can’t handle the change. We got used to the shame and dishonor we’re living every day. We forgot who we are what we do and where we live. We became careless. We lost our pride…

And every time, we go and do the same mistakes all over and over again. We gather in millions to cheer for our stupid politicians but can’t agree once on gathering to improve our streets, our salaries, and our social security.  We can find the time to attend a gathering for a political party but have no time to revolt against the lack of competence that’s causing the vanishing of our forests. We can unite to kick the Syrian regime out of our country but can’t put our hands together to build this country up from the ruins.

We are the problem, not them. Stop blaming your politicians for your mistakes; they’re business men. They do what’s needed to get what they want. You should also do what’s needed to get what you want even if it was electing competent people who are willing to work for this country not your usual old fashioned family/religious driven parties’ candidates.
And what you want should be one thing: Lebanon.