It became a habit for me to write each year a new year's resolution.. it's a concept completely coming from "chick flicks". making a diet, breaking up with the a-hole, hooking up with your summer crush, quitting smoking, quitting your lousy job, figuring out what you want.. It immediately appealed to me.. Not the resolution itself, but writing resolutions, so by the end of the year you look back at those simple things you wanted a year ago, and smile about how you did nothing of it, and how your year was a bit more complicated than that..
It's good sometimes to look back to see what we aspired for, not so long ago..
I didn't write my resolutions for 2011.. And I wish I did.. I'm sure I was aspiring for a promotion, or to get a good grade, and of course the usual "I wanna lose 5 kilos this year" that never happens..
I wish I did write those silly, simple plans.. Because 2011 is far from being a simple year.. And right now, I'm just craving for simplicity.. Craving for few minutes where I don't think about Arab Spring, financial crisis, children in Somalia, nuclear in Japan.. craving to look back and say "yay, I got my promotion even though I didn't lose my 5 kilos".. craving for concerns that evolve around the dilema of which bathing suit to wear this summer..
So.. I log in to social media.. You know? those platforms that are supposed to have been the instigator of revolutions?.. The only mean for syrians to show to the world how their regime is killing them? And I do see some very few concerned members worried about what's happening in the world.. But mostly I see funny videos, I laugh at them don't get me wrong, I even share some of them.. I also see statuses of the kind "bummer", and bummer indeed..
I'm not criticizing, I just hope that all the silliness circulating through social media is just coming from people who give a damn about what's going on in the world, but who, like me, are just craving for some simplicity to help them take a pause, and mayeb grasp it all..
As for some of my dear Lebanese friends, yes I am criticizing you, because I hate to break it to you, but planet earth does not evolve around Lebanon. And, no, Lebanon does not have it all. Lebanon doesn't have half of it: no regular electricty, no drinking water, safe future, no good infrastructure, do you really want me to list it all? And the famous sea and mountain at 20 minutes, well guess what, it exists elsewhere, and with the way we're handling urban management I wouldn't count very much on the beauty of our mountains in twenty years. As for what we call our famous democracy, well I don't know how you call it democracy when it's basically the same bunch of people who are running the country since ever. Our leaders hand out their seats to their sons, daughters, and sons in law.. I mean, wake up, we're not even one single step ahead of any of the autocracies in the Arab world, they moved to autocracy, while we stayed in feudalism. All in the name of protecting the rules of common living of the 17th confessions we have. We lived a civil war and we still criticize each other: for religion, for opinions, for everything. It just seems that the only thing that we finally got to agree on is that guys should wear Ralph Lauren polos, and girls should have any item of Burberry's collection. We just agreed that we should remain BRANDED!
The world is moving ahead, and you're still lost in the vicious circle of "being a Lebanse", the great life loving people who can party anytime anywhere, even when it's war, we party in bomb shelters.. And when we're partying, we can't help but brand yourself with the political party you sympathize with when certain songs come up.. And they do come up, always! because if they don't, you'd ask for it!
You believe in the so called freedom of press in Lebanon whereas Samir Kassir, Jubran Tweini were assassinated, and May Chediac survived an attempt. And many others are threatened when they decide not to be bought up.. You believe in freedom of press because journalists working at Future TV are free to criticize people of 8th of March (or the ex 8th of March), and people in Al Manar are free to criticize the USA, Israel, and every lebanese who's answering to an "american zionist" agenda.
Another flash news: you can actually stand for the people's revolution in Syria and at the same time support people in Bahrain, it's not a sunni-shia fight, it's the fight of two people who are bearing injustice and discrimination by minorities who are ruling them. So STOP being selfish and stop being afraid for the "so called stability" of Lebanon. Millions of people in Syria don't have to shut up and accept their situation to protect the great and wonderful four millions Lebanese. And no Lebanon is not even stable! STability doesn't mean that you can go out in the ngiht and come back home alive!
And please you are free to have an opinion that is completely contrary to mine, but you only get me to respect it when you're basing it on actual knowledge and information, not on the news from the one-sided channel that you choose (wether it's 14 or 8th of March), and specially not when you base your opinions on the news that you never watched but on the information you caught during a side discussion around coffee!
I guess that's why I didn't write my simple new year's resolution.. Because there's nothing simple about the way people seem to not even realize that they are lying to themselves.
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