What is independence?

Every since we could remember, Independence Day was for us a day off from school, following festivals at our schools where the Lebanese flag took shapes you would never see a flag in: hats, belt, shirts, dresses, caps… you definitely see what we’re talking about. We know that it’s a fun and very important event for Lebanon. We always relearn the Lebanese anthem during this period of the year since rare are the people who fully know it although it’s not that hard.

Now that we are older, we start to wonder: What is Independence Day in Lebanon all about? We went back in history surfing the web(Wikipedia…) and got these information: 

By definition, the Lebanese Independence Day, on November 22, 1943, is a national day celebrated in remembrance of the liberation from the French Mandate which was exercised over Lebanese soil for over 23 years. After the independence, the Lebanese state was founded in 1943 by an unwritten agreement between the two most prominent Christian and Muslim leaders Khouri and al-Solh and which was later called the National Pact (al Mithaq al Watani). The National Pact had 4 principles. The most important one we saw was the statement that Lebanon is a completely independent state. The Christian communities should cease hamza with the West; in return, the Muslim communities should protect the independence of Lebanon and prevent its merge with any Arab state. And here is where we had a moment of reflection. Now in year 2012, 69 years after this declaration of Independence Day, where do we stand from it.

Our country has 18 recognized religious communities, and each religion is divided within itself into political parties and each religion and political party followed a certain country whether from the east or from the west. So basically this one important principle of the Independence Day is void, not applicable and useless. In addition to that:

·         If a man and his wife fight in China, Lebanon pays

·         If a kid fights with his brother in Australia, Lebanon pays

·         If a black person and white person fight in South Africa, Lebanon pays

·         If an old lady and her cat fight in Russia, Lebanon pays

·         Ect ect ect….

Notice that since we could remember, our parents warn us to be careful on the roads, not to come back very late because of the unstable situation, not to overspend money since Lebanon is in crisis…

 So based on these simple indicators shown above, is Lebanon really an Independent country? From who and when did that happen? And if not, when and from whom will it happen?

We hope that we, as Lebanese, will not live our lives in the hope of Peter Pan’s Finding NeverLand, but to realize that Lebanon is a complete dependent country from every particle in the universe and that it will stay like this forever. Don’t know why and don’t want to know why! All we know that we count on our Lebanese army to keep us in one piece.

What can we do? It’s simple! We could try as independent individuals to work together in improving our country in the basic needs suffer from in our daily life and to ignore every other factor that could negatively affect our lives.

#LebPandaRevolution