A Year After Beirut Blast
Another Thunderous And Violent Truth of Collective Culpability
On the first commemoration of the Beirut port explosion on August 4, 2020, the Communication and Public Relations Department of the Middle East Council of Churches published a special issue of its quarterly magazine “Al Muntada” in August 2021, entitled "Beirut, in the Heart of the Church, Beirut, a City of Resurrection". This issue includes an article written by the Executive Assistant to MECC Secretary General Mrs. Seta Hadeshian, in which she presented the most difficult memories of Beirut and Lebanon.
Mrs. Seta Hadeshian
Secretary General Executive Assistant
Born in Lebanon, I had lived the golden days of 60’s and early 70’s when the economic growth was at its peak. Labor and money were abundant, cultural life was full of artistic and rich performances, theatres were full, exhibitions of renowned artists made the pride of the Lebanese, restaurants packed with people, tables abundant with marvelous and delicious countless mezzes, attracting tourist from around the world. Women covered with veils seated next to women in mini jupes, the call of muezzin echoed by the chiming of the church bells, people in the streets, in the market, in the taxies, spoke Arabic, French, English or Armenian satisfying local and foreign clients! A city that did not sleep, Feyrouz and Oum Kalsoum’s voices smoothly flowed in the air from taxies and shops, evoking love and memories in the air.
The nostalgia of the magic city of Shehrazade’s thousand and one nights still pursues the Lebanese today.
Photo by Dia Mourad
Lebanon, the little dot on the world map, was a big reference to multiculturalism, a strong message to negating faiths, of living together, the mysterious oriental with a western aura where all the colors of nature and fragrance of fruits and flowers created a harmonious symphony, of the enigmatic HOW of living together!
Suddenly, in 1975 cannons fired, ringing chimes and muezzins raised the alarm of a danger, the tanks in the streets lined marking the demarcation routes, Feyrouz and Oum Kalsoum silenced, and the harmonious, sweet sounding symphony turned into a loud noisy cacophony. Dissonance and discordance killed the artistic melody and the merit of the good old Lebanon!
Thousands ran away for safer shelters, thousands were killed, thousands traumatized, children orphaned, many in the streets and generations grew without childhood…. Ya~ Beirut… cried Magida Roumi, calling, Koumi, Koumi min that el radmi…( rise, rise, from the ashes), squashing tears and blood and exploding our hearts from pain.
Then on the exodus to new horizons for a better future and peaceful heavens never stopped and those who left never came back.While many believed in the future of Lebanon and started life again and again with a renewed Faith and Hope.
Alas! Now for almost half a century, Lebanon could not manage to stand tall and firm, nothing has changed, the unprecedented Blast on the 4th of August boomed all hopes for a new Lebanon. A massive and deadly explosion at the seaport, in a moment killed 200 persons, injured thousands and destroyed the city within 15 km diameter. Fire, destruction and chaos were the scene again. People deafened by the explosion, in fear and shivers, shuddering like birds not knowing what was happening, why was happening and where was happening, ran into the streets escaping not knowing where to. The injured and the dead covered with blood, dresses torn apart, were carried on shoulders of the passersby to the cars and hospitals. An apocalyptic scene Lebanese won’t ever forgive their rulers and won’t forget for decades to come.
Who is to blame? Who was accountable? Why did it happen? A deadly silence. The government all together maintain a sphinxlike silence. For today the state did not utter a word, did not care to investigate, all they did was to hide the traces, Motherland, disabled and impoverished with all the riches they possess.
Alas, the Lebanon we learned was, lived in and loved so much, does not exist anymore.
What a farce! erase the fragments and leave no room for questions!
Hussein Malla /AP
The blast divulged years of rooted corruption and mismanagement, a continuous and enhanced falsehood, fraudulence and dishonesty of the ruling magna. We cried out the crumbling of our hopes and dreams, the falsehood of a statehood, the corruption and dishonesty of the statesmen, disintegration of the institutions, collectively engaged in the annihilation of Lebanon.
But for whom the bell tolls?
No dialogue, no concessions, no consensus, no mercy, no shame, no principles, no integrity, an entire state, the whole system is collectively engaged in a race called Libanocide!
But where are we, the Lebanese?????
Sadly, there are no Lebanese, Lebanese are Maronites, Sunnis, Shiaas, Druzes, 16 kinds, and each want a Lebanon for themselves! Lebanese are without Lebanon, orphaned in their own.