What ensued on OTV over the past two days, in terms of the insistence of the Lebanese President Michel Aoun’s television station to bring “Saint Charbel’s soil” into the government hospital, was not the foolishness of a reporter nor the whim of the station! OTV succeeded in its mission, to which it devoted its screen and social media platforms for two consecutive days, utilizing what was left of its credibility to its limited viewers, and showing little concern towards our collective astonishment during that time. For we are not the ones who the president, his party and television channel were addressing with this action. Likewise, the minds of the Lebanese, who were insulted during their witnessing of scenes that have been extinct for centuries, were not the aim of the party and its boss, who is unfortunately our president.
But let us re-establish the position of the “Free Patriotic Movement” in the current Lebanese scene. It is within this movement’s hands that Lebanon collapsed, and it is this movement that feels personally targeted by the revolution Lebanon witnessed in recent months, ahead of other political and sectarian forces. It is this movement that created rifts, that extended from its street all the way up to the family that heads this movement and leads it. An incident such as the soil of Saint Charbel, may just be a lifeline. The movement lost its citizens, but it decided to regain them as worshippers! Who would dare confront them, with a fable resembling Saint Charbel’s soil? Their main rival, the Lebanese Forces, will not utter a whisper in a battle such as this; after all, Saint Charbel is close to their hearts too. The Kataeb wouldn’t dare face the Patriotic movement, in their blatant disregard for the intellect of the Lebanese. Those revolting against this authority and its party on the Christian street did not feel like this battle was theirs to fight, in the context of the confrontation they are waging against the Free Patriotic Movement. It is a suitable time then, to take a few breaths, and respect the minds that are not part of the concerns of the Lebanese sectarian schools of thought.
It is the Corona stage of the Lebanese collapse. Corona’s employment in the context of this collapse is in full swing, in fact this epidemic has included us under other afflicted societies, after we’d been alone on a decline. There is no doubt that the Lebanese political class responsible for this catastrophe today feels a measure of relief from the outbreak of the virus; when they announced that Lebanon had moved from the containment stage to the proliferation stage, they expressed it with utmost ecstasy, and the minister broadcast it like he was congratulating us. The battle seems to have moved from the streets to the soil of Saint Charbel; is there any other salvation? Lebanon is a bankrupt, failed, looted and mortgaged country, but more critical than all of this, a plagued state; the latter of which precedes the other ranks, and may even overthrow them. Who among us is paying attention to the price of the dollar when the virus is at our doorstep?
Lebanon is a bankrupt, failed, looted and mortgaged country, but more critical than all of this, a plagued state.
In this situation, we have to double the mistrust of those in power, because whoever is capable of compromising our savings is also capable of bringing in the virus that disrupts our ability to confront them. The blatant theft that we’ve endured lends itself to this type of suspicion. The banks are also benefitting from this virus, because people have ceased swarming their gates. Banks are not the political forces of which we can demand to respect our intelligence. They are instead capable of tolerating the virus without batting an eyelid, and without feeling any responsibility towards us. We need to face the fable of Saint Charbel’s soil with our own fables. The Aounists will win the Battle of Saint Charbel as long as they are addressing worshippers, and we must in turn confront them with our own myths that do not impair the mind as theirs do. The virus is on their side in this battle, and they’ve succeeded in placing us against Saint Charbel. In fact, they even brought soil into a hospital as a treatment for Corona. They were victorious against science, and against the many years doctors spent studying at university.
The parallel face of authority, one who’s true colors are ugly, quickly responded to the call of the Saint Charbel soil and appointed another television channel in its battle, and so the star of New TV was born. It is the channel that represents the reserve balance that banks always have employed in their battle with depositors, to carry the pawn of the Saint against the atheists, “Thawra TV”, into a farce platform that competes with the President’s channel in a Saint marathon.
The banks are also benefitting from this virus, because people have ceased swarming their gates.
What occurred in Lebanon yesterday, when “OTV” brought in the soil of Saint Charbel to the government hospital, is not a passing detail. The president’s television station introduced soil into the hospital as a treatment for corona patients. This happened in light of the massive financial collapse, and in light of the world preparing for the declaration of Lebanon as a bankrupt and failed state. Who caused this failure? Who began the theft? Who facilitated the entry of this virus?
