I am writing this at the risk of appearing to perseverate. However, I think it is an important enough to make it worth restating.
In an exchange of comments on a recent post, a blogger questioned why I brought up the issue of the Lebanese civil war in discussing the current crisis in Lebanon. The short answer is that the current polarization of the Lebanese along sectarian lines is the direct result of unresolved issues that were left to fester under the surface since the end of civil war. There is no doubt that the present political context and immediate problems are very different than those of 1975 but when you boil it down to its bare essentials, there is little difference. Each side claims to be the "real" Lebanese and will reference different versions of history to support their claim.
I had posted an article in January about what Lebanese children are taught and not taught about their history. Here is another recent article that appeared in the Daily Star discussing the matter in more detail. Many if not most Lebanese children get their education in non-secular schools that teach different versions of the history of Lebanon. All schools, however, seem to agree on one thing; when it comes to the history of the civil war, no one talks about it. It is as if history stopped in 1975 only to resume in 1991.
This selective amnesia amounts, in my mind, to criminal negligence on the part of the Lebanese state. It is not the fault of the educators but the fault of the sectarian politicians whose agreement was needed but never obtained for a unified history textbook and curriculum to be taught in all schools. Seventeen years have been wasted since the end of the civil war and a whole generation of Lebanese have no real awareness of what happened between 1975-1990. What they do have are bits an pieces of that history that they gleaned from their parents whose views are colored by their personal experiences and political -and sectarian-leanings. Meanwhile, politicians directly involved in the civil war or their descendants continue to wield power and can manipulate the new generation down the same ruinous road that Lebanon took in 1975. That is not to say that the new generation of Lebanese are ignorant or passive. As the two articles I quoted show, they are aggressively questioning the history that they are not being taught. At the same time, an incomplete understanding to history is what leads the young Lebanese blogger I cited previously to post pictures of both Bachir Gemayel and Samir Kassir side by side as Lebanese "martyrs". I think any impartial view of history could never make a hero out of Bachir Gemayel -or Aoun for that matter.
In teaching the history of the civil war there is no need to create monsters or false heroes. The younger generation is perfectly capable of drawing their own conclusions from an objective rendering of history. They will learn from that history that the civil war was an obscene, futile and wasteful tragedy. Surely all Lebanese would agree to this characterization of the civil war.
I had posted an article in January about what Lebanese children are taught and not taught about their history. Here is another recent article that appeared in the Daily Star discussing the matter in more detail. Many if not most Lebanese children get their education in non-secular schools that teach different versions of the history of Lebanon. All schools, however, seem to agree on one thing; when it comes to the history of the civil war, no one talks about it. It is as if history stopped in 1975 only to resume in 1991.
This selective amnesia amounts, in my mind, to criminal negligence on the part of the Lebanese state. It is not the fault of the educators but the fault of the sectarian politicians whose agreement was needed but never obtained for a unified history textbook and curriculum to be taught in all schools. Seventeen years have been wasted since the end of the civil war and a whole generation of Lebanese have no real awareness of what happened between 1975-1990. What they do have are bits an pieces of that history that they gleaned from their parents whose views are colored by their personal experiences and political -and sectarian-leanings. Meanwhile, politicians directly involved in the civil war or their descendants continue to wield power and can manipulate the new generation down the same ruinous road that Lebanon took in 1975. That is not to say that the new generation of Lebanese are ignorant or passive. As the two articles I quoted show, they are aggressively questioning the history that they are not being taught. At the same time, an incomplete understanding to history is what leads the young Lebanese blogger I cited previously to post pictures of both Bachir Gemayel and Samir Kassir side by side as Lebanese "martyrs". I think any impartial view of history could never make a hero out of Bachir Gemayel -or Aoun for that matter.
In teaching the history of the civil war there is no need to create monsters or false heroes. The younger generation is perfectly capable of drawing their own conclusions from an objective rendering of history. They will learn from that history that the civil war was an obscene, futile and wasteful tragedy. Surely all Lebanese would agree to this characterization of the civil war.
(Photograph: A.K. with Photoshop)
6 comments:
How true, my friend.. how absolutely true.. History does, indeed, matter.. but history, as they say, is written by the victor.. and in the Lebanese Civil War, there were no victors.. everyone was a loser, not least Lebanon and its people.. I fear that there will never be consensus about that bit of dark history..
Sadly, burying our heads in the sand and pretending it never happened means that we never learn any of the painful lessons.. it means that we are at risk of committing the same old mistakes and follies..
Fares,
No one is denying foreign -Syrian and other- interference in Lebanon, in the past and into the present. But to say that if you remove that factor everything will be fine is simply NOT true. The civil war is not a "detail" to be brushed off for later examination. It is the young generation of Lebanese that keeps bringing up the past because no one will talk to them about it in a frank and truthful way.
I fully agree with you that everyone has to get their hands off Lebanon. But then the Lebanese have to sit together reach a consensus about what unites them as common citizens of a country, -not as Maronite, Shia or Sunni- and then move forward.
Fares,
I think that u are giving the Syrian regime a lot more credit tha he deserves... I'm not denying that it probably was one of the most influential players in the region in the last century, and one of the worst influences that is...
but when u talk about lebanon, or middle east crisis... the syrian regime is just another small detail... lebanon's real problem lies within its own legalized sectarian system since 1860s. The lebanese chose to elect war criminals in their first elections after syrian occupation... there's a lot more to lebanon than what bashar assad can do, or what his father did...
sectarian tension in lebanon was and is on an almost 2 years cycle since 1860...
I'm no fan of the Assads... but, when u discuss Iraq, u dont just forget everything and say that Bashar Assad is feeding insurgency.. same thing with lebanon... ;)
Abu Kareem,
I have nothing to add really, let's just hope that Lebanon gets back to being the liberal diverse beautiful country we all perceive it to be.
Regards :)
Fares,
dont get upset, I do understand ur anger. and I know very well what the syrian regime did in lebanon. read the comment on Abu Kareem:s post about Samir Kassir...
but, when u look at the lebanon issue, u look at from a perspective, the perspective that the lebanese always chose to be protected by foreign powers, be it, syria, france, isreal, or even ottomans, when was the last time a lebanese leader didnt ally himself with a regional or super power
the syrian regime happened to be the dirtiest of all these, but dont tell me that what they did to lebanon is in any way more than what they did to syria.
In lebanon they only played the lebanese game, and they played it well, they played them all..
comon man, in that dirty war, every and each faction in lebanon, has been an ally and an enemy to each and every other faction... and the syrian regime, was just a puppeteer...
but in syria, they destroyed a social structure, in lebanon they merely used the lebanese social and political structure...
and btw, everybody knows that Kilo was not arrested over Beirut declaration, he was arrested cuz he dared to go over red lines in his article about sectarianism in syria...
I:m not defending them, i will never, my dad stayed on the run for 20 years so did half my family.. my uncle is still in jail, prof Aarrf Dalileh, I:m just trying to look at lebanon from the perspective of the last 160 years...
Fares, Yazan,
Appreciate all your comments. I think we are all on the same page except with different emphasis.
Fares, you are like a bulldog (that's a compliment) when it comes to the Syrian regime's abuse of human rights; when you bit into that issue you won't let go. I admire your perseverance; it is absolutely necessary not forget that issue.
I urge you both to look over my newest post. Abdel Kareem is 22 years old and is in jail for four years for expressing his thoughts. We need to express our revulsion on that issue collectively as Syrian bloggers just as you did Fares with Syrian political prisoners.
Post a Comment