Eat or be eaten. Be strong or else you have no chance. It's a jungle out there.
This is the kind of mentality most of us are subjected to or believe in.
We live in a culture that idolizes power in all its forms. We need to make money by the bucket load to benefit from the power it gives us. We envy high ranking individuals and we admire them at the same time, we read their success stories in newspapers, in memoirs and day dream that one day we will become like them.
No one wants to be weak, because weak people get crushed, walked upon, mutilated and dehumanized. They endure this in silence, often their cries of help are never heard.
That logic is inhuman, cruel, flawed but it's reality. It's the life we live.
Perhaps I being pessimistic, anyway I haven't been cheerful lately or too optimistic.
And then there was the Ghost incident. A municipality revolts for its insulted dignity. It managed to track down the source of all evil. All fingers pointed to Ghost, that dark hole in Dekwene's glistening forehead.
What's a good municipality to do? Mr. Shakhtoura found the answer. After all, he is entrusted to have all the magical answers to all the woes his beloved city suffers from.
In all respect and with no abuse of his power position, he goes into Ghost and sniffs like a trained dog for drugs, prostitution, and most importantly for all signs of gayness. Jackpot ya Shakhtoura, ya 7ilwa, ya ammoura.
Shakhtoura and his minions aren't happy with what they saw. Gays all around. Kissing and holding hands. OMG! But above all what angered them is the sight of cross dressers, transsexuals and Syrians that walk on their two legs after 7 p.m. After 7 p.m., how could they?? Abomination!
Mr Shakhtoura almost fainted, he ordered his minions to arrest these creatures. But this isn't over, the sex of these transsexuals needs to be determined. Enno chou hawde? Rjel aw chou? The case cannot wait, Lebanon's reputation is at risk, especially of its fortress: Dikwene.
This is not the first time something like that happens and I fear it won't be the last.
But why? Well the answer is simple, we are a marginalized minority. Though we might not consider our sexual orientation as an identity but when you are persecuted because of that, it suddenly becomes one.
We are in a weak position, we don't have complete and equal civil rights like our fellow citizens. As a minority whose rights aren't respected, we often suffer the blunt of power abuses. The Ghost incident and the many that preceded it prove just that.
The LGBT community can be blamed sometimes for not doing enough, for not rising above individual aspirations, and for not acting as a single front, as a strong lobby. Unless we are powerful enough and influential enough, things will remain static.
I know it's not all gloom and doom, there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Things will change and should change. But change requires double the efforts we are currently deploying.
Though it might be too late for the many that were insulted, maltreated, and lost some of their humanity in the process, but we owe it ourselves and we owe it to them to do something.
The pain of these victims will forever haunt them. The weakness they felt and their helplessness at the moment of their arrest will remain in their memories as a dark reminder of how far we still have to achieve to become a country that respects diversity and basic human rights.
This is the kind of mentality most of us are subjected to or believe in.
We live in a culture that idolizes power in all its forms. We need to make money by the bucket load to benefit from the power it gives us. We envy high ranking individuals and we admire them at the same time, we read their success stories in newspapers, in memoirs and day dream that one day we will become like them.
No one wants to be weak, because weak people get crushed, walked upon, mutilated and dehumanized. They endure this in silence, often their cries of help are never heard.
That logic is inhuman, cruel, flawed but it's reality. It's the life we live.
Perhaps I being pessimistic, anyway I haven't been cheerful lately or too optimistic.
And then there was the Ghost incident. A municipality revolts for its insulted dignity. It managed to track down the source of all evil. All fingers pointed to Ghost, that dark hole in Dekwene's glistening forehead.
What's a good municipality to do? Mr. Shakhtoura found the answer. After all, he is entrusted to have all the magical answers to all the woes his beloved city suffers from.
In all respect and with no abuse of his power position, he goes into Ghost and sniffs like a trained dog for drugs, prostitution, and most importantly for all signs of gayness. Jackpot ya Shakhtoura, ya 7ilwa, ya ammoura.
Shakhtoura and his minions aren't happy with what they saw. Gays all around. Kissing and holding hands. OMG! But above all what angered them is the sight of cross dressers, transsexuals and Syrians that walk on their two legs after 7 p.m. After 7 p.m., how could they?? Abomination!
Mr Shakhtoura almost fainted, he ordered his minions to arrest these creatures. But this isn't over, the sex of these transsexuals needs to be determined. Enno chou hawde? Rjel aw chou? The case cannot wait, Lebanon's reputation is at risk, especially of its fortress: Dikwene.
This is not the first time something like that happens and I fear it won't be the last.
But why? Well the answer is simple, we are a marginalized minority. Though we might not consider our sexual orientation as an identity but when you are persecuted because of that, it suddenly becomes one.
We are in a weak position, we don't have complete and equal civil rights like our fellow citizens. As a minority whose rights aren't respected, we often suffer the blunt of power abuses. The Ghost incident and the many that preceded it prove just that.
The LGBT community can be blamed sometimes for not doing enough, for not rising above individual aspirations, and for not acting as a single front, as a strong lobby. Unless we are powerful enough and influential enough, things will remain static.
I know it's not all gloom and doom, there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Things will change and should change. But change requires double the efforts we are currently deploying.
Though it might be too late for the many that were insulted, maltreated, and lost some of their humanity in the process, but we owe it ourselves and we owe it to them to do something.
The pain of these victims will forever haunt them. The weakness they felt and their helplessness at the moment of their arrest will remain in their memories as a dark reminder of how far we still have to achieve to become a country that respects diversity and basic human rights.
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