Yesterday was June the 2nd. Yes you've guessed it, yet another day to remember in this country, I suppose this makes us lebanese qualify for a people that has an excellent history but no brain to learn from it.
Today's the first anniversary of Samir Kassir's death. And what totally shocked me was the public indifference with which his death was handled.
People didn't talk about it much, but I said to myself, I live in a maronite, not many people around here would love him. On the news there were some talk about him, Ghanem on LBC dedicated a whole episode for him. There were a ceremony near the "an-Nahar" head quarter. The political participation in that ceremony was important, Sanioura himself attended it. They made a statue to Kassir's honor, a whole avenue holds his name now. But then the fight seems to be lost. Somehow we feel that Kassir's asassins got away with it.
Online there is this sort of almost total silence about Kassir's death, that's disturbing. Of all the Lebanese bloggers that I could find only three mentionned Kassir the French eagle is as always the first to appear on my list, then there were a rather meaningful silent post about Kassir's death, I also found a rather touching post from mysterious eve, Hicham and finally an entry from across the bay.
Other then that... Nothing!!
Why is this a shock? Because Samir's death was a TRAGEDY. I know that he was not the first to die in that serie of events, I know that Hariri's death had more impact, I am fully aware of all that. And that's what breaks my heart. Afterall the victims we have paid, we as Lebanese, still see these victims as a Plus or a minus, a plus if the death occurs in the enemy's camp and a minus if it happens in ours. We call them all Martyrs, but what do we do to prevent some more citizens from being upgraded into martyrs? We vote for the same war lords who eagerly killed hundreds in the past.
Samir Kassir was not just a guy from one side or the other, who died while he was fighting for some political party. Samir Kassir was a journalist. Yes the fact that he was a journalist should have given him immunity, but it didn't, the fact that he was a journalist must've been a priviledge. Not a one way ticket to death. That's the problem in our beloved middle east. We don't understand priorities. Hate someone if you must but kill him?
Kassir was also a french citizen. That was his only hope. Actually, the french government has worked really hard to make this case move forward and to bring to justice the actors of this crime, only to be faced by the Lebanese indifference. A French judge was named a very long time ago, he was to arrive in Lebanon on December... That didn't happen. But if the Lebanese people didn't care for his death, will the Lebanese politicians care?
When I open the Reporters sans frontier's Home page and when I read there article dedicated for Kassir, everything else, we lebanese, have done seems meaningless. Even the naharnet's interest seems so meaningless. It seems to me, that the only thing that Lebanon DID give to Samir Kassir was his death. What a shame! That is all I can say about this. And maybe: I'm sorry seems apropriate. But nothing will bring him back.
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These are two interesting Links that I have been notified about by comments:
Samir Kassir's blog: Thank you shlemazl.
JOS Blog: I am sorry i couldn't find you, probably because you're relatively new around, ahla biljar:-)
7 comments:
Have a look here and here.
I remember the attack last year. Takes a very brave and crazy man to attack Syria. Was he a communist?
Maybe because he was a repoter no one cared much inhis anniversary, had he been a politician maybe things would have changed.
Thanks shlemazl, how the hell did you find that blog? or should I say, why didn't I find it?
Anyway, Kassir can't really be called a communist, he was influenced alot by Arab nationalism. He believed that we arabs should take better care of each other. That we can't really rely on others to do our business, the fact that he was from a palestinian father and a syrian mother and at the same time being a christian orthodox, all this mix made him very unique if you ask me. But his greatest influence was the french revolution.
Taking all this in consideration he believed in educating freedom, self respect and law, to the arabs, all the arabs, and then let them decide who must rule them.
He was amybe crazy, but when you have a strong belief then you can't really let anyone intimidate you. He had a word and he said it. he never seeked to harm or attack syria, he was the syrians best defender, but the intellectual democrates, as a result the Assad regime hated him. LoL Jacques brel once said, there are 2 important moments in a person's life, the moment he is born and the moment he dies, all the rest is just details.
Jokerman:
that's very accurate. We lose our principles and seek some illusions to hang on to. We do feel incapable of controling our home and politicians give us the illusion that they hold the answer and solution.
Remember that Hariri's death gathered a million individual in beirut, Kassir deserved a million, or at least he deserved to have his murderers in jail. We failed him.
Pazuzu, I mentionned this brilliant politician and journalist in my blog [Link]. It makes me sad to know that most of the lebanese bloggers didn't mention him, as you said.
Ok I've added the links, thanks everyone
hi there, found that old post i guess
well it seems that people forgot kassir.
not so long time ago, i found an article from kassir on the "le monde diplomatique" of 1994 critisizing: joumblatt for its displaced fund, berry for its south council, hariri for its solidere, putting them all together on the same level.
we are talking a lot about hariri's death, about gebran's death etc... but it s like if we are forgetting samir kassir one...
maybe he just got so many ennemies
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