Dear President General Michel Suleiman,
My name is Wissam Kassem Tarif and I am a Lebanese citizen. I am a citizen who has listened to the vulgar and very impolite language of the vast majority of our politicians for decades. The level of impoliteness varies according to the tensions provoked by their political interests.
I am a citizen who believes in freedom of speech and respect for our constitution. It is the very same constitution which states that the Lebanese president is required not only to respect, but more importantly to protect.
It is also the very same constitution that was raped not only once, but repeatedly and shamelessly by all our politicians with no exceptions. Our politicians have raped and corrupted the judicial system; they have corrupted every institution in a country imbedded with religious institutions.
However, we as citizens are guilty.
We have accepted the increased militarization, we have accepted the checkpoints that do nothing to protect, but rather are strictly a nuisance.
We have accepted to respect the Lebanese army, to keep silent and not criticize it. It is the same army that stays neutral and watches individuals killing each other during each and every bullfight that our sect heads and politicians drag us into for renewed rounds of small civil war stresses every once in a while. That very same army that does not protect any of our borders and simply announces itself incapable – nevertheless, it never fails to consume our economy.
Economy; yes, that is what we call the money sent back home from the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese who live abroad and “send” the economy back home. Those who finance the misery we insist on keeping and that our politicians continue abusing.
We have accepted that Iran and Saudi Arabia finance elections not out of admiration, but because of lack of hope. Some of the poorer Lebanese thought that they would at least be able to make a couple hundred dollars out of it. The dollars that they will pay for the electricity that our government (without fail) fails to provide, that they will give as taxes for rubbish collection, rubbish that is not always collected.
We have accepted to be prostitutes to the regimes that give us money.
We have accepted to drive in ongoing hells that we are deluded into believing are actual infrastructure.
We have accepted to have no electricity for hours on end each and every day, and to have to resort to paying extra fees for people with private generators to provide us with electricity, and even that is not always provided.
We have accepted to have some of the most expensive mobile rates in the world, regardless of our measly salaries and the morbid joke of a minimum wage.
We have accepted that our Ministry of Education not pay teachers adequately, leading them to refrain from correcting our students’ official exams as a resort to have some means of pressure – pressure that is yet unanswered to. However, our government was able to pay $800,000 USD so that people who have cable can watch the World Cup coverage on Al Jazeera – to encourage the Arabic language, of course. And yet despite that, we have dared to hope that the generation of kids who want to attend a good university, and perhaps secure a good future will be taken into consideration, will be saved.
We have accepted lot of SHIT. Lots and lots of SHIT. We really have.
But, Mr. President, we cannot accept people being arrested for being impolite. As a matter of fact, it is not something we do. If it were so, Judge Mirza must get really busy and start locking up our parliamentarians, cabinet members, and Presidents Berri and Hariri, as they provoked some of the impoliteness throughout the last five years, you know we all know that. I am also starting to wonder whether you know Judge Mirza personally or not; politeness is not exactly his best attribute as General Aoun can most certainly assure you. As for General Aoun, well, the fact that he was in the army says it all, plus I am more than certain that you need not be reminded of his terminology during his “re-elect my son in law” phase.
Mr. President, I understand your disappointment that we are not a polite nation.
And I understand that the arrest of the three stereotyped impolite Lebanese young gentlemen is not your fault; it is our legislation’s fault. But hey, it just so happens that you are the president and that does make you responsible after all.
Mr. President, I assure you that the Lebanese expatriates cannot afford to finance any nuclear energy for the country. And Your Excellency, the Cuba and Venezuela club is now closed for new participants, and it would really damage our reputation seeing you at Columbia University saying we have no homosexuals in the country.
Legislations are a bit tricky and old; imagine, Your Excellency, our laws organize prostitution in the country but deny Lebanese mothers from granting their children citizenship. I have to tell you, Mr. President, that our laws discriminate against women, immigrants, and LGBT people (among others), and our laws do not even recognize refugees and lock Iraqis (among others) in General Security jails.
Our laws are progressive and state clearly that police forces cannot torture. However, they do not hesitate to do so when they think they have to. By the way, when was the last time Your Excellency visited a police station? To inspect it, I mean. Oh sorry, I forgot it is not your job. Your job is to protect the constitution.
Protect it Mr. President. It is the last shred of civilization that we have which keeps us from becoming a zoo. I really do not wish to become a citizen imprisoned in a zoo.
Mr. President I hereby declares myself an impolite citizen, arrest me.
Wissam Kassem Tarif
