A National/Cultural Trait?
It's a truly dreadful thing to find oneself in a helpless position, where you can do nothing for yourself, when events seem to conspire to draw you into the vortex of mayhem, when your very life is on the line and you seem to be unable to control events, to protect yourself and those whom you love. Sometimes life lobs these character-moulding (or destroying) events at us and leaves us to flounder and rail, or to take action and survive.That's on the theoretical level. Now there's a situation the gravity of which is obvious to anyone, even those disinterested in world affairs and current news: the war now raging in Lebanon where Israel has been forced to finally take steps to eradicate one of the most vicious threats to its immediate survival. There's no fuzzy logic here, no inability to understand what has happened, it's just that obvious. So much so that even Israel's least among her well-wishers must acknowledge that she has been victimized once too often.
War is never, ever pleasant, but it is sometimes, unfortunately, necessary. Unless one is content to do as Gandhi recommended and just - do nothing. Let events overtake one. In which event you have consciously agreed to leave this mortal soil. And while that's all right on a personal level it just won't wash if you're responsible for the lives of countless other souls. And so Israel has had her hand forced, however reluctantly. The rest of the world can do as Gandhi suggested: nothing. As they always have.
But look here: the population of a sister country, Lebanon, is pleading with the world to "do something, anything!". Isn't there an old adage that the Good Lord helps those who help themselves? Decades ago when Yassar Arafat's PLO group moved into Jordan the better to attack Israel from its borders, Jordan took it unto itself to protect itself by eradicating the PLO from its territory. Lebanon, decades later, could have done likewise, but did nothing, preferring to live with the status quo, absorbing a state-within-a-state, complete with terrorist faction. And for heaven's sake, just amazing, who would have guessed? it bred war. Not merely once, but time and again. And we're at the "again" period.
Yet Lebanon permitted itself and its citizens to feel comforted and free to do as it wished, once it protested sufficiently, with the help of world opinion and the UN to oust Syria, but to continue to tolerate the presence of Syria's and Iran's creatures of jihad. The message was clear: while Lebanon had no love for either of those countries or for Hezbollah it just couldn't muster the dedication and moral fibre to completely detach them from its soil.
They would deal with Israel, an alien country, culture and religion, in any event. And Israel could deal with them. And look here, she is! In the interim, Lebanon felt sufficiently confident of its newfound freedom and sense of itself to explore opportunities for economic advancement, reaching into the 21st century. Expatriate Lebanese, who sought comfort in the safety of countries in Europe and North America recalled their love for their homeland and flocked back to live there, or to visit for considerable blocks of time.
Their safety nets, their lifeboats on the sea of life's insecurities when one is from such a country, were the obtaining of citizenships in other countries. Cavalierly, one might say in many instances, as the commitment to their new countries, happily willing to absorb them seemed to be an embrace of convenience. Discardable citizenship, for when the time seemed right, return appeared inevitable. It's a choice, one makes many choices throughout life's journey.
Why then, for heaven's sake, when the chips are down, when the inevitable finally occurs, do we see masses of hyphenated-citizens of Lebanese descent belligerently demand of their new host countries (to whom they have pledged loyalty and commitment through the citizenship process which has also permitted them to retain dual citizenship) that they be rescued, instanter. In the midst of a war situation where everything is in disarray, where life-threatening danger falls constantly from the skies.
No frenetic actions for evacuation in dreadful conditions are sufficient to placate these desperate people. Yes they are suffering anxiety and fear, but they should also be prepared to act for themselves, on behalf of their own safety, take reasonable measures, and if they are evacuated by these countries which have adopted them, be prepared to be grateful, not bitterly condemning of actions they deem insufficient to their immediate need.
Leave the bitterness for the country, their country of birth, which failed them. Be mature. Become responsible.
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, July 20, 2006
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