Tuesday, September 19, 2006

about that silence, against that silence :)

speaking about my silence as a smart way of breaking it :))
my silence is currently me
punctuated by comments that I post here and there on the blogs about matters that get to me
so much is getting to me lately that I lack the energy to write them all :D
it just takes a weight off when someone hits one of those matters so I cheer and post a heartfelt comment
it helps reduce that long list
something I came across yesterday as I was browsing along, a statistical summary- by all means a summary of our 17 year "guerre d'avant" epoch as it appeared in news media in November 1990, namely NY Times, Le Monde and Boston Globe

"... had seen 150,000 people dead, 198,000 wounded, 17,500 disappeared and a total of 3,641 car bombs ... "

17 years in one figure-full line, a count of those humans who still don't seem to have counted in our "collective memory" as Laure expressed it, as we still seem to allow that counter to keep turning, true some still count when it's politically suitable and politically in to use their deaths for propaganda, as it is so well expressed in Marc's text here below:

"La culture de la mort au Liban est tout autre, elle est démagogie, elle est provocation, elle est refus de l’instant présent, elle est l’occasion de brandir des drapeaux symboles du morcellement du pays, elle est fanatisme."

A count of people who never did count in political considerations but who counted and still do count for those who miss and mourn them, a count of people who probably count on us to learn something and make a change, to stop that destructive settlement of accounts that is finally only increasing the "numbers" on that counter, so that it all ends up being reduced into a tiny paragraph of countless losses.

Wish I could find that caricature I saw once, a few years back, probably in the Time Magazine, it was poignantly expressive, it displayed an endless memorial wall where an infinite list of dead soldier's names was engraved and the first name said to the second:
"McNamara said that the Vietnam war was a mistake ... Pass it on"

16 comments:

laure ghorayeb said...

bonjour claudine.je suis venue sur ton blog pour te situer et sentir comment tu prends les choses.
j'ai été aussi sur lr blog de nadche et j'ai lu ses textes.j'ai vu ses maisons.
on a mal au coeur,dans la rue où j'habite,a abdel _wahab inglizi,il y avait une très belle maison toitrouge et architecture libanaise genre début1900.
nous avons entendu un jour un bruit étrange,on est sorti au balcon,elle s'en allait sous les coups des buldozers.j'aurais pu pleurer.mais non j'ai hurlé tellement j'étais dégoûté du mercantilisme libanais.
ce ne sont pas les ennemis qui l'ont détruite mais bel et bien ses propriétaires alléchés^par les millions des pétrodoolars.
on va construire une suite d'hôtel
pourquoi pas?un hôtel neuf ça sent plus frais et moins vieux.il n'a pas besoin ni de souvenirs dans les recoins ni de mémoire pour alimenter les soirées d'hiver autour de la cheminée.
voilà claudine ce que nous faisons de notre pays.
tu as parlé du annahar,moi -même je suis critique au nahar et où j'écris depuis presque 35 ans.
laure

Unknown said...

;)

Claudine said...

Bonsoir Laure, tu as raison y a pas que les ennemis qui detruisent notre pays ... aujourd'hui meme j'apprends de mon papa qu'un projet de salle de récéption est prévue à la place de l'ancienne église de mon village, dont la date de construction remonte à environ 600 ans! C'est une toute petite chapelle attenante à la nouvelle avec tellement de charme avec sa porte basse, son autel taillé dans un rocher, j'arrive pas à croire qu'on pourra donner une autorisation a bulldozer cela pour le remplacer par ces salles de récéption dénuée de tt charme ... En plus je dois signaler que mon village est tellement petit qu'il n'y a meme pas un magasin meme pas une petite epicerie ...
Camille :), thanks for the boost, it helped

Ostfen said...

claudine, ton silence est tres expressif:)
Continue!

Anonymous said...

Quel est ce village du Matn si petit qu'il n'a même pas une epicerie? Vite dis nous qu'on aille visiter son ancienne chappelle...

Unknown said...
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nadche said...

Welcome back!

Claudine said...

Ostfen, je me retrouve a recultiver ce silence pour pouvoir en reparler :))hope am not getting trapped in my silence
Camille toi l'inconnu qui veut en savoir plus :)... soon to be done
Nad! Merci :)

Unknown said...

Claudine,
I don't have much of a response to your most recent blog except that it means something that you are aware that people cannot be reduced to numbers, that memories cannot be erased.
I am so glad that you are expressing yourself. This is what keeps us alive in this world that very often makes no sense.
Where is Matn, anyway? I grew up in Roumieh. Do you know where that is?
May you have peaceful thoughts,
Margaret

Claudine said...

Margaret peaceful thoughts to u too :). Of course I know where Roumieh is, it is in Matn too :) Matn is actually that region of Mount Lebanon starting somewhere around Dbayeh along the coast line, it extends to the mountain regions of Baabdath, Broumana, Beit Mery including Roumieh, these we refer to as Northern Matn and then the regions of Baabda, hazmieh, ein el remmeneh ... these we refer to as Southern Matn although they belong to the Caza of Baabda, whereas the Caza of Matn covers the former villages I named. The village I originate from is considered as Higher Matn and it is part of the Caza of Baabda hehehehe quite a mix up eih? Happy thoughts Margaret, ur right that self expression is a way to keep us alive, though sometimes a deep apathy falls in and switches us into mute mode, it's suffocating.

Unknown said...

Allo ?

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Anonymous said...

hi, new to the site, thanks.

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