Lebanon: a country on the brink of the abyssChristians, key to Lebanon's stability"Enough of using Lebanon and the Middle East!", Pope cries outOne solution for the Middle East could be this: wait for the young people to leave, who are already waiting, ready to leave, and let the last of the old hate-filled ones die out by making war among themselves. This is one of the many paradoxical thoughts that come to mind when one stops for a moment to listen to them, young men in their twenties and thirties, telling their stories around a wooden table in the Bekaa, the region of Lebanon bordering Syria to the east.
They are currently working as personnel of the AVSI NGOThe most vulnerable, especially Syrian refugee children and their families, are being cared for. Listen to them and measure the extent to which here, in the days of renewed Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the pandemic has arrived to deliver only the latest in a series of deadly blows. While elsewhere the media document a slow but steady emergence from the clutches of COVID, and economists announce an extraordinary recovery of GDP, here in Lebanon young people cite their parents and grandparents as witnesses that never before has the situation been so impossible, with no visible way out, not even during the civil war.
That there are more Lebanese outside than inside Lebanon is well known and is already an old story. But this time the measure is full, it is the flight of those who have burned the past to ashes and are now playing with their future. "My dream is not to leave. My dream is Lebanon, but it is Lebanon that has no space or opportunity for me" - Zenab explains - "If it is difficult to find a way to start again elsewhere, here it is impossible." "I am waiting for the answer to do a PhD in Hungary" - says Laura - "As soon as it arrives I will go and I hope it will be a gateway to a job there. They seem to be welcoming."
"Everything here is so changeable, so fragile," Laura observes, "that we even give up committing ourselves. How can a person risk getting attached to someone who may later leave or who will never have a job and the means to be able to set up a house?"
The history of the second half of the 20th century in Lebanon was so divisive that those who wrote school curricula always preferred to leave it in the shadows, encouraging ignorance and disinterest.
Young people want to leave, to escape from a context that cuts their legs and narrows their horizons. Better to emigrate before it devours even what is left of the desire for redemption. "Ours is a country in suspense, waiting" - Philippe is a realist - "But we can't wait any longer".
Degree in Classical Literature and PhD in Sociology of Communication. Communications Director of the AVSI Foundation, based in Milan, dedicated to development cooperation and humanitarian aid worldwide. She has received several awards for her journalistic activity.
