Saving traditional houses and archeological monuments takes more than a bunch of determined individuals to make a change.
the ingredients are many but they roughly involve:
1-a political will to save those buildings (and that would translate itself automatically into laws/decrees/decisions to protect and rehabilitate said buildings)
2-a public, civil responsibility that has enough civic sense to demand for those buildings to be saved, in the case of a flaccid government. a public cultivated enough would shout out at the atrocities committed and demand immediate change. young students, educated people ought to squat in one of those doomed old houses and camp in them and youtubing their stay for as long as needed to draw the attention of the world and hopefully, the Lebanese ministry of culture or the -actually powerless- department of archeology (DGA) or the DGU (department of urban studies).
if the government had a will to save this country’s heritage we wouldnt be seeing beirut streets suffocated by towers overloading those streets’ infrastructure. we wouldnt be seeing classified old houses being demolished AT NIGHT, we wouldnt be seeing an ottoman theater being torn down in tripoli by a corrupt deputy under cover of the rotten municipality of tripoli.
if the government had a will to save Lebanon’s heritage, it would have enacted a law to protect that heritage.
This group here wouldnt be needed in the first place and we’d be spending our time and money on us for a change.
this group wouldnt be doing the most desperate thing which is asking people from all around the world to donate enough money to buy out just one house, restore it into a publicly owned edifice to show the naysayers that private, individual will, when combined, can result into positive action if it’s given a direction.
we wouldnt be needing donations because those buildings and old streets would be protected by law…
People of Lebanon, arent you SUFFOCATED? we ask you to Dare. to look around for a minute. young people, educated lebanese, dont just receive your diploma and jump on the first plane to your new job abroad.. your memory is fading at the hands of ruthless developers. in 5 years what will you be showing your children? the mall will be their only passtime.
