The Republic of Beirut — The Migration of the Lebanese to Beirut Is No Less Dangerous than the Zionist Migration to Palestine — When Will We Realize That We Have Problems Broader than the Problems of Politics?

I have not called the "city" of Beirut a republic because it is large — for Beirut, with all the rest of Lebanon added to it, would make up one of the secondary streets of New York, London, or Paris!... Nor is it the "organization" of Beirut that makes me call it a republic, in happy allusion to Plato's "ideal Republic"; for if I wished to name it after its organization, I would have said: "the wilds of Beirut"! For it is distinguished in its "organization" from the barbarian wilds only by the greater density of its crowds...

Nor do I call it a city... for a city is supposed to have inhabitants distinguished from the dwellers of "caves" by a certain level of social culture, so that they may be able to live together in society... and the first condition for a city dweller is that he should have reached the human level...

I do not aspire for Beirut to attain the "perfection" of the virtuous city imagined by al-Farabi, for perfection belongs to God alone; but I want it to rise, and rise, and rise, until it reaches — in organization, in cleanliness, and in constructive endeavor — the level of the other cities of the East, and I do not say of the West!...

But I am still off the subject! I called Beirut a republic because Lebanon has come to be in Beirut, and the figures bear witness to the truth of what I say! Lebanon today has some eight hundred thousand inhabitants, of whom six hundred thousand are in Beirut! Has anyone ever heard of a capital that contains three-quarters of a country's population? Granted that the capital is the country's head — can there be a head without a body? I picture this country with its capital as a tadpole before it becomes a frog! I say this in the full certainty that Beirut, as regards "genius," is not the head of the country; I intended only a caricature of a comparison. Yet the hideous caricature is not the most important thing that concerns me in this article. There are basic elements that must be present in any country if that country wishes to stand on its own feet. Among them is the sound balance between its industrial and commercial cities and its agricultural lands, and that is lacking in Beirut. Among them is the proportion between one city and another within a single country, so that the centers of gravity may balance, the markets of trade may balance, and the conditions of habitation may be set in order — and Beirut is twenty times larger than the largest city after it?... Among them is the balance between the capital and the producers, consumers, and taxpayers outside the capital, and that is lacking, because the overwhelming majority of the "producers" or "consumers" or "taxpayers" is in the heart of the capital. And among them are comfort, well-being, and health in the city itself! I shall not speak again of the entrenched chaos in every field, nor of the filth that has become unbearable, nor of the high cost of living, nor of the spirit of exploitation, nor of the corruption of morals; nor shall I dwell upon all the problems that may arise from this defect in the balance between the country's capital and its other parts. Rather I say that the migration of the Lebanese to Beirut is no less dangerous than the migration of the Zionists to Palestine, for in the latter lies the life of one people and the death of another, while in the former lies the death of all. And if we aspire to build a sound state, let us lay out the sound plan for it, instead of leaving circumstances to plan for us and to carry it out in our stead!

Have the responsible men thought in a practical way of the frightful danger of the day when this seepage into the capital is complete, when all of Lebanon comes to be in Beirut, when its lands lie waste, its trade stagnates, its industry is paralyzed, and its city — the only one — becomes dunghills where people pile up one on top of another, with no organization enforced over their lives, no law held in awe, and no chance for them to enjoy the least of human rights, which is to rise, in their living, above the level of the animal!

Have the responsible men thought of projects that address the greater design of this nation, so that Tripoli and Zahle and Sidon, for example, may flourish — and the villages too — and draw people and their interests to them, instead of the country shrinking and heaping up until the whole of it is in Beirut, and it becomes — not in blessing or in admiration, but in mockery and reproach — "the Republic of Beirut"...