The Child in the Lebanese Ministry of Health

An interview with His Excellency the Emir Majid Arslan

At last, after several telephone calls and no end of difficulties, we managed to reach His Excellency the Minister of Health and Public Relief, the Emir Majid Arslan, and to obtain from him an appointment to visit him at his ministry. The appointment was fixed and the day named, and we went to the ministry as agreed — whereupon the usher informed us that His Excellency the Minister was busy, and that we would have to wait some time before being admitted, the fixed appointment notwithstanding.

I sat with my friend contemplating the Ministry of Health, to occupy myself until His Excellency should be free to receive me. An old building ravaged by time, all but bare save for a few plain benches scattered here and there. High walls whose paint has crumbled away, adorned with a few pictures that betoken neither renewal nor care. A great hall packed with visitors: mukhtars, and those seeking intercession to obtain the posts that have become today the biggest trade in the government's offices, of every kind and every tendency — all of which goes to show that our government — God preserve it — does not concern itself with the child, his health, the fight against infant deaths, and the betterment of the rising generation, so much as it concerns itself with other matters...

We waited and waited, and our waiting grew so long that we became certain His Excellency and the usher had both forgotten our existence and the appointed hour. At last chance sent us a face we knew, and we appealed to him to resolve the crisis we were in and to help us to what we had come for. The friend smiled and confirmed that they had forgotten us, seeing how worn out His Excellency was with the many labors that distract him from such things. Then he led us to the Minister's room and, without asking leave — without so much as a knock — opened the door for us, and our eyes fell upon His Excellency the Minister, who greeted us warmly and offered his apologies. We asked him for a few simple clarifications concerning the recent projects the government is undertaking for the child, the schools it has opened for him, the dispensaries it has established for his protection, the methods of that protection, the campaign against infant deaths, their rate, and how far it has improved in recent years...

His Excellency reflected a little and answered us that his own child is a model of the Lebanese child's health, and that he had won the beauty contest at the celebration held for children not long ago. I should have liked to answer that not all the children of Lebanon are the sons of ministers, that they might carry off the prizes of health and beauty — but I kept silent. Nor do I deny that His Excellency's countenance is a speaking picture of health and strength — otherwise he would not have taken the Ministry of Defense and represented it so admirably — and I do not suppose he was otherwise in his own childhood.

Having obtained no answer to my question after His Excellency's reflection, I put the question to him again: what effort is the government — and the Ministry of Health in particular — making in the care of the child? He answered quickly, on his feet: "We provide milk to poor children, and the municipality has a dispensary to treat them free of charge." When I inquired whether such dispensaries exist in the Lebanese villages, he replied that all things come in their own good time, and that in the near future — God willing — if he remains in the ministry — the Ministry of Health, of course — he will work to bring all those facilities into being. He excused himself for not knowing the census figures for children and for deaths, being new to this ministry.

Then he graciously referred us to the Director General of Health, that we might inquire of him what he could not tell us himself. But, most regrettably, the Director too proved to be new to the Health Directorate, and declared in his turn his inability to answer, since he did not know what was going on around him — because he is new!! He then referred us to another official — the health counselor, I believe — who showed every willingness to help us. He said that the government is hard at work on establishing a dispensary for children and on distributing sterilized milk to the poor among them, though this requires a long time, and a budget more ample than the present one, so that the august ministry may carry out its many projects — projects still under study and scrutiny, and which, I believe, will remain under study until God brings to pass a thing already ordained...

And while these projects are being placed under study and scrutiny — as to whether to establish them or not, budget permitting — the climate of Lebanon takes charge of minding the health of its children until the study is completed and the project brought to an end.

When I asked him to give me some idea of a few statistics, the present budget, and the rate of deaths among our children, he excused himself from answering, since he did not know the exact figure, and since the answer demands precision — for everything the ministry does must be precise — and since the official responsible for keeping the required files was away from work!!...

And so I came out of the august Ministry of Health with Hunayn's slippers...