raise its level; but all these efforts need to be guided by organization and unification, guided by experts and specialists, guided by mutual connection and cooperation with one another. And nothing will bind these efforts together but a general rural program undertaken by a special body in which government and people take part — a program embracing all sides of rural life and keeping step with its particular circumstances and conditions, so as to achieve for the countryside a comprehensive renaissance that penetrates to its very core.

The Lebanese countryside will not rise, nor will its level be raised, so long as the individual in Lebanon does not feel that he is a part of society, responsible first for meeting his own needs and responsible second for his society. For individuals depend upon one another: the comfort and well-being of the individual affect the well-being of the whole, and the well-being of the whole is drawn from the well-being of the individual.

The countryside in Lebanon will not rise so long as we do not create love for it — the love of its own children. How many are they who left the village in pursuit of learning, and, once they had gained it, were lured by the city and deserted the village that awaited them day after day.

Who among us, having studied, and having obtained a high degree or specialized in some rural field, went back to his village to do his duty toward his land and his surround-ings, toward his society and his homeland?

Which of the wealthy emigrants has returned to his peaceful vil-lage and founded a factory there,

or established an industry, or stirred anything at all — fighting unemployment and emigration, victorious and proud?

Which of those who moved from the village to the city in search of a livelihood, and whom fortune favored and who prospered, went back and looked to it with pride, or owned that he is a mountaineer, a villager?

Yes, we love our village; we love its generosity and its hospitality; we love to sing of its beauty and its gentleness; we love the tale of the threshing floor, the crops, and the sparrows; we love its terraces

and its hills and its evenings of good company. Beautiful is our village, and beautiful is the countryside in Lebanon — but are we preserving its beauty? And are we striving to revive it? Shall we content ourselves with love of our village, love of our countryside, love of its evenings of good company, while we stay far from it and stir not a finger? Will the countryside rise while we — government and people — leave it in the corner of neglect and oblivion?

The countryside claims from us a right it holds over us — what, then, are we going to do?

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