The Woman's Word
With the coming of the month of September, the "Emigrants' Summer" enters the stage of farewell, and the caravans of our brethren begin their return—though they would gladly stay. For the golden dream that beguiled their imaginations through the long years has come true, as beautifully as dreams ever come true, and here they are among their kin and the companions of their youth, living once again their common life in its joys and its sorrows, one sky sheltering them, one moon tinting their hopes!
A question that must be answered:
Has the idea of the "Emigrants' Summer"—the innovation of this regime—succeeded?
We can answer with a firm yes, on condition that we remember it is the first experiment of its kind in the history of our country—and when has a first experiment ever come through free of errors, and of errors in the margins, which we take as a lesson to profit by in the future?
But to magnify the facts and fix our eyes on the errors alone, shutting them to the merits and the benefits that Lebanon and Syria have reaped from the Emigrants' Summer—that runs contrary to the simplest laws of justice and of sincere, disinterested patriotism. That is destructive negativism and rigid opposition, which we fought in the past and fight at every turn.
Who can deny our commercial markets their economic flourishing at this season, thanks to the rise in the volume of money in circulation?
Who can deny the importance of the broad activity that has embraced the various departments of our life—artistic, literary, and athletic?
Who can deny the cultural and recreational values furnished by the rich and varied programs that have followed one upon another since last winter, organized by the Commissariat of Tourism and Summering under contract with the finest international companies—opera, ballet, the Comédie Française, water skiing, and more?...
How many a cry has been raised against the Commissariat, denouncing its policy as partial to the heritage of the West and unjust to the local color—"folklore." But these cries did not affect the general program, for the responsible authorities were, and still are, certain that its carefully studied events stand at the lofty world level. Anyone who watched the stars of the Comédie Française perform before the Temple of Bacchus in the flood of its legendary majesty, or who observed the water's surface turn into a stage for hundreds of feet and skis, can confirm it...
Nor did the local color go without some attention, incomplete though it was: during the Emigrants' Week at Aley, and at the official reception to which His Excellency President Chamoun and his wife invited their guests at the palace of Beiteddine, the charming folk dances, the wedding pageants, and the village and historical scenes were on view, and were received with enthusiasm and approval.
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With the coming of the month of September, the "Emigrants' Summer" enters the stage of farewell, and the caravans of our brethren begin their return—and we could wish they stayed, and spared us the loneliness their parting will leave behind...
All we hope is that their impressions of their mother country will breathe remembrance and longing, so that the visit may be repeated... Perhaps one day they will give up returning abroad for good, and become a gain to us—and what a gain!
Until that happy day, we wish our emigrant brethren abundant blessing and good fortune.
Issue Nine — Eleventh Year — September 1955