Banana Peel...

She was crossing one of the capital's streets, sunk in the rapture of the 'urban' music rising from the roar of the tramways, the honking of the automobiles, and the din of the 'motors'.. as though bewitched by the charm of this 'poetic' atmosphere, she set about persuading her hearing, her sight, and her senses that she was truly not on earth, but in an 'infernal' paradise whose angels are the machines of the twentieth century and Beirut's well-ordered chaos!.. And hardly had she arrived at this truth when she found herself a heap flung down in the middle of the street.. Naturally her foot did not slip from the magic of the music, but from stepping on a banana peel, which had set itself in her way to alert her to reality and remind her to come back from the alleged paradise.. Her tongue nearly moved with the customary reproach against the municipality, or against the government, had she not glimpsed only two meters away, and at half a man's height above the ground, the refuse bin, waving its rejected invitations..

Yes, we have grown used to blaming others, and laying our misfortunes on other people's shoulders.. others are to blame; as for us — heaven forbid.. We do not err, because we do not bear responsibility for ourselves.

Do not be surprised, my reader, for this is one instance — and here is its sister.. A member of the municipal council told me that she saw a man throwing some filth into the public road, and tried to restrain him; he looked at her mockingly and said: And who are you to stop me.. it is no business of yours — the street is not your property.

Poor freedom, if it sinks to this level, and becomes a mount on whose back we ride to our own ends, flinging its consequences, and its effect on society, against the wall.

This situation reminds me of what used to happen at our boarding school.. and by way of a joke I recall the following incident.. The servants would clean the playground, and no sooner had they finished than its ground was carpeted with a layer of papers and refuse; so the administration appointed the students themselves to carry out the task of cleaning.. What would the municipal council say to inviting the people — the inhabitants of Beirut, for example — to clean the streets themselves, following the example of the secondary school's administration?

I propose this to the municipal council not to spare its treasury, or to shut the door of livelihood in the face of some workers, but so that every person may have a hand in the work of cleaning, and every man bear a share of his own responsibility.. and so give the municipality and the government a rest.. for a while..