Mr. Michel Touma and the Beautification of Lebanon's Villages

"It is a vital project, which we drew from a conversation with our friend the artist Mr. Youssef Howayek, and we laid it before His Excellency the Minister of the Interior in an official letter, where it met with approval and consent."

This is what Mr. Michel Touma, Commissioner of Tourism and Summering, told us the day after we asked him about a report to this effect that had appeared in the press... And he went on to say:

The project aims at two important ends. The first is the beautification of Lebanon: each of our principal villages would set aside a sum of money to be spent on a commemorative monument representing some particular aspect of the life of that very village. If it is famed for oranges, or apples, or flowers, for instance, the statue would come to affirm it; if it has brought forth an exceptional historical figure, such as Emir Bashir or Fakhr al-Din, that figure would stand forth in the work of art; and if the village has been the stage of a lovely legend, like the death of Adonis, the legend would live anew, in stone or in bronze...

As for the second end we are pursuing in imposing this project upon the municipalities of Lebanon, it is to stir the talents of our artists and to spur them on to creation and invention; for among the conditions by which we shall bind these municipalities is that they entrust these works of art only to our own artists, and that the project be completed within a period of no more than five years — and this is a broad field for all our artists, in which their gifts may unfold and they may create, if they will. We have hope that the face of Lebanon will be changed as a result of this great artistic effort, which all our artists together will join in bringing into being, under the banner of their great elder, Mr. Youssef Howayek.

We congratulate the artists, and we congratulate Lebanon, on Mr. Michel Touma and on his zeal for everything connected with the flourishing of tourism and summering and the flourishing of Lebanese life.