4th August 2013 Beirut, Lebanon
‘United for Tomorrow’: Lebanon’s Live Aid?
I look back at Live Aid, and its 2005 successor Live 8, as extraordinary moments where politics and culture came together with breathtaking power.
What Bob Geldof and others achieved was not just to highlight the importance of Africa, but to move the needle – mobilising a generation to believe that our obligations to confront poverty were about justice not charity. That movement spawned the Jubilee debt campaign, One, the G8 Gleneagles Summit, the MDGs, the 0.7% aid target.
Through force of will, a bit of swearing, celebrity and the right argument, the paradigm shifted.
I’ve often asked myself whether such a movement could work here in Lebanon. What I hear often is fatalism (‘there’s nothing we can do, this is Lebanon’), frustration (‘whatever we try, politics will get in the way’) and apathy (‘we should emigrate, party or fight each other’). Yet every day I meet people who are fighting not each other, but for Lebanon.
The entrepreneurs who build businesses despite the challenges. Those arguing for coexistence rather than division. Talent that refuses to conform to the rules of patronage. At the graduations I attend where students don’t talk about what divides but what unites them. In the silent majority, working against the odds (insecurity, traffic jams, power cuts, wasta) to raise their families.
That’s why I’m excited about an initiative for International Day of Peace in September, ‘One Lebanon – United for Tomorrow’. Those behind it have a vision of a concert that showcases Lebanon’s talent. A citizen-driven moment when the Lebanese show their resilience and hope.
An opportunity to confront the tired old adage that the Lebanese are great individuals but a poor team. It would be wrong to call it apolitical, as it is an exercise in political mobilisation. But it aims to do so without the usual party or confessional labels.
It is a big ask, and time is short. But I reckon this just might be a game changer. It depends on whether people feel mobilised to help. My old band Freshly Squeezed were, ahem, ahead of our time. So I promise not to sing. But I’ll be cheering every step of the way. You can support the initiative on the hashtag OneLebanon.
I was talking to a friend on holiday in Beirut earlier this evening and he described some of the situation there in great detail. He has explored the city over the past week and mixed with the locals in some of the suburbs as well as the other guests and staff at the Phoenicia. He spoke of the divide and the suspician and the religious rupture tearing apart everyday life. I told him it sounds like Northern Ireland 15-25 years ago, except the green grass has been replaced with sunshine and sand. He loves the place and is having a great time by the sounds of it. I wish I were there to experience it myself. The road is long, for some more than others. I hear what you’re saying about the graduations, that is where the future lies, with minds a little less fractured by divisions and open to chance. Good luck with #OneLebanon
Excellent and much needed initiative. The “Sound of Peace” is what comes to my mind. Who knows? it could all start with music and lead to reconciliation. Thanks Your Excellency for taking on the challenge.