Open letter to the Finnish government from a Lebanese mother in Finland

Lebanon is no more. 

Lebanon ceased to exist even before I was born. I was born into debt and corruption, I was born into poverty, sadness and sickness. 

What happened to Lebanon did not start on the 4th of August 2020 or on the 17th of October 2019, but long before that. 

It all ended on the 4th of august 2020, at 6 pm when two consecutive explosions detonated in the port of the capital, destroying my hometown of Beirut.

You ask why I am saying that it all ended; and the answer is obvious: because the world finally opened their eyes and looked at us, the people, our suffering.

Because we have all united to clean up the mess, the mess of an explosion that finally put the people at peace, freeing them from the corrupt hands that have been manipulating them, their lives, their money. Because it is abnormal to see a child joking about an explosion and seconds later crying and screaming, fearing for his life.

We do not want aid directed to our government; the money will end up in the pockets of corrupt politicians

That child was me in the mid 2000's and could have been my son on the 4th of august.

More than 100 people lost their lives, innocent people, more than 3,000 are injured and more than 30,000 are left homeless, in the middle of revolution, economical crisis and pandemic. The cost of the rounded damages is 4.2 billion euros.

I know you probably already know all that information.

But what you don't know is that the people of Lebanon do not want taxpayers' money, it will end up in the pockets of corrupt politicians and negligent government, as it has happened millions of times before.

We do not want aid directed to our government, as we will never get them, they will be redirected to specific people in specific political parties. We do not want your pity, as we are strong; we have rebuilt Beirut 7 times.

We want solidarity

What we want and what we are asking for is solidarity, solidarity in seeing the negligence and corruption that our government made us endure for the past 30 years.

What we want is our voices to be heard, we do not want to be martyrs, we are not martyrs of Lebanon. We are victims, victims of corruption and neglect. Look at us, look at the people, see them rise out of the ashes and help them achieve what they really want. They want to live, and live with dignity.

We demand an international investigation and a trial. We want justice, justice for our families and victims, hear us out, we want freedom, we want our country back.

Beirut was destroyed and rebuilt 7 times, and in 2020 it will come back stronger than ever.

Beirut belongs to its youth, and we are thankful for your support. We do not want those terrible events to go unnoticed and become insignificant.

If people feel the need to help Lebanon, many NGOs will be grateful for their support.