Tragedies of Lebanese expatriates around the world

Written by: Ali Ibrahim Talib

Windsor Canada

Over the past few days, I have been following the conditions experienced by the Lebanese community, specifically in the African country of Côte d’Ivoire, and the insistence of the internal parties in that country to consider the entire Lebanese community a party to the disputes that have raged and continue to rage in that country against the backdrop of the election of a new president for that African republic.

Someone might say that it is the fate and bad luck of the Lebanese that they enjoy stability in general, neither within their small homeland nor in some of the countries of the diaspora, especially the African ones, which include tens of thousands of people who went to those countries in search of job opportunities that have become rare in the motherland.

The Lebanese Ambassador to Ivory Coast, Dr. Al-Siddiq Ali Ajami, says: “The number of Lebanese expatriates in that country is close to one hundred thousand people, and they live in real danger after the embassy received an explicit threat to target the lives and livelihoods of the Lebanese in that country.

”Ambassador Dr. Ajami has a long history in diplomatic work. He was the Consul General of Lebanon in the US state of Michigan, which considers Dearborn the capital of Arabs in America.

The dangerous thing about the issue of the Lebanese community in Côte d’Ivoire is that the blood of the community’s children has begun to be shed in action, not words, as happened with the late expatriate: Ali Fawaz, 30 years old, from the town of Ghassaniya in beloved southern Lebanon.

The most dangerous thing about the matter, as the latest news from Ivory Coast said this morning, Tuesday, March 29, 2011, is that the same party that threatened the Lebanese through the embassy there is the same party that announced its responsibility for the liquidation of the martyr Fawaz, which is an extremely dangerous and criminal matter.

The question that arises strongly: Where is official Lebanon from all that is happening to more than 100 thousand Lebanese in that African country??

The answer is with those who have the answers to these questions in the homeland of the cedars, Lebanon. If forming a new government took all this time and matters are still complex, alleys and corridors, I want in this haste to ask a specific and clear question, and I would love it if I could get a satisfactory and sufficient answer to it:

A serious, urgent, and important matter like this, whose responsibility is it in the country??

Caretaker government?

Or is the government being formed?

These are questions that come from a heart that is in pain and suffering for what is happening to our brothers and sisters in the homeland. I do not know their affiliations or religion. What I know is that they are in a state of extreme danger and are asking for help. I read last week about the pressures that Lebanese people were subjected to in an Arab country, the Kingdom of Bahrain. So who is defending all of these people in these cases and in cases that may happen in other places in the world?

Who knows, we live in a world as if it is on the edge of a volcano. No one knows when this volcano will erupt. The matters and evidence of this matter are more than can be counted and enumerated, especially in our rebellious Arab region.

What I call for with all honesty and sincerity is that the person who is expatriated and an immigrant from his homeland for many reasons should feel that his homeland asks about him at least in times of calamities, difficulties, and sorrows. As for us, we have nothing but prayer and supplication that God Almighty protect our beloved homeland Lebanon and all its sons spread throughout all parts of this vast world and that He bestow upon everyone the best of health and wellness and have mercy on every person who dies while abroad searching for a lawful livelihood, rejecting work that has become one of the fourth impossibilities in our beloved homeland Lebanon.

He is the All-Hearing, the Answerer of prayers always.                                                 

With goodness, love, permanent affection, and peace, I entrust you to God. Our meeting with you will continue through this site. Until we meet again soon, God willing.