“Between Amnesty and Amnesia”: Remembering the 50th Anniversary of Lebanon’s Civil War

How much more is there left for us, not the history books, to say about the Lebanese civil war? Quite a lot, apparently.

Earlier this year, Lebanon-based “Agenda Culturel” launched its “Between Amnesty and Amnesia, where is the Memory of the Civil War?” series, gathering testimonies through seven questions centered on personal experiences and how memories of the war are still reflected in our lives, identity, traumas and aspirations for this country’s future. I really did not think I had more to say about the war, any more than I already have, nor even wanted to. But these questions made me realize that there were still things I wanted to share. So long as we, as a country – as we are far from being a nation – fail to remember in order to ensure that it doesn’t happen again, we will all still have much to say about what erupted on April 13, 1975.

Continue reading ““Between Amnesty and Amnesia”: Remembering the 50th Anniversary of Lebanon’s Civil War”

لبنان: التسمية و التشهير هو واجب

Note: this piece is a translation of Eye on the East’s previous post “Lebanon: ‘Naming and Shaming’ as a Duty.”  The below Arabic version was published in the March 1-6 2014 issue of Zahle weekly Al Rawaby

يتعذر علي ان اتذكر عدد المرات التي سمعت فيها المقولة السائدة في لبنان “دون ذكر الاسماء” عبارة قصدها تجهيل الفاعل والتعامي عن قول الحقيقة ورفض تسمية الاشياء باسمائها, فنشعر بالاسى لغياب الوضوح و الشفافية في كيفية عمل النظام اللبناني. Continue reading “لبنان: التسمية و التشهير هو واجب”