Tueni Arab Journalism Award

It is really great to hear about such an award for the Arab journalism, God knows how many arab and Lebanese journalist get threats every time they try to say the honest truth.

As much as Gebran Tueni was a patriot for Lebanon, as much as he had an objective mind. He was a true journalist, which made him less of a politician, and that is a compliment.

I wish politicians would become like Gebran. As Thomas Friedman (Newyork journalist) said, Gebran was not a man for sale. And he didn't want Lebanon for sale.

While I was watching today the homage that they were paying Gebran Tueni for his amazing journalism and life journey, and when they repeated so many of his words (not just the 14 March oath), I couldn't help myself, I cried.

Everytime I hear this man speak (he still does, a voice that dares death), I realise that when we lost him, we lost a lot. We lost someone who speaks the truth even if it is not on his side. And that is an act that everybody should do.

He wanted the Lebanese united, he believed in the power of words and not guns. He believed that the leaders should listen to the youth and not vice versa.

Gebran, I am sad to tell you, this is not the Lebanon you dreamed of. They don't want Lebanon to become the best Lebanon it can become. So many sides will be affected, negatively. So many reasons. So many enemies.

I was happy to see a "new" government, the government of shadow, made of young men and women who want the Lebanese Gebran and we dream of.

Gebran Tueni: Martyr of the Lebanese Resistence

Annahar online (online version of the local newspaper known as An-Nahar = The day) has made this page about Gebran Tueni, you can click here to hear the oath that Gebran said on March 14, 2005. In the webpage you can read about his childhood, his life, his dreams, his assassination, his father Ghassan Tueni, pictures, basically everything you would want to know about him.

In this period especially, I have been really wondering what the great journalist and thinker would have said about the current situation in Lebanon. I understand why they assassinated him, rare people said wise words and he was one of them and now he is gone, and no wise words are being said. I wish the strength for his daughter Nayla, hope she continues his message.

I remember his articles in the newspaper, when no one dared to say the name "Syria", he would just lay it out on the table. When no one dared to defend Aoun, he was the first to back up all this youth who thought Aoun's exile is unjust... w mitloun mteyil

Hope he rests in peace, Gebran Tueni is the martyr of the LEBANESE RESISTENCE!

Di3anak ya Gebran bi hal balad, walla di3anak

Khalil Gibran's words in 1933 apply today...

Among so many others of his writings that apply today, I specifically selected this segment from The Garden of the Prophet that was written by Gibran Khalil Gibran in 1933, and I will leave it to you, precious reader to extract your favorite quote.

...Then he said: "My friends and my road-fellows, pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion.

"Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave, eats a bread it does not harvest, and drinks a wine that flows not from its own winepress.

"Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful.

"Pity the nation that despises a passion in its dream, yet submits in its awakening.

"Pity the nation that raises not its voice save when it walks in a funeral, boasts not except when its neck is laid between the sword and the block.

"Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggle, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking.

"Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpetings, and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another with trumpetings again.

"Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years and whose strong men are yet in the cradle.

"Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation."
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