In the name of graffiti, online activists and chicken sandwiches!

By Admin I : 

Well it’s Lebanon.

It is where everything loses its true value in a matter of hours, where trends rule and lead, where people are driven by impulse, opinionated to a point where they can act, react, rebel and go party in the same day. It is where Adele became a cliché after 2 months of her worldwide fame, where everything is very common, a land celebrating hypocrisy and the highest levels of nonsense consumerism.

I’m doing this whole monologue about my country and I know I sound like another desperate blogger that thinks he can criticize a society that he already belongs to. I know it’s super cliché by its own, but let me tell you, what happened in the two previous days with the graffiti artists Ali Fakhry and Khodr Salami made me speechless. (Relax; it was only a 2 days thingy).

It’s a typical Lebanese ritual. 2 artists get in trouble and the whole online community jumps to protest and rebel, a very healthy indicator of a strong online and social media presence, and a communal relationship between local activists.

But what If we cut the crap for a bit!

Graffiti is already an illegal form of art, just for the fact that it uses public places. Believe me, a Lebanese police man cares more about a chicken sandwich than about suppressing art, believe me it’s already tested, but the sandwich should be “toum extra”.

The whole dilemma here is that thousands of graffitis have been done in Lebanon and no one got caught, things were just fine, and even books were made about the subject. No one cared. I’m not saying we go blame Khodr and Ali, I’m saying that what happened was normal and could’ve happened in any other country.

This whole nonsense analysis, is to reach a question:

What is the responsibility of the Lebanese general security, in a country where film, design and even art is censored? Oh, even anti-censorship articles are becoming cliché. So Wait let me change the question:

How the hell does the general security office monitor Lebanese advertising and fail to stop atrocities running all through this countries roads and tvs, while whatever soldier succeeds in stopping a whole process of expressive art.

Why the hell do we have “puke-material” sexual ads on tvs (cough-smeds-cough) while we consider graffiti, a crime?

Why the hell do we have naked women used for advertising all sorts of junks on roads, uncertified medical herbs getting sold at every corner and spoiled food everywhere?

I’m just saying, no really, I’m just saying, It’s a matter of a 2k quantity of chicken sandwiches and we can take control of this countries general security. In end online activists proved a high level of awareness that they wish, they wish they could compete with.

Kudos to every lazy couch potato running a blog (a diva couch potato is an option too) or even a twitter account, because this country needs you.

Read more about the Ali and Khodr case: http://www.dailystar.com.lb