Mondassin? Trouble demonstrators who infiltrated Peaceful rallies?

How about jobless, famished and lost all hopes youth?

Before I delve into the latest violent marches and rallies of the Lebanese people against the mountains of garbage littering the streets all over Lebanon, it is important to set in context a few facts.

There is this trend in rallies, marches and sit-in…:

Factor One: The day is mostly peaceful. At dusk, violent acts set in

Factor Two: During the day, the people are locked in and caged by the police forces and barbed wires. By the end of the day, the people are restless, fatigued, and ready for actions. The police force wait for this moment to start confrontations, knowing that likewise reactions will be ignited.

Factor Three: By day, women, children, babies and elder people join the rally. By the end of the day, mothers, children, husbands and elder people have to go home for many reasons. By the end of the day, only youth remain to guard the land. The police force feel confident that tear gas and other means are safer to use since the media is not going to howl for casualties among children, mothers and elderly people.

Factor Four: The power-to-be wait for late afternoon to infiltrate troubling demonstrators: They are more inclined to react violently to police activities and are selected to be catalysts for events going out of hand. Law and Security is threatened and the police force is legally bound to protect properties and…

Factor Five: In Peaceful demonstrations, the protestors are mostly highly educated students, teachers…and they have this sense of “Not making a fool of myself” and to behave according to community standards. This is more acute when media are covering direct the event.

The trouble is that live media coverage are Not hot about boring peaceful demonstrations and the protestors feel ignored by everyone, particularly the political institutions who fail to dispatch someone to negotiate or listen to their demands and recriminations.

Qui a lâché ses chiens parmi les manifestants?

(Who released these dogs?)

Photo AFP

Lebanon witnessed scores of peaceful demonstrations and sit-in in the last decades and they were inconsequential in pulling off any reforms or change.

This time around, the mountains of garbage piling up on each street in the last 5 weeks simply hurt the sensibility of the educated youth.

The eyes and noses sent a strong message to their ideals and principles: “How the external world would view us under these conditions?”

For 30 years, the Lebanese citizens have been suffering from and greatly ignored and humiliated by this post militia rotten political system and they refrained to act according to the level of indignity.

The current educated youth were removing themselves from political engagement and ignoring the names of their representatives and even the President of the Republic.

As long as their parents were paying their tuition, paying twice the bills for electricity, water and every other facility that should be provided by the State… then there were no terrible problems.

And then the garbage catastrophe hit the sensibility of this educated youth and got them into questioning

“What’s happening? How did we got to this shameful conditions? How come the waste collector Sukleen was pocketing $150 per wet ton of garbage when Ireland pay $40 for the dry garbage? How the money is distributed among the former militia leaders who are running the country?…”

Suddenly, the garbage piled up and the political leaders refused to reach a resolution.

The youth finally learned that the feudal Druze militia leader Walid Jumblat was Not financially satisfied with the garbage collection deal with Sukleen, run and managed by former Prime Minister Seniora for over 20 years, and who is actually representing the Hariri political movement and financial deals in Lebanon. Actually, Seniora is an Israeli spy since 1974 (read the Israeli Filka file) and became the USA fromt man after the assassination of his boss Rafic Hariri.

The waste land in Na3ema used for dumping the garbage was in Jumblat’s fiefdom and he wanted $25 per ton to his personal account.

Jumblat dispatched his militia members to shut access to the dump until a “reasonable” deal is negotiated after the contract expired. (A contract that has been automatically renewed in the last 25 years with higher costs without any formal bidding process)

And the garbage piled up for 5 weeks.

The morning of the first day of the youth rally was very peaceful and degenerated in the evening: The power-to-be hated to see the youth united against the will of the political parties and wanted to vacate the place by any means available. When water canon failed to disperse the gathering then tear gas canisters were thrown among the women and children. And rubber bullets were shot at will, including live ammunition fired at a slight angle in the air.

The use of bullets galvanized the demonstrators and people converged from all Lebanon to show their horror while two dozens of soldiers have been taken hostage by the extremist Islamic factions for more than a year and the political system refused to give the military the order  to take any action to free them.

And the demonstrators returned and brought tents and slept in Riad El Solh Quarter. (Ironically, the government erected a prefab wall of shame around the Serai after the rally was disbanded)

The next day was also very peaceful and the gathering increased in number and families flocked in with their kids, and singers and famous artists joined in.

By late afternoon, it was reported that trouble makers have been infiltrating the rank, and rumors wanted it that the appointed Maestro of the militia leaders Nabih Berry is effectively in charge of disbanding the peaceful gathering. It was a terrible horror scenes that night.

But claiming that most of the trouble-making infiltrators were injected and dispatched by Nabih Berry is not doing justice to the brave and heavy hearted demonstrators who converged from the 4 corners of Lebanon to take a stand. The government blocked the highway access from the north and the south to slow down the convergence of citizens from other regions in Lebanon

These dispatched infiltrators were few and had their faces covered and they were meant to act as catalysts and TV commentators lamely explained: the police force got its order to “clear the place” with tear gas in profusion.

The so-called infiltrators (Mondassin) are the youth out of jobs (50% unemployment rate), famished, living in crowded family quarters, lacking health coverage and political cover for misdemeanours.

These disinherited youth gave the live coverage scenes of courage, determination and stubbornness that the Wild West could not match.

The story will not stop and reforms and changes will take place.

Note 1: This hapless Minister of the Environment divulged today the 5 winners in the bidding for waste management. Each main political party (read leader) got his share in the district he mostly represent. Ironically, every deal is far more expensive than Sukleen and the stench is increasing exponentially, politically and health risks