RCS Posts history:
A look at Lebanon. Long a seat of world culture has passed through enormous changes and is now nearer than every to being blown away.
Divided, dominated, and blown up. Is that a way to describe Lebanon? Is that what we know of this Mediterranean country?
Lebanese are the people of Lebanon. The Lebanese deserve to be honored for who they have and for who they are. They merit our moral support for the building the nation they can be on the world stage and for the beauty and goodness they may provide us.They can also be profitable people with whom to do business.
This tiny and durable country has a history of contributions to our world. Its people have been for their cosmopolitan diversity of culture, including religion. They are a modern republic and the smallest recognized sovereign state on the mainland of of the Asian continent. And I thought it was in North Africa. I have much to learn.
There is strong evidence of a rich, well developed culture going back to 6,000 BC. More recently Lebanon was a seat of Phoenician culture. That maritime culture was active there from about 3,200 BC to539 BC and shared that culture from Lebanon, around the Mediterranean, and beyond the Pillars of Hercules to as far as Ireland. In 64 BC, the region of Lebanon came under the rule of the Roman Empire, where it became a leading center of Christianity.
Mount Lebanon was home to the early Maronite Christian Church and maintained its identity through the Arab conquest. The Druze took over the Maronite homeland. The Druz are, to this day, a small but important presence in Lebanon. Druze are considered to be an Abrahamic religion which is neither Muslim nor Jew; not Christian either. Maronite Catholics and the Druze are considered by many to be the founders of modern Lebanon. Druze are only about 6% of the population today and are not Jew, Christian or Muslim. Still they may be more important to their country then their number suggests.
Lebanon was conquered by Ottoman Turks in the 1600th century and remained under their dominion for 400 years. At the end of WWI, they came under the French Mandates. Under that mandate, Lebanon grew a bit but it did not grow more united.
From 1975 to 1990 there was a bloody civil war in Lebanon, which led to the country being occupied by Syria and Israel.
Despite all the divisions and dominations, this 4,000 sq mi republic lives. There has never been a republic like it. It is accepted within international law as a “unitary, parliamentary, multi-confessionalist republic.” It seems that “multi-confessionalist” refers to the countries acceptance of many religions, but that is not completely correct.
Others have called Lebanon “a parliamentary, democratic, republic,” but add “within the overall framework of confessionalism.” This is beginning to look like a discussion in political philosophy! It seems that “confessionalism is a form of consociationalism in which the highest offices are proportionally reserved for representatives of certain religious communities. “Confessionalism, it appears, is a mix of politics and religion which usually entails distributing political and institutional power proportionately among confessional communities. We begin to get the picture. “Constitutionalism” is a form of power sharing sharing in a democracy. The goals of consociationalism are: stable government, the survival of democracy, and the avoidance of violence. Seems “tough row to hoe.” It has worked.
Lebanese are respected in Europe, the Arab world, and around the world for their culture and there continued existence as a nation. Lebanon has also been known for its large and influential diaspora. When it has had less need to struggle against foreign intervention, it has promptly become a stable financial power. It has profited from tourism and had busy agricultural production. Its people would appreciate the opportunity to do more. Left to guide itself it came to rank high on the U.N. human development index. It was a founding member of our United Nations.
I like to look at the depth of our cultures. Lebanon has been around for a long time. It is mentioned in written history from about, at least, 5,600 BP. It is mentioned in Sumerian tablets and in the Epic of Gilgamesh. It was the center of the Canaanite City States. Byblos kept records of dealings with Lebanon. The Bible contains references to to Canaan Lebanon. This little country can be called a source of cultural influence on Greek, Jew, and Phoenician, and to much of Western culture as well. And, as I am beginning to understand, a home for the Christian, Muslim, Druze, and more.
I have mentioned that the capital city of Lebanon is Beirut, haven’t I? When France was a diplomatic center of the world and the people of Paris were called the most cosmopolitan, those people of Paris call the people of Beirut cosmopolitan.
I know we can let Lebanon be, if we will. Maybe there is even an approriate way we could be supportive.