“My dear parents who stayed in Beirut, what use were your 30 years of work for?”

Nathalie Finan is a scientist and musician. Her father is a Greek Catholic and her mother is a Maronite. My father's business in Beirut was destroyed in the explosion.

My dear mother,

The monstrous explosion that destroyed our capital left my heart in pieces, so it is with yours. But you who lived everything, heard everything, you who experienced the war of 1975-1990, as well as the events of 2005, 2006 and 2012, you who fully vibrated during this terrifying detonation two days ago, seems have a courage much greater than mine. Indeed, despite the ups and downs, it is still you today, as in the past, who come to reassure me to tell me that everything will be fine.

I come to salute your courage, and also thank you for being an example of life force, still at my age. I emigrated at barely 18 to this beautiful country that is France. The life there is so sweet and peaceful compared to that lived in Lebanon, that I sometimes forget to be grateful. But your presence alone reminds me ceaselessly of the value of these moments, and I would very much like Lebanon, our dear country, to one day come to know this great peace. But we are still far from the mark.

There was the explosion that destroyed Beirut. But already before her, this country which bears our memories, had begun its descent into hell for several months. Before your eyes, it was burning under the flames of revolt. The people were sinking into famine, their thoughts were black, dirty. The streets, so poorly lit in our daily lives, sparkled under the fire of indignation. The currency had already lost 60% of its value. The price of the simplest dishes has doubled or even tripled. Some people, however well-educated, educated and coming from backgrounds open to the world, no longer hesitated to steal from supermarkets or rob pharmacies. Between the shame of not being able to respond to your child who cries of hunger and that of admitting to being a thief, the choice is quickly made. So the adults would fly, the children would cry. Shame was just a detail.

But for two days, there is no more shame, theft, hunger or indignation that is worth. Homes, supermarkets, pharmacies, stores, lives, everything is devastated. The explosion swept away all concerns, even elementary ones, in its path. We no longer wonder if we are hungry. The stomach is knotted in the face of such stubborn and determined ferocity. We don't see the end. Can there be worse? The Lebanese have nothing left. To top it off, they are now being told about toxic particles that would be diffused into the air since the disaster. They are told to stay indoors so as not to inhale these materials. Inside? To get inside, you still have to have windows to close! The houses of Beirut are wide open. They have always been so among these pleasant people. The Lebanese didn't need their facades smashed down to be welcoming.

What happened? You can't imagine how many French friends ask me this question, mom, at the height of incomprehension in the face of a succession of misfortunes.

How to answer them without pronouncing an indictment against the faults of our country? - which in no way detracts from the responsibilities of all the powers which have been working for so long for our ruin. The case has the simplicity of a tragedy.

In the port of Beirut was a container which exploded. The investigation may one day tell why. Next to this container lay another, blocked in the port for seven years. The latter contained no less than 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive material. Its explosion produced the effect of a real bomb.

Why did the goods remain dormant in the port of Beirut? What port, in a self-respecting world, leaves a container of explosive material abandoned for several years? Port officials did not even know where it came from or where it was going. What were they waiting for to get rid of this burden? Were they waiting to witness the dreadful spectacle that won them before everyone else? Could such a disaster be only the result of negligence, of the lack of professionalism of the managers working at the port?

When I asked you these questions, I who now live in a country where the precautionary principle is taken to the extreme, you replied that this kind of gap is not new in Lebanon. And it does not come from the lack of intelligence of a people who have largely proven themselves in terms of creativity, competence and imagination. It is essentially due to the corruption of government officials, to the lack of dignity with which citizens are treated and to the total lack of recognition which does not encourage anyone to actively invest in their professional task, nor to have the pride of serving their society. .

My dear mother, my father and you have been working in Lebanon for more than thirty years. You have worked tirelessly to serve your country for more than thirty years. And at the end of the ends, to achieve what? To see the most absurd stupidity devastating what you had so carefully constructed, you who survived the war and so much deprivation. The absurdity, the stupidity is, in Lebanon, so devastating that in a few seconds it could destroy the hope of a lifetime.

It is no longer bearable to say that "it is so". This lack of sense of responsibility is present throughout the country. For the simple reason that no Lebanese citizen is considered well enough by the authorities to respect their own work and believe in it. Who will watch what he has done? No one. Apart from hypersensitive and scrupulous people like you, my dear parents, who neither know nor dare to cheat, no one believes in honesty anymore. The country has been corrupt for too long.

To read also: Lebanon: in Beirut, the boat at the origin of the explosion was "a floating bomb"

To the question of my French friends "what can we do?" there is of course an immediate response. We can help by making donations on the site of the Lebanese Red Cross, the association Impact Lebanon or many others. But how can we be sure that this help will reach those who really need it? Because predators keep watch and can hamper humanitarian action just as they have ruined the economy.

The key, the only valid question is easily stated: how do we get rid of criminal leaders who cling to power? What do we do with these rulers who have treated the country so badly?

We would all like them to be judged for their actions. Only their guilt is so evident today that they know too well how severe the judgment would be. As a result, they cling to power as to their own life. We ask corrupt and cowardly individuals to have the courage to give up their prebends and be hara-kiri. Between the lives of a privileged few and that of millions of people, their choice is quickly made. They stick together to face. The IMF can always wait until the conditions it submits in exchange for aid are met ...

A Mauritanian intellectual once put forward a hypothesis: he wondered if the criminals and the corrupt, when they leave power, should not rather go unpunished, instead of being prosecuted by international justice. This solution shocks morals, but at this point, many of us would even be willing to pay these leaders to leave. What about justice? you will ask me. More important than justice, there is the urgency of a million lives. There is the urgency of a time when it is no longer a question of morality, but of efficiency.

Read also: "We must give young Lebanese reasons to hope"

In the meantime, dear mother, let's have a dream: imagine a sovereign Lebanon, which is no longer ruled by outside powers - Sunnis, Shiites and the West. Imagine Lebanon having its own strong State which respects and gives rights to each of the religious denominations. A state that does not belong to any community. A sovereign, secular government, considering its citizens not for their beliefs, but for the honesty and quality of their work. Imagine a Lebanon where producers, farmers and breeders respect their land. A Lebanon which knows how to say "no" to external proposals and which finally understands the generosity of its land and its people. Let us imagine a Lebanon which relies only on itself and which stops poisoning itself by persisting in believing that it will save itself thanks to the outside world. Today, wherever we are, imagine a happy Lebanon, whose suffering is a thing of the past, telling its story by appreciating more than ever the value of happiness and life. It would celebrate its rebirth by welcoming tourists from all over the world.

Finally, once this wish is clear in our minds, once we visualize this sovereign Lebanon, each one will send this vision, this request to the Creator in which he believes, if he thinks he has one. At each stage, hasn't the world existed in our imagination before taking shape in reality?