Battle Of The Stars

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Should Lebanese stars perform in Syria?
In this post you will find two strong viewpoints: One by an artist who sang in Syria himself, and the other by a guest writer who wishes to remain anonymous.

1- Nothing wrong with It:

Lebanese star Assi Hillani, a man who sang the hit song “Beirut Is Crying” after Mr. Hariri was killed explains to his interviewer in this video why he sang in Syria:

Please let me take this opportunity to thank my sponsor Lebanese-videos.com for this video.

2- How Dare they??

A reader emailed me this angry letter in response to the post where I criticized the politicians asking Fairouz not to sing in Syria:

It is not the politicians who are asking Fayrouz not to go to Damascus, it is the people of Lebanon who are making this request.

If Fayrouz goes to Damascus, this would be akin a French performer singing in Nazi Germany during World War II. Here are some basic facts about Syria and its behavior with Lebanon:

It does not believe in the independence of Lebanon, let alone its very existence. As a matter of fact, if you ask them to open an embassy in Lebanon, they will turn blue and have a heart attack.

It occupied Lebanon and abused it politically, economically, psychologically in the worse possible way and for a long time. By the way, psychological abuse (i.e., repressing freedom) is far worse than physical violence. That is why psychological torture has far more ramifications than physical torture. By the way, here is the kill: Upon their departure, many Lebanese went to the street to thank them for all the good time that they have given us (only in Lebanon do we thank our oppressors – a world upside down indeed)

It has departed Lebanon against its own will and under intense international pressure. It has not digested this humiliation. You do not need to be psychologist to know that they are driven by an ardent desire for revenge. As a matter of fact, it is well-documented that most political killings are crimes of passion and not crimes of reason. It is therefore a mistake to ask the question “who benefits from the crime the most?”. The most appropriate question is “who do we hate so much that we want to shut-up and kill”. I think Bemmertz got it perfectly right.

It is a country that has a history of violence and a history of repressing dissenting voices by violence. In an effort to assess a likely suspect of the crime, the best detectives look at past behaviors. Indeed, past trends are a really good indicator of the future. If an adolescent commits a crime at 18, he/she will also likely commit the crime at 25. Take for example France and the U.S.. If there is a disagreement within politicians within these two countries, I do not believe it will be a personal issue. For example, I will not believe that Bush would ever assassinate Gore or Kerry or vice versa. They know how to disagree with an idea and not with the person. The same is true across these two aforementioned countries. I do not think France will kill politicians in the U.S. or vice versa because of a political disagreement. On the other hand, let us zero on the aforementioned country that does not like freedom of expression. They will silence the dissenting voices and camouflage their crimes by either protecting the perpetrators or killing key witnesses by making it appear as being suicides.

It is a country that still holds our prisoners and the Red Cross could still not visit them. My heart goes to the family of these victims. For a mother, there is nothing worse in the world than not to know the whereabouts of her child, let alone not being able to recuperate the body of the victim.

It is a country that has unilaterally insulted our prime minister with the implicit consent of some of our ministers (again only in Lebanon). As a side note, our top officials -and I stress officials and not political parties- have never indulged in such personal attacks. But for Hassan Nasrallah-God forgives- if we ever slightly imply they may be suspects of any crime. They are Saints with exemplary behavior. How dare we attack these beautiful Angels who uphold human rights to the highest standards….How dare do we provoke them!! We are horrible, horrible people. Shame on us!! By the way, and as a side note, only in Lebanon would someone (Nasrallah) love the neighbor with all the passion in the world and, at the same time, hate his compatriots with the same intensity.

If Fayrouz performs in Damascus, then she would love the heart and soul of decent Lebanese minds forever. It is her choice and it is a crucial one.

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© 2009 The Beirut Spring, a Lebanese Blog.