Let There Be Love

Those ubiquitous “I Love Life” billboards turned out to be a political teasing campaign on an unprecedented scale. But don’t worry, the good stuff should be known by December 23rd.

Anyone who’s been to Lebanon lately has seen them. They’re literally everywhere; “I love Life”, “J’aime la vie”, “Ouhibbou l7ayat”. A statement in three languages that would seem natural if it weren’t for the huge display real estate money being poured on them.

The billboards have raised speculations among the Lebanese; they must have something to do with the March 14 independence movement. The colors and typography are a trademark of the Cedar revolution, and nowadays, “we want to live” and “we champion a culture of life” (as opposed to Hezbollah’s supposed culture of death and martyrdom) are staples of the political discourse of March 14 politicians and literati.

But the precise objective of the campaign remains to be seen. I can say with a fair amount of certainty that the objective is not to convert suicide bombers into hedonists, so what is this all about?

One way to know for sure (and apparently to become an activist and spread the word), is to keep your eye on the I Love Life website.

But meanwhile, I wouldn’t mind we engage in a little game of speculation. Any ideas on what this could be?

My personal guess is that this has something to do with the Anniversary of Rafik Hariri’s assassination on Valentines day the upcoming February 14 (yes, the heart tipped me off). But I could be wrong. Any guesses?