The Lebanese Are “unwilling to chain themselves to a house about to be bulldozed”

Nasri Atallah is not impressed with Lebanese efforts to protest the destruction of old Lebanese houses:

Social media is helping organize a bit of a backlash, which is comforting. Thousands of people have joined various Facebook pages cataloguing the perpetrators of this senseless erasing of our pasts. But many are passive activists, happy to like a photo of a crumbling abode on a Facebook page and write an angry comment, yet unwilling to chain themselves to a house about to be bulldozed.

What does it say about us as a nation when there is no general moral outcry. I’ll gladly admit people have more pressing things to worry about, from sporadic electricity to political and economic instability. But what is a country without its history? What is Paris without Haussmanian boulevards? What is London without Victorian terraces?

Nasri uses “Haussmanian boulevards” (see picture) as one of his examples of things that should be preserved. Which is an irony considering that Georges-Eugène Haussman destroyed hundreds of old Paris homes so that he can lay his wide boulevard on their carcasses. This has at the time scandalized many Parisians; historian Robert Herbert criticized Haussman in language very similar to the one Nasri is using today: “The continuous destruction of physical Paris led to a destruction of social Paris as well.”

Most of you know that I think the process makes economic sense. This is why I support Haussmanian projects, and perhaps I’m not the best person to defend Nasri’s point of view. But I do support his plea to the Lebanese to put their action where their mouth is. If you strongly believe in a cause, it is not enough to click away in protest. Physically protesting has been and will always will be the essence of effective dissent.