Introduction to the evening news 08-08-2012

Abou Ibrahim is no longer a kidnapper, and the 11 Lebanese men he is hosting are no longer detainees. The tears that the Lebanese pilgrims have shed today in Aazaz when they met their beloved ones do not reflect their sorrows alone. They are the tears of all the Lebanese people: the tears of the suffering they are enduring to pay off the scholarship fees, buy holiday clothes, wait for the electricity, be stuck in traffic for hours and humiliated at the hospitals’ doors.      

This same pain was the reason behind Abbas Shuaib and his fellows’ tears. It took us a trip to Aleppo’s outskirts in order to realize that we are enduring the same suffering in Lebanon. Abou Ibrahim is not playing the leading role in this story. He randomly became a rebel, a kidnapper and a host. Abou Ibrahim came to remind the Lebanese of their miserable lives and their “amputated” freedom. Abou Ibrahim is the fate that haunts the Lebanese people. He represents the Lebanese government, the parliament, our civil war, the state’s corruption and the egocentric political crew that doesn’t care whether its people are free or detained.         

The 11 Lebanese in Syria have no one to care for them and neither do the other 4 million other Lebanese. But they are there in Aazaz, dreaming of freedom, as hope here in Lebanon has faded away since a very long time. No TV live broadcast can transfer the true face of desperation the Lebanese in Syria are feeling.

For the full LBCI intro, please watch the video above