Re-thinking Life !

Modern cities in the 21st century are defined by “individual empowerment”, “social inclusion”, “economic development”. “cultural prosperity”, and “sustainable development”. The rapid urbanization around the world ( see here ), makes it imperative for cities, as they grow in population, to meet the societal, economic, and cultural needs of its citizens who are growing increasingly diverse. But  you do not have to scrutinize the Arab cities’ ecologies to know that they are conceptually and pragmatically nothing near a modern city as illustrated above. A typical Arab city, let’s say my city Tripoli in northern Lebanon, is underdeveloped, lacks social mobility, individuals are undervalued, has marginalized groups, and the city development is temporal. The marginalization or assimilation of groups in the city is only growing by the day. I have seen this in every Arab city I have visited, with the exception of a few in the GCC. A key ingredient for continuous development is life-long lea...

Last week, we had a visitor from a nearby village in Bekaa, Lebanon. He kept apologizing for  his not paying frequent visits, as the wont with typically Lebanese villagers, because his brother’s wife, Amal, was still undergoing excruciating  larynx cancer treatment in Beirut. Amal is only 19, has a son, and her husband is only 20. The villagers call him ‘walad’, kiddo,  because he got married at a young age. The doctor says that the cancer has spread in most parts of her larynx and that ostracizing the malign cells without killing the healthy ones is getting harder by the day. The doctor says, “ Don’t let your hopes high”.  The listeners hearken at the story of Amal’s ordeals of the invasive, malignant cancer with compassion but not with surprise. In this in-land Lebanese village, and many, many others in Lebanon, cancer incidences are ubiquitous. During  my short summer stay, I incessantly hear about or know of the death of a man, the diagnosis of a woman, or t...

  In broad daylight last week in one of the most consumerist neighborhoods in Lebanon, he incessantly called for help, he pleaded, he begged, he screamed “Somebody get him off me”. “Somebody please!! hold him off”, but none of the 15 grown-up male bystanders next to the victim did a thing. Some kept watching as George al-Reef was brutally beaten and stabbed to death by a vicious manslayer whose only motive for this hideous murder is a dispute over a car path. George al-Reef died in the hospital due to internal bleeding caused by vicious beating. Social media has all sorts of tweet and posts depicting disgust at the crime and blame at the cowardice of the bystanders.This was amplified by the online videos  However, the bystander effect , or bystander apathy, is well-documented in social psychology. However, in Lebanon, it happens that this murder has become a two-tier bystander effect. Frist, let’s start by defining what bystander effect is and if it applies to this murder. T...