Dima El Hassan

Lebanon has long been known for its intellectuals, even before its creation as a state. Since the beginning of the 19th century, the area which later became the state of Lebanon witnessed a great deal of intellectual and enlightening initiatives, making it a hub for knowledge and a laboratory for human intellectual advancement and invention. This enlightenment was also coupled with Lebanon’s development in the world of innovation, academia, media, printing, culture and arts. The Middle East’s first Arabic printing press dates back to 1733 in the village of Khinshara, according to the Tourism Ministry. The Beirut School for Girls, established in 1834, was the first school in the Ottoman Empire to educate girls and the first to give them high school certificates in the Middle East.

In the same era, different local and international missionaries began to establish their distinctive educational and medical centers in the Lebanon region, from schools to universities and hospitals. From the founding of the American University of Beirut (originally known as the Syrian Protestant College) in 1866, to the French Universite Saint-Joseph in 1875, to the Makassed Philanthropic Association in 1878, Lebanon as the state for knowledge was well-thought of and formed long before its official creation on Sept. 1, 1920.

Amid such robust movements, a well-educated, “refined” Lebanese community began to be formed, graduating from these prominent academic institutions and gradually building the world’s confidence in the capacity of the people of Lebanon. That confidence expressed itself eventually in the establishment of Greater Lebanon in 1920 at the hands of the Lebanese elite who proved themselves capable of creating and leading a country that is a hub for knowledge in all its forms.

It was not surprising as such that Makassed, for instance, was first established with a main focus on female education among others, since the Lebanese mentality being formed was primarily built on the concept of knowledge being the utmost priority for all, despite their gender or social, ethnic, religious or economic backgrounds and levels.

With such will and determination, “Lebanon the State for Knowledge” became a message to people of the region and the world that knowledge is the ultimate key to the birth and survival of a prosperous modern state able to face great challenges for over 96 years now, and thanks to its intellectual brains be a model of modernity and true citizenship it has also proved to the world that diversity is rather a key asset and not an impediment to the advancement of our modern state.

What we are witnessing today is the destruction of all the endeavors of what our ancestors and great people have long fought for, that is, the creation of a modern civil state called Lebanon, the state for knowledge now and forever, based on the skills, brains and the will of its people.

How can we revive this spirit and give Lebanon back its reputation as the regional center for human knowledge and enlightenment? How can we recuperate the old days prior to the birth of Greater Lebanon whereby the “internal exodus” incites the educated and elite to gather around the establishment and development of a knowledge state, forcing the less-educated to seek employment outside Lebanon, unlike today whereby the “brain gain” is almost replaced by the “brain drain,” making the most educated search for better opportunities abroad? How can we stop the emerging “Lebanophobia,” a term that is currently propagating in the social media referring to the “fear of spending the rest of your life in Lebanon”?

Lebanon has become a complex pool of positive and negative energies, heavily impacted by internal and external factors that we are all aware of. Obviously, there is no one clear-cut solution to our backwardness in the near future. However, a gathered will to revive Lebanon may be badly needed based on an internal national “garage” set by the Lebanese brains who are still unreasonably timid to act and change our dried reality. By this I mean all the academic arena from schools, universities and other educational, medical and research centers the country owes to the pioneer Lebanese innovators and intellectuals inside and outside the country.

Along these lines, and on the eve of Greater Lebanon’s anniversary, I would like to salute a great woman, Bahia Hariri, who unrestingly deploys her efforts to keep the motivation and goodwill spirit among us, notably through her National Initiative for the Centennial of Greater Lebanon, “Lebanon the State for Knowledge” calling upon all national leaders and activists to gather for setting a nationwide workshop to set a national strategy for Lebanon, building on what we want our country to be by 2020. Along these lines, her initiative of highlighting the endeavors of every Lebanese citizen in revitalizing the nation in any way, is highly appreciated, topped by the “Loubnaniyat 2020” program aimed at yearly commemorating the great Lebanese women achievers, proving again and again that women, Lebanese women notably are inevitably the “invisible hands” of every growth.

Happy birthday, Greater Lebanon ... or until we meet again!