[-] Pictures
Of War
When
we established ShooFiMaFi.com in 2000, the PICTURES page
was one of 8 major sections developed, and it was populated
with images of the rebuilt and “new” Lebanon, as back then,
it was rare to find any recent images of Beirut online. The
Internet was filled with images of war and destruction, and
we wanted to defy that status-quo and showcase the beauty
of Lebanon and its “new” flare.
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Jump
5 years ahead, and all you see online today is the rebuilt
Lebanon,… even our own PICTURES page has ballooned with hundreds
of photos in all categories, except the war section, which
remained stagnant with only 24 images.
That’s
not necessarily a bad thing,… after all, we would like
to put that painful past behind us,… but to what extent
do we distance ourselves from that painful past? To what
extent do we desensitize ourselves against the death and
horrors of 16 years of war?
Well,
ShooFiMaFi.com believes that we need to revisit these images
of war, not only to remember what the war was like (and
hopefully learn from our past mistakes), but also to stay
vigilant as to what divides us as people, and to appreciate
our new-found unity.
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 Today,
we share with you this comprehensive image collection of the
Lebanese war, in the hope that no two Lebanese will ever hold
guns against each other.
We're
hoping that no two Lebanese would ever justify the destruction
of Lebanon’s beauty for the sake of any “principal”,… and that
no two Lebanese would side with anyone else but themselves. Nothing
was worth that war; nothing justifies the killing of thousands,
the displacement of many, or the erosion of the “Switzerland of
the East” into the "ghost-city" of East and West Beirut.
It
was a war that ended without a reason for occurring in
the first place,… especially that fighting took place
not only within the same religion, but even the same
sect.
Take
a close look at these images, and remember that war is:
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-
 Not
knowing if you’re going to be able to feed your kids;
-
Not
knowing when you’ll get power, water, or any of the necessities
we now take for granted;
-
Not
knowing if that missile will hit your home, or if these stray
bullets are near;
-
Not
knowing if you will go to school next week or the one after;
-
Not
being able to enjoy your own country beyond the borders of
your immediate neighbourhood;
-
Not
knowing if you’re going to live or die;
-
Not
knowing if your parent will be back home after that huge explosion
that ripped through the city when he/she is out;
-
Not
having a normal childhood, and living with acceptance of the
nights being slept under a stairway or in a hide-away room;
-
Listening
to the news on the radio every 5 minutes to know what your
day will be like (… and that’s the “news”, not the “weather”);
-
Reading
under the light of a lantern, and a few years later, upgrading
to a car battery that powers a few neon lights, or turning
on that small generator (advancing it later to a subscription
in the neighbourhood’s big generator);
-
As
a kid, seeing more images of death and destruction than those
of cartoons,… and knowing someone who has lost their life or
that of a family member;
-
Escaping
your town or village with no clue whether you’ll return or
not;
-
Sharing
your home with relatives and friends, because their home was
hit or it’s in the line of fire;
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Passing
by a checkpoint, and saying your prayers right before you reach
it;
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Being
insulted, or seeing your parent being insulted;
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Losing
hope, and not having any dreams or ambitions;
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Standing
in-line to fill-up on water, gas,… or to buy a bag of pita
bread;
-
Dropping
that garbage bag at the corner of the street, where a mountain
of uncollected trash has become a haven for rats and disease;
-
Seeing
people cry, seeing your parents afraid, and at times saying
your last prayers when the shelling becomes intense;
-
Rushing
home when the fighting starts, hearing glass breaking when
the windows of your home shatter, and waking-up to run somewhere
or run from somewhere;
-
Asking
your parents if you’re going to live or die,… asking them why
there’s a war, and asking them if you’ll ever see that childhood
friend again, now that he/she has moved away,… and them, not
knowing what to answer;
-
Asking
why “the Christians” or why “the Muslims” hate us and want
to kill us;
-
Hearing
about the glory of the past and what Beirut used to be like,
but never being able to comprehend; and
-
Being
labelled “Jeel Harb” (war generation) instead of a “teen” or “young
adolescent”,… etc.
War is,… existing, yet not really living. It’s massacres, injustice, and simply
a power struggle,… so let’s never again allow it to take from us our innocence,
our future, and our love for life.
Note:
Few images
might be considered graphic, so don't enlarge an image that you
consider disturbing.
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