Quote:
Originally Posted by >Watani< 
شو القصة مزايدات؟ مين مسيحيّ أكثر؟ أهكذا تدار المعركة الإنتخابيّة في بيروت الأولى؟
الأرض للرهبنة وحقهم أن يستفيدوا منها كما يشاؤون من يمنعهم؟
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Dear Watani
the issue is not about the fact that it's a church or a monastery that is being destroyed to build a mall instead.... think of it as a normal traditional, 400-year-old, world heritage house being destroyed.....
Does that help u to understand things and put them in their correct perspective ?
the "Wa2f" or religious properties specifically the christian ones constitute an big percentage of lebanon's surface area.... these properties are very important in preserving at least part of the old Lebanon.....the pre war lebanon.....Beirut and all major cities are becoming stuffed like garbage cans.....modern buildings are eating up all major cities ......
I can talk about jounieh for example.....this once beautiful city, lost it's identity,.....u just have to look and compare old pictures with the new ones ........a big part of the few places that remain from the old jounieh are "Wa2f" properties, because it is a known fact that the religious authorities in lebanon are almost forbidden to sell lands, very strict regulations exist in this respect, but unfortunately laws are being broken because the clergy are becoming more and more business and profit oriented .....
the same applies to Achrafiyyeh......this place is characteristic of the old Achrafiyyeh which lost a big part of its identity and plz i am not talking from a sectarian perspective here......
to make u understand things even better ... think about european countries.....lets say germany for example.....in a town where u have a church or a monastery, it is very hard to get a permission to destroy these for the sake of building a Mall ....and u know people there are not sectarian and mostly not religious but it's about the identity and traditional look of a certain place that needs to be preserved ......
No one would mind if this Mall was built in Achrafiyyeh on an empty piece of land......
I Would also like to shed light on the environmental angle of this issue.....would u prefer an nice monastery with some green spaces and trees around or a modern Mall with parking lots ??....knowing that green spaces in Beirut in general are becoming virtually inexistent.....
I salute Mr Nicolas Sehanoui for what he is doing, his interest in this issue is much appreciated.... he and this youth organization are saddened by what's happening to their town, they just couldn't sit tight and do nothing, so they decided to at least take a stand and voice their opinion hoping the religious authorities would just reconsider their hasty decision.....
20th April 2009
