A strong nation with a common dream

I remember walking in Beirut, a couple of years ago, on a hot and humid summer day. It was in the midst of the trash crisis, the streets were filled with noxious waste and strange fluids protruding from the garbage disposals. Little kids happened to be playing a few meters away while waiting for their parents to finish their errands.  I stopped for a moment, watching these kids play, bewildered by this revolting scene, how inconsequential it was, as if their parents and our society as a whole have accepted the unacceptable, made commonplace that which cannot be trivialized. To me this was a turning point, the moment in which I understood that our country has gone awry. This image has stayed with me ever since, as I constantly think of our future, the future...