A Nation With Nowhere To Meet

المصدر: النهار

Expressive image

Seif Moussa

For all the rankings a country might hope to dominate, from innovation and education, to sports and tournaments, Lebanon has successfully earned itself a top recurring status amongst the least enviable of lists: the world’s angriest societies. According to Gallup's 2022 Global Emotions Report, based on surveys conducted in 2021, Lebanon recorded the highest reported level of anger in the world. Mental health and sociological insufficiencies are often overlooked in the Arab world, leisurely life is marked as secondary, while the World Health Organization states “There is no health without mental health”. The mental health sector is already allocated a very scarce amount of the frugal overall health budget, which mostly funds psychiatric hospitals, discarding community and psychological based care. With that in mind, Lebanese people have nowhere to resort to in terms of ensuring psychological well-being, making it a luxury for the rich to enjoy. Here is where the Third-Place concept comes in: defined by Ray Oldenburg in 1989, the First Place is home, the Second Place is work, and the Third Place is a neutral, informal public place accessible for people to socialize and build relationships.

A prosperous society is not only measured by a robust economy and lasting security, but also by the public amenities, which is the most feasible way to ensure an emotionally sane population. The Lebanese municipalities have shown their willingness to embark in projects to reanimate their locality, in other words invest in Third Places, but since they lack the authority over the funding, significant projects remain little more than plans on paper. A crucial characteristic for a Third Place to exist is for it to be accessible for everyone, having a negligible entrance fee. Meanwhile the private sector has exploited the government’s absence to capitalize on resorts and clubs, thriving through the limited range of alternatives: either you pay to socialize or you don’t socialize at all! And with the private sector also having a grasp on state properties like most of the coastline and a lot of the riverbanks, the average person is left very few spots to visit without a mandatory

fee.

Right now, the disappearance of Third Places doesn’t just reach people’s emotions, and it doesn’t just uncover social and economical injustices, it speaks of a much deeper underlying issue: Every Lebanese belonging to the new generations has the stories and tales that their parents reiterated every ripe moment etched into their brain, but they never developed stories of their own! Those core memories that wrote our parents’ childhoods are the anchors that keep them so tethered to their country, and their absence in the upcoming generations’ minds deprives them of their patriotic belonging, one cannot be attached to a country if they have no jolly memories in said country. The lack of Third Places is loosening up the ties that bond us emotionally to our origins, making the decision of emigration less of a mental strain.

The time that could be spent socializing and building connections and friendships is instead spent abusing digital devices, endlessly swiping on the media applications, squandering their childhood, hence the new term “Doom scrolling”. The Covid crisis management is a quintessential testament to the ignorance that the Lebanese authorities have for sociological issues: in Denmark, researchers have observed an increasing number of attendances at public spaces due to the authorities acknowledging the necessity of Third Places. Meanwhile in Lebanon, UNICEF and Gallup found that mental health deterioration went up to 20% for the youth. Had there been accessible Third Places to maintain the socialization process, the increase in depression might’ve been mitigated.

Third Places in Lebanon have shifted their essence, from being a public service to metamorphosizing into a public privilege, available only in certain wealthy neighborhoods that deserve them more than the rest. Having places to go and experience what little fun a person could manage to steer their thoughts clear of the obstacles, speaks to the person’s right to live in dignity and esteem.

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