“Vous êtes trop mignon,” was a phrase said to the President of France Emmanuel Macron in a TikTok during his visit to Lebanon as he was walking around Gemmayze being handed gifts and food. This is one of many TikToks that emerged during Macron’s visit but it stuck with individuals due to a woman casually calling the President of France cute.
The trend of Lebanese people valuing Macron’s presence, or the French in general, is one that emerges every so often; such as the petition for Lebanon to be put under the French mandate once more, it collected more than 50,000 signatures. While sentiments of distaste towards the petition was the public opinion, it is important to see why people felt the need to create such a petition. The petition emerged after the August 4th blast when people were trying to find any possible entity that would hold the Lebanese government accountable for the deaths of many civilians. With no prosecutions today, we can see where this desperation emerged from.
Beyond this, why do we, as Lebanese people, constantly look to colonial and imperial entities to be a “saving grace” or place them on a high pedestal? Macron being offered copious amounts of food and gifts goes past treating him just as a “guest” or Lebanese hospitality. There is a tendency to hold onto the image of the white imperialists being the ideal civilized society that we should unpack. The maintenance of the imperial pedestal aids in dividing Lebanese citizens from achieving unity. In his own country Macron is disliked and heavily critiqued, he even gets egged walking down the street. We ourselves are no strangers to critiquing our own government and government officials, yet we do not see the French asking for salvation from other countries. France as a country has always maintained the position of colonizer and has never been colonized, as a result, they have never needed to be dependent on other countries for help. Macron loves to praise the Lebanese people and goes on speeches about how great Lebanon is and how we deserve a sovereign, safe state. This is ironic when we look at the modes of dependency in the form of aid that the French put onto us and how the dependency of development works. Developed countries gain resources from exploiting underdeveloped nations by giving funding to countries under the guise of aid, this results in the underdeveloped countries dependence on the funding to prosper even when the money does not actualize any development; this is seen in cases such as Lesotho. Because of this, no development actually occurs and the countries remain dependent on the rich countries for aid to keep them afloat.
The Lebanese have a long history with imperial western countries whether it be from being under the French mandate or running to the British when the French tried to stay using military force. What is interesting is that during the French’s attempted military imposition they used the Senegalese as their troops. This not only shifted the blame from the French to the Senegalese but elicited a massive racist movement against the Africans. The plea for Lebanese sovereignty is tied into being better than the uncivilized but not to the extent of being on par with the Western entities. We call for help from the French, Americans, and British to aid in our plights but ensuring that we exist at a higher status than the African countries when in reality we are no better.
With the additional propaganda of the great western civilization, Mcdonaldization, diffusion of western ideals through globalization, and gentrification, it is hard not to see the trend of western appraisal. Globally, the western countries have diffused their image of being the standard to reach, from models and fashion, to bureaucracy and education, with the addition of being financially and resourcefully superior by years of exploitation, their image has been etched into stone. The American dream ring a bell? This recurring need to prioritize the west can also be seen with the Lebanese celebrating Trump’s return to presidency and the possible election of Massad Boulos, father of Trump’s son-in-law, as the White House adviser for Arab and Middle Eastern affairs, with billboards having been put up all around the country. Because of these factors, we internally strive for the Western approval, a class we can never belong to but want to be tied into so we instead try to grasp a middle class that is close to their “perfection.”
Today, a common social observation as a Lebanese Christian is the undermining of our Muslim counterparts to try to appeal to the west, namely the French. “Frenchies” in Lebanon exist as a sub entity of the Lebanese who attempt to erase their ties to the Arab part of Lebanon and attempt to create a “white Lebanese.” Simultaneously, they attempt to create a new identity to ascribe themselves to: the phoenician identity, it stands as a more civilized white identity in opposition to Arabs. This group plays a role in the social conception of the Muslim Lebanese as the “wrong” side or the uncivilized side that we keep at the bottom of our social order to maintain that the white west should stay at the top. This has been studied by multiple thinkers, most notably Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism, it describes how the East is constructed, stereotyped, and dominated by the west. With our stand against the zionist entity, the rift between the Lebanese sects have continued to increase and has led to a general uncertainty about Lebanese unity. The “white Lebanese” have turned to beg the French to play a savior role against the zionist entity while blaming their Lebanese counterparts for upholding the Southern border; going so far as to praise Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s spokesperson, for eradicating Muslim majority areas. A big irony here is when we glorify the western states that have a direct hand in the creation and aid of the genocidal entity and blame our own people instead. If we cannot stop idolizing the west as the epitome of humanity the Lebanese will never stand a chance at unity. Lebanon has the privilege of being a diverse country and we should be using that cohesion as the standard to maintain the Lebanese culture, especially when no western entity will differentiate us at the end of the day.
Edited by Edna-Carla Rashid and Amin Kharrat