Rising Lebanese performer and visual storyteller Rémie Akl shares a raw and revealing spoken word response to the ammonium nitrate explosion that ripped through the heart of Beirut on 4 August 2020. 

Created especially for an Instagram generation, to reach out to those who have begun to normalize tragedy in the Middle East, Akl's video is a searing narrative of pain, frustration and loss of hope in systems that have failed to protect its people. A transcript of the video is below.

Hello, are you happy?

At a time when other countries are studying the implementation of strategies to deal with their economic crisis, our country blew to the ground.

At a time when the aspirations of a girl from my generation in Berlin, Madrid, Paris, revolves around picking up her life again after the Covid-19 pandemic, i sit here lost in fear and instability, because my country’s capital blew to the ground, while sweeping its ashes and with it my dreams.

At a time when there’s a young man out there, marrying the woman he loves, to live happily ever after, there’s a young man here who died a martyr and sunk his parents’ hearts, all because of a government “mistake”.

At a time when a group of friends are bouncing off their weekend plans, to enjoy their summer while they roadtrip around their country, I am spending my weekdays picking up rocks and glass with my friends around Beirut, Gemmayzeh, Mar Mkhael, finding a place to sleep with my friends and wondering if we’ll even make it to the weekend.

At a time when they have a nation, I lack a country.

At a time when they have a leader, I lack a system.

At a time when they have a capital, I have garbage.

At a time when they have a future, I’m collecting pictures of my parents, my birthdays, the past that flew out of the window and onto balconies across the street.

Wake up people.

The problem is no longer that of a corrupt political system imposing itself on us. The problem is YOU! If YOU are still going to accept the situation we’re in!!

Are you afraid? What are you afraid of? Starvation? Are you expecting them to feed you? Educate you? Provide you a better life? Protect you? From the enemy? They are the only enemy! You are your own enemy thinking you need them to live. Understand that you are alive! Instead of providing you jobs and hope for the future, they’re starving you and endangering your life by sending you to war in a country that isn’t yours, to defend a cause that isn’t even yours. Either they adopt a terrorist act that implies an ideology that should’ve been buried a thousand years ago, or keep three kilotons of explosives—I mean “fireworks”—under our noses, killing you and everyone you love. In such a glorious country, I don’t think you’re brainless my brother.

I don’t believe in equality of land, as it is something of their creation, but I do believe in people who see life and want it.

Put your hand in ours and let’s live.

Revolution.