From Aleppo to Beirut with PEACE

The devastating explosion that happened in Beirut this month reminds me of the disastrous incident in Aleppo's University. Seeing all massive destruction, injured people, and dead bodies create flashbacks of January 15th when I got injured at the Aleppo University Massacre. I still remember that day in all its details; the enormous deafening noise of blast with tons of shrapnel flying robustly and fast towards a significantly large radiant from the explosion center. Although the scar on my thigh of my injury that day is healing, my heart's scar never heals. The first day of our final exams at Aleppo university turned to be a withering day for students, their families, and Aleppians. As the destructive explosion on August 4th turned to be for Beirutians.

The similarity of the two incidents brings tears and heartbreaks to me. Remembering how families were looking for their kids in every hospital, many bodies and organs were strewn about everywhere, blood smeared all over the streets, with strewn debris of buildings and cars. This scene makes you look small to life and human beings' abilities, thinking that I could have been one of the scattered bodies waiting for identification. I remember my mum running into the ghosted streets running over the shattered glass and broken stones to check on us. As hundreds of mothers trying to make sure that their kids were safe. The massacre obliterates all the happy moments that we ever had. The smashed building crashed cars, and ruins outside were not far from the pulverize of our dreams and ambitions that day. Staying in bed for a month waiting for my injury to heal helped me creating a character and developing an entirely new perspective will not be developed at this early age for a sophomore student.

Beirut always has a soft spot in my heart, as my father studied there and used to take us for sweet familial vacations to introduce us to his study corners, his favorite lunch place, and daily routs that he took from Altibeh, Where his flat was to Sodeco, where his campus is located. Beirut was the city that witnessed my VISA hustle and the place where I took my first flight to the western world.

Aleppo and Beirut, the two authentic cities rooted in civilization with a long mutual history and interchangeable culture. From the "Auto Métrées" that Linked the two cities in the 1950s with fancy cabinets transporting people between Aleppo and Beirut, to the banking renaissance in Beirut after the immigration of Aleppian bankers to Lebanon as a result to the nationalization of the Syrian banks. Unfortunately, the two cities also shared the same devastating destines when Beirut sheds glass Aleppo sheds tears. Aleppo's merchants' heroic response to rescue Beirutians was immortalized in a poetic epic folkloric song called "al Rosana" to describe the rooted relationship between the two cities.

My heart goes for Lebanese people as I completely understand the horror of the calamity. I am reminded of a saying in Arabic that says, "Do not try to describe the massiveness of your pain to others, the pain will not be understood by who never been through it." I feel the grievous situation that Lebanese are going through as I have witnessed a similar tragic situation, but I surely know that Lebanese people will be able to shake off the catastrophe's eeriness and stay put and rebuild!

Kudos to Aleppo! Kudos to Beirut!