Has God also predestined us to raise the banners of sectarianism and Zua’ma from birth to death? Has he predestined us to lack health coverage? Has he predestined us to be herded by the nose by legislators who fail to legislate and ministers who fail to administer and presidents who fail to preside?

Has God predestined one of the survivors to say that Hezbollah will pay him, as a Sunni, any amount, from a penny to a million, in a subliminal hint aimed at the Sunni Zua’ma to hand him money or else?

Has God ordained that the student population in public schools drops down to 30% as opposed to 70% in private schools? Has he ordained the non-implementation of the master plan for all Lebanese regions? Has God predestined our Mukhtars and heads of municipalities to wallow in bribes and corruption? Has he predestined us to have a caretaker Prime Minister and a Prime Minister-designate? Has he predestined the opulent Economic Committees* to grumble about poverty and to threaten to strike at a time when laborers risk dismissal at the slightest mention of a potential strike action?

Has God dictated inheritance of political power from grandfather to father to son? Has he dictated the squandering of millions annually on dilapidated roads? Has he ordained that we encroach on public properties and deny people access to their beach, unless they were seeking death in the Indonesian waters? Is our desperate longing for water and power supply a God-ordained fate?

Has the Lord written that we should turn disasters into parodies and trip over ourselves to demonstrate empathy toward those fleeing to Australia, in a spectacle resembling a ridiculous and disgust-inducing farce?

Our birth in Qab’it or Aadchit El-Qusair was perhaps maktoub. All the rest, we wrote it ourselves, so let us speak no more.

Jawad N. Adra

* Coalition of business owners.