A protester in Downtown Beirut on Oct. 24, 2019. (Credit: Ibrahim Amro/AFP)
Beirut, the evening of Oct. 17, 2019.The situation was becoming clear in Riad al-Solh Square. The small crowd that had gathered at the foot of the Grand Serail, the government seat, was not there to “protest.”They were not there to demand the removal of the tax imposed on the WhatsApp calls, or to beg for crumbs of reforms.The stuttering attempts at rising up over the past decade had whetted the Lebanese people’s appetite for an insurgency, but also convinced them of the need to go further.This time around, the protesters were here to reshuffle the cards — some had been waiting for this moment for years, while others no longer believed it could happen.Gradually, however, certainty made way for doubts to creep in, and bigger questions to arise:Can a revolution be dictated? Can it be strictly analyzed or categorized? Is it the production...
Beirut, the evening of Oct. 17, 2019.The situation was becoming clear in Riad al-Solh Square. The small crowd that had gathered at the foot of the Grand Serail, the government seat, was not there to “protest.”They were not there to demand the removal of the tax imposed on the WhatsApp calls, or to beg for crumbs of reforms.The stuttering attempts at rising up over the past decade had whetted the Lebanese people’s appetite for an insurgency, but also convinced them of the need to go further.This time around, the protesters were here to reshuffle the cards — some had been waiting for this moment for years, while others no longer believed it could happen.Gradually, however, certainty made way for doubts to creep in, and bigger questions to arise:Can a revolution be dictated? Can it be strictly analyzed or categorized? Is it the...
