Kulluna lil watan

Tagged as: Lebanese, Lebanon, national

Happy Independence Day.

It’s Independence Day, when Lebanese of all reli­gious, polit­i­cal, and ide­o­log­i­cal back­grounds sing the National Anthem. “Kulluna lil watan,” goes the first line, all of us for the nation — and we’re all in agree­ment on that. However the dif­fer­ences arise when we’re asked what that means: Who is this kul­lu­na and what is this watan we pledge our lives to?

Well the Lebanese flag says it all. There’s the red team, which preach­es forg­ing for­ward against every threat, even if it means burn­ing to death. Then there’s the white team, which argues peace above all, even if it means drown­ing into the back­ground. Those are col­ors we see on many flags the world over.

But then there’s the green team. It stands tall, firm­ly root­ed to its place, refus­ing to move come red hell or white water. Kulluna lil watan.