Amid an unsettling peace, people bury their loved ones and swallow their outrage

Wherever you look, tragedies abound.

Over a hundred wedding guests in the Iraqi town of Qaraqosh lost their lives in a tragic fire.  Thousands are still missing in the aftermath of Storm Daniel in Derna, Libya. In Syria, thousands lost their lives in the February earthquake. The devastation struck about a third of Beirut in the August 2020 explosion, resulting in 230 lives lost.

Utter passivity is the common thread that runs through all these catastrophes.

The Beirut port explosion and the northern Syria earthquake, for instance, could have been avoided, or at least made less deadly, were it not for this passivity, which covers up endless layers of deep-rooted corruption, a willful disregard for laws, and a legacy of impunity.

Everyone seems to look the other way. Sometimes, they give their unspoken consent. Meanwhile, a deafening silence – and the drone of complicity – rings around the world.

Deep-rooted corruption

As a result, hundreds drown at sea on migration boats or bounce around between refugee camps managed by parties with no regard for human life or dignity.

Many will wash their hands of these events and call it fate. Many will become resigned to the concept that "history will repeat itself."

Take the Beirut port explosion.

The ruling political coalition prevented the incident from being thoroughly investigated. Those directly responsible walked away scot-free and were inexplicably released after their arrest.

This left the public in the dark about how the blast happened, who imported the explosives, and where said explosives came from.

The ministers and officials, who were asked by the judiciary to answer for their actions, were too powerful to heed the calls of grieving mothers for justice.

Instead, political and sectarian interests, as well as the interests of the ruling coalition leaders, took precedence.

The truth is that achieving justice – even in its simplest forms – is impossible in our countries.

The investigation into the port explosion was swiftly portrayed as a "threat to the security of the Resistance" – that is, an invincible armed group capable of violence that goes unchecked. This evasion of culpability has been seen countless times.

An impossible choice

One example was the conviction of a member of the "Resistance" at the International Tribunal for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Scientific and administrative inquiries into how 2750 tons of highly concentrated ammonium nitrate appeared have yielded no information, names or answers.

Transparency never seems to be an option. Why? Because peace is preferable to war.

Allowing hundreds of violent perpetrators to go unpunished is deemed more humane for a country than, say, the resurgence of sectarian conflicts that would ultimately result in armed group leaders once again assuming control over a devastated nation, pummeling the infrastructure, economy and human life itself.

This doesn't apply solely to Lebanon but extends to several Arab countries.

We have accepted that corruption is the overriding force that controls public life. We have accepted that armed violence has become a normal means of survival. We have accepted that judicial institutions are co-conspirators with the mafia.

In the end, people will claim that a smaller number of causalities, resulting from incidents sanctioned by corrupt forces who continuously violate the law, are preferable to a large-scale loss of life caused by armed militias running rampant in the streets.

So, which would you prefer to see? A war akin to the one in Sudan, or a wedding hall engulfed in flames in Mosul?

That's the kind of question a third-party observer might ask, believing that no other options exist.