The Lebanese did not have mercy on their politicians after their capital, Beirut, blew to ashes. Unprotected highly-explosive ammonium nitrate stored at the port exploded and ruined the lives of many.
People have been furious to the core, blaming the government and the ruling officials for the catastrophe. That’s to add to all the frustration and anger at the crises piling up for years due to misgovernance and corruption.
The ruling politicians have been the target of the people’s anger and frustration ever since the October Revolution, the most among them is Gebran Bassil.
Revolutionaries blamed him for his failed pledges, among which the electricity. In Lebanon and in the diaspora, they sang anthems against him. International media outlets did not spare him, more openly so after the explosion.
Bassil is certainly being eaten up by the media and the people daily. Many politicians are. And that’s okay. Freedom of expression.
But what’s not okay is roasting and bullying a 14-year-old boy just for being a son of a politician, let alone adults cyber-bullying a child.
His father’s blunders are not his fault. There is no such moral thing as the sons will pay for their father’s mistakes.
Politicians probably don’t care a bit if people hate them as long as their own self-serving agenda is doing well. Their sins against the people are theirs to account for, and their mistakes are theirs to pay for.
But not their kids.
Gabriel is only 14 and, let’s be fair here, he does not understand what has he done of wrongness to the people to get attacked and bullied.
Now, I’m confused because… what did I do?
Gabriel Bassil
He certainly knows what the revolutionaries think of his father, he said, but he has done nothing wrong himself, and he took to send a video message on social media to express it.
Some, however, accused Gebran Bassil of setting up this video as a last resort for people to feel sorry for him. Also, many made fun of his son’s good English dialect, in comparison to his father’s.
We are talking about adults here taking it on a child.
But, many tried to remind others that he’s just an innocent 14-year old child who doesn’t have anything to do with the political regime.
