Long time ago, a beautiful big pine forest lived in our city. The forest was for all the people of this land, and the people came to the forest to play and celebrate.
The story describes some of our own struggles as part of a larger historical struggle to keep our green spaces open to the public.
The format of this story was inspired by the Indigenous American book The People Shall Continue by Simon Ortiz. The verse in this story starting with “We are all the people of this land…” and ending with “We are all one body of people” is taken from the book.
Check out this story in Arabic here.
The people of Beirut looked around and saw faces from nearby places and faraway places
From nearby Palestine, Syria and Iraq. From far away Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Germany.
“We are all the people of this land
We were created of the forces
of the earth and sky, the stars and water.
We must make sure that the balance of the earth be kept.
There is no other way.
We must take great care with each other.
We must share our concern with each other
Nothing is separate from us.
We are all one body of People.”*
We shall tell you our story
The people of Beirut looked around at the faces from nearby places and faraway places and said: We would like to share the story of our forest with you our friends
Long time ago, a beautiful big pine forest lived in our city.
(You might have heard of it, It is known as the lungs of Beirut.)
The forest was for all the people of this land, and the people came to the forest to (breathe) play and celebrate. They played under the Carob tree, climbed the strawberry trees and ate their delicious fruits.
Then the Greedy ones came from near and far
They were very rich but they wanted more riches
They were very powerful but they wanted more power
They stole a big part of the Pine Forest, built walls around it
and a house just for themselves.
And our beautiful big pine forest became smaller.
Then the Greedy ones wanted their city to grow bigger and bigger.
They built more and more tall buildings. And more and more big roads.
The Beautiful Pine Forest became even smaller.
One day there was a war in our city and the Pine Forest was burnt down to ashes.
The Forest closed down.
The children could no longer sit under the Carob tree, they could no longer climb the strawberry trees and eat their delicious fruits.
The people of Beirut had enough. The Greedy ones had crossed a red line.
For the forest is for us all, animals and people alike.
“It’s our right to be on this land! It’s our right to be amongst these trees!”
The people were so brave and so determined that they fought hard
to re-open the Beautiful Pine Forest.
After many years of struggle they succeeded.
And the Beautiful Pine Forest opened its doors again.
Thanks to those people, the children of a small forest school were able to come and spend their days in this Beautiful Pine Forest.
The children spent many a lovely day under the Carob tree, climbed the strawberry trees and ate their delicious fruits.
Then one day the Greedy ones decided to close the Beautiful Pine Forest yet again.
And for no good reason.
The parents, the teachers and children of this forest school were so brave and so determined to spend their days between the trees, that they found an Enchanting Forest
just outside their city of Beirut.
The children spent many a lovely day in this forest. They took many walks and discovered many new plants: sage and thyme, pistacia and the marshmallow plant. They played together under the trees, under the rain and under the sun.
One morning they arrived so excited
only to find they could no longer enter the Enchanting Forest.
The Greedy ones had returned, this time with their tractors.
They dug up a big part of the Enchanting Forest
To replace trees with buildings. To have even more riches.
The Greedy ones crossed a red line.
For the forest is for us all, animals and people alike.
The parents, the teachers and the children of the forest school were so brave and so determined that they found a way to return to this Enchanting Forest.
And so it goes. The people of Beirut looked around at the faces from nearby places and faraway places and said: Another day might come, our friends, when we will have to fight again for our forests.
“We are all the people of this land
We were created of the forces of the earth and sky, the stars and water.
We must make sure that the balance of the earth be kept.
There is no other way.
We must take great care with each other.
We must share our concern with each other.
Nothing is separate from us.
We are all one body of People.”*
Now, dear friends, we have told you our story
And you, what is your story?
* This verse is quoted from the book The People Shall Continue by Simon Ortiz
