“Sitting in a restaurant of the select private club Faqra, 1600 meters above the Mediterranean, Zeina al-Khalil takes advantage of the isolation provided by the space.
“The atmosphere in Beirut is depressing, our heads are sunk in reality. Here we feel in another country ”. The press of France Press – the French news agency – starts to tell the world that not everyone in Lebanon is hungry, not all are homeless.
In all regimes, in all countries, in all communities there are rich and poor. The so-called elites. Elites forged with money who do not give up their vacations, the resorts that allow them to isolate themselves from the world. There they are all the same. They all have high-capacity cars, designer clothes, unrestricted food and, for the most part, imported from the most exotic locations.
These “islands” are the perfect hideaways. There everyone is the same. Nobody looks at them, except to confirm that they wear the latest model of glasses or speak for the newest model of mobile phone.
France Press tells us about Lebanon. I can tell you about Portugal, Brazil, Angola … countries that I know and where I found these refuges for millionaires. Away from the eyes of those who were neither blessed by the luck of the inheritance or who did not have the wing blow to enrich themselves.
What disturbs most are not the refuges. Much less the rich. What disturbs is the weak, even inexpressive, distribution of wealth capable of contributing to the development of education, health, and the productive forces of each country. Here, great (and almost total) responsibility is attributed to governments that are unable to promote and cultivate distributive policies.
So that the rich are not forced to hide and the poorest have the real opportunity to join them. No refuges.
*Publisher of the Portuguese edition of Plataforma
