I do not condone the concept of self-flagellation since everything we are going through is difficult enough. We we are flogged every day at the altar of this country because of the successive economic, financial, and social crises surrounding us, especially after the tragic explosion of August 4, 2020 at the port of Beirut. However, oppressed people sympathize with each other. It is not acceptable that the oppressed make up for their oppression by oppressing and bullying others, whether they were subordinates, people with special needs, poor, displaced, or vulnerable. This includes female domestic workers, who have suffered severe injustice due to the economic collapse and the repercussions of the horrific fall of the Lebanese pound against the US dollar. Lebanese employees can no longer afford to pay the average worker’s salary (200 US dollars). Previously, Lebanese employees used to earn about three million Lebanese pounds, making it possible for them to deduct 10% of their salaries in order to pay domestic workers. However, two hundred dollars are now equivalent to four million pounds, which exceeds any employee’s budget. Accordingly, foreign domestic workers found themselves helpless overnight, without any salary, shelter, or food. We can go as far as to say that abandoned pets found more people willing to take care of them than those workers, who were wronged by people oppressed in their homeland.
Kindness does not stem from fear of karma, from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or from the laws in force, but rather from humanity itself. All humans are brothers, and every injustice inflicted on those around us only detracts from our humanity above all else.