A week ago, I was checking out on Baby Ali under the Charles Helou bridge with a friend when we spotted a young man coming out of the station. His clothes were dirty and torn and he look weak and tired. When we asked him what is he doing in the station, he told us he’s been sleeping on the stairs for a week because he fled his parents’ house in Akkar. As it turns out, the young man wasn’t emotionally stable and needed assistance so my friend contacted an NGO who took him in. I don’t know how much he would have lasted living like that but we luckily found him before it was too late. That wasn’t the case for Tawfic Khawan though, an 87 year old Lebanese who used to live under the Basta bridge.
Based on the story that’s being shared online, Tawfic was homeless, disabled after an accident, with no medical security and barely any food to survive on. He always had a small flag that says “and Lebanon remains…” and was trying to join the #YouStink protests in Beirut and light himself up in Martyrs Square but no one would take him here, so he bought a bottle of petrol, poured it over his weak body and lit himself up. This is a truly heartbreaking story and I wish we would have known before about Tawfic and helped him out somehow. I believe it is important to shed the light on these people in need in order to raise awareness and figure out a way to assist them.
A small sit-in was organized yesterday under the Basta el Tahta bridge to commemorate his death.
May he rest in peace.
Tawfic Khawam
Aged 87.
He asked a young man to take him to the martyr’s square but the young man refused, saying it was too dangerous with the protests and the violence occurring there.
Tawfic was homeless, disabled after an accident, with no medical security and barely any food to survive on.
The law 220/2000 states that the disabled are entitled to free healthcare among many other benefits, yet as many other laws in Lebanon, they remain only words on paper
Tawfic lived under the Basta bridge, his only decoration the Lebanese flag with the words “and Lebanon remains…”
He gave the rest of his money to the kids to buy sweets, and then with what remained bought a bottle of petrol. He drank some and poured some over himself and then lit a match.
He had wanted to light himself in the martyr’s square, to show the politicians of this country what it really means to rape their nation. But he couldn’t reach there. He committed suicide alone, on the street.
Tawfic’s death does not just represent the failure of the state. We also failed him.
Yess and you’re all busyyy jelping the syrians out ,giving them jobs .Stoppo giving them jobs ,help the lebanese first
Just saying…
We will all forget Tawfiq by tonight. Do you know why? Because we will all face his fate. We, the Lebanese, will die in the same manner, one by one. We know it. We fear it. That’s why we will forget it for tonight.
We the Lebanese will die one by one, alone, each one of us. The majority of us have no pension, no insurance, no health plan, nothing! We had our young years and they passed us by swiftly with promises. We believed things will get better but they only got worse and soon enough each one of us was another Tawfiq – old, deprived, disabled, homeless and hopeless. Had he known how many brethren he had he would have stayed.
So Tawfiq burns himself but carries a flag: ‘and Lebanon remains…’?!! Well then, fuck this feudal sectarian useless state! It should have said: ‘and Tawfiq lives on’.
Perhaps all those well-dressed healthy and fit Syrians who crossed to Europe are right after all. They seek easy life with benefits. No work no hardships no worry. Now which one of us is the smart? The healthy young men fleeing for European benefits, or the Tawfiq type like us who believed one day they were going to have a decent system? Are you mad?
I, the human, who should remain, last and prosper – not the state, not the system, when all that fails me my entire life! They have failed Tawfiq and his generation. They have failed me and my generation and they are failing you and your generation and the next.
We will all burn ourselves. I myself cannot wait more. Tawfiq had some liras left to buy the petrol. How will I manage?
I only wish Tawfiq had a spoon of Hasan’s mloukhiyyeh, as one last supper.
For Tawfiq:
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We the Lebanese of all sects,
We were born sick
But we love it, that system shit
Command me to be well, Amen Amen
Take me to church and mosque and
I’ll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies
I’ll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife
Offer me that deathless death
Good God, let me give you my life
No Masters or Kings
When the Ritual begins
There is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin
In the madness and soil of that sad earthly scene
Only then I am human
Only then I am clean
Amen. Amen.
(lines from Hozier’s)