By Taleen El Gharib | Junior Editor of Local News
Just last week, Minister of Information Ziad Makary revealed that the National News Agency (NNA) fell victim to a robbery, where a portion of the national archives containing news items and photographs dating back to 1961 was stolen from the agency’s headquarters. Authorities informed that an investigation is underway to locate and punish the group of individuals who orchestrated the robbery.
According to journalist Kareem Chehayeb for AP News, the state archives are kept in a building on Hamra street that “houses two ministries, across the street from the Lebanese central bank, and adjacent to the heavily-guarded Interior Ministry that is in charge of security in the country”. The robbers still managed to break in and make away with a portion of archival material and five computers, making it “a crime of national proportions” according to Makary.
The existing material pertaining to the Lebanese civil war and the archival items that the NNA has housed since it was founded in 1961, just like the individuals residing in Lebanon, are suffering the consequence of governmental negligence and corruption. While the robbery set the media abuzz, it appears that the need to address the issue of the stolen archives and the poor security at the NNA headquarters among other state institutions is not a need “of national proportions”.
As the lira makes record fluctuations and sectors move towards the dollarization of all essential goods and services, Lebanon becomes more difficult for those already struggling to survive. Supermarkets are now pricing their goods in dollars based on the daily exchange rate, according to a decision announced by the Minister of Economy Amin Salam—and medication and fuel prices are expected to follow suit in the near future.
The crisis has also revealed the vulnerability and poor management of state-run institutions and agencies that are now struggling in light of the plummeting currency, and the theft of state archives from the NNA is only the beginning.
The Lebanese government has been an active participant in denying citizens of a respectable future, and now its negligence is contributing to the loss of Lebanon’s past. Unfortunately, historical data has been given little to no attention or care by the state despite its importance. Their poor preservation and disorganized state truly reveal the attitudes of authorities towards treasures of information that are key components of Lebanese identity and heritage.
The insufficient efforts put into uncovering the robbers, protecting valuable information, and allocating resources to protect and preserve state archives is the true “crime of national promotions”. Although Makary claims that there are copies of the stolen portion of archival
material, this does not prevent such crimes from becoming a trend, nor does it facilitate the installment of proper security measures.
It looks like what is left of Lebanon’s documented history will die with the generation that recalls it if the government proceeds with these response strategies to major threats. A threat against Lebanese history is not to be taken lightly.