![]() ![]() ![]() We would invite designers, illustrators, artists, musicians, and performers, and we would have fun. It wouldn’t be yet another monotonous political meeting under a ceiling fan and neon lights. The launch’s aim was to attract a wide range of people, especially young. The idea was to use it as a launch for the campaign and movement we decided to call Mashaa’ (‘the commons’), that seeks to stand against any occupation of public spaces in Lebanon, and to work actively on regaining public spaces specifically along the seashore. It is in this context that a group of economists, journalists and activists met in August 2012, and started preparing for a big event a sort of end-of-summer party. Others chose to act on these frustrations, hoping that they can change things. Some of us, faced with this injustice, grew frustrated, but surrendered by saying ma hayda libnan (‘but this is Lebanon’). We are being forced by developers to pay money to access the beach, even though the Lebanese law – like most countries in the world – clearly states that access to the beach should be free and open to everyone. It was about this time when we realized that the beach does not belong to us anymore. Getting access to the beach can today cost us up to US$40, per person. ![]() In the last few years, things had started to accelerate. Images left to right: (top) view from top of the pool, beach resort in north Lebanon, beach resorts in southern Lebanon, (bottom) Ramlet el Bayda (the white sands) the only accessible public beach left in Beirut, that was also bought and will soon no longer be public. A decade where we had witnessed, all along the coast, new chic beach resorts popping up like mushrooms, with swimming pools and jacuzzis right on the sea, bars and bartenders serving cocktails from inside the pool to the loud beats of techno music. The story of Mashaa began in 2012, in the middle of a hot and sticky summer in Beirut. Here she tells us how the seashore is being transformed and occupied happening and what Mashaa are doing about it. The design she printed on our shirts was one of many that she and fellow campaigners used as part of Mashaa, a campaign fighting to save the seashore as public spaces in Lebanon. At Camp Rajwat set up a stall one night to screenprint T-Shirts. ![]()
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