Heik ha Nishtghil ? (1986)
[This song lists all the ills that plague the nation (then as now).]
My, oh my, what a Lebanon.
Garbage on the streets, airport closed down, car thefts thriving,
"Is this how we're gonna work?"
Roadblocks and militias, racial kidnapping, guns and Kalashnikovs,
"Man, is this how we're gonna work?"
Jobs are scarce, some folks clothed, some barefoot, the dollar rate is rising,
"Where is this leading?"
Violence and ferocity, senators and (parliamentary) seats, massacres and tragedies,
"Is this how we're gonna work?"
Bombs and explosions, booze and drugs, poverty and downtroddenness,
"What a situation."
Garbage & robbery & checkpoints & kidnapping & stories & weapons &
disgust & calamities & slaying & destruction & partitioning &
religious sects & games & waste &
there's no greatness nor power except in God, the high, the mighty. (1)
My, oh my, what a Lebanon.
[A satirical newscast follows, mimicking and ridiculing empty political slogans
and the newscasters who deliver them.]
Every other lowlife wants to be boss, we can't even sleep without the sound of gunshots,
there's a sniper up on the roof of our building, "What is this, you people?"
Videos and television, and waiting for a tone on the telephone,
and isn't it funny that we're still three-and-a-half million? (2)
"Oh, go to hell, all of you."
Every imaginable accident has occurred, fire has reached the neighbor's home,
and repetition teaches the jackass (3), "But not just any jackass."
O God, O merciful one, where's the upbringing and education,
where are the morals, where O wise one? "Where, where is it, where?"
Battlefronts & zone crossings & sniping & lying & electric power outages &
water and gasoline shortage & brutality & shitty acts & racketeering &Â
broken homes & money & illegal substances & refugees in buses &
praise be to God, whom none other may be praised for misfortune but Him. (4)
[Another satirical newscast ends the song.]
(1) & (4) Widely quoted verses from a holy book.
(2) Ironic reference to the last population statistic taken in Lebanon in 1973.
(3) Local proverb.