The Last Man In This Generation Has Gone

“Being a male is a matter of birth. Being a man is a matter of choice”
i.e. it’s not enough to have balls or sleep with 100 women to be a man, it’s how you act in certain circumstances, it’s your decisions, your strong attitude and personality, how you stand for what is right, is what makes you a man!

Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir الكاردينال مار نصر الله بطرس صفير – (Al-Kardnal Mar Naṣrallah Buṭrus Ṣufayr The former patriarch of the Maronite church in Lebanon has passed away on May 12th 2019, before turning 99 on May 15^th (which is today).

I’m not speaking as a Maronite because many know already that I believe in God but I hate men of religions, but I promised to confess when I find a good man of religion and this man was a real man!
So May your soul Rest in Peace!

Lebanese Prime Minister has announced that Wednesday, May 15^th  and Thursday, May 16^th  will be national mourning days over the death of former Maronite patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir and that all public administrations and municipalities and public and private institutions will be closed during the funeral ceremony on Thursday.

It is well known that the Maronite church has always intervened in the Lebanese politics and played major roles throughout the decades, sometimes they were good and sometimes they were not.

Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir is the last man standing in this generation as per my opinion, we had a few good men and they are all gone for good.

Sfeir became the leader of the church in 1986 until he resigned in 2011 due to his declining health, and held the title “76th Patriarch of Antioch and the Whole Levant”. But the reasons behind the resignation are beyond the health issues. They just needed a puppet.

Sfeir was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1994.

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He was a respected power broker during the 1975-1990 civil war, which saw bitter infighting between rival militias including opposing Christian factions.

His backing of the 1989 Taif agreement that brought the 15-year civil war to an end bolstered Christian support for the accord, but reduced the powers of the presidency – a seat reserved for Lebanon’s Maronite Christians under the country’s confessional power-sharing agreement.

Many blamed him for supporting the Taif agreement but he just wanted peace after the brothers were killing each other’s literally!

Why I admire this man? Because he never changed his attitude and national positions, he was a man of his word, about me as a person that was against the Syrian occupation in Lebanon and the awful things they’ve done, the patriarch Sfeir represented me when he refused to bend the knee to the Syrian regime and he never visited Syria!
Sfeir refused to visit Syria during his time as patriarch, even when John Paul II made a trip to the country in 2001.

Many information can be found on Google or else but what interests me is his biggest struggle to end the Syrian presence in Lebanon, which we all thought was impossible because of the divisions in Lebanon.
His outspokenness helped swell the anti-Syria movement in 2000. It eventually lead to the withdrawal of thousands of Syrian troops from the country five years later, in 2005 following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, whose murder the opposition blamed on Damascus. The Cedars revolution has started upon Hariri’s assassination and Sfeir  is dubbed as the father of Lebanon’s second independence in 2005 after campaigning for years against Syrian occupation.

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  14 March 2005

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Today, May 15^th 2019 was supposed to be Sfeir 99^th birthday, oh yes I hope that many will live until 99 but still historical men are always missed! Especially when puppets rule over!
The last man standing is gone, another pillar has fallen, Lebanon is weaker each time we lose such men as history has proved over and over, I hope we won’t reach a day of a full destruction and demolition and then all we can do is cry over the ruins!  

Rest In Peace
15 May 1920 – 12 May 2019

The coffin has been made by Rudy Rahme, a Lebanese sculptor, painter and poet, from Lebanese olive and cedar wood. The coffin is carved on the trunk of an olive tree that bears witness to the history of Lebanon, and edged with brass. The patriarch’s face is engraved on a slab of marble capping the casket.

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Thank you for reading.

Huguette Antoun – May 15th 2019