Campaign “Big Blue”: Hopes for Cleaner Shores
The Lebanese Ministry of Youth and Sports launched Sunday for the fourteenth year "Campaign Big Blue" for cleaning the Lebanese shores.
The campaign was launched after all participating scouts organizations marched towards Ramlet Al Bayda shore in Beirut, in the presence of a number of figures including ministers and parliamentarians.
Of the participating scouts organizations were the Girls Scouts and Guides Federation, Rissala Scouts, Al Mahdi Scouts, Progressive Scouts, Future Scouts, Muslim Scouts, Lebanon Scouts, Trabiya Scouts, Jarrah Scouts, and Orthodox Scouts, were each presented their marching arts and musical orchestras.
Al Mahdi Scouts' musical orchestra was surely to be the most prominent of all, which gave it the honor to launch the event by playing the Lebanese national anthem.
The Lebanese National Anthem was followed by a group of speeches praising the event, and congratulating all those who made it happen. PM Saad Hariri, sponsor of the event, excluded politics of his speech and focused on the importance of participating in such an event, which is capable of maintaining the Lebanese patriotic atmosphere for the benefit on the country.
Minister of Youth and Sports, Ali Abdullah, praised "the piece of art" which his ministry along with other organizations achieved, promising that with the cooperation of the government and youth organizations, his ministry would continue its cleaning campaigns.
"Campaign Big Blue" is not only scheduled to be in all Lebanese shores from north to south, but it spreads along all shores of the Mediterranean Sea, including Egypt, Syria, Palestine (Gaza), and Cyprus.
The surprise of the event was the startling presence of the Lebanese President, Michel Suleiman, who on his behalf particularized Palestine saying, "In the memory of Nakba (catastrophe) day, people in Gaza and Palestine stood beside each other, and we should then cooperate with them and stand beside each other to support them". He also added that we should cooperate in order to achieve a better and healthier future for all Lebanon, starting by cleaning our shores.
Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Municipalities, Ministry of Public Work and Transportation, Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Education, the Lebanese Army, and many other organizations and associations took part in making this campaign happen.
The campaign presented along two projects under the names of, "Big Blue 365", which aims at organizing shore-cleaning campaigns throughout 365 days of the year, and "Blue Cop", which aims at shore- controlling and monitoring, in addition to protecting living being in the sea.
Ali, a Lebanese American University student, came along with a group from his university to participate in the campaign. In an interview with moqawama.org, Ali said that his patriotic intuition and his love to Lebanon was what made him come, stressing that the patriotic presence does not mean anything unless one takes action, hoping all participating organizations would realize that as well.
It is clear that people have the energy to work on what might make their country a better place for future generations, yet they are not always met by cooperation and acceptance. All participators hope that this campaign would continue, and not fade away like other promised campaigns, so they would help in achieving what is always said: Long Live Lebanon!
