Cast out the Wicked and Cherish the Virtuous

On the morning of January 25, I received many messages on Facebook and WeChat. Many people told me that the Director of the Consular Department of the Lebanese Embassy in China wanted to contact me. It seems that my post on Facebook the day before yesterday has made a splash.

My post brought a lot of positive feedback, but there was no shortage of bad news. Through messages, I got to know many Lebanese living in China, many of them living in cities famous for trade, such as Guangzhou and Yiwu. I also got to know a Lebanese family, they have been living in Wuhan since 2003. Surprisingly, I have lived here for five years without knowing that a Lebanese girl has married a Chinese man living in Wuhan,and the girl's father was also in Wuhan. Many Lebanese students like me cannot contact the embassy.

The Director of the Consular Department of the Lebanese Embassy in China called me. I told her all the details I knew about the Lebanese in Wuhan and discussed the follow-up solution. Immediately afterwards,the Lebanese ambassador to China also called me and confirmed with me the health condition of other Lebanese. She asked me, “Are you sick?”She could clearly knew from my voice that I seemed to have a cold. I said to her, “This morning I felt like I was sick. But it is not serious, I will get better soon.”

She blamed me for the post on Facebook in diplomatic language. But we agreed that the most important thing during this period was to do our best to deal with the crisis. Fortunately, at least everything had been going well so far. After the embassy got in touch with us, I posted a new post on Facebook, telling those who follow us that everything was fine. However,a lot of media in Lebanon only extracted negative content related to the incident in order to attack the ambassador's political party. This prompted me to post a clarification again, saying that our call had been answered and we had been contacted by the embassy. We categorically reject any political attacks that use this as an excuse.

Here is what I posted on the homepage on January 25:

Follow-up to post about Lebanese citizens in Wuhan.

First of all, today we got in touch with the Lebanese Embassy in China and the Director of the Consular Department of the embassy,and established an emergency response mechanism.

Secondly, there are not many Lebanese staying in Wuhan. So far, each of us is doing well. Wuhan has taken very strict measures to deal with the epidemic, and we, like everyone else, strictly follow the official requirements.

We wish the Chinese government every success and an early victory in the fight against the epidemic.

Thanks to everyone who called, left messages, commented and reposted. Of course, we also want to thank the ambassador and the Director of the Consular Department for communicating with us quickly today. Regardless of the previous situation, I have no intention of blaming anyone. My previous post was only intended to arouse attention to Lebanese citizens stranded in Wuhan.

Go Wuhan!