to his hand with the hand apiece. it means he has accepted her hand in marriage. and the week long wedding ceremony begins. it's traditions like these past down for generations. that face an imminent threat. there are fears that if the government doesn't act, the city will eventually collapse. but people here hope their city traditions and culture will continue to live on. malik, trainer al jazeera co guns. ah, as take you through some of the headlines he anal jazeera now. china says it's agreed to work more closely with fiji as foreign minister. wang ye continues a diplomatic blitz across the pacific at a trade in security agreement with 10 island nations you to be signed on mondays been shelved tens of thousands of flag waving israeli ultra nationalists of march

through the musto quarter of occupied east jerusalem. the provocative flag day march celebrates the occupation of east jerusalem in 1967, some chanted racist slurs and fought with palestinians, grieving parents in texas of called on joe biden. to do something about gun control . the u. s. president promised he will act after visiting the school where 19 children and 2 teachers were shot dead last week. those i had lies. the news continues after generation change bay route. but before that, we leave you with memories of sharina barclay, the voice of palestine, and the sara media network continues to demand a rapid, independent, and transparent investigation into her killing. me the no, no, no, no no, no, no,

that on this which i don't need to be here with the mac. and i mean when you get to me, i can also you can just get a message. can you open that at the home? and yeah, today and we're going to be, you will be set up, will be sent to me i'm a lot of different from other possible give me one. i know. i mean, i mean i shooting off the edge of the

oh, well come to generation change a global series that attempts to understand and challenge the ideas that are mobilizing you around the world. i'm lunar stuff on an independent journalist. they say lebanon, where jonesy, campaigners are fighting for radical change. a challenges they face couldn't be more daunting economic collapse political stalemate, social unrest, and the devastation caused by august 2020, to close on. here and being in this episode, we meet 2 young people using their skills to come back decades of corruption and fix ariana's. they believe a total with that is the only way forward. oh

oh in can you tell me a little bit about your childhood and be rude? were there any specific moments or events that saves your political activism? the early part of my childhood was not really influenced by politics, but oh, i grew older. gradually, i'm interested in the boonies. my numbers, however, also important lots of the ideas and concepts that were created by the been running close in terms of the secondary and connotations. of the crisis so at the end of the day,

we're all currently products of the society and the general ideologies and soon by the regime. but i got exposed to various other ideas, movement groups that try to deliver an alternative vision for what the country may be, as opposed to what i learned to be as a child. or why do you seeing that the settler club as and pointing and will it have some kind of effect outside the cult of lebanese universities? as like, i love the started as a socio cultural clinic and space for students to know more about politics and the various developments happening. and think of students as a social group. and this group had to have economic interest which had to be protected. whether it's leaning on who dition the buttons against the administration to protect student freedom or, and needing long tuition strikes, which protected students' rights there is one

song and $1019.00. it was basically the youth student component of your former 17 opposing. but it also transformed into a force which is able to impose a certain, the sports on the lebanese landscape. are you optimistic that their mother network will emerge as if, elliptical movement and lebanon? now, the way i see the movement riggs already will be the movement. the not right housing, expensive social base and then has taken the grassroots as a strategy. it has thinking the idea that it should be creating a counselor, had yamani and challenged most like they're in parties, ministers based on the various other forces which of these places and as are re forward. and i think that's what makes it a political movement. and

as the you generation that was born and p site, but in 2006, this changed for you. yeah. can you tell me a little bit about dots o, as in lebanon during the 2006, florida, during the summer, i was about to head for the key, but also i took it in and i understood even when i was told that narratives impact the public opinion but it was really during the 2014 goes away when i was entering as a major news organization, look, i understood the weights and the importance of accountability, journalism and independent journalism. so that towards the road that i took in my career oh, them on, on witness a suze of protests in the past 2 years from 2011, 2015. and then the big 2019 approved that. what was the role of the media?

and lebanon, the needs are owned by parts, is in groups, and put it to good qualities, which are the political class. that's a lot of people. and the protest movement rose up against at the hearts of corruption. i enabled ers, which are the mainstream media. this information is the illustration of corruption in narrative and ideas. so it's really important for me to focus on the needs a narrative and also counted it through investigative work. so with the independent me, the organization i worked for, i took on the daily news reporting and covering her violations against protesters. the fruits as that were happening all over the country. there were media black out, so we were the ones who said lights on what was going on in a way that most he needs it means to me did to them there has been an increase in attacks on journalists and needs. l workers is freedom of speech and danger,

and lebanon in your opinion. i think freedom of speech right now as going through a specific kind of challenge because of social media and the government's use of social media, who intimidates people into self censorship. we need to speak against that, whether or not the intimidation is there. and i think a lot of independence means that workers understand the stress. and they understand that now is the time to continue with the accountability. journalism continues with open source investigations in order to uncover the status quo and to dismantle it completely cut in as that. thank you so much for being with us here today. your generation did not really witness the civil war in lebanon. however, everyone husband's card in the country may be through our parents or through stories that we hear. now i want to start with,

you carry him. how did this shape your political activism in the country? no, although with an experienced the civil war, we were taught or inherited the narrative about no sector in conversations, even forms of heroism in all people that we were supposed to think of very highly. at the end of the day, we also formulated a counter narrative. the idea that we are trans, something this memorial and transcending the sector and connotations which exist alongside of it. and this is something we're currently working on. what about you? i'm so i also have a kind of unique, a bringing as my parents are both from secular background. so i had this angle that i got from my parents while understanding the trauma that they live through during the civil war. since it's an inherited intergenerational trauma and wanting never to have this happen again. so this was basically my viewpoint going into politics going into activism and going into journalism as well. so,

is your generation more radical, getting more uncompromising in a way we were thought for a long way to lebanon, that this is the country? these are the relationships that exist between the ruling class and the people between the people themselves, between the various political factions which exist in the country. as we're suggesting that there is nothing static about them. lebanon is always in the dynamic transformation. and we're here, you know, experiencing another dynamic respiration which going about after october 17th, which can about after the august for exclusion. we do thing that we have the agency to create the vibe, or they'll turn up if i say, what are the ways in which you can implement such change in your opinion. i think that we learned a lot from what's happening around us since they're so called arab spring and what people are age as when we're able to achieve not only in 2011, but also in 2019 with us across iraq, algeria, sudan, and, and swear, and we learned from each other about tactics and futures and his cities that we

want to work together towards getting your, the chair of the political working group of the meadow network, which connect secondary clubs across universities in lebanon, canada transform the student activism into any, some lights political movement in your opinion. well, i think the florida already the case in the sense that the network is established and more than 12 to 13 universities. this suggests that there is potential for genuine competition between secondary progressive components in the mini society against a more sectarian, a reactionary components which have existed. historically, the secondary clubs are in the mother network and not only calling for secretaries . and they're also calling for a wider progressive package that also deals with social justice, more democratic inclusion. ideas pertaining to include deliberated from the norms

which have destroyed their society. so we're not an distant ideological group. we are part of the society you are speaking to them with their basic needs. how can you actually convince people who might be even older than this generation to vote outside the scope of their sects, when you have 18 facts and lebanon. when you have political parties that are based on their sex and that are not based on merit or even deep politics, the problem was tackling such a question is that we need to tackle it through it which his client, amazon can someone, though it's for political fact they're also voting for the ability to get a job to be able to get, to get in a school, to be able to get social welfare and all of these things that are tied to sectarian political parties. so really thinking about getting people to vote outside of their sectarian loyalty is we need to also be cognizant that we are telling them to make themselves vulnerable to

a reality without the associate protections and the political protections that a mainstream political party would offer them. so this opposition movement should have a certain i'll turn it is and realistic solutions to the sectarian times in the 6th system that has been ingrained in every institution and every parts and parson of our life. so what you're saying basically, is that nonsense, very, an opposition groups need to compete with these long last thing and political parties by proving that this is not the way. so actually, and this was a very interesting phenomenon that's happened after the august 4 albedo blast people came together from across lebanon and forums, networks of solidarity and financial and collaborative. certainly there is in networks that don't mimic the same authoritarian client in

this thick structure that we're so used to getting the government would say that they are attempting to tackle corrupts and in lebanon with establishing an anti corruption committee. and, and you law, tackling corruption in the country. what's your opinion on that in lebanon, particularly the term corruption is basically, and potentially immune, particularly when it's anti corruption. because the issue in lebanon was not just corruption in the sense that, you know, we have some interest being distributed within state sectors. it's a very structured and systemic issue. we have and has been amplified as the ninety's. we have a run based economy that is completely based on monopolies, the banking sector plus the re, the state sector. we have a sectarian system which completely distributes all ministries, all as for use that have come across after the war. we have enlarged that we have a lot of the social and economic inequality. no productive sectors which produce anything. and we're simply living the remnants of an extremely amelia brewed and

unfair economy. so people that are saying we want to fix corruption, but don't even want to fight back the interests of the oligarchy and the banks. then we can't really trust whether they're actually fighting corruption. so as long as this is at stake, there is no such thing as anti corruption. i sat on august, 4th, 2020 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded, embattled, causing damage to the whole city. can you tell me what happened on that day? so i was in the office, i had a work call in the middle of it and then 6, so 8 happened. and then i felt a tremor that took me back and forth. and i hadn't realized what had happened. but i heard the noise of a huge explosion, and i saw that everything was destroyed around us. our colleagues were really close to the windows, and we were trying to figure out if anyone was injured. and because my apartments in my office were right beside each other, and i could see complete destruction of my apartment because this was an office for

an independent media organization. some of our videographers took their gear and they went down to found the carnage. it was a complete massacre. it was something that i think no one wants to live through again or ever would have gone to kennedy once. i heard the explosion and i felt that everything was shaking the 1st thought. the games are mine. as of this it's, i also was quite frightened in the position i was in because i felt maybe the building could collapse at any moment. so it was extreme uncertainty about the next 30 minutes after i was out and took my car. i notice that people are injured everywhere, so it was a huge catastrophic moment in which everything norman, in our lives was host. i say you mentioned that you in an office working with an

independent media organization. did you manage after that to resume your work directly? i think what fueled us to continue and to actually double down on our reporting and on our coverage was our anger towards whatever happened and whoever were responsible. so this could be seen with our investigations with our daily news coverage and trying to piece together what's happened. why was there a fire? what's blew up before the ammonium nitrate? where was it exactly and which warehouse i was able to look at. ok. this video a 2nd on the roof of this building, and this time, this enabled me to actually piece together something so that i can know what's happened because the anxiety of not knowing was worse than the executive. what's happened after $15000000000.00 is the number estimated when we talk about the

damages that were caused by this explosion. there are so many alleged accusations that corruption reached aids. where does corruption and carrying the aid as thus have them of the answer to corruption. because thieving this regime with more funds or theory by the international community with only mean to it's reproduction and safeguarding its own basis, the solution is in us is in the hundreds of thousands of people from various social groups and monroe's and sex. who believe if they mobilize and create the differences are solidarity. this could potentially create an advocate resistance in the region. but there is no certainty in sites, but there is always hope cream. can i just jump in here? when i look at are i understand corruption. it isn't just and i like an

institutional governmental perspective, but if there is corruption, one place it's probably tied to corruption elsewhere. when megaphone used it an investigation about the origins of the ship that brought them on united states to the bay to its poor. there were tied to syrian russian firms with addresses in london, so corruption is the globin. now i think when we want to understand and to fight corruption, we need to think about it as a system of solidarity. that is, boy dallas, at the same time and collaborate with independent media organizations just like the panama papers have done to uncover money laundering scandals across the world. i think there's only really important what she said, but there was also something or a term for size on based on this that had been, is regime is tied to international and global interest which sustain it. now that

is something to critique, but it's also something to look at and slightly so be inspired from that. if we do break these links or if we do create alternative links across borders that good or multiply the strength of our movement. and potentially, we could benefit from a, an alternative international network of people who think this way. and that's how we can create alternative power in the country and ultimately replace the current regime in site. i mean, cream. just looking at the protest starting tactics from the 20 october 2019 protest movement. we learned from hong kong, we learned from turkey, we learned from sudan. and then again in may 2021, the george floyd protest. i said lebanese activists helped or created a guide for a black lives matter activists in minnesota in order to help them in terms of

distance. he help where's tear gas? so this solidarity doesn't just transcend our fight against corruption, but also our fight against utter authoritarian regimes and oppressors. one of the so many challenges that the country is facing an integration or brain drain, many of the young generation are leaving for good. i mean, you mentioned that you're a part of the meadow network, which is connecting different secretary clubs that the protests are kind of on hold right now. how do you motivate people and how do you revive these events and this chiefs? not many people have the luxury to go else. a lot of people are stuck here in the sense and they have no choice but to fight back for these after the august for explosion, when the people basically occupied martyrs where they were and saying, you know, let's make some calculations and see if we can afford this or that they just went, sometimes we assume that the people emigrate than they don't have her own. but this

is a huge fantasy at times, the lebanese regime benefits from the by a score they benefits from the fact that we're gonna export every one. and then they'll give us the money so we can sustain ourselves. the opposition has a reality. the reality is that people are outside. how can they benefit us? well, most of organization and mechanisms that can mechanisms are becoming online as dressers, movements. so people can take part in meetings and sharing ideas and talking to people and getting heaps of people to vote. so that's all about tracing alternative networks by using the diaspora that was exported by the regime itself. but also kareem, i think as opposition groups or as students or union organizers, we need to learn to radicalize our hope for the future, which we saw on the streets in the beginning of the 17 october 2019 protest movements. people were coming together and dancing cooking together, singing together trading things with each other. and these are in form of systems,

relationships and trades that had never been seen in at least downtown, bade woods until before itself, the civil war. as that, we do know how media is monopolized in lebanon, how it's tied to private businesses, to politicians. how can you change that? so 1st, i think we need to recognize that 12 political family's own, at least half of the mainstream media in lebanon. the other half is either owned by business men, by individuals politically affiliated or by specific political parties. so the control over one, the media, but 2 and most importantly, the discourse and the sources of information is squarely in the hands of those and powered but independence. visa organizations have found ways mobilizing the jess border and becoming important sources of information from the ground. since they

are the only ones that film from the ground, from the point of view of the protesters from the point of view of the oppressed. but again, the independence media needs to work together with a grassroots movements where sort of side to organizations, to bridge together all these things in order to have a sustainable future. when you talk about all of these hopes and dreams, there's a certain component that we need to talk about, and that is challenging. a secular state has been law as a dominant political shade fighting lebanon. now, some argue that they are a state within a state. how do been a secular government with the presence of such parties? i don't think it's even possible to look for genuine the radical reform of the country with the state of the state like husband, which is not just a party that distributes it's an infrastructure of us. they know that south at ports the base and other conflicts in the region,

and it also tokenize is on the causes. now the question remains, how do we resist this? and i knew also have an issue with those who proclaimed to fight against has below . and in fact, they only tackled as of allah from their own sectarian point of view. it was never a progressive starting point. and that's something that's extremely necessary. they want to go a step forward, but isn't that challenging? because has been less as that they are present to defend delivering these borders. the only way to tackle such a permeated nib state as well as to recreate a new narrative. it does not mean we have to concede hezbollah at all. in fact, that's a big mistake. many opposition parties are doing. we need to continue creating this counter hedge of money from a starting point which is secular, progressive and insularity with all of those oppressed by his mama and by not has

more. yeah. so is there is face for optimism and a country so complex like lebanon, that the weights for the 2022 elections or some kind of change. there's never pessimism or optimism. there is a complex reality as you said. and this complexity in of itself gives us hope because was happening this year, may not happen 3 years later. but the 2022 elections cannot be seen as a breakthrough. it can only be seen as of today. however, many other breakthroughs await, because at the end of the day saddle had it in october 29, 2019 was not taken out. and then actually it was taken out by the streets and the street could reinvent itself as does that when his regime. so i agree completely with cream and saying that elections is, it's not a means to an end. i think,

organizing through syndicates, through clubs to students, unions and across identities and sectarian loyalties is really important. so are you going to be the generation that finds a solution for this ongoing crisis and lebanon? i don't know. that's a lot of responsibility for a generation, because i think our parents thought they would be that generation. and i think their parents thought they would be that generation. so maybe i will listen. i actually think there's no such thing as this. you know, one time change in the country, lebanon, 200 years ago, was the, from the lebanon today. and social movements always existed and pressured in a certain direction. so i think each generation made this contribution and we're here to make our modest contribution and to see what comes ahead of us. that's it

for this episode of generation change from lebanon. katie mazda, thank you so much for taking part. it's been a very enlightening conversation. thank i saw an official airline of the journey with

mm. pool an issue and i know the journey. ah, this is al jazeera ah, hello, i'm adrian again. this is denise, i live from doha, coming up in the next 60 minutes, handshakes. other agreements in fiji, but china's economic insecurity deals with pacific nations fails to take off more western support for ukraine. the french foreign minister is in cave.