We Want

There are no best of all possible worlds. If there were, having the basic fundamentals of existence should satisfy us. It does not. Human nature is such that having achieved the wherewithal of existence we look for more. And more does not satisfy the urge to acquire even more. The more we have, it seems we must continue to agitate for more again. Nothing suffices to satisfy the human appetite to acquire what we feel is required to give us satisfaction; nothing quite does for very long.

We look around us and appraise what others have and if our possessions are not equal to theirs then we perceive ourselves as being deprived. Our local newspaper regularly posts stories of people who have been disadvantaged by society in some way or other. Occasionally the stories do elicit sympathy when people truly do appear to have been short-shrifted by fate or circumstances.

But many more engender a sense of tedious disappointment in perceived human entitlements.

"You don't have privacy. It's the worst thing. You don't have your own bedroom. ...If you want to talk to your friend, all the family (hears) the conversation. The only privacy is in the bathroom."
Zahraa Makki, 24 years of age

In a country like Canada, health care is universally available, subsidized wholly by the taxpayer through government agencies. At the municipal level, low-income people may apply for subsidized housing. There are government welfare agencies whose purpose is to aid people with little to no income. Society wants to ensure that no one is unfortunate enough to 'fall through the cracks', and suffer.

Zahraa's parents, both in their 60s are on disability pensions. They live in a two-bedroom apartment that is subsidized by the municipality. They have applied to the housing registry for a larger apartment, one with three bedrooms. For there are the two parents, Zahraa, and a son, 22 years of age. The young man has one of the bedrooms, and Zahraa must share her parents' bedroom with them.

She has mobility problems and vision loss as a result of having suffered tubercular meningitis in 2006. She needs assistance to be able to perform some routine tasks, and depends on her parents for help in this respect, so it is useful for her to live with them, although she has no income of her own where she can be independent, in any event.

The young woman says she is depressed and she is upset over her lack of privacy. It is awkward to sleep in a room with others; someone may snore loudly and upset the other room's inhabitants. One person may want to put on a night light and read and thus disturb the others. And undressing means alerting others to remain outside while that is being done.

It is most inconvenient. Zahraa uses a walker to help her get around, and a special computer to read to her. She thought of asking the housing registry for a small apartment for herself, but because of her dependence on others to aid her in achieving small tasks, it would be impractical.  Ideally, a three bedroom apartment with two bathrooms would be suitable, she feels.

And one was found, after a long wait. She was excited; it would mean some privacy for her, a three-bedroom apartment, her own bedroom where she could closet herself and do her university homework uninterrupted by others watching television, or talking, interrupting her concentration. "I know I have a roof over my head, but this isn't healthy", she told the interviewer, speaking of the current apartment.

Her father had visited the three-bedroom, two-bathroom townhouse that had become available for them. He liked it, and accepted it. On his return home he was contacted by the housing authority to inform him that it was discovered the townhouse wouldn't be suitable for them, after all. There was parking for one car only.

Zahraa's father and brother both own vehicles. "That's not fair. I was so happy. Now I'm so upset", she complained. Why the 22-year-old brother cannot be independent at his age and move out on his own, allowing his sister to have the bedroom of her own she so yearns for, is never broached. 

How it is that father and brother both own and drive cars, with the expense involved of doing so, yet still qualify for assisted housing is never mentioned. The family had returned to Lebanon in 1994 and lived there for a few years though the parents came to Canada in the 1970s. The parents' five children were born in Canada. And they returned from Lebanon back to Canada in 1996.

Would they have fared so well in Lebanon, had they remained? Zahraa had contracted her ailment in 1996, which might have meant she became ill while in Lebanon, and that this was the impetus for the family to return to Canada where medical attention is assured and free, rather than the wish to evacuate the country during the Israeli-Hezbollah war.

As Canadian citizens the Government of Canada obliged by ensuring that all Lebanese with Canadian citizenship who wished to, were rescued from the country and returned to Canada, even though they had more or less abandoned living in Canada and were content to return to Lebanon. Many did just that again, after the war-hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah came to an end.