Two years in Al-Binaa ….towards renaissance

Written by Nasser Kandil,

Today we completed two years in our experience in Al-Binaa in its new form, the experience is not a traditional professional work, Al-Binaa is a front line in the war’s front, a factory of thoughts and visions in the heart of the nation which is exposed for the tests of putting together and dismantling to prove its historical unity and protects its geographical unity, within burning flame that re-smelts its entities and re-composes them trying to break up the fragmented and re-dividing the divided since Sykes –Picot a year ago, after it was proven that the national choice has not been defeated despite the unity of the nation into entities that we know, and after it was proven that this division was not enough to kill the national spirit and the national project, So Al-Binaa cannot play the game of art for the sake of art or the game of press for the sake of press within this volcano, and while it wages the battle of proving the presence of the nation, it cannot ignore proving its eligibility in the presence, since it has a cultural efficiency , and a source of knowing, it must prove that the people of the renaissance master the culture, art and the life’s values and that they are capable of making a modern newspaper.

We have tried during two years to be always on the front line, we have overseen the barricades of intellectual, cultural and strategic engagement, we anticipated the enemy in fortifying the defense,  setting up ambushes, and forming earlier warning points which may be missed for many to recognize at that time, we have tried to be the loud voice of the martyrs who are writing with blood the biography and the fate of our nation and our people whatever were the different formulations of the concept of the nation among the components of the resisting team, which Al-Binaa has taken over the responsibility of being its mouthpiece and gathering its writes and forces on its pages, there were many  important writers and various prestigious penmen wrote on its pages, it has hosted a lot in its dialogues, excelled and anticipated in its articles, editorials, titles, readings, translations, information, moreover it has fought the culture of strife and insult, opened the door of dialogue with the rivalry, opened fire on treason, treachery, sectarianism, denominationalism and the blind tribalism, it has opened new doors in the written press, moreover it has formulated innovations and shaped skills, it has done so, for more than six hundred days tirelessly with an enthusiasm and passion , with capacities that are not enough for issuing a monthly magazine, it will continue doing that because it believes in the validity, eligibility and the need to do so.

The persistent and the exceptional contribution of Al-Binaa has coincided according to the testimony of those who love it or those who do not, but witness in favor of right, with the impressive presence of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party in confronting the threats and the challenges of the war which is wages against Syria, it is the decisive war in the course of the nation and its entities, so the nationalists as well as Al-Binaa have occupied a distinctive position among those who occupy the forefronts faced lines, the word of Al-Binaa got the spirit of its life from the blood of the nationalist martyrs and their brothers in the Islamic resistance, as well as their friends the soldiers and the officers in the Syrian Arab Army. As the blood of the martyrs was humble as the ink of Al-Binaa was humble. With the shyness of fighters, both of them have presented its contribution without noise or finery at the time of show and exaggerations. Neither the nationalists have embarrassed any ally by talking about their sacrifices and their presence, nor Al-Binaa has embarrassed any ally or friend by a request of distinguishing on screens or platforms that affect its decision, nor has lamented for not promoting its articles and titles in a gesture that shows their interest in it, nor demanded a financial support which other may have bestowed, so it does not measure its relationship with the ally or a friend according to this standard, it did not insist or embarrass by demanding an information or a document to strengthen its stats by a dialogue with a referential leader outside the assets and the rules which he applied on his relationship with the media, therefore, it has made its status as the martyrs silently and quietly with light pressure on those whom it interested in, hoping to feel later according to time chosen by its allies and friends  themselves how much they are interested in it.

In the first year the challenge of Al-Binaa was to be a successful professional newspaper that enriches its readers and adds at the same time to the battleground a gun that became a cannon then a qualitative weapon in a war which the media constitutes its first arena, in the second year the challenge became that Al-Binaa must prove its eligibility of confidence that gains tens of pens and media on its pages and to be a platform for a dialogue between the components of the resistance axis on one hand and between its opponents on the other hand, but as the same time to distinguish the rivalry of the hostility, thus it becomes a war tool between the nation and its enemies on the other hand, to compete itself and to surpass it  through its titles its main article and interpretation of many complicated events, to be proactive of what is more complicated, it was the first and sometimes the only newspaper in drawing choices in which the events have occurred in coincidence, it did not deliberately flaunt of itself, it has neither fallen in the passion enthusiastically  by drawing artificial tracks of optimism, nor fallen in the in the rude language or has lower itself to insult. While in the third year Al-Binaa wants from the nationalists to be far from being proud of their Al-Binaa the newspaper which they read daily, quenches their thirst for what they wait from a newspaper every morning, to write in it to express through it its regions and people, and to achieve the partnership between them and Al-Binaa  according to what surpasses love, appreciation and caring of the nationalists party, thus Al-Binaa becomes a daily companion in the nationalists’ community according to what suits the partnership of blood and ink, including deeper and farther than being  mere their newspaper, but to be their weapon which they do not abandon, on the contrary they adhere to it in the confrontation arenas, they are waiting for it every morning on their advanced barricades in the battlefields, share their coffee and breakfast, giving them the vision for understanding and explaining what has happened and what is happening, furthermore, it gives them the spirit, will, and the determination  of Al-Binaa in order to be the active force in formulating what will happen.

Our oath to Al-Binaa is to continue no matter the capacities get narrowed, we will remain dreaming of developing what is in front of our hands before it becomes at your hands, because we always believe that with the same dough, it would be possible, and still possible to make better prettier and more delicious bread, this is our understanding of the festival which is held by the “ the sons of life” on the first of March in the birth of the leader Anton Saadeh, they promise him that they will remain involved in the renaissance which he launched and has deserved its leadership, to make the nation of the great patience worth the great victory which suits it, thus to be part of that power which if it did, it would change the course of history.

Translated by Lina Shehadeh ,