My name is Karen Karam. I was raised in Lebanon, went to school and university there. I left for London when I was 23 to study fashion design at Central Saint Martin’s school of arts and then stayed there for work, returning after 10 years. I loved London, I still call it my second home. I am proud of being both Lebanese and British. England taught me a lot about how a society works, how rules and structure all help for the advancement of a nation, and how no one is above the law. Coming from Lebanon, this was a bit of a foreign concept to me. I got married in London to a man that I love from an early age, Ali Hallal. We had our first child, Adam, in London. After that, my world changed when Ali got a job offer at the AUBMC. We stayed long nights debating whether we would return or not. As you have guessed, we did. Ali, who is a general surgeon is happy at work and so am I. I am a fashion designer and apparently a blogger too.

All was great in the land of plenty until one day we opened the windows to our beautiful apartment in Achrafieh, only to be overwhelmed by the smell of garbage that has not been collected for the last 10 days. Nightmare! It was a nightmare!

All of a sudden, all the anger, all the frustration of living in a country that was ruled by an incompetent government, a country that has so much potential yet was literally drowning in its own garbage hit me like a tsunami. I felt degraded as a citizen, who not only had to suffer electricity cuts and water shortage, but had to live in garbage now and raise my 2 boys in that environment.

After waves and waves of negative energy hitting me one after the other, I took a decision that I refused to live like that. I decided that if I loved this beautiful land, I should fight for it. This is how I fight for my own country by showing everyone how beautiful and amazing and warm her people are in hope that we will remember what we are fighting for. I want a better future for my family and I know that tomorrow is only a day away, and there is always a tomorrow!

long, live, Lebanon