IDP for how long?

Internally displaced persons…Sometimes I reflect and say: we always know how to “name” a certain “kind” of people and we are very quick in “classifying” people. Very often I hear people calling me: “the foreigner” or “the Belgian” and even if I’ve been here for more than 20 years, I will remain “foreigner”. I do not mind, it is merely a statement I make. But what if behind this classification lies a certain degree of appreciation, or the contrary?

My point is: when I say “refugees” or “IDP” do I only “name” them or really classify them?

I surely hope the answer will never be “yes I classify them”. Yesterday night I went up to bikfaya, in the mountains where there is still a school full of IDP’s. They are unable to return to their villages. I talked with several of them and heard heartbreaking stories. Not about houses being destroyed, I mean, of course I hear about this too, but about marital problems getting worse in this chaotic period, about the difficulties couples have to be intimate with one another in public places such as schools, where they live with entire families together in one classroom. Yes they do have shelter, thank God. But for how long will they lead this life? Without a job, without the certainty to be able to go back, without knowing whether they will have to register their kids in Beirut or in the South as schools will be starting on October 9…