Economic death

Lebanon, which should be setting an economic and business example for the rest of the region, is instead on the road to economic ruin. There may be numerous agendas for economic initiatives and growth; but actual progress, nil! Nada! Zilch!

An example is the complete absence of Lebanon among the list of 133 countries included in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report. So bad is the situation that Lebanon does not even have the needed data to figure in the report. Syria is on there, as are Burundi and Zimbabwe! But Lebanon is not there. How can that be explained?

This would not be so sad if it did not contrast so starkly with the way we Lebanese view ourselves as the most progressive and open country in the region. We think that we are the most innovative when in fact, we are if not the worst in this regard, well below where we should be.

The economic agenda should be separated from the other political issues plaguing the country. It serves no one for us to be so poorly placed to compete in this rapidly globalizing world. More importantly, we have such a wealth of assets, both human and institutional, which allow us to be in the forefront in the region in innovation, economic growth, financial sophistication, and other important indicators. Yet, we are not and that is largely due to a backward political process that ensures the worst of us becomes the norm.

When will we just say enough!

Jumblat’s desperate summersault

Walid Jumblat surprised everyone with his recent statements regarding his membership in the March 14 political grouping. However, Jumblat’s move is more than a political switch-over or change of heart. It is part of a scheme to blackmail him into returning to the pro-Syrian camp, and the price he is being asked to pay for the return.

Jumblat and his political camp, particularly his Druze supporters, were the ones to pay the highest price in last year’s sectarian fighting in the mountains, spearheaded by the Shia Hezbollah militia. Then, Jumblat was made to understand that his membership in March 14 will continue to cost him dearly, and that he best consider returning to the Syrian fold or at least, to refrain from being an outspoken member of March 14.

Since then, he has done just that, but his return itself would not be cheap. After all, Jumblat was the one to take the most extreme of positions within March 14, particularly in his attacks on the Syrians. One of the deliverables he would need to cough up is what he is now doing: tarnishing March 14 by playing the role of the one who condemns the movement from within.

In this vain, Jumblat is painting a picture of March 14 as having been guilty of sectarian politics, and thus in one blow hoping to give the opposition what they most seek, a certificate of innocence. While Hezbollah and Aoun have been the most rabidly sectarian, Jumblat has come out saying that March 14 were the ones to have been swept up in a sectarian frenzy and that he now regrets he ever took part in that.

Pardon us, Jumblat, but if you feel March 14 was ever a sectarian project (which sect???), then maybe YOU misunderstood it all along. As for the rest of us, March 14 was never anything of the sort. The opposite, March 14 stood against the sectarianism of Hezbollah and later Aoun. Maybe now things are as they should be, after all, Jumblat was always at heart a sectarian animal, having in the 1980s committed some of the worst ethnic cleansing ever in Lebanon’s history. Good ridance?

In any case, Jumblat is free to make the political alliances he pleases to make, or that fit his vision for the country. What he cannot do is pretend that he has some special role as witness on what March 14 actually stood for over the years. As for his belief that March 14 was a “right-wing” project and that he is now returning to his leftist roots, how do Hezbollah and Aoun fit within the left exactly? While March 14 are not leftists, they are certainly more to the left than Aoun and Hezbollah, both of which just below the surface believe in furthering the interests of their own respective sects. In that, Jumblat at least is in the proper company.

Mr lala-land a.k.a. Michel Aoun

Here are some snippets of what Michel Aoun recently said, as he seeks to up the sectarian and divisive rhetoric:

لكن من يدعون الخوف من المقاومة هم الذي قتلوكم ووضعوا لكم المتفجرات

But those who claim fear from the Resistance, they are the ones who killed you and laid explosives for you.

سننتصر في النهاية وسنسيطر على كل الوطن، وسنصبح فئة واحدة وسنصبح الشعب اللبناني فقط. أما الذين يكتبون عنهم أن حاضرهم يخجل من ماضيهم فهم منهم وليسوا منّا

We will be victorious and we will take control of the entire nation, and we will be a single group and we will be become the Lebanese people only. As for those, of whom is written that their present is ashamed of their past, they are of them and not of us.

إسرائيل لن تهاجم لبنان في أي ظرف إلا إذا كانت الموالاة هي التي تحكم لبنان

Israel will not attack Lebanon in any situation unless the current ruling parties are the ones governing.

لقد سمعنا من يقول أن زحلة والأشرفية هي لسعد الحريري

We heard those who said that Zahleh and Ashrafieh are for Saad Hariri.

Israel will attack Lebanon if you vote for March 14, a vote for March 14 is a vote for Hariri, March 14 are murderers and they are killing “you”, and they are not Lebanese. Some of the brainless rhetoric being flung around on the eve of elections.

The only good result for me in these elections is if no one goes to vote in order to send all these idiots a clear message that we are not going to fall for their hate mongering and have had enough. Enough!

We all need to say sorry!

One of these days we, the Lebanese, need to realize that we must apologize to one another for all the mistakes and “sins” we committed against one another as various groups and sects in the country. This is the one thing no one has really ever done. Today, we continue to live out our fears and desire for revenge in our domestic politics. Here are some examples of the things some of us as Lebanese perceive need to be apologized for:

1. The imbalance between Christians and Muslims in the original constitution which favored the Christians sects, and Maronites in particular, for over 40 years until the Taef Accord. This was the main issue that led to the civil war in 1975. For many, this gave Christians an unfair lead which they still enjoy today, especially in economics and education.
2. The ethnic cleansing and massacres committed in the Chouf and other parts of the mountains by the Druze against the Christians. To this day, most have not been able to return to their homes for lack of a sense that they will be welcomed back as equals and without harassment. 
3. The fighting among the various Christians sects in the 1980s which created deep hatred among the various parties and regions.
4. The economic and social policies of the 1990s which are largely associated with Rafic Hariri and perceived by Christians in general of having favored Muslims and Sunnis especially.
5. The massacres of Muslim civilians by Christian militias in the 1970s and 1980s based on their identity cards.
6. The fighting in the 1990s between Amal and Hezbollah that split the Shia down the middle.

These are just some examples which continue to hang heavily over the Lebanese and continue to move emotions. Isn’t it time we set those differences aside and apologized for each other for these crimes committed in the name of “defending the nation” or of a “progressive agenda” or “righting previous wrongs”. We need to realize that defending the nation or moving it forward by improving and reforming our laws can only be done in agreement with one another.

While there have been some efforts made, these have not always been up to expectations. One example was the reconciliation between the Druze and the Maronite church on the ethnic cleansing of the Chouf. Yet, until this day, many people have not returned to their homes, and there are many Christians who do not feel that the reconciliation was complete and only served to provide Walid Jumblat with a political gain.

We urgently need an environmental agenda!

Lebanon’s environment is in free fall and we urgently need someone to pay attention to this. If our democracy was a balanced one, this issue would be at the top of politicians’ agendas. Instead, the environment is almost unspoken of.

In fact, the reason for the lack of attention is a little more complicated. First, as we have still not resolved our national security priorities it is hard for anyone to focus on other issues.

Second, the interests stacked against us in environmental politics are quite daunting. Most established politicians are unwilling to challenge the status quo.

Third, environmental awareness in Lebanon is quite poor, with people unaware of the importance of a healthy natural environment for our long term well being and public health, among other things.

Meanwhile, here is a modest list of the key priorities that require urgent attention:

1. Uncontrolled urbanization and construction
   The general inadequacy of current city planning laws and regulations has meant buildings are going up everywhere at the expense of planning and the natural environment. Other than destroying the environment, the consequences are congested cities without adequate facilities for parking, parks, and pedestrians. In addition, a negative aspect is the aesthetic hideousness of the urban areas, with detrimental effect on our mental health and tourism industry.
2. Unrestricted car ownership and lack of alternatives
   Cars dominate every part of our lives, with the resulting pollution detrimental to our health in the main cities.
3. Unregulated cement, asbestos and fertilizer plants
   The region around Batroun and Sebline have been ravaged by unregulated cement and other factories which have been operating for decades. The dust pollution and the destruction to the surrounding hills and mountains are having a very negative effect on the natural environment and the health of the local population.
4. Unregulated stone quarries
   This phenomenon, which has often been on the political agenda for other reasons, is destroying mountains around the country.
5. Poor waste management
   “Garbage mountains” in Saida and Burj Hammoud are good examples of the poor waste management in the country, a result of poor planning and uncontrolled consumption habits. The problem also encompasses liquid waste which is most often simply dumped into the sea around the main cities. The result: nasty fumes and the destruction of our beautiful beaches and sea life. 
6. Damage of beaches by uncontrolled land reclamation
   Land reclamation all along the Lebanese coast has ravaged our beaches and natural habitats. Construction in the sea around Beirut, Dbayye, Saida and Tripoli, are only examples. A quick look at the Lebanese coast on Google Earth reveals the non-stop destruction of our beaches in almost every part of the country.

If we are lucky, any one of these items can come under the focus of politicians some time soon. If these issues are not dealt with soon, the cost to the economy and the health of the population could be excessive and detrimental for our nation’s future.

Even his allies accuse him of dirty tricks

Apparently, Amal, one of Aoun’s allies in the March 8 group, is complaining to Hezbollah about Aoun’s tactics in the Jezine election campaign. They accuse his candidates of using divisive language with sectarian tones to get Christians to vote for him in the upcoming elections.

Dah! Did they just find out that this is how Aoun always wins his elections? He has been doing it since 2005 against March 14, painting a picture of the last 19 years since the end of the civil war as being under the Hariri boot, so to speak, and that he has come to save Lebanon (read the Christians) from the Hariri (read Sunni) tyranny.

He has never lost an opportunity to foment hatred against the Hariri family and their political movement, pinning all the mistakes of the last two decades on them. Aoun and his foot soldiers have even claimed that the Taef was designed for Hariri and by extension the Sunnis. Read this recent article for an example.

Aoun and his stooges conveniently forget that Taef was always a precarious balance between many parties, including the Syrians, Hezbollah and Amal. It may be true that Rafic Hariri was involved in things that are hard to defend, but he was never alone in them and very often his way was not allowed to go ahead.

Perfecting the “traitor rhetoric”

We always hear about the “traitor rhetoric” in Lebanese politics. Nothing exemplifies this more than the recent uncovering of Israeli spies. Apparently, one spy is thought to have links to the Hariri’s Future Movement. Hezbollah wasted no time in jumping on this as proof that the Future Movement are in cahoots with the enemy and calling them traitors essentially. 

However, when three spies that were found out were thought to have links to Hezbollah, no one in the March 14 camp commented on this as being proof of treason.

Hezbollah went further, recently accusing “other politicians” of promoting an environment in which spies became more abundant (read this article). Apparently, they did this by “fomenting sectarian hatred”.

Hezbollah wants to be able to operate in our country without any controls. What kind of a resistance is that? If its our resistance, then we have the right to control it. We have the right to control what they do. Otherwise, its dictatorship. Now its liberate the South. Next, it can be anything, from liberate Palestine, or impose religious law.

I can easily imagine a day when Hezbollah will impose new laws affecting the freedom of the press to control what is being written about Israel and the resistance. They can be storming press institutions before we know it. What will stop them from storming the Nahar offices if that paper writes something they do not agree with?

Israel hands over cluster bomb map… three years too late!

After three years of refusing to hand over maps of where cluster bombs were dropped, Israel finally handed them over this week. Of course, had Israel handed over the maps earlier, countless deaths could have been avoided. Meanwhile, the international community hardly made a peep while Israel took their sweet time for no logical reason other than that they simply do not care about innocent lives.

A traffic jam in Beirut is being taken seriously!

The minister of interior has announced that he wants all road works to be halted until after the elections after an unbearable jam this morning. He even called on people affected by the disruption to file a formal complaint with the authorities. Of course, as anyone in Beirut knows, road works have accelerated in the last month, a traditional way for the political class to “bribe” supporters to get out to vote. A number of main roads have recently been prepared for a new surface just as the Lebanese are getting ready to go to the polls.

Why our taxis stop wherever they want!

I have often wondered why our taxis in Lebanon stop wherever they want to. The reason, I often thought, was that this is simply what they got used to doing and that the lack of order in the country has never been able to put a stop to it; or even worse, that the Lebanese “are just like that”.

Well, I just found out why and neither of those reasons named above are the correct one. I read in the magazine Al-Shahria, that the union for taxi drivers called a strike in 1970 to protest the fines taxis were receiving whenever they stopped to pick up or drop off passengers in the middle of traffic. They were successful in getting the police to lay off and to this day, taxis stop wherever they want, obstruct traffic and no one can say anything.

So, its not because we love chaos nor because we never thought of putting a stop to the practice; its because special interests in Lebanon can be very aggressive and single-minded to the point where they do not realize how order can actually be beneficial to everyone.