I’m really curious about something. What do you hope to achieve with articles like this?
Of course Al-akhbar is biased! So is every other newspaper in Lebanon. Please, can you name me ONE objective media source?
I don’t want to stop you from blogging, but you need to seriously think about what you and other biased bloggers are doing. It’s not only our politicians who are promoting a divide in our country.
You and bloggers like you who write things like this, fan the flames of secterian strife, particularly when people are at breaking point as we saw last Sunday.

What if some crazy person read your article, got pissed off, and threw a molotov cocktail into the offices of Al-akhbar, and someone got hurt?

Please tell me what you hope to achieve by writing things like this, and are you prepared to take responsibility for your actions?

Anna M,

sister, what the hell are you talking about: ” fan the flames of secterian strife”… are you nuts? where on this posting did you see the “bias”. The stupid article in the akhbar is just thaat! It does not make any economic or financial sense! What’s wrong in exposing this Syrian Mukhabarati rag for what it is??

Please deal with the article. Good one Mustapha. These Harvard School(the hassakeh branch) graduates who write for akh… take the cake!! Starve the people and then let them burn tires and then…blame the government!!

yes mus,

but if the market in Syria collapses for some reason or if say the borders are closed, there will be no one to supply the lebanese market cheaply (since lebanese producers have been outcompeted)

Anna Maria,

I agree on a point that this blog is biased . But the question is, can you blame it?

Lets say BeirutSpring starts to be completely neutral (although it already has many posts where it criticizes March 14 politicians) do you think the March 8 camp will turn neutral? No way, whether we like it or not, there is a war going on between the two camps. A war of ideology and principle. And in a war you can’t fight fire with neutrality. Never in history a war was won or common agreement signed without fighting fire with fire.
Unfortunately it is a dirty business, you as an educated person, might be able to think through what is right and what is wrong, but 80% of the people in Leb expect someone else to do the thinking for them.
If you don’t fight for your camp and stay neutral you will lose your camp by the enemy’s false but juicy propaganda.

Nice move, PM Siniora. You got the brains.
So many birds dead in one shot:
1. Food and fuel prices in Lebanon to go down.
2. Food and fuel prices in Syria to go up.
[simple demand and supply rules]
3. Syria more dependent on Leb costumer.
4. Local farmers sell for cheaper prices (local farmers = Shi’i southerners)
5. Spread strife among allies. Shi’i community Syria.

NICE.!

Mous do you expect the consumers in beirut and tripoli to travel to syria to get their goods? it’s unfair to allow this instead of solving the root problem or subsidizing the prices

But look at the positive side. Al Akhbar is now saying the following:

1. Borders between Syria and Lebanon should be respected and much tighter controlled;
2. Syrian products should be treated as ‘foreign’;
3. We should protect the Lebanese against the Syrians who are destroying the Lebanese economy.

Not sure if this was their intention, though:-)

I am confused.
Do we want control of the border or not?
Do we want easy illegal smuggling of merchandise from Syria to Lebanon or not?

Mustapha, if you have no problem with the smuggling of merchandise, and turning the blind eye on the borders fine it is a defensible opinion, but please stick to this position when/if M14 switch back to: “we want tighter control of borders” and “we don’t want Lebanese economy money to go to Syria” mode.

I guess the same holds for cheap Syrian labor, (or maybe not?), is the influx of cheap of Syrian labor to Lebanon a good thing now or is it just the cheap Syrian goods?

Only asking just so I can stay in sync with the latest M14 truths ;-)

Moustapha’s position is simple :

Always Defend M14 and Siniora Right Or Wrong

أنصر 14 أذار ظالمين أو مظلومين!!!

Anna Maria,

relax, even crazy people will not throw a bomb into a newspaper because of an economics debate,

Danny, AS, Amir

Thanks for the support,

Ramzi,

If the Syrian market was “broken” because of some larger force (war, economic breakdown, strife..) , I think cheap food will be the last of our problems :)

Mr. T

It’s not the consumers, it’s the traders who will first make use of such market conditions and then pass on the savings to the consumers.

Riemer,

Good one!

Tac,

I personally am a proponent of free exchange of goods, services and labor between any two countries. I will not be upset if more Syrian workers come to lebanon because that will mean cheaper goods produced in Lebanon.

Of course as long as no explosives, drugs or radioactive material are involved.

Those shouting subsidize, with what money exactly? Government money for subsidies does not come out of thin air.

Oh I forgot, sheep do not know economics, they only graze the fields, hehe.

The Opposition should be the last people to talk about economics, since they brought about the reasons for the economic collapse and misery of the lebanese. They are blocking everything in Lebanon, continue to create the feeling of chaos and instability which they illogically blame the Saniora’s gov for, and they’r owns who subjected Lebanon to an unecessary war with Siarel which destroyed most of the country renovated and built in the 90’s

If we go on price “distortion”
let have a look on how lebanese “manoeuvre” is expansive, (min sal @ 300 usd) vs salaries in Jordan, Syria or Iraq. We are not dubai or saudi arabia but linked to our regional position.
If we are too expensive, how does it affect unemployement rate, how to improve it by lowering min salary, keeping it or increasing it.
What are the proportion of wages consumed by our population, what are the rates such as the poverty line one (which clearly degraded lately accord to some reports) ?

If we go into economics lets talk about all theses and not compare ourselves to … Syria, are they a reference? I hope not!

Wow Mustafa, thanks for the brush-off, but you still didn’t answer my question.
“Do you or do you not think about your contribution to the political divide in Lebanon, and are you prepared to take responsibility for it?”

On second thought, maybe your casual answer is an indication of exactly how deep your thought process is.

Danny, I won’t bother to answer your drivel.

A.S., M14 or M8, I don’t give a shit. You and people like you on the opposite side are the ones giving the politicians power by siding with one or the other. What would they be but a bunch of balding/hairy fat old men bickering like children without supporters?

Anna…

My drivel…Well you must be well spoken. However, you did not answer my question! Where do you see the incitement of hatred etc..etc… “fan the flames of secterian strife”… in this article.
For your information my dear, discussing and expressing opinions is a part of a democratic society!! Unless you are an orangebutt autocrat who is afraid of a dissenting or differing opinion.

As far as contribution to the political divide…Go live in Iran or Syria. There’s no political divide there. We are accustomed to free, intelligent speech…Not words that are useless; but put together well!!

Cheers

Good one Anna Maria,but don’t expect anyone to understand what u say….they always need a master,they got used to being followers,the syrian occupation got them used to that on both sides 14 and 8 crap…..and whatever their master says it’s always good to them….that’s how they build a country….

I fail to see how pointing out the stupidity of an article “insights sectarian hate”.

Typical. The Hezbo sympathizers show up here and accuse people of inciting hate, when it is THEM who incite hate (as Al Alkhbar is doing).

Can’t blame Mustapha, or anyone, for pointing out the idiocy of such stories as the one in Al Akhbar. If we can’t point out stupid stories, and ones that are disingenious and misleading, why bother blogging at all. Why pursue the truth? Let’s all live in a land of lies, where we all clap in unison and repeat “There’s nothing wrong in the world.”

Anna Maria demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of what the role of the media (biased or not) is in the free world: Exposing liars and abusers in power, as a means to keep them in check. Not that Lebanon knows anything about holding their leaders accountable, mind you. There is a reason why FREE MEDIA is such a big deal in functional democracies, and why it is repressed in places like Syria, Iran, Egypt and other totalitarian places.

Unbelievable debate!!!

First of all there is nothing wrong with being biased. It’s his blog for God’s sake he’s free to share his views.

Second, Mustapha was just trying to dispute the validity of the Al-Akhbar economic argument. It wasn’t political. And it had nothing to do with Al-Akhbar’s political biasedness. Political biasedness in the media doesn’t mean you have the right to make false arguments in economics for the sake of political gain and get away with it.

Mustapha clearly and simple argues against Al-Akhbar’s faulty economic argument. Give him a break and lets have a constructive debate.

Some people are unable to have a “constructive debate”. It’s always their way or the highway. Their view of the world is the only one. And if you say something that doesn’t fit in with their worldview, they simply cannot understand that you even have the RIGHT to believe otherwise. Proof being some of the comments I’ve seen in this thread and otherwise.

Anna Maria, you are a moron, and people like you (ex aounshits may be) who think both sides are to be blamed equally, are to be held responsible for not standing against M8. Which party is getting its leaders killed one after one? which party is paralyzing downtown and dares to call this democratic expression of opinion? is annahar biased and publish the shit published in akhbar and tayyar? Is backing from iran/syria similar to the backing from usa/france?

and to answer your stupid question, this article might contribute to the divide when idiots like you are reading it… but hopefully it can enlighten idiots like you to really quantify the shit of M8..

Anna Maria had an opinion that was wrong in your view and maybe mine, but why all the name calling? Would that make her change her mind?

As far as backing from IRAN or USA, it depends on the eye of the beholder. Why do I or you get the right to want USA, and they don’t have the right to want IRAN? Who gave us more rights then them?

I personally have nothing against IRAN since they actually are the only country from your list who never bombed or occupied Lebanon.

On the other hand I cannot blame you or anyone else for hating Syria.

It would be funny if it weren’t so sad, how people get so upset when they can’t pigeon-hole you into their narrow set of categories.

To those I seem to have offended, it’s only because you don’t understand what I was asking. And for that I’m sorry. Hopefully one day you’ll be able to see in colours other than black and white (actually, maybe black and white is better than colours at the moment :P).

Mustafa, I’m disappointed in you, but I really shouldn’t be. Eventually I guess it’s too exhausting to think so hard about the situation in Lebanon, without having to also analyze your own actions as well.

God bless you all and hopefully we can soon live in peace together in Lebanon without getting angry at each other, or calling each other names.

Patronizing and sanctimonious, on top of it all.

You didn’t “ask” any question of Mustapha. Let’s be clear here. Your first comment was to criticize him for pointing out how stupid the Al Akhbar article was. That is not a QUESTION. Nice try. Now you’re all pretending like you’re the poor victim who’s being attacked for asking a question.

Truth is, you don’t seem to understand the need for free media, who’s job it is to poke around, question the narratives that are put to us by “those in power” and expose the lies and distortions.

Without people questioning, we’d still think the earth was flat. It’s a damn good thing there are people out there who are willing to question things, and lay them out there for us to reach our own conclusions by fostering debate or else we’d still be living in the dark ages. Come to think of it, there’s a reason why Lebanon is still in the dark ages, and it’s because there are so many people like you, who are unwilling to question anything, and who just want things to be fed to them by their church, mosque, zaim or village elder (village idiot is more like it).

Anna Maria,

First of all i think its quite sad that you were called names for just giving your opinion. I also do believe that arguments should be a bit more constructive than just lashing out on each other.

As for accepting responsibility for adding more fuel on fire or whatever it is, I believe every person should be responsible for himself. For example I stand firm by my ideals but my responsibility is not to kill or hurt anyone because of them.

Do you think that you should ease your ideals that you strongly believe in because someone else (pro or opposition) can’t control himself and settles things in violence?
I mean in many western countries, Liberals and Conservatives are deeply divide and wage a harsh daily propaganda against each other, but no one gets killed.

I believe that all of March 14 and 8 blogs’ real responsibility (which you mentioned) is to reject violence completely and try to make people realize that such thing is totally unacceptable for any situation that arises. In the meanwhile any one can state what he believes what is wrong and what is right.

Unfortunately we Muslims still stand far from such norm of thinking. (Both in Europe and Middle east).

Abu Stayff, Are only M14 folks allowed to call others names here? Because I only see them calling others names, so either you are removing the other’s name calling posts or your allies from LF are only ones with no taste.

Al-Akhbar is a funny news magazine.
If only they would focus on Britney Spears and leave us alone…

While the Lebanese waste their time bickering, their economy is paralyzed, their growth is impeded, their security is not being protected, their peace is threatenned, etc., etc., most countries of the world are moving forward, even if at slow paces. I don’t think anyone will respond to arguments and proof against their own convictions and that means exactly the point of no return for most of us. For some this means war, for others this means permanenet immigration to return only on holidays and remember why we left in the first place. Wlak n2a3ou lebnen w shrabou maytou

Mustapha -

Any chance to get the input of 2 or 3 professional economists (non political folks) to comment on the Al-Akhbar article since apparently you have many readers who are really into economics. This could put the name calling and political statements into perspective - namely a useless exercise that never addresses the subject and highlights people’s faults in handling the blog articles. Call it a lesson in “setting standards”.

After reading all those comments, can anyone still talk of “wifak watani”?
Is anyone out there aware of the damage our politicians did?