Very well said Mustafa.
A perfetct union does not exist anywhere in the world but this does not mean that we should not strive to improve our lot. Lebanon has to rid itself of the shackels of sectarianism if we are to offer our fellow citizens an equal opportunity and if we are to want the best we have to offer to fill our public positions.

its never too late for you, lebanon. it starts whenever you decide you want it to.

> if you live in a country where your destiny is dictated by the God you worship

Luckily you can always change the God you worship if it affects your destiny so much ;-)

Wait– didn’t you endorse John McCain, Mustapha?

Does that mean you were against every young citizen being able to achieve whatever he wants, in favor of the cancer-stricken, ill- tempered, old rich white dude who drank his way through naval academies and rested on the laurels of his famous father and cynically nominated a total moron as VP? Just asking.

obama’s campaign started in the backwards, streets and living rooms of american citizens.
I’m not being pessimistic here; but this will never happen in lebanon, yes we may look civilised, but at the core we still have the strong social desirability bias that torn the country apart. hell just check the comments on other sites and you will be disgusted of the amount of sectarianism still flows.

Don’t be too hard on Lebanon, Steve. Afterall, its blemishes and shortfalls notwithstanding, Lebanon is still the oldest functioning democracy in the Middle East; a hateful, jingoistic, intolerant, predatory Middle East!!! It’s nowhere near perfect, but it’s the only place in our wretched region where 19 different ethnoreligious groups can look each other in the eye and compete with each other on equal footing; a far cry from the way assyrians are treated in Iraq, Kurds in Syria, Palestinians in Israel, non-Muslims in the Hejaz, Copts in Egypt, etc.. etc… You get the picture. Maybe I’m romanticizing. But a system that allows brutal illiterate thugs like Hezballah and lobotomized feudal half-breeds (comme il en existe partout au Liban) to participate in a “civilized” political process, deserves some credit, don’t you think?

I remember commenting at this blog previously with examples of American elected politicians whose constituency did not share the politician’s race or creed—that in the United States political platforms and other issues frequently trump such incidentals.

The U.S. black population is a minority group, about 13 percent of the population. Although many blacks have been elected to political offices, it was not the black population that ensured those elections. In fact, a large percent of blacks in the U.S. population were apathetic and had not even registered to vote or participated in any elections until Obama chose to run for President. When Obama began to win primary elections in various states, more of our black population began to register and then vote, which augmented the possibility that for the first time in American history a black man might be elected to the highest office in the United States.

As American media and blogs demonstrated during the election campaigns, both black supremacists and white supremacists reared their ugly heads, but most Americans ignored those claims. And rightfully so—whether creed or race based surely such bigots and hypocrites are the bastard sons of mankind. Many blacks who had lived their lives as if victims, and those who were the imagined masters, fell aside in this historic election as the defeated. Vindications were many as were the tears of joy, for this election was an American cultural revolution without a single shot fired.

With creed-based tribalism enforced in the Lebanese Constitution, it should be clear that Lebanon is a land far far away from the United States of America. Freedom bells will not ring in the land of the cedars until Lebanese set tribalism aside in Constitutional amendments and all the laws of the land treat all citizens as equals. And that must occur house by house, from within.

Very well-said, mustafa. Though my own values align more closely with the Republican party, I too feel saddened that it will be a very long time before Lebanon has its own “Obama:” A man that rose out of the people, works for the people. Charismatic, free from traditional influences, and oh my gosh–elected in ONE day :) !!

Maybe the better question, however, is … do we WANT our own Obama ?

1) American system produced Obama, but it also produced 8 years of Bush.

2) The problem in Lebanon is not that there is no Obama to lead the crowd, it’s that the Lebanese people are sheep who can be lead by any corrupt bastard. The fascist notion that a single superior politician as a supreme leader of the country would solve all of your problems what produced Aoun, Nasrallah, Hariri, Geagea and other lords that you are now stuck with.

Mustapha, he didn’t slay the republican machine. He bought his way through the MSM and bullied people into doing his dirty work re: free speech (read: Missouri). He promised to use public financing, then broke that promise and collected an unspeakable sum through very suspect breaches, such as suspending the address verification system. That’s just the beginning.

I’m not saying McCain was the perfect candidate–none ever is. But too many people are focusing on Obama’s blackness and completely disregarding his policies and actions as if only the former is what makes him so great for the country.

By the way, he had help from Republican stupidity in their so-called “slaying,” (no I’m not talking about Palin) and Hillary getting all weepy didn’t help. Americans don’t want a president who is going to cry when things get tough. And during the primaries he relied on cheating as well. Hillary should have been the candidate.

“suspending the address verification system” ???

Sore loser, hanan? Complete information was collected from contributors:

https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/dnc08standardnd?source=mainnav

One problem occurred…two brothers in Gaza were contributing funds illegally. With more than 3 million contributing to Obama’s campaign some time elapsed before the account was read and the money refunded. The server should have been setup to reject emails from .ga

With all due respect Mustapha,

The religious makeup of Lebanon, and the middle east, is anything but encouraging. I am a Christian, and I would gladly vote for a Muslim president if I can be sure that his or her policies will not encroach on my rights for freedom, and free thought and action. The Muslim world as it stands today, and specifically in the so called “Arab world” is anything but encouraging. Form monarchies to dictatorships, none of these system has proved to have any tolerance for “non-Muslims” unless they obeyed the “Muslim” law of the land. So, with all due respect to you specifically as a “liberal” and a “tolerant” and “moderate” and “democratic” Muslim, you are but a tiny fraction in a sea of fanaticism, and relegious intolerance. Democracy should, shall, and would be our savior one day, but that day is far fetched, as long as the Arab systems around Lebanon maintain their Status Quo.

Throughout our history, we have learned that Lebanon is not an island, and will never be. We are a small country, with a diverse population. Throughout the history, there have been various figures that called for Lebanese nationalism. Until not so long ago, the Sunnis in Lebanon rejected the concept of Lebanon altogether, as well as Druze. Now, we are having a Shiite problem.

Before we put Lebanon ahead of our religion, and keep our religious views at home, and behind closed doors, we will never have a “proper democracy”.

On another note, and because of this “stupid and fragile” system of democracy that we have, it has enabled us to have to most liberal, literary, and artistic production in the whole Arab world combined. So, it has some advantage.

As I said, I would gladly vote for a president who will ensure security, protect my right as any democratic citizen in any democratic country enjoys, where I can party, and drink some Arak in Nabatiyyeh, or pray in a mosque in Kiserwan.

Listen, our system is imperfect, and we can only make it perfect through governance. A hundred years ago, black and women could note vote in the USA. They changed this through laws and governance, not through revolutions and a civil war. we have a long way to go, but we must walk the way of law. Right now, it seems that the prime minister has confiscated all the law making entities, and his men are beating other ministers bodyguards and consultants, and who knows who started it! We will probably not know.

Let’s start by correcting these small things, and maybe then we can start moving to more important issues.

For all I know, the post-Taef system is nothing more than a sham.
(no pun intended)

Our Lebanese democracy is a good starting point, and change should come by time and effort. It is only the lazy ones who want change to happen overnight, and violently. Because they have lazy brains, and lazy minds. The are not up to the challenges of governance.

This reply is a little bit of “the spur of the moment”,and not well structured, but you get the general idea.

“But after managing to slay the Clintons AND the Republican machine, I think Bashar and Ahmedinejad won’t stand a chance :)”

Count you in the crowd that believes all it will take to straighten out the bad guys is for Obama to give them one of his amazing speeches – as soon as he gets his teleprompter set up.

Somehow – I’m still not buying it. They will chew him up and spit him out.

Obama does a great job of running for office but he has never accomplished anything at all IN office – he is always looking forward to the next campaign.

Look for a new “stability” to come to Lebanon – it will look much like the old “stability”.