Monthly Archives: September 2009

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Should Lebanon Have A Gun Debate?

Is having unlicensed weapons in every other Lebanese household really such a bad thing?

bubble gun

This morning I read a NowLebanon article that blew my mind away (pun intended). If the statistics in the article are correct, almost 50% of Lebanese households now have one form or another of weapons, with most of them unlicensed.

Some of the stuff in the article is really chilling, take this paragraph for instance:

Bassam, 24, got his new M16 as a present from his father. It is his new toy, he said; he even lets his eight-year old cousin play with it and has taught him how to hold it.

But while there seems to be a consensus in civil-war-scarred Lebanon that having guns is a very bad idea, nobody seems to be making the counter argument. This is why I venture in the name of balance to play the devil’s advocate, even if I carry the risk of being shot by the anti-gun folks.

Here are the three main arguments why gun ubiquity could be a good thing, and I urge you to have an open mind about them:

1- The if-you-want-peace-get-ready-for-war argument:
The idea is that If everyone has weapons, people will really think twice before starting a war. People are more likely to talk and negotiate their difference if they know that the other party is no military push-over.

2- The I-sleep-better-at-night-with-a-rifle-in-my-closet argument.
Whether perceived or real, many Lebanese are losing sleep over the threat that the ‘other’ will raid their homes at nights, kill their kids and rape their wives. If having a gun (that you’ll never use) in your drawer makes you sleep better, then go ahead. The country could use the gain in productivity and loss of stress that would give you.

3- The economic-wheel argument.
The guy who sold you the gun and made a huge profit will probably use the windfall to send his kids to school and buy stuff, ensuring more employment for teachers, sales people and manufacturers all over the country..

These are not necessarily arguments I agree with. In fact, on balance, I believe that something must be done to control and reduce the proliferation of guns. But I also think it’s important to for people to consider the other side of the story to enrich the debate and make people more informed. What do you think?

(Photo source of boy holding a bubbles gun)

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The Battle For Tabbouleh

Making the world’s largest Hummus platter is a delicious, exciting and pointless exercise

In the Hollywood movie ‘You Don’t Mess with the Zohan’, Adam Sandler plays an Israeli agent who just couldn’t get enough of ‘Khhummus’. He gorges on the delicacy by dipping everything from chocolate to chicken to his father’s eye glasses in it.

What we see as a goofy if harmless comedy,  Fadi Abboud, the president of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists, sees as a sinister attempt to hijack our beloved Lebanese cuisine by our enemies down south. Mr. Abboud believes  that Lebanon is loosing hundreds of thousands of dollars because the world thinks that Hummus, Tabbouleh and Falafel are Israeli inventions.

So what is Mr. Abboud’s  plan to rectify that error? First, we break the Guinness world record for largest Hummus plate on earth. After that, we “file an international lawsuit against Israel for claiming ownership of traditional dishes that are believed to be originally Lebanese. ”

While Mr. Abboud’s intentions are doubtless good and the whole exercise will be a lot of fun (I mean come on, the online discussions this would spark? The “hummus is Lebanese” Facebook page? All priceless!), this all sounds to me like an exercise in futility.

Trying to prove that a dish was invented in a specific geographic area, let alone one as tiny as Lebanon, is like trying to pinpoint exactly where the Arabic language was invented. You can’t tell for at least two reasons. 1- this old dish was invented before current borders and ideologies. and 2- You don’t just invent a meal like that. It’s a process that took thousands of years and input from all kinds of peoples and areas.

And don’t get me started with claiming ownership by creating the world’s largest plate of the stuff. This Dubai-esque exercise sounds like a giant penis-measuring competition only adolescent boys would engage in. I just hope the Israelis won’t hop in and play the game. Besides, Mr. Abboud seems to be fighting an imaginary threat. In my experience, people in the US and the UK refer to our food -correctly- as “Middle Eastern” cuisine, with many even calling it Lebanese.

To wrap this up, let’s make that giant delicious bowl of Hummus, but let’s not pretend it’s anything other than a whole loads of fun..

*Update*
I want to sincerely thank Ms. Anissa Helou, the internationally known food writer, for pursuing the matter with some of the world’s leading experts on the matter. Please read more about her findings in the comments section.

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