Daily Archives: July 27, 2010

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Lebanese Man's African Wife Ordered To Wear Maid's Uniform

This man writes of the shameful incident in a letter to Al-Akhbar newspaper (Arabic).

I don’t know why the man didn’t name the beach by name, or why Al-Akhbar might have withheld it, but from his description I’m assuming it’s Florida Beach near Shekka in the north. (Oh yeah, do check their website too, you’ll get a small chuckle from their main image).

There has to be some sort of hall of shame for these places. Or maybe a sort of “Race Friendliness” score in touristic guides.

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❊ How Would Lebanon Manage The Gas Money?

Have you noticed how the talk about “fighting for our Gas” has died down recently?

It seems all sides are, for the time being, calming down and thinking about more sophisticated matters, like how to use the money should we ever successfuly drill for gas without having to go through Israel in the process.

One Idea being floated is establishing a sovereign wealth fund (SWF), where the money would be handled by an official body that is supposed to invest the money wisely for the long turn:

If Lebanon chooses to do so, it would follow the example of an increasing number of countries storing their national wealth in a SWF. In recent years, a host of SWFs have been established by governments across the world, either on the back of burgeoning commodity incomes, trade imbalances, or the necessity to cover future pension liabilities facing aging populations. [..] SWFs today have become one of the world’s most important instruments of investment, together managing around $3 trillion in assets.

Think of the political sink hole this will open in Lebanon. I just find it very difficult for Lebanon to establish a body with such powers while keeping it transparent and corruption free.

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Note: Posts with titles starting with an ❊ (asterisk) are my long posts. I used this system to separate long posts from quick links and comments.