Monthly Archives: October 2010

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The Daily Star Gets a New Boss

Nadim Ladki on what he’s planning to do With The Daily Star:

“I look forward to the challenge of restoring The Daily Star’s position as the leading English-language daily in the Arab world and to develop its website into the number one destination for information-hungry readers in Lebanon and abroad.”

He’s a news veteran with a vast experience. I sincerely wish him good luck

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❊ It's Not Because Men Are Threatened by You, It's Because The Competition Is Tough

I just read an article in Now Lebanon by Aline Sara about Lebanese women and the marriage market. While I perfectly sympathise with the Lebanese woman’s difficulty in finding a spouse, I think someone has to express the male point of view and I’m stepping forward.

I find what some of these women are saying to be very patronizing. They are rationalizing why they’re being passed over by making general assertions like Lebanese men are “threatened” by female success. Here’s “Nayla” from Jounieh:

Perhaps they are worried about my earnings, or they feel threatened. They claim they are open-minded and want the woman to be free. But very often, it is not the case. They might have a problem accepting that we are equally successful.

While I do concede that some men think like that, it’s absurd to think that this is the general rule. And yet you find this mantra repeated by many, many, women, as if it were some sort of generally accepted wisdom.

I am a Lebanese man and my wife is a head of department in a university. Am I threatenned by her success? Hell no. I’m happy for her and she makes me proud.

The real reason why it’s difficult for Lebanese women to find spouses is spelled out right there in the first paragraph: The 1/6 men to women ratio (which I find exaggerated and unscientific, but that’s another topic).
It’s a tough market out there, and men are -rationally- exploiting this to be choosy. If the roles were reversed, I can easilly imagine a scenario where men write articles about men who complain of being passed over because “all women like tall men” or “rich men” or men with “big cars”.

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

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Bellmare: No Breach Of Ethical And Religious Norms

All that talk about the STL’s investigator lacking propriety? Bellmare is calling B.S:

As the medical doctor interviewed by representatives of the Office of the Prosecutor confirmed in her media interviews, the investigators were not seeking any medical information from her [...] Moreover, she had canceled all her appointments for that morning, so that no women would be inconvenienced by the investigators’ visit [...] The visit had been approved by the Lebanese authorities. The investigators were accompanied by members of the judicial police and the army. The doctor had received approval from the Beirut Order of Physicians to meet with the OTP investigators, and had agreed to the meeting

He seems to have read the critiques and responded to them one by one.

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What The Saudi Ambassador Could Have Told Omar Karami

Mr. Omar Karami has received the Saudi Ambassador today. There are no details about what was said, but here’s what I think the gist of what the Saudi Ambassador told him is:

< We have noticed your recent trip to Syria. We have also noticed the nice words you said about the Iranian president when he was here. Very cute. I came here to let you know that in the event P.M. Hariri decides to resign, or should Hezbollah decide for any reason to install another Prime Minister by force, we won’t find it cute at all if you stepped up to the fray and offered your services. I’m not here to threaten you but consider yourself warned. >

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Why Expatriate Lebanese Won't Be Voting Anytime Soon

It’s laid out in black and white in a Foreign Ministry’s report on the matter:

According to the report, the lack of an internet network connecting the central administration with embassies negatively affects the speed and accuracy of communications between Lebanon and the outside world.

You think? And what is the excuse of the lack of an internet network in a relatively prosperous country like Lebanon? And by the way, Mount Everest, one of the world’s most remote places, got 3G internet connectivity before Lebanon. Food for thought..

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"We Want Neither Their Truth Nor Their Justice"

Below are two criticisms of the actions of the STL’s investigators.

First, a section of Ibrahim Al Amin’s column in Al-Akhbar today. It adequately represents the picture Hezbollah supporters have of the STL. It paints a sinister portrait of anonymous men scheming behind closed doors gathering reams and reams of personal information about almost everyone in the south. (Hover on text below to see Arabic original):

Are the people aware of what the spies of Daniel Bellemare -who spend their times between beirut night clubs and security corridors- are working on?

Are the people aware that those are working –with official warrants– on gathering hundreds of thousands of documents of personal, institutional and official nature, documents which include personal records, university records, school records, hospital records and private clinic records, in addition to records of tens of thousands of photographs of political and popular festivals? Those records are all then gathered to be analyzed by a special team tasked with producing detailed files on “persons of interest” who number more than 1000 Lebanese citizens

In the same spirit, this is a comment someone made in this blog (which was copied from an Angry Arab post):

[The actions of these investigators] would not fly in the USA. One cannot just come in, even with legal sanction, and check wholesale on the FILES (containing sensitive personal information) of ALL those that come through (they claimed to start with 17 names but it was made obvious that it was to be an open ended investigation with a free hand to investigate any file in the clinic). Such a act would constitute a serious violation of Medical Privacy laws, unnecessarily exposing not only their names of a large number of individuals but also the details of their medical conditions as well as other private information. This is ILLEGAL under any of a number of medical privacy laws. One is usually presented with a court order to obtain information on a SPECIFIC person, and no other subjects so as to safe guard people’s privacy. I am amazed the Physician in question even let them in. She should have been the first to kick them out of the clinic, court order notwithstanding. Shame on the Lebanese government and the Lebanese Order of Physicians for providing cover for such a travesty to take place.”