This caricature has landed famous Lebanese cartoonist Pierre Sadek in hot waters (Arabic) with “the people of the resistance”. I’m looking at it and I honestly can’t see why anyone would be offended by it. Unless the very portrayal of a man of religion is forbidden, but last time I check such reverence was reserved for the Prophet only..
Here’s a great way: Watch LBC’s Live stream (or on YouTube if LBC’s bandwidth suffers) using two thirds of your screen real estate, and with the remaining third keep a twitter window open with the hashtag #GoLebanon. (Example below).
Oh man, this is so wrong
A great reason for shameless flag waving!
If true, this is very serious. But it could also be an elaborate hoax.
Coach Theo Bücker, on how he transformed the Lebanese national team from a hopeless case to a possible contender for the world cup:
I don’t care if someone is Christian or a Muslim. There are only good and bad football players, that is all. I made them faceless, without any number. I am just looking for performance
Please let this guy write the next Lebanese constitution.
In a somewhat misleadingly titled piece, the Daily Star reports that “Gemayel backs Lebanon’s dissociation policy”:
“This has been my policy [dissociation] from the start. If the government adopts it, that’s good. Principle and logic compel me to adopt this position. I don’t like the term dissociation but [prefer] positive neutrality, one that truly isolates the Lebanese scene from sharp divisions born of conflicts with strategic dimensions,” Gemayel, the head of the Kataeb party, told Al-Akhbar newspaper in an interview published Monday.
This does indeed sound as if Gemayel is joining the Mikati bandwagon on Syria, but the crucial difference, the difference that makes Gemayel’s position more honorable and one that I can easily stand behind, is that he is not afraid to call things by their own names:
In the interview, Gemayel also reiterated that his party supported the “Syrian revolution.” “Nobody paid the price of the ‘barbarism’ of the Syrian regime like our party and family did and this is a primary and sufficient reason for us to support and stand in solidarity with the Syrian revolution with our calls, which are spontaneous emotional and political cries,”
Can you imagine Mikati ever using those words? Herein lies the crucial difference between a true policy of positive neutrality, a pragmatic approach to complex political events that doesn’t prevent you from expressing your honest opinions, and Mikati’s so-called dissociation, which is nothing more than subservience to the position of the Syrian regime disguised as neutrality.
Brian Whitaker on the participants of the “Friends of Syria” conference:
There is something surreal about a group of “friends” promoting change in Syria that includes so many autocrats and, as one of its leading lights, the country most notorious for resisting progress: Saudi Arabia. [...] The reality, of course, is that for all countries attending, national interests (or what they perceive as their national interests) come first and the Syrian people second. In some cases a distant second, even among the “brotherly” Arabs.
Great point, but Whitaker did not mention the honorable exception: The Democratic government of Tunisia, the organizer of the conference and arguably the only country that wishes for Syria what it had itself: A transfer to a real people-powered democracy.
This amazing video report from inside Homs is not your regular amateur footage of bloodied corpses and noisy blur that TV stations and twitter keep pumping at us these days. This is a professional report from a French video Journalist, Mani, who appears to have nerves of steel. The fighters around him are shaking and yet he keeps remarkable steadiness as he records detailed footage of a city under siege. (Thanks Haytham)
After writing my previous post, I read this report by Dana Khraiche in the Daily Star about the possibility of forming a feminist political party in Lebanon.
In reaction to the idea, the previous Minister of Finance Rayya el Hassan, said:
I’m not necessarily against it but I don’t see how such a party could be a benefit
Allow me to make the case to Ms. Hassan on why such a party would actually, tangibly be beneficial. I am under no illusion that people would vote in mass for such a party. But as I argued before, the very fact that such a party exists will threaten to take votes away from mainstream parties. In competitive districts this will put pressure on dominant parties to address issues of female representation to avoid losing the votes of one-issue voters.
In other words, without actually winning elections, parties like a would-be feminist party can influence politicians to embrace their cause. This process is already under way in part because of pressure from feminist activism. Parties like the LF are starting to include internal quotas for women. Having an actual feminist party will kick off such efforts into higher gear.
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