Author Archives: Mustapha

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Don’t Indulge Tripoli’s Militant Islamists

Tripoli’s “mini-Syria” erupts as militant islamists battle a heavy-handed army. Extreme caution should be exercised to avoid Syria’s mistakes.


10 year old child from tebbané playing resistance (source: LBC)

As people are watching the events unfold in Tripoli, many are tempted to dismiss them as the usual clashes between pro-Assad Alawites in Jabal Mohsen and anti-Assad Islamists in Bab el Tebbaneh. The truth, alas, is that we are now entering a new chapter, one where things are a bit more complicated and a bit more like Syria.
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Mohammad Chatah’s Big Idea

What’s the best way to spend Lebanon’s upcoming oil wealth? The race for ideas has begun.

Is there anything better for a highly indebted country with creaking infrastructure than the prospect of earning substantial amounts of cash from newly discovered natural resources? Repaying the national debt, building more schools and improving the roads can all be nothing but unalloyed good, right? Continue reading →

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A New Old Problem. Lebanon Should Start Worrying About its Debt Again.

The Lebanese debt issue is back to the forefront. Social stability will be its first victim.


(Social instability is rearing its ugly head)

In case you haven’t noticed in the last few years, people and politicians have almost stopped talking about Lebanese national debt. What used to be a toxic political issue almost vanished as a talking point. It’s not because of fatigue or desperation, it’s simply because we were actually solving the problem. Continue reading →

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Saad Hariri Should Consider a Meaner Twitter Personna

Yesterday, this exchange between our ex-PM and and a twitter “hater” made the round on facebook, accompanied by the usual tsk.tsk.tsks directed at our ex-PM:

Mr. Hariri’s response was mediocre as a put-down. It betrayed anger and awkwardly tried to squeeze in an “I’m rising above the fray” sentiment towards the end.

Critics focused on the fact that Mr. Hariri responded in the first place. That he almost stooped to a level of bickering in his responses to Assy. Supporters retorted that to the contrary, the tweets show that Mr. Hariri is a real person, unlike other politicians (a.k.a Mr. Mikati) who let sleek PR firms do the tweeting for them.

Here’s my suggestion to Mr. Hariri: Continue reading →

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1000 RSS Subscribers to Beirut Spring. Thank You

I was positively surprised this morning when I peeked at my RSS counter (bottom of right sidebar) and found that 1019 of you are now subscribed to Beirut Spring’s RSS feed. I don’t usually celebrate statistical milestones — and I’ve had many since I started blogging in 2005 — but this one is close to my heart.

The reason I still prefer RSS over subscription devices like Facebook and Twitter is that RSS is still the best way not to miss what someone writes. Twitter and Facebook are great tools, but they’re more about what’s happening right now. A great blog post that was written 10 hours ago can easily get lost in a torrent of cool links and photos.

For those who are still not subscribed, perhaps you’d like to subscribe by email?

One more time, thank you.

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Don’t Demonize Proportional Representation

Attacking a good idea for political expediency..

Hariri may 6

There’s a new talking point in Beirut: An electoral law based on proportional representation is evil because it reinstates Damascus’ influence by increasing the power of its allies in Lebanon.

I understand when people like MP Walid Jumblatt peddle such rubbish. After all, he stands to significantly lose influence if such a law was to be enacted. But MP Hariri’s reiteration of this argument yesterday is very worrying to me. Continue reading →

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Outreach, Not Piling On. How to Talk with Homophobes.

Of all the responses I read to Sibai’s now infamous article in Outlook (responses listed here) , my favorite is the one written by Raja. I’ll get back to why a little later.

As someone who had a relatively conservative upbringing in Tripoli, I grew up sharing a lot of Mr. Sibai’s ideas. Whether out of intellectual laziness or habit, it was the only way to reconcile a religious view of the world with the existence of homosexuals.

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Is the Laïque Pride March a Waste of Time?


(photo credit, Lilianne)

If you’re someone who truly cares about secularism in Lebanon, you can do a lot worse than read Walid El Houri’s insightful critique of the Laïque Pride movement and how it is failing to make progress in Lebanon’s pathologically sectarian system

His key argument (which also applies to many NGOs and their causes), is that in order to achieve true mobilization and make a real difference, Lebanon’s secularists should get out of their middle-class activist bubble, have an economic plan, form a political party and try their best Continue reading →

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Lebanese Expatriate Voting. How to Take Part in it.

I started this morning the process of registering to vote in the 2013 Lebanese Parliamentary elections. I figured I’ll share here some info and tips that you might find useful if you too are planning to vote. I’ll be using a questions and answer format (f.a.q) because I found it the best way to organize the different issues about the subject. Continue reading →

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In Defense of Lara Kay

I am not quite sure why a video blogger is getting so much opprobrium from Lebanese bloggers. I’m slightly bothered that most of the criticism is about her physical appearance and the fact that she had what appears to be a botched plastic surgery.

Perhaps what she says or does is not our cup of tea. Maybe you find her work shallow, mediocre, and even pointless. But it’s YouTube for Peet’s sake. Only freaks make it on YouTube and don’t be surprised if she eventually gets more views than all of our blogs’ readership combined.

By criticizing her we’re making the same mistake of those who criticize our blogs and ask “who on earth reads this stuff?”. As we have discovered, there’s a place for all kinds of content online. So give Lara a break and let her do her thing..