Sunday, July 20

Last Week Recap

Below is the list of posts I wrote last week, ordered from the most to the least controversial. Perhaps you’d like to revisit the responses to old comments you made?

The PR Battle Over Samir Kuntar	Lebanese Bloggers Not Happy With Kuntar Celebrations
Bright Ideas From The Aounist Ministers	Why Walid Jumblat Has Embraced Samir Kuntar
Iran Counter-Photoshoped	I Won’t Believe It Till I See It
Having It Both Ways.. Literally	Lebanese Government Official Photograph
Lebanese Women Will Love Minister Ibrahim Najjar	France Washes Its Hands Of Hariri Tribunal

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Friday, July 18

Bright Ideas From The Aounist Ministers

Fresh ideas from the fresh ministers. Unbridled ambition or pitiful naiveté?

(Photo source)

Perhaps it’s because they never really got to navigate the labyrinth of governance in Lebanon, but Gebran Bassil, our new minister of Telecommunications and Alain Tabourian, our new minister of energy and water, –both Aoun loyalists– have brandished some sensible plans for their tenures.

They both saw something terribly wrong in the way things are going and suggested fixes, perhaps immaturely, and perhaps off the top of their minds. But we’re talking about the kind of obvious stuff that makes you wonder: Why didn’t anyone try to do something about this before?

Mr. Gebran Bassil saw that Lebanon has one of the highest cellphone rates in the world (30 cents per SMS!!), and made fee reduction a priority. Mr. Alain Tabourian, a succesful businessman and philantropist, saw that the government is paying way too much subsidy for electricity and came up with a plan: Let’s charge electricity hoggers (Like ABC mall in the picture above) market prices while keeping the subsidy for those who use less power like your average mom & pop stores. To me that makes perfect sense and it’s about time(although I think exceptions should be made for the Lebanese industry to keep it competitive.)

Perhaps the ministers are just being naive, or worse, populists for political gains in the next elections. But at least they have started a conversation about matters the Lebanese really care about.

17 comments Lebanese politics

Thursday, July 17

Having It Both Ways.. Literally

What’s the difference between a wish and an assertion? In the world of Mr. Walid Jumblat, it’s simply a clarification.

The art of oops

Today, in Abey in a celebration for the returned prisoners, Mr. Jumblat made a speech that was groveling par-excellence to Hezbollah. One of the more memorable passages was this one:

“There is no contradiction between the resistance, on the one hand, and freedom, independence, sovereignty, justice and history, on the other,” Jumblatt stressed. “There is no contradiction between the tribunal and the resistance,” he added.

Like many other Lebanese I wondered: How can Mr. Jumblat possibly reconcile his previous positions with this one? How can you have independence, and sovereignty and Hezbollah-style resistance, which gets its guns and rockets from other countries?

The answer came later, when Mr. Jumblat’s office issued this clarification:

ورد في الكلمة الموزعة لرئيس الحزب التقدمي الاشتراكي النائب وليد جنبلاط في حفل استقبال الاسير المحرر سمير القنطار في عبيه ما يلي ارحب واقول ان لا تناقض بين الحرية والمقاومة وان لا تناقض بين الاستقلال والمقاومة والمقاومة والسيادة والمقاومة بينما الصحيح والمقصود هو اتمنى الا يكون تناقض بين الحرية والمقاومة، ولا تناقض بين الاستقلال والمقاومة، ولا تناقض بين السيادة والمقاومة، لذا اقتضى التوضيح”.

Ooohh, so what he really meant was: “I hope there would be no contradiction between the resistance, on the one hand, and freedom, independence, sovereignty, justice and history, on the other”

But wait, this gets sillier: Naharnet re-wrote its online story, without any editorial notice, to accommodate Mr. Jumblat’s modification and cover up his “error”. They had to re-write history to spare him the ire of the western readers already livid at his flip-flopping.

To illustrate, compare the paragraph below (Naharnet’s revised version), to the paragraph above, taken from Yalibnan (the original Naharnet version):

“I Hope there would be no contradiction between the resistance, on the one hand, and freedom, independence, sovereignty, justice and history, on the other,” Jumblat stressed.”I hope there would be no contradiction between the tribunal and the resistance,” he added.

Insulting our intelligence has become these people’s favorite sport nowadays..

8 comments Plain Talking

Wednesday, July 16

Lebanese Bloggers Not Happy With Kuntar Celebrations

Psst…If you think all Lebanese are drooling and clapping over Mr. Kuntar’s release, think again.

Many Lebanese bloggers are clearly not amused by what they see as a disingenuous posturing by politicians pretending to enjoy today’s “national celebrations”

Over at ouwet.com , N10452 writes:

I cannot believe we are cheering for an animal that is being freed from Israeli prisons …We are cheering for a man who killed a 4 year old baby after killing her father in front of her ..You tell me he was retaliating ?? By killing innocent children & civilians you retaliate ?? Or even worse, some people tell me 2 kills is ok compared to the atrocities Israel committed over the years. ..As if it makes any difference if you kill one or 20 !! Killing is killing & KILLING IS WRONG !! Shame on our people … shame shame shame !!

MS Levantine saw her cynicism tested:

I consider myself a Teflon Lebanese: nothing in my country really
surprises me. I am cynical enough to always expect the worse, and I am
never disappointed. Still, I am perplexed by the festivities organized
for the return of Mr. Qantar. The man is a child killer.

Charles at LPJ concurs:

Qantar killed Israeli government personnel and civilians during a raid
in the middle of a war. However, he also killed a four year old girl by
smashing a rock into her head. There is no excuse on Earth to justify
that action, and there is no way that I can ever say that this man is a
hero. Any man willing to smash in the head of a 4 year old child with a
rock should remain in prison for the rest of his life. My disgust has no words… My tears…

And Lebanon Foreign Policy blog rhymes along:

To receive Samir Kuntar with the red carpet is [or should be] a major
embarrassment for Lebanon. In spite of the political calculations,
Kuntar’s most “heroic” gesture was to murder in cold blood a four years
old girl. Oh wait. He did kill Einat’s dad before smashing her skull.

And bloggers are not alone; A quick look at the dozens of denouncing comments in one of my previous posts, and you get the general pulse of the disgusted class.

In short, many Lebanese, just like many foreigners just don’t “get” what there is to celebrate..

34 comments Links

Why Walid Jumblat Has Embraced Samir Kuntar

The erstwhile defender of freedom and liberalism sees in the freed prisoner a great political opportunity.

To listen to Mr. Walid Jumblat speak to the international media about how happy he is with the release of Mr. Kuntar, one would be excused to doublecheck who the speaker is. In his interview today with a clearly baffled Owen Benett Jones of the BBC, Mr. Jumblat refused to concede even one bit that Mr. Kuntar might have ever made a mistake. He replied to all questions relating to Mr. Kuntar’s killing of an Israeli family by changing the subject and defiantly denouncing Israel’s crimes against humanity and illegal occupation of Arab lands.

So why is Mr. Jumblat, the darling of Washington –and the only major Lebanese politician who publicly denounced Hezbollah’s “militia” as terrorists– risking his and Lebanon’s international reputations by so effusively embracing Mr. Kuntar and by instructing his loyalists to celebrate his release?

The answer lies in the Druze community which he leads and to which Mr. Kuntar belongs. (To all those of you who though he was a Shiaa, correct your notes)

Mr. Jumblat realized back when Hezbollah invaded Beirut and attempted to invade the mountains, that the small Druze community could be facing an existential threat from the Shiaas, who in taking their cue from Mr. Nassrallah’s very public and harsh denouncement of Mr. Jumblat, have come to look to the Druze as a Judeo-American fifth column. In Samir Kuntar, Mr. Jumblat saw a powerful symbol to remind everyone of the “Druze’s history in Arab resistance”, as he told the BBC’s Bennett Jones.

By this posturing, Mr. Jumblat can strike two birds in one stone: He can undermines the perception of Shiaa monopoly on resistance and reduce the heat on his community, and he can open the door for a potential electoral alliance with Hezbollah in the upcoming elections (a far fetched wish, but can’t stop a politician from dreaming)

Still, it remains to be seen whether Mr. Jumblatt’s fabled elasticity will work for him this time…

11 comments Lebanese politics

Iran Counter-Photoshoped

Remember how Iran tricked the whole world into thinking that they launched 4 missiles instead of 3? Well, Photoshop artists the world over are having way too much fun by making their own versions of that launch:

(source)

Any favorites? (PS: the comments section is now functional)

10 comments Cool Stuff

Lebanese Government Official Photograph

And they all finally said ‘cheese’.

(source)

++Note++
Comments are now fixed. Thanks for your patience.

8 comments photos