Tag Archives: lebanon

❊ No, This is not a Tyranny of the Online Activists

Posted on by Mustapha

Here’s an interesting comment I got from blogger and friend Tony Saghbiny:

the last thing we want is artists doing self-censorship because they’re afraid of what would the activists say [...] I’m very sad to see the blogosphere and the activists using their influence to damage the freedom of expression in the country.

He is not alone. Other bloggers who think the racism charges against Lebanese TV stations is unfair are treating this as a matter of free speech and are painting the online activists as some sort of thought police. I don’t think this is a fair characterization.

To start, the stations in question already exercise several forms of self censorship:

  • A self censorship with political patrons: MTV doesn’t criticize the Murr family and its political allies, Future TV doesn’t criticize the Hariris, Almanar doesn’t criticize Hezbollah ..etc.
  • A self censorship on religious deference grounds: When was the last time Ktir Salbeh made fun of the Maronite church and the patriarchy?
  • A self censorship from topics that clearly inflame sectarian feelings. Everyone steers clear from vulgar sectarian stereotypes on TV.
  • Self censorship dictated by social and cultural norms: For example, you don’t make fun of a Lebanese politician who just died
  • Self censorship dictated by political taboos: For example, you don’t publish stories that portray the state of Israel in any positive light

The reason online activists are doing what they’re doing is not because they’re in some sort of witch hunt. It’s because they see the weakest elements of society, –the poor, the foreign domestic workers, the homosexuals and yes, the women — as fair game. These people are not been treated with the same tactful care that is given to other groups in society. Little gestures like not making fun of people who are committing suicide, or not making women-beating jokes when someone was just killed by a wannabe rapist are simply escaping the peripheral vision of our media editors.

The purpose of our online feedback is simply to call attention to such issues. We don’t want to punish anyone and by all means we don’t want to muffle the free opinion of anyone.

About The “Everybody Does it” Argument

Posted on by Mustapha

One constant critique I’ve been getting (and one that has been showing regularly in online debates about MTV and racism) is a variation of this comment:

To everyone above who support boycotting MTV, please don’t forget to boycott every relative and friend of yours who has a maid at home [...] When you do that, i’ll be glad to boycott MTV, till then, please when your write comments start it with :”As a hypocrite..”

On the face of it, this makes perfect sense and rings true to many people. We all know individuals who are living embodiments of the Ktir Salbe caricatures portrayed by MTV. How come, the argument goes, we are choosing to single out MTV for our moral indignation?

The answer is simple, and it has two parts:

First, the standards that apply to mass media are different than the standards that apply to normal people. Normal people should be shamed in their private circles because this is the extent of their damage. Public media outlets on the other hand need a public response, because they are (whether they mean it or not) promoting a casual and cavalier attitude towards an important delicate issue.

Second, the “everybody does it” argument is a known moral fallacy that is referred to as the “golden rationalization”:

It is based on the flawed assumption that the ethical nature of an act is somehow improved by the number of people who do it, and if “everybody does it,” then it is implicitly all right for you to do it as well. [...] when more people engage in an action that is admittedly unethical, more harm results. An individual is still responsible for his or her part of the harm.

America is full of racists, and so is France and many other countries. This doesn’t mean that racist attitudes on TV in these countries will go unnoticed. To the contrary, they are severely punished and the stations immediately wash their hands of the anchors/actors who make mistakes.

❊ Should We All Start Shaming MTV?

Posted on by Mustapha

I’m having an internal debate about whether or not I want to actively shame and boycott MTV over their now established trend of reckless racism. The reason I’m finding this difficult is because I know many people who work there who are really decent and nothing like the racist pigs they’re being portrayed as.

MTV is an excellent news and entertainment tv station. It’s also the station that most “gets” the internet and is most smart about it. It’s really sad that a majority of bright and professional people there are getting tarnished because of a few idiots whose idea of comedy is to make fun of people’s misery, enslavement and suicide.

So what does “actively shame and boycott” MTV mean? Here’s what I’m thinking:

  • Unfollow all MTV employees on Twitter and ask people who follow me to do the same
  • Delete the MTV app from my iPhone and iPad and ask all my readers and family members and friends to do the same
  • Delete Beirut Spring posts that recommend watching MTV and downloading their app
  • Ask everyone to go to the iTunes store and give their app a 1 star rating
  • Appeal to readers who can pull strings to ask businesses not to advertise at MTV
  • Stop watching their news bulletins online and reading their website
  • Unlike them on Facebook and ask friends and friends of friends to do the same
  • Ask all my readers and friends, especially bloggers and activists to actively shame and boycott MTV, as detailed in the points above.

I know I’m just a regular guy and that these measures won’t affect a big corporation like MTV. I don’t want to get all sensational and call the station names, but I want to believe that at least I’m making a small difference in furthering the cause of racial equality, compassion and harmony in Lebanon.

Do we Need a Lebanese Senate ?

Posted on by Mustapha

Elias Muhanna (a.k.a Q.N.) on why Lebanon needs an upper chamber in parliament:

The classical benefits are in a country like Lebanon where you have minorities that are construed as confessional, you have a weak center and communities that are concerned about the loss of their freedoms, their ways of life. The idea is that the senate provides a check against all of that. You basically open up the Parliament so that it’s one person one vote so it’s equal suffrage across the country. [...] Anything that bares on confessional issues [has] to be passed through the senate as well. So that way every community no matter how small has a say in the affairs and destiny of the country.

This is great in theory but there’s a big catch: As the standoff between PM Mikati and the FPM demonstrates, the sectarian problem in Lebanon is not simply one of representation, but also one of patronage. The Various sectarian zaims want to have their people represented in the official bureaucracy.

Put another way, imagine an extreme situation of one-man-one-vote suffrage that results in a parliament of 100 Muslims and 28 Christians. The question to ask is: If a Shiaa block has 50 MPs and the Druze only have 5, can you make an argument for equal quotas for the Druze and Shiaas in the high posts of government, even if they’re equally represented in the Senate?

Besides, we already have a sort of defacto Senate. These are the various religious bodies (the council of Maronite Bishops, the higher Shiite council, Dar el Fatwa..etc) which traditionally get up in arms and mobilize the faithful whenever an issue is perceived to threaten the influence of their faith.

❊ The Predictable, Silly and Insanely Pointless Spectacle Between P.M. Mikati and the FPM

Posted on by Mustapha

— Some distance is good –

They will eventually kiss, make up and put their daggers behind their backs again, but the flare-out last night between Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Minister Gebran Bassil revealed once more the depth of tension and enmity that exists between these two parties.

It all happened when Prime Minister Mikati nominated A Christian judge to head a disciplinary body that traditionally reports to the Prime Minister. Since it is a Christian position, PM Mikati decided to let President Michel Sleiman file a nominee, and so Judge Elie Bekh’azi was proposed.

Minister Gebran Bassil then asked to put that nomination on hold, until he can find out if M.P. Michel Aoun blesses it. Mr. Miqati’s reaction to that took everyone by surprise:

I feel that there is insistence on blocking everything to disrupt the government’s work and you bear the responsibility and no one else. This I cannot accept. It is now clear to everybody who is blocking the work of the government and this will no longer be tolerated

Then, in a logic that can only be described as surrealistic, he decided to suspend the government’s work in protest against the FPM’s suspension of the government’s work, claiming till the very end that this is the only constructive thing to do.

But then Minister Bassil decided to double down and play nasty sectarian politics:

A certain group of Lebanese has gotten used to treating another group badly, that won’t happen on our watch and we will change this habit and restore balance to the council of Ministers.

Translation: Christians will no longer accept Sunni dominance, and the FPM will make sure to restore Christians back to their rightful position in the government.

This standoff between a weak Prime Minister and a cocky and aggressive party is a silly spectacle, but it is also a pointless one. Because in the end Hezbollah, the real power behind this government, will make sure that everyone gets back in line. The party of God will first allow this conflict to play out a bit, since a public fight between these two is politically beneficial for both. But in the end things will go back to where they were before last night.

Getting Ready for the Smoking Ban

Posted on by Mustapha

Many restaurants and coffee shops are not waiting for the official smoking ban to start and have already began a no-smoking policy. Here’s the encouraging news:

despite some restaurants’ concerns that the impending law could hurt business, several establishments with non-smoking policies have reported an upsurge in lunch and dinner guests.

But this is not an argument for laissez-faire. Those establishments are only doing well because they’re alone in serving the significant market of non-smokers. But once the law starts being implemented, a strict blanket ban is necessary because the cheaters (those who will allow smoking) will be rewarded at the expense of the law abiders.

Meanwhile, tobacco companies are themselves trying to cheat..