Tag Archives: opinion

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❊ Lebanon's Heartless Capitalism

Lebanon’s capitalism has a lot of beauty, but very little heart.

Broken Heart

Yesterday I linked to two stories that are more related than you think. In the first, the minister of public works authorized a fashion show to take place in the middle of an important bridge, shutting it down for three days and causing a traffic hell to the commuters. In the second story, a charming 100 year-old coffee house is to be shut down and replaced by a bank.

I’ve been having this idea growing in me for a while. But yesterday, it finally took shape because of the two stories above. It hit me like an apple falling from the Naccache bridge: Lebanese capitalism has a lot of beauty, but it has no heart.

Before you dismiss me as a communist, I want you to know that in fact I’m as capitalistic as you can get. I’m a businessman when I’m not blogging and the only magazine I can read from cover to cover is The Economist, a vanguard of free market and capitalist thinking. I’m actually one of those people who are regularly caricatured in Lebanon: I make good money abroad, and then visit during the summer to splurge on Items that are more expensive than many people’s salaries. I own an appartment I don’t use and a car that I only use for one month every year. You get the picture.

A look in the mirror

And yet, even I look at our capitalism in Lebanon and see no heart. To understand what I mean, let’s take a good look in the mirror and see if we can recognize the monster we have become:

  • We don’t care about the plight of foreign workers if the consumers (the ‘Madames’) are satsified.
  • We don’t care about people stuck in traffic if a modelling agency paid enough money for a cat walk
  • We don’t care about old historical houses and cafes being destroyed because the replacements will bring quicker money
  • We design billboards that say “My Jewelry, My right” and we don’t care about the countless people who pass by everyday and can’t afford jewelry .
  • We treat rich-looking people like royalty and not-so-rich people like shit.
  • We shut down entire neighborhoods for months to make a political point, and we don’t care about the countless people who will lose their jobs because of this

Get it? The list goes on, but the conclusion remains the same: Lebanese capitalism has a lot of beauty, but it has very little heart. And that is breaking mine.

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

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❊ Now Wait For Lebanon's Largest Minaret

There are many good things you can do with $1.5 million. Building a twenty-storey-high cross in Lebanon is not one of them.

Lebanon cross

Maybe this topic is delicate for me to discuss because I’m a Muslim. But God (and my loyal readers) knows that I would have said the same things if a fortune was spent on a huge Islamic monument that has no function whatsoever.

I want to make it clear that I don’t buy the “world unity” raison-d’etre of this doubtlessly gorgeous monument. Impressive religious symbols which serve no functional role are never about friendship and mushy feelings. They’re about power and estabilshing presence. They are about marking territory and broadcasting influence. In this particular case, this is about a Lebanese group which feels insecure about its existence and is overcompensating.

There’s another problem: The small minded Muslim activists who will decide to one-up the cross by building a huge Minaret, somewhere preferably nearby. If you think I’m exaggerating, remember how the Red Cross changed their names to “Red Crescent” in Musilm countries to avoid precisely such immaturity.

Now comes the inevitable concession: The cross can generate tourism money, but more importantly, it can have the “Beirut Synagogue” propaganda value. Just imagine all the headlines in the variety sections of world magazines and newspapers: “Lebanon Builds Largest Cross in Middle East and North Africa”. Perhaps something good will come from it after all.

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

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❊ Why The US Authorities Shouldn't Ban The Koran Burners

Before reading the title and sending me hate mail, let me make my position clear from the outset: I’m a proud Muslim and I don’t support the burning of the Koran. In fact I explained my position in a previous post.

In this post, I just want to talk a little bit about why it would be a bad idea, from a pragmatic point of view, to prevent determined Koran burners from doing their thing by force.

If for some reason the American authorities decided to ban one man and a handful of his supporters from physically burning the Koran, the reaction to the ban will be worse than the burning itself, especially in today’s Internet and media landscape.

Hundreds of hooded people would make anonymous home-made Koran-burning videos in protest and upload them on Youtube, complete with dramatic graphics about “Evil Islam” and the like. That would create an online viral sensation that will generate millions and millions of international views.

In other words, the net effect of a ban would be an increase in the amount of people in Pakistan and Egypt who witness the blasphemous bonfire. We don’t want that. So if the crazy pastor can’t be persuaded amicably from stopping, just hold your noses and let him do his thing..

Update: Fortunately, the event was cancelled. But I don’t expect this to go away.

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

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❊ We Shouldn't Care About The Koran Burners

The more we talk about and vilify the Koran burners, the more we play into their hands.

So a pastor in the US wants to create a “Burn the Koran Day” because in his sick logic this is a fair way to commemorate the September 11 attacks. There’s a huge international outcry that included everyone from General David Petraeus to the Pope.

And yet I dare imagining something very good coming out of this: Nothing.

They will burn their Korans, go home, and nobody will die as a result. The Muslim world would have finally grown the thick skin it always needed. We would learn the lesson that most other religions have already learned: Just because a fool somewhere calls your religion evil/ignorant/foolish , it doesn’t mean it’s true.

It’s about time. We always played into the hands of the Koran burners and the prophet cartoonists. We fell for their provocations in stupid bouts of unnecessary and violent indignation. We’re like raging bulls that get angry at the sight of a waving red cloth, oblivious of the Matador’s sarcastic smile.

If we manage to ignore them this time, we will have passed an important phase in our maturation as an “Umma”. And the best thing of all? The world will notice.

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

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Michael Young On The Game Theory Between Hariri, Hezbollah and Syria

He thinks that Hariri’s strongest card is declaring confidence in the STL then resigning.

Young argues that Hezbollah wouldn’t in that case be able to find a credible Sunni replacement to work against the international tribunal, since the Sunni public opinion would be strongly behind it.

Fair enough. But Hariri doesn’t seem to be in the mood of playing brinkmanship, as he keeps repeating the mantras of reconciliation and calm.

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❊ When Can Beggars Be Choosers? When They Have Other Options

Many Americans are surprised by Lebanon’s defiant attitude towards the withdrawal of American military aid. They shouldn’t be.

Yesterday, the Lebanese Minister of Defense said that we don’t want American Military Aid if it came with strings attached. Of course it is possible that he is saying something entirely different in private, but the truth remains that this is the overwhelming gut reaction of many Lebanese, who felt justified in using those weapons against the perceived Israeli encroachment on our land.

This dismissive attitude of “we don’t want your filthy money” is striking some Americans as galling:

The problem is that instead of Lebanon refusing the largesse, it is demanding that such aid comes without conditions. If the Lebanese think that in taking aid from the United States based on conditions is tantamount to selling its soul, then simply refuse it. Where else can beggars be choosers?

I understand why they should think that, but this shows just how little they understand the country. Lebanon is at the center of a large power struggle between regional and international powers. It is being constantly showered by ‘largesse’ from different countries in return for influence. So a paltry $100 million lost from America (equivalent to 5% of the net worth of the Prime Minister alone) is a $100 million gained from Iran, Saudi Arabia or even Turkey.

Beggars can be choosers when they have options.

Now the inevitable concession: Many Lebanese would rather receive aid from America than Iran, because they’d like as little influence as possible from a country that still executes women by public stoning. Moreover, America doesn’t only provide money, it also provides military technology that no other country can provide.

That said, American Senators shouldn’t run around telling people that they’ll punish Lebanon by withdrawing aid. Countries have pride too, and in our case, we also have options.

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

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Reducing US Military Aid To Lebanon Would Send A Terrible Message

This congressional staffer represents the opinion of many US congressmen who might be thinking of reducing military aid to Lebanon:

Whenever there’s somebody who receives foreign aid of any kind from the United States who has a conflict with any of our close allies, especially in the Middle East, which is such a volatile region, you absolutely rethink US support

But that would be a mistake. That would send a message that it’s okay to shoot at fellow Arabs and Lebanese, but not at the Israelis.

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❊ How To Read Today's Daily Star's Editorial On The Proposed Media Law

The Daily Star:

We heartily welcome Information Minister Tarek Mitri’s call on Tuesday for the creation of a comprehensive media law in Lebanon.

Translation: “Hey guys, here’s our chance to get money from the government.”

We have seen the merger of text, sound and image across a variety of platforms, and yet in Lebanon we still have discrete – and contradictory – laws for published, audiovisual and electronic media. Indeed, the reality has surpassed the legal norms of Lebanon years ago.

Translation “We are being screwed by the internet and we blame the government for it.”

Mitri is highly qualified intellectually for the endeavor of introducing new legislation, but he is also politically astute enough to know that he would have to secure support from both sides of Lebanon’s political divide for such an initiative.

( Kissing A** )

the state can lead this process of creating the environment to foster the growth of our news media. [..] The new media system, meanwhile, does not adhere to the strict old delineation between private and public sectors; a welter of issues surrounds the necessary reinvention of the media’s business model

Translation: The government should protect newspapers by subsidizing them and if necessary making things difficult for competing new media”

Needless to say. That’s a whole load of kool aid. We are seeing this all over the world with newspapers try to grapple with the fact that they’re losing relevance in today’s world. Also, the Daily star is not suffering because the government is not “fostering the right environment”, it’s suffering because it is a lousy newspaper with a lousy website and lousy management. Don’t blame others for your own failures.

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

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Should Ambassadors Blog?

Oliver Miles thinks not:

[Ambassadors] are not super-journalists, or super-agony-aunts. Their job is to advise their governments on policy, for which deep understanding of the country in which they work is required, to carry out policy and on occasion to advocate and promote it publicly; and to provide a discreet and reliable channel of communication between governments.

Diplomats are laughed at for their “on the one hand, on the other hand” approach, but the problems they deal with are almost by definition controversial and many-sided. Sometimes they have to act quickly, but where possible it is better to think long and hard, and if necessary consult the ministry. As everyone knows who has used them, blogs and email are not conducive to that way of working

Personally, I think embassies should have blogs, but the authors should be professionals dedicated to explaining, in human terms, their government’s policies and actions in host country.

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Fadlallah As Liberal Darling

The Daily Star‘s Michael Young and the Weekly Standard‘s Lee Smith are making similar points on the western media’s perception of Ayatollah Fadlallah and Hezbollah.

Young:

Fadlallah was a fascinating individual, worthy of study and, at times, esteem. But in reading the passages used to describe him, you get a powerful sense that the accolades were really directed at an imagined Fadlallah, the product of the authors’ yearning to conjure up a tolerant Islam in clerical garb.

Smith:

The Western press delights in rattling the bourgeois sensibilities of its audience by showing the multifaceted aspects of Hezbollah–it’s not just a militia with an appetite for slaughtering Jews, it’s also a social welfare outfit that provides educational opportunities [..] This infatuation with Hezbollah has been going on for years

Perhaps, but in the end, Octavia Nasr was fired and Seymour Hersh kept his job. 
 
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