A Lebanese Exception?

A tale of Mothers’ Day and Burgers that fly on planes

As a Lebanese expat living in West Africa, I keep on getting questions from my non-Lebanese expat friends, who are usually well traveled North Americans and Europeans.

Aside from the boring “How come there’s so many Lebanese in West Africa?” question, I get this interesting one: “How come wherever I go, I find Lebanese that are very rich and powerful?” Yes ladies and gentlemen, this is not just some propaganda stuff our moms and dad tell us to instill in us pride in our nation; the world is apparently full of Lebanese millionaires, billionaires and zillionaires.

So I started asking myself: is there such thing as a money-making DNA?

I couldn’t find the answer to that question, but I got a clue this evening.
I bumped into one of my Lebanese friends who seemed very excited. I asked him why and he told me that he has figured out the most original Mothers’ Day gift ever: A Big Mac! (his mom, who lives here with him, loves them)

Now, that might seem normal to many of you guys, but it’s not the same when the closest McDonalds is thousands of kilometers away. My friend went on and explained that a Lebanese man opened a shop that among other things, “imports” burgers from Lebanon.

It seems there’s a good market for people who crave Big Macs here, so the guy just takes your order, assures you that your Hamburger will be purchased just one hour before the plane leaves Lebanon, and voila! You get your 8-hour old burger.
Don’t be too disgusted, he sold 120 burgers yesterday and he’s becoming the buzz in town. He’s now expanding his offer to include Burger King and KFC. Next thing you know, he’s a millionaire!

By the way, does anyone know why we’re the only people on the planet that celebrates Mothers’ day on March 21 st ?