* Hijacking The Greatness Of Others

Have you ever asked yourself why the Lebanese celebrate so much the victory of others?

They dance on the streets and set up fireworks at midnight if the Brazilian team wins, and they publish glowing obituaries of Swiss billionaires on their newspapers’ first pages.

In both cases the associations are dodgy: Hanging the Brazilian flag on your window for the the last month doesn’t make make you a native of Copacabana, the same way that being born in Lebanon almost ninety years ago and leaving for better pastures only make you “technically” Lebanese.

In fact, both examples are testimonies to Lebanese failures: The failure to get our national team to the world cup and the failure to retain our best and brightest.

But we don’t care, we take pride nonetheless. I’m sure there’s a psychological explanation out there; what is it about our nagging need for greatness? Our itching desire to tell everyone how cool Lebanon is, how good our Hummus is, how gorgeous our women are, how skilled our doctors, how breathtaking our nature, how rich and successful our billionaires and how fancy our parties are. Why do we do that?

..And when we think we’re not great at something? Easy, we just appropriate the greatness of others..

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