❊ Jaleldib vs the World. Sorry, but the Lebanese Government Cannot Afford your Luxury Bridge.

Should the Lebanese government pay for a new bridge in Jaleldib?

The bridge, despite slowing drown traffic on the main highway, made life easier for many of the residents in that area. After it was dismantled, people started getting inconvenienced daily with an additional 20 minutes or so of driving to reach the main highway. But does that mean that the government should foot the bill for a new bridge?

In an ideal world, it should. And by ideal world I mean a world in which the government has extra money that it doesn’t know where to spend.

Unfortunately we don’t live in that world. $20M (or $120M depending on level of corruption) spent on that bridge is $20 million taken away from other projects that would, dollar for dollar, be a much more productive way to spend the government’s money and a much better return on investment for Lebanese tax payers and donors. $20M spent on improving electricity in Jounieh is much more useful than $20M on making life a bit easier for Jaleldibians.

The reason why I used Jounieh as an example (instead of say, Akkar) is because people are turning this into a Christian Vs. Muslim issue. But it is not. Cities and regions all over the world fight for the money of the central government, and talking about this in sectarian terms doesn’t make the cause of the bridge any more fair.

That said, the demands of the citizens of Jaleldib are not completely unfair. Jaleldib and Metn are rich areas that contribute more than others to the Lebanese national treasury. But as long as we don’t have administrative and financial decentralization, the treasury will remain tight-fisted and distributive.

The sad truth is that, despite their vocal campaign on facebook, if the people of Jaleldib want a bridge, they’ll have to pay for it themselves.