Beirut Spring

Blogging Lebanon
since 2005

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“Conspiracy of Dunces”

An interesting perspective from Rime Allaf on the situation in Syria. There has always been a “conspiracy” (her own quotation marks) against Syria, she says, but the Syrian regime survived not because of any particular competence from its part, but because the west made bigger mistakes. Only the Syrian people, she concludes, has a real chance to once and for all topple the Assad rule.

Mustapha Hamoui · Aug 29, 2011

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❊ Freedom and the Arab Spring

I was having a discussion with an American friend on Twitter about the meaning of the word “freedom”. I told him that the concept of freedom in the American libertarian sense (freedom from government intrusion and rights of the individual), is foreign to many people in the world, in the same way that the Japanese ideal of “honor”, the French ideal of “solidarité”, or the Chinese ideal of “harmony” are foreign to Americans.

Mustapha Hamoui · Aug 27, 2011

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Hand Grenades Thrown At Metn Gas Station

Yet another “small” incident that would have been much more serious if it weren’t bungled. There have been a succession of incidents involving explosive devices that either go off prematurely, fail to explode, or don’t hit their target well ( Can you imagine what would have happened if the grenades exploded near the station’s fuel tank?), and all are targeting Christian areas. Coincidence?

Mustapha Hamoui · Aug 25, 2011

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