Neswpaper Headline 10 yrs from now:

11.23.2017 : Berri postpones presidential elections for the 1000'th time, Lebanon enters Guinness Book of Records for prestigious achievement.

Zhikna baka, tfoo 3ala hal araf.

One more day to go....

Poor old Kouchner has spent more time in Lebanon this past month than in France. I wonder if he realised when they handed him the ministry that the "foreign" part was going to be exclusive to only one foreign country. He probably left a few days ago pretty sure that the problem had been solved, only to find that he had to return because he had trusted that the idiots that had to get together to vote for a president and save the country would actually go ahead and do so.

I hear that Spanish foreign minister is coming today. Spain, we didn't know you cared! Amr Moussa just left, I'm not sure why he came here in the first place since the Arab League are famous at achieving nothing. They do like to get together from time to time though where they talk a lot and fight a lot and embarrass themselves as well as inevitably achieve nothing. Who else, oh yeah, the Russians met with Saad in Moscow and then put out a hilarious statement that there shouldn't be any foreign interference in the elections , I mean ha ha ha, joke of the century. I like their deputy foreign minister's name: Alexander Sultanov, isn't that just the cutest? The Americans seem to be keeping a low profile these days, if you don't count Feltman met this and Feltman met that, but we're so used to Feltman interfering now that we count him as one of ours rather than one of their's.
The Iranian machinations always come out at the last minute via their Lebanese spokesman Nasrallah, usually to trample upon any glimmer of hope we have. Incidentally, our best clue for this "glimmer of hope" for a solution seems to be the fact that the Syrians have finally been invited to Annapolis (and I'll eat my hat if anything actually gets solved there).

In this last day before all shit hits the fan, or before a new beginning for the country, let us reflect on how annoyed we all are when we see footage and pictures of Parliament members from rival groups schmoozing, smiling, chatting and joking with each other as if nothing is happening, while we citizens of this country are dying a thousand deaths every day due to worry. I hate them all, each and every one of them, is that OK?

From Naharnet Newsdesk

Article From Naharnet newsdesk today:

Aoun Threatens to Block Two-Third Quorum if President Has No Popular Backing Free Patriotic Movement leader Gen. Michel Aoun threatened to block a two-third quorum to elect a new head of state for Lebanon if the president-to-be did not enjoy popular backing.
"We will not support any president, not even if elected by a two-third quorum, if he does not enjoy popular support," Aoun told reporters after a meeting of his Change and Reform Bloc.


This is just too hilarious, what they actually meant to say was : Aoun Threatens to block even a 100% Quorum if the president elected is not himself.

Let's piss him off and choose a consensus candidate

Is there any better reason to choose a consensus candidate than the fact that both Condaleeze and Nasrallah don't want him?
Yes folks we all heard the speech, in case any of us had started feeling an itsy bit of hope, he made sure to quash that with his usual poison-spewing, to make sure he would prevent any agreement that might stabilise the country. You see in an unstable country, it is much easier to run your own army and have wars whenever you want.
Actually the man I feel sorry for the most is Nabih Berri, the poor guy looked as shocked as the rest of us by the latest orders from Iran.
There's only a few days left before the shit hits the fan one way or another, if they don't sort it out by then, it may very well be Sayonara Lebanon.

Condaleezee Tilhasteezee is back

She's Baaaaackkkk...
Yes the promoter of doom and gloom, the proponents of "birth pangs" that have a high child mortality rates, is back to stun us with more of her wisdom.

Apparently she cares oh so much about us, enough to allow the Israelis to butcher as many as they like of our people and get away with it, to keep parts of of our land and get away with it, to destroy the country's infrastructure and get away with it, to keep maps of cluster weapon positions to themselves and get away with it, but still, she loves us , she really really does.

Now, her latest efforts are aimed at derailing talks between the opposition and the majority. Just the fact that CT wants to stop them is a sure sign that they MUST keep going.

Will They, Won't They....

...decide on someone by November 12th that is.
Who knows? Who cares?
OK we still care, but only just.
At least they're meeting again. They put us through all this shit for two years and have left it till now to finally realise that time is indeed running out for this country.
What pisses me off the most, is that they'll probably smile and hug and kiss when they see each other like long lost pals, and they'll probably sit down and have dinner and a drink, while they let us stew.
Whoever you choose, get it over and done with already, so we can move on to the next chapter in the story. Knowing Lebanon, the next chapter is very likely to be worse than this one, but hey, we can still hope, right?

EID MUBARAK

Kil Sineh w into bkheir everyone.

My bodygaurds have an average age of 12....

No, not my bodygaurds, but Aouns' bodygaurds. I won't post the pictures of the idiots training or "picnicking" (as per the original description by our favorite fruit flavoured opposition group). If you are interested you can see the photos on Blacksmith's blog: the "combatants" are just a bunch of imbeciles who were too young during the civil war (or not even born yet) to realise that war is not a fun filled computer commando game.

The FPMers must assume we are all idiots or something, I would have had a little more respect if they just admitted that they were doing what everybody else was doing: preparing for the next civil war.

Allah yesa3ed hal balad 3ala el hameer illee 3aisheen feeh.

And yes, as Mustapha on Beirut Spring points out , Hizballah's arms are giving everybody the excuse and incentive they need. If he has a toy I can have one too. Unfortunately their guns aren't toy guns and the death and destcution is going to be very very real.

I wonder if there is ANY hope left for this country.

Who's setting Lebanon on Fire?

Several fires have started in forests in several different and unrelated areas today, all in one day. What is happening here?

things currently going on in this country, incase you're interested.


There's the arrest of an Israeli-German-Jewish-Muslim-Gay guy with a boyfriend from internal security forces, who's gun has was found at a murder scene with the dead body.

There's the useless opening of Parliament for the first time in months which resulted in no voting and no new president.

....and there's a terrorist maniac on the loose that everyone has conveniently forgotten about in that usual Lebanese way (if we don't think about it , it doesn't exist).

Just another normal day in Lebanon.

OK, that was an emotional response yesterday. I literally vented out the minute I heard the news, if you are Lebanese, I think you'd understand.

I am so utterly and completely fed up with this situation, the chaos, the murders, the corruption, the playing with our fate for ulterior motives. Every time they kill one of the politicians, they also take with him a few innocent bystanders, that's so many families devastated that day, so much death and destruction visited upon us by these agents of misery and evil.

So once again I give my condolences to all those who lost members of their families yesterday. May the souls of all those who died rest in peace.

Another one down....

Yes folks, over here in Lebanon, you don't need to win any elections, you can just paralyze the country and wait till enough of the majority is assasinated, 'cause that is a sure fire way that they lose their majority.

If you are of a sensetive nature please stop reading now, what I am going to say is not very eloquent but will express exactly how I feel right at this moment:

Fuck Hizballah the traitors. You have betrayed the people of your own country, you have stood with their killers against your own brothers.

Fuck all of March 8 all together and every little useless hizbs that makes them up.

Especially fuck Aoun, hey Aoun baby , another one has died you wanna run for his seat? What an opportunity, it can't be missed.

Fuck the Iranian Government and all their backwards rulers, and fuck the people who are letting them influence this country, as if we didn't have enough backwards neanderthals living here already, you now go and import some from a foreign country.

But most of ALL and the biggest SCREW YOU and FUCK YOU goes to Bashar and the whole Assad Family and their Syrian Mafia.

Israelis send jet fighters to Syrian airspace: what will Syrians do in return?

Whatever the cause of this mission, testing Syrian air defenses, checking on weapons load going to hizballah, testing out a route to bomb Iran, or checking for new nuclear installations, we now wait with baited breath at the Syrian reply!

Will they send Syrian jet fighters back to bomb (or the latest euphemism for bombing"drop munitions") on the Israelis and violate their airspace in return? Will they send a few warning rockets into the North of Israel?Will they launch a major offensive to free the Golan Heights?

Ha ha ha, yeh sure.

They complained to the UN and they will do absolutely nothing else. Our dear regional bullies are a bunch of big fat COWARDS.
They'll just hope that the incident will "go away" with time as people move on to other news. Isn't that what they have always done?

Old Joke: how long will the Syrians fight the Israelis? Answer: till the last Lebanese breath.

The strange case of Shaker el-Abssi..

There is a body lying in the morgue, and nobody knows who it is.

The wife still insists it's el-Abssi, he was also identified by the religious sheiks from the camp who were trying to mediate with fateh-al islam during the war, but the DNA tests comparing his DNA to his children's and brother's DNA show it is not him. What's going on here?

From the wife's side several things could be going on:
1) the most logical is that the woman lied so that her husband would have as much time as possible to get away
2) or she didn't lie, the wounds were so extreme she made a mistake
3) she cheated on her husband and his kids aren't his (though that doesn't explain the brother's DNA not matching)

From the DNA side
1) they messed up the DNA test - though this is highly unlikely
2) the DNA test gives a 99.99 chance that it is right, well that means there is a 0.01 chance it is wrong, and maybe the statistical jackpot has just struck this time.

From Shaker al-Abssi's side
1) Maybe this was never Shaker el-abssi in the first place , just someone impersonating him, and everyone including his wife has been fooled into thinking it was him (I mean she couldn't have seen much of him during his life, what with him being in prison and fighting one cause after the other).

Okay that last one is a bit of a stretch, I've been watching way too much TV lately (coupled with my Arabic disposition to seeing conspiracies behind every event).

The most likely thing is that his wife is a lying cow and the man either escaped or is lying under the rubble of Naher el Bared somewhere.

BBC:Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been deported within hours of returning from exile....

....will Saad H. please come back to Lebanon now? We do have a few "issues" pending over here if you hadn't noticed.

Naharnet Newsdesk: Aoun Hints at Formation of Parallel Government...

...which will be immediately recognised by Syria and Iran and no one else and will thus function very very very effectively. Yislamleh habalo, did he not learn the lesson from the last time he did the "parallel" thing?

Al-Nahar:DNA Result Reportedly Did Not Match Abssi's

Oh F*%k, S%#t and B%*&$%!

Lessons from Naher el Bared

The victory of our Army against the maniacs in Naher el Bared has united the Lebanese for the first time across most of their factions behind one cause, a very rare situation in Lebanon. A few lessons might be learned by different stakeholders in this conflict:

1) any Lebanese idiot who supported al-qaeda extremist salafist idiotic ideology will now have to think twice about acting on or voicing such an opinion, so al-qaeda's support base in Lebanon is more or less annihilated for the time being (a point discussed by Mustapha on his blog, Beirut Spring)

2) the army's prestige and uniting presence has been elevated to its highest point I can remember. Their inginuity and bravery in the battle (are they going to patent the helicopter manual bombing system?) and the fact that they won despite an utter lack of resources, only reminds makes us more grateful and supporting of them.

3) Hizballah lost points by setting a red line which was crossed and erased, as well as by the fact that their fighters/weapons were seen as not useful to the WHOLE of Lebanon, only being mobilised by their religious leaders for one area of the country, and against only one enemy.

4) The Palestinians will hopefully have learnt not to harbour such foreign criminals inbetween them and allow them to grow and fester (the palestinain salafi's are another problem they need to solve).

5) That's one camp that hopefully will never be allowed to self police or carry weapons ever again (if you believe the media sources), 3qbal the other camps. What other country on Earth is FORCED to allow non-citizens to carry weapons I ask you?

Victory

It is over. Lebanon won.

Thankyou to all our brave soldiers who fought and died for their country.
Thankyou to the Red Cross Workers, always willing to perform their duty even in the line of fire.

poor old Suleiman...

Have a pity on poor old Suleiman. The peace loving imbecile believes he is surrounded by murdering assassins out to get his buddies. I mean really, can anyone imagine Sanioura "out for the kill"?
Why does anyone still give this idiot airtime?

SURPRISE!!!!!!

So let's take a guess at what the surprise could be:
-a sleeper cell
-a weapon of "relatively" mass destruction
-anti-aircraft missiles (that actually work)

are my three top guesses, what are yours?

and why or why do I have the feeling the surprise will bring more destruction on our heads than on Isreali heads?

So he has his own army, starts off wars by himself without bothering to consult the government or any elected officials, has his own private telephone network running alonglside the official telephone network, his people function completely out of reach of the law, he has his own stock of weapons which he uses only when he feels like it (we could have used a few of your weapons in nahr-el-bared buddy), and has personal communication with heads of state of other countries.

So here's my question, why doesn't he stop the pretense and just form his own new country and get it over and done with already?

At least it was democracy...

Yes, whoever won in the end, even if it wasn't our side, it was a pretty democratic election process. I'm sure there will be appeals and so on and so forth, but Aoun won.
There weren't any major security incidents so mar2et 3ala kheir elhamdillah. Lets hope all sides keep cool heads in the coming few days until the major tensions pass.
I wonder though, when the poor bloke will see the inside of the parliment as his ally Nabih said he doesn't recognise the results and won't open the parliment anyway. I wonder if there is any country in the world where one person can decide to keep the parliment closed like this. We are an interesting bunch , us Lebanese.

Oh yeh, Itani won in Beirut. It's good to know us Beirutis are united in where we stand.
Some poor bloke who ran against him got only 13 votes.
He must have a very small family.

And they're off.....

...to the polling booths that is.

Right now all I care about is that the voting goes off without any violence.

Once the voting is over, then we can let out that breath we've been holding in all day, and start thinking about results and their consequences.

The metn elections: are they a good thing or a bad thing?

First I'll get the obvious out of the way: it's in extremely poor taste to run against a man who's running for a post that opened up due to the assassination of his son. I am not one who enjoys seeing "inherited" political positions, though I must say , in case of assassinations, even I will suspend this credo against inbred transfer of posts. In this case of course, there is a double tragedy in that not only is this an assassination related inheritance, but it's also a reverse-inheritance, from son to father.

However, that fact aside, I wonder how bad is it for the election to be contested:

In the event that Gemayel wins, the post remains in the hands of M14, and the opposition can't claim that the election was bogus because it wasn't signed in by Lahood, because they actually ran in it. (I know Aoun is contesting the elections as well as running in them, such schizoid behaviour is beyond my understanding so I will just ignore it for now).

If Aoun wins, well that's pissy, but that's the democratic process for you, and aren't we all claiming that we want a proper democracy (even at the cost of our respective side)? Again, if he wins, then the post will move over to the pro-syrian side which is bad, but at least Aoun is faux pro-sryian and there is hope that he will later (be forced by circumstances to) revert to his original anti-syrian tenets. Also, if Aoun does win, his team will be branded as the kind of heartless mobs who find ways of taking advantage of someone else's tragedy.

My big fear is that all hell will break loose when one side loses, and somebody must lose every time .

Non-Politico for a Minute-o

Harry Potter and Co . What shall I do now that I've read the last one? It's good, and I won't give any clues to what happens 'cause I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it yet. Go get it and read it , and if you haven't read any of them, I'm totally jealous, because it means you have seven great books yet to read.

It's better to be Bulgarian

A couple of years ago, I predicted a different ending. I told my husband that they would in the end let the Bulgarian nurses go and execute the Palestinian doctor. The outcome was slightly different. They were all let ago, and the reason? The Bulgarians now part of the EU (something they weren't at the beginning of the incident), gave the Palestinian doctor citizenship. He became Bulgarian, and he was released with the nurses.
Here is my question: why did none of the so-called brotherly Arab countries even think of adopting the Palestinian doctor so they could protect him?
Like I said, it's better to be Bulgarian.

Heads of State?

Three heads of state met yesterday, Bashar, Ahmadinijad and Nasrallah . Oh you didn't know Hassoun was a president? Well he's represents the Republic of the South & Dahieh, a well known Iranian Protectorate. Apparently, he's out there with Bashar & Hammoudi deciding the fate of Lebanon by themselves.
Ya farhet alebna.

And in Other News...

According to the Daily Star, NBN has re-instated Sawsan Darwish as anchorwoman at the TV station.
This gives us all an idea of the caliber of humanity that dwells in the bowels of NBN (and Amal) in general, and what they allow themselves to think and get away with.
What hope is there for this country when people like that exist amongst us?

they came, they met, they left...

Apparently, they came tense and left "in a brotherly state", oh great, all our problems have been solved now. Well at least they sat down together without killing each other. The Israelis got more out of this than we did since they now know that their two soldiers are alive. We on the other hand got nothing out of the meeting, because apparently nobody can make a decision without consulting their respective foreign sponsors. Tfoo 3alayhon killhon, malla araf.

In other news, another attack on the UNIFIL, so if anyone still thinks the army shouldn't be fighting the Dementeds in Nahr el Bared, we should send you to Afghanistan to live with the Taleban, their close cousins, maybe then you would change your mind.

What is he doing???

What the fuck is Sarkozy doing? He invites Hizballah for talks one day and then calls them terrorists the next, is he trying to shoot down the talks before they even start? I hope this guy isn't becoming another Tony Blair, the world does not need another American Lapdog.

A calming down of rhetoric on all sides....

...yeh, except for that guy complaining about all of Lebanon being sold to foreigners or some such thing (when are we ever going to get to keeping religious figures completely out of politics? Are we allowed to pray for complete separation of religion and state, or is that an oxymoron?).

Anyway, people are phoning people, other people have agreed to meet other people in France, At least the idiots are all talking. God knows how they thought this was going to be solved while they all sat at home complaining about the "other side". Aoun seems to be getting into gear for his presidential bid, maybe he'll finally get the president thing out of his system.

Bil Alb Ya Watan

I had to repost this 'cause I tired fiddling with the comment and deleted the first post by mistake. So here it is again, the ad for the army, I like!

Here it is if you haven't seen it. Quite nice too!

addendum: I deleted the video by mistake so I'm reposting above.

Five Minute Time-Out

I'm always trying to slip in a non-political post but the near continuous problems in Lebanon won't allow anybody a breather.
We seem to be at a "low attrition" state, i.e. ongoing problems before the "next major event" whatever it is going to be, so I thought I'd slip this in:

Did you know that the singer that sings that beautiful song "A Place in Time" at the beginning of "4400's" is Lebanese? Her name is Amanda Abizaid. Of course she left Lebanon with her family at the age 9 , but then again, that's really more or less a Lebanese Trademark, isn't it?

Isn't it about time we grew up?

Well isn't it? Lebanon is like the perpetual child, always leaning on someone whether it is mama Fransa or baba America or Amo Saudia or Khalo Iran or "sister" Syria. Now, we have also been adopted by the UN.

Did we really have to wait for the UN to tell us we need to monitor our borders more?
Isn't it embarrassing that the Spaniards called Iran to order el-hizb to investigate the bombing in their mini-me country in the South?
Isn't it annoying that every time Arab league wants to do something to "help" the situation in Lebanon they have to go to Syria before or after?

What the fuck is wrong with us? We are a country full of educated, intelligent , hard-working people that seem to be psychologically incapable of stopping our dependence on outside elements.

Let's try this for a change: We're on our own, nobody is propping us up, and we can make it.

Teaching your child to be independent is one of the successes of child raising. It seems our "family" has failed completely in that regard, it may be because of their own selfish plans to keep us under control, or because we just refuse to grow up and take responsibility for ourselves.

And now the UN troops...

Yesterday 5 people who came from faraway lands to help this country were murdered. They were killed by a car bomb or a suicide bomber for no reason except that they existed. The soulless madmen who did this must be caught and punished before they drag us all into the abyss.

We mourn with Spain and Columbia for the loss of their children in our country.

NOT QUITE OVER.....

Like I said, it's probably not all over yet, we celebrated too early, you can't really blame us, we were so exited for our soldiers.

Reports of the PLFP joining the fight only shows how Syrian the whole plan is even more.

Yalla, we'll still here standing with firmly in support of our soldiers.
Go Army , Allah Ye7meekon.

One Army, One People, One Lebanon.

We Won

It's probably not completely over, but it sure looks likes We WON. WE WON WE WON WE WON.

I don't know why, but I feel like this is the first time we won as a real country.

Our thanks to our beloved army, to all those who fought and fell.

ONE ARMY, ONE PEOPLE, ONE LEBANON.

One more border crossing to go....

The Syrian Mafia is back on the rampage , this time economically. In a repeat performance, the Syrians are trying to isolate us from our export destinations. What can we do about this?

Let me preface this by saying I'm no economist, so this is pure amateur speculation.

From what I understand Syria mainly depends on Saudi-Arabia, Iraq, Jordan and more recently Turkey for their exports. Now if the Syrians shut down the borders to our exports (note to M8's : notice about how much they seem to care about you) then effectively we are stuck .....unless our allies clamp down on them.

This is when it gets great identifying with Arab allies. If the Saudis close their borders to Syrian trucks arriving via Jordan, that at least would put a serious squeeze on Bashar et Co. I don't know how dependent the Jordanians are on Syria for their own exports, so this may play against us in the equation, yet they are also allies and have big economic deals with the US who may push for the border closure against the Syrians.

The Turks have just signed a trade agreement with Syria, and I'm not sure they really care about us one way or the other to do anything to the Syrians, but the EU can and may impose sanctions if push comes to shove.

The Arab League itself may come into play, though who knows if that will go with or against us (just look at Qatar's recent performance at the UN).

The Question is: will anybody do any of this for us?

If anybody reading this knows more about the trade/economics in question, do post in the comments section, I'm really interested to know the details and effects of what could happen, and if there is anything we can actually do about it.

A Tale of Two Governments

The next fiasco in the Lebanese story is going to be the possibility of having two governments, one controlled by March 14 and the other by March 8. The question is will hizballah actually do it?

It is a simple formula: two governments= breakup of Lebanon
and if this happens, nothing will put humpty-dumpty back together again.

To form this government, Nasrallah is in desperate need for Aoun to be aboard the ship, or it will look like a Shiite Separation Act, and Aoun is showing no indications of being willing to be "the second government that nobody in the world recognises" again. I seriously doubt that Aoun will repeat that mistake twice. In fact Aoun just declared his readiness to fight in the by-elections, a clear split with Hizballah about the issue. Even that idiot Franjieh has agreed to the by-elections, though I'm not sure how they have anything to do with him, since they are out of the area of his jurisdiction. Are things falling apart in the March 8 camp?

Recently I had an argument with other bloggers (on BeirutSpring) about the reconciliation talks. I am for them , everybody else is against them. Apparently I'm letting down "the cause" if I think the M14 are wrong not to sit down and talk with the M8. I disagree. I think I'm right (obviously). The M8 have refused idiotically to come to the negotiation table for about a year now unless their demands were fulfilled first i.e. give us what we want, end of negotiations. Now the M14 are doing the same. I think the original move was idiotic on the part of the M8's and now I think the M14 are falling into the same way of thinking, the "we can win it all".

Well actually we can't win it all. This is not some sports competition, this is a country, and we're going to have to share. The M8's have their grievances and they must be addressed, the most realistic of which is proportional representation, which is fair enough if you believe in democracy. And how are we gonna talk them out of the standing with Syria against us if we don't talk to them at all ?

Worse of all if we become as stubborn as they have been, don't we become just as responsible for what is happening? This country is falling apart, there's no question about it. The question now becomes, will we be able to save it before it disintigrates completely?

For all of you out there arguing against the talks. What other (realistic) options do you propose to solve the problem?

Sawsan Darwich...an example of the lowest form of humanity

Of course, that is a compliment, because it gives her the benefit of the doubt about being human.
Instead of mourning the death of 10 people, this woman was laughing and sniggering and hoping for more carnage. Because in her world, everything is allowed as long as she gets her own political needs fulfilled.

Well, she got her due, she was fired. I'd be very surprised if she's employable anywhere, anymore.

I will now spit on her figuratively : tfoo aleiky ya Sawan ya hayaweneh, wahdeh mi-erfeh bala damm w bala aleb.

Yet Another Explosion

Another anti-Syrian MP is assassinated. This time along with his son, bodyguards, and several people passing by.

I'm not sure how the pro-Syrians factions explain these assassinations to themselves. I mean they have to justify it somehow or another to be able to live with themselves and who they've decided to join hands with. On Manar TV one of the commentators is blaming the Americans. How's about blaming someone a little closer? Is standing with Syria worth it Nasarallah, will you sacrifice the whole of Lebanon so you can have a route for your weapons?

As for the Aounists, I mean really, your whole thing was being anti-Syrian this and anti-Syrian that, suddenly you're on the Syrian side of the equation and Syrian politicians are praising Aoun and saying what a good president he'd make? Is it worth selling your soul so Aoun can become president?

So yet again, another post goes to condolences for people who lost their lives because of tragedy in our country. May God rest their souls in peace.

LEBANESE RED CROSS

Just in case anybody out there is in any doubt that the people we are fighting against are utter evil, yesterday they shot at the Lebanese Cross Ambulance and killed two members and critically wounded the third. These people are just psychopaths, pure and simple.

This phenomenon which is taking over the Islamic world should be wiped out wherever it is found. If us moderate Muslims (who's numbers seem to be dwindling as I write) do not halt the hijacking of our religion by the radicals, then really, what hope is there for this religion to go forward instead of backwards?

Recently, I've been wishing for an Ataturk to come and take over in Lebanon. I know it is extreme, but in the end when you separate (or wipe out) religion from politics, then religion becomes what it always should have been, a way to have a personal communication with God, not an excuse to kill and maim and rule and impose your opinion on everybody else.

I once read a quote by a Egyptian Traveller (who is famous but who's name escapes me). He visited Europe and said: I've just been to a place full of Islam with no Muslims, and came back to a place that is full of Muslims but no Islam.

I couldn't agree with him more.

Samir Kassir

With yesterday's journalism prizes being given out in his name, I realised that it's been two years since Samir Kassir was killed. I was surprised that so much time had passed and couldn't understand why it didn't feel like two years. Then the revelation: for all this time, there has not been one moment of peace or peace of mind. There has been a continuous assault on Lebanese senses and brains so that the events have not passed into the past, they remain as part of our present. To put an even in history, we need a break with which we can identify the post-event times, we have not had that break, hence, the tragic event feels like it has just happened and is part of this continuous stream of tragedies.
I have his book about Beirut sitting on my bedside table waiting to be read. Now he is part of its story.

1757

At last, they will not get away with murder.

A sad thought

Considering the fight our army is in against the enemy, isn't it sad that we have well trained, well armed Lebanese fighters in the south who are not currently part of their own country's legitimate army. How glorious it would have been if they were here, with the rest of our soldiers, protecting the country from the psychotic militants and their bombs, serving their own country fully instead only on one front. One need not point out that we have more than the one enemy in this world. Those men need to join the fight for the whole of Lebanon by serving in their country's army, not in a private army of their own.

God help the civilians caught in the middle of this fight between good and evil.

To our soldiers who died, may you rest in peace, we will forever be grateful.

OUR ARMY

To those who fought and died for their country, we are forever grateful.

BOOK REVIEW

I picked up this book "A HISTORY OF MODERN LEBANON" by Fawwaz Traboulsi, on a recommendation from MFL who promised it was a good and non-biased read.

He's quite right, it was a very good read, though I respectfully disagree with MFL since I did feel that the book was a little biased (leftist tinged) -I have never seen the word capitalist used so many times in a history book!

Anyway, all in all I highly recommend it. I've read a lot of politico/historical books on Lebanon and I would say this rates highly among them. Since it covers a big span of time, there is less on the civil war than I expected. The saddest thing is that the same names crop up again and again whether it is from 200 hundred years ago or 20 years ago. It is apparent that we as a people, have been rather un-imaginative, when it comes to picking those elected to "serve" us.

Now another tragedy, and a nation is in mourning yet again.
May God help their families and may their souls rest in peace.

Yesterday my heart dropped when I heard the news. This is the kind of incident that years later would be found described in books as the "spark that ignited...". What kind of heartless bastards would kidnap a child and a man just because they or their families belong to a certain party?

The longer the political situation in Lebanon remains suspended in this void, the more opportunity it gives these "zo3ran" on all sides to enjoy themselves. They are there, waiting to reap the benefits of war, they love chaos and thrive in it. War, after all was made for people like them, not for you or me or any decent human being who relishes stability, peace, law and order.

Jumblatt talked to Berri for the first time in two months. Maybe there is still hope that the bigwigs can get their act together. I hope they start by returning the kidnapped child and man to their families and go on from there.

The UN tribunal looks to be established whatever. It would be most dignified if established through the proper Lebanese means than under chapter 7, but I think this is looking less and less likely to happen. The interesting thing is that Hizballah keeps saying that there could be major repercussion and even maybe civil war if it goes under chapter 7. Why would there be a civil war if us on the one side are pleased, and them on the other side "will never lift a finger or direct a weapon against a Lebanese", is Syed Hassan planning to break his word?

Ban ki Moon is looking into putting the Shebaa farms under UN jurisdiction. In the unlikely event that this is going to happen I wonder who is going to be more displeased the Israelis or Hizballah?

A trip back home....

For all us Lebanese expats, a "trip back home" is usually an exciting event. That first sighting of Beirut from the airplane, the family waiting at the airport , all that heart-warming stuff. Only this time it was different. You could feel the tension in the air from the minute you stepped off the plane. The logos and counter-logos line the billboards all along the roads, the tense looks on people's faces when they talk to each other pretending that everything is alright, the shopkeeper in the Nabatieh asking me what I was doing there if I am from Beirut....

I didn't feel good this trip. Oh,we managed to do the usual, ate too much sushi, saw a movie (were supposed to see "300" but got there too late and ended up dragging my poor husband to see "Music and Lyrics" which was surprisingly funny), even managed to take a trip to the beautiful Barouk Cedar Reserve, but still, there was a bad taste in your mouth wherever you went. Some sort of dissatisfaction at the ridiculous Status Quo in this country. The same question in my head all the time: when is all this going to be over so we can get on with normal life again?

I'm sick and tired of it all, and for the first time in my life, I was happy when I flew back out.

Those Hilarious Israelis.....

Just in case you thought the Israelis where a dour bunch, they go and prove otherwise by providing us with some comic relief: they have just realised that they had gone to "War" last year, apparently they weren't so sure before, they originally thought they had been invited to a picnic in the hills of South Lebanon.

Now that they've decided that it was indeed a War, they are
looking for a name by which to call it, so if you have any ideas,
email them at: name.that.war@IsraelisAreIdiots.com

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT

Naharnet are reporting the arrest of 6 out of 8 people suspected in carrying out the bus bombings. Surprising no one, the cell turned out to be Syrian-based. Keep an eye on the Lebanese Opposition to see how they rationalise their way out of this one.

MARCH 11

Daddy and Mummy are getting together to solve our problems. The children have repeatedly demonstrated that they are too feeble-minded to handle their own issues, and totally deserve the utter humiliation of having their dirty laundry washed and aired by their respective sponsors. Tislamleh il-karameh , tshrsha7na on a global level.

So if the rumors are true, a miracle will occur and we will put the shit behind us. If they get it done within the next week, I will formally declare March 11 the winners of the competition , since they were the closest to the date without going over.

SPRING IS IN THE AIR.....

Well folks , spring is around the corner.
Unfortunately for us in Lebanon instead of the usual "shakeshkik" we have a new flowering variety: the nitro-b(l)oom. It is coming up everywhere. Some foreign power has payed for, sown and fertilized this year's growing season and is now sitting back to await the harvest.

In case you've lost count, we now have bombs planted in cars, bombs planted on buses, bombs planted in apartment buildings, bombs planted in the trash, bombs planted in car tyres , liquid bombs planted in the camps, and hot off the presses a bomb planted at the Greek Orthodox Archbishopric in Saida.

Doesn't our seed catalogue carry a wide and exiting amount of variety this year?

The Persian Question

Apparently whether we like it or not, our fate has now been linked with that of Iran. Ya farhet kalbna. As if we didn't have enough problems on our own frontiers, we are now to pay and suffer for whatever happens in a country that is thousands of miles away.

The biggest fear of course is if Bush & Co are idiotic enough to bomb Iran. The Israelis will do their utmost to encourage this. If Iran is bombed, then Hizballah "7hay-jen jnounon" and Lebanon will probably be sacrificed for "the cause".

As it is Ahmadinejad has now informed us that Iran and Lebanon are two limbs on the same body, with Lebanon apparently being the wounded limb. In my opinion, on this body, Ahmadinejad is an altogether different appendage.

The Lebanese take over the Calendar

I'm starting to mix up all the calender days now, we have March 8, March 14, Feb14, Dec 1, & March11. Anybody still interested in March , you better hurry up, the dates are going fast, however we would like to point out that there are several months complaining that they are being totally ignored.

addendum 6.3.07: yes , an addendum at the top of the post, having re-read this after a month, I feel this post really needs a warning that it is a "bit much", even for me, so only read on if you're a "true blue" ...

Feb 14th


Here we are again. I can't believe it's been two years since they killed him and all those with him in that convoy. He wasn't perfect and like any human, he made mistakes, but nobody in their right mind can deny that this man loved his country and made a huge effort to pull it out of the pit it was in after the civil war.

I wonder what he would have thought of the state we are in now?

I haven't been watching future TV much lately mainly because I think they have lowered their standards down to those of the poisonous Manar, but today I switched it on and listened to a song where the lyrics included "I didn't tell you that I loved you" which may seem soppy but made me cry. About a couple of years before they killed him I saw him walking in down-town, he seemed very approachable with very little security detail then, but I didn't have the gumption to go up to him to say thank you for all he did for this country. I thought I would get the chance some day but I was not allowed that chance. I really regret not going up to him that day.

So here goes nothing: if there is any way you can hear me
....thank you.

Another Day Another Tragedy


What can you say about this country? Tragedy after tragedy after tragedy. When will this ever end? How much are we supposed to bear?

Shou kein khasson hal nas illy 3ala hal bassat el-yom?
Allah ysa3ed hal balad ala hal mijermeen illy mkhabayeen baynatna w-nawyeenlna 3al-sharr.

As for who did it and why, well there will be major discussions and denials and accusations, each of us will have their own opinion, my prime suspect would be a syrian agent, yours will depend on which side you belong. None of the opinions will bring back those who died.

Should they by some sort of miracle ever find out who did it, I hope they execute him by strapping him down on a bus and then setting it on fire, just so that he has a taste of what he inflicted on other people.

Shoot-out at the Border

I'm not sure I'm really supposed to be happy when a shootout occurs, but I am about this one, good for our army for showing the Israelis that they won't be able to maneuver as they please. Whoever gave the order to shoot should be promoted!

In other news we would like to thank Iranians for their donation of Grad Rockets that should now be put to good use by our under-supplied Lebanese Army in fighting the Israelis, thanks for the free weapons bozo's, and may all your future "presents" be intercepted and "donated" to our Legal and Official Lebanese Army. Hizballah has asked for the rockets "back", ha ha ha, dream on .......

The next Date on the Calendar....

We are lucky enough in Lebanon to know when the next disastrous event in the near future of our country is likely to occur.

The next date on our Disaster Calender has now been chosen, and yep, as you all may have guessed, it is February 14th, which is a combination mourning/romantic day in Lebanon (or as I like to say, the morning is for Harriri and the evening is for Habibi).

Herein lies the problem: I, as a random supposedly free citizen of this country greatly affected by the death of Rafic el-Harriri, would like to go downtown sometime during the day, to read al-Fatiha or say a prayer at the graveside on Martyr's square.

As we all know, Martyr's square has been commandeered for the last "few days" by Hizballah and co. , who have stated that they will in no way leave so that the M14 or anybody else can come over and say a prayer or whatever. So now we are in a bind:

-if you go down, you are blamed for forcing a face to face confrontation and any resulting violence that may ensue.

-if you ask them to leave for the day, they will claim you are trying to steal back martyr's square from them, or worse that you have achieved "points in the game" by making them clear out

-if you decide to sit at home, then you are a weakly coward and see: they've scared you into submission.

-also they have volunteered to mourn for him in our place "because they care just as much" , so you should have nothing to complain about, he will be mourned, just not by you

So what to do now???

Er....is somebody going to tell those idiots in Hamas and Fatah that by killing each other the only ones that are benefiting are the Israelis?

Well, what can one say when one's country is slowly sliding back to civil war?

Nothing. Its all out of our hands now, the thugs and hooligans have taken over. The rest of us will stay at home and pray for it to be over, like we did last time.

So Nasrallah, and Aoun, you still want to escalate? more than this? In case you're going to claim later that you had no idea what would happen (like you claimed this summer) let me be the first to tell you: if you escalate more than this our country will be dragged back into civil war. And no fatwa from you or anybody else will be able to stop it. Maybe if you hadn't brought the people to the streets this could have been averted. Maybe if your strikes didn't involve lighting fires to provoke the other side this could have been averted. Maybe if this stayed between the politicians (or even just downtown Itissam -imagine, I am now longing for the time of the downtown blockades) instead of moving into people's neighbourhoods this could have been averted.

So now the zo3ran on all sides are out and loving it. Snipers are killing university students in the streets. Rioters are rampaging downtown. Civilians are being killed left and right. And for what? For some idiot to claim he won all the points in his argument.

Well allow me to say my fuck you's before I go to bed

Fuck every person in this country who owns a weapon and is not in our army.
Fuck any politican who sends any of his followers into the street for whatever reason.
Fuck those followers for being so easily led.
Fuck every sniper, may you be caught and thrown off the top of the building you are holed up in you piece of chicken shit
Fuck every fire-lighter whether be it a wheel or an office for the side you don't agree with
Fuck every politician who utters the word escalate

Fuck this idiot who still has hope for her country despite everything. I wish I would just give up and accept the inevitable. Sadly, my brain won't let me so I have to be tortured every day with the if only's and the maybe's.

The Army

I don't know why all the fuss about the army's behaviour, each side is actually blaming the army for acting in collusion with the other side. This of course means that the army actions were totally centered.
I think the army were acting under very stressful circumstances and the fact that civil war did not break out on Tuesday was mainly due to them standing there and preventing it from happening.

If Nasrallah thinks civil war didn't break out because of the indibat of his Indibat, then he is more delusional that I think. But my favorite crazyman of the moment is Orangina who says that the strike was a success (despite reports of between 5-8 people dying- of course to him they don't really matter as long as it gets him to the chair) because 90% of the people didn't go to work. He unfortunately was ignoring the fact that those who were FORCED to stay at home despite wanting to go to work shouldn't count in his delusional equation. Yay for their clean and honest politics!

Up in Flames


Beirut is up in flames. As if we didn't need any more pollution now we have to contend with the burning tires and rubble bussed in to close off our streets.

I wonder if these people understand that they are encroaching on someone else's living space? Would they accpet the March 14ers "peacefully" burning tires in Dahieh and not say anything?When they protested downtown, they claimed they were facing off with the government , is there a government ministry I don't know about on Mar Elias? Corniche el Mazraa? El- Raouche?

Is this the kind of democracy they are meaning to educate us about? The kind where I don't want to let you go to work.school.university and therefore I will enforce my will on yours since I don't care that you want to go to work. school.university. You do as I say or I'll burn the house down?

They've repeatedly told us how clean they are and how dirty we all supposedly are. Well look above you at the skies you blackened with your own hands, and tell me how clean we all feel today.

Halutz just resigned because of Lebanon. Does that mean in a few years time they'll make him prime-minister? That's their usual pattern!

In the meantime, Hizballah have warned that they're going to block off all the major roads in the country. I'm assuming they mean all the major roads where they don't live, because God forbid, their areas get a feel any of the "I3tisam" crap, I'm sure the Dahieh will have open thoroughfares.

In the meantime, Iranian parlimentarians are protesting against Ahadinejad because of Iran's poor economy. Where is all their oil money going I wonder? Perhaps Ahadinejad and Khamineii should concentrate on fixing their own country instead of interfering in mine.

The Question

I was wondering , with all this talk of compromise (or lack of it), what is the single most important issue in the negotiations for each side? What I mean is, if you go ask a M14 and an M8 supporter: if you had to choose one non-negotiable issue that would be green-lighted for you , what would it be?

For me personally, it would be the International Tribunal. Everything else is negotiable (some issues more easily than others).

What would that one essential issue be for a March 8 supporter? The weapons? The electoral reform? That specific president?

I know this is too simplistic an approach, but it would be interesting to know.

The calm before the storm?
Judging by the less than stellar Ministry demonstrations, the opposition seems to be loosing steam but have arrived at this point without achieving any of their objectives. I find this slightly worrying since Hizballah are at a point where they won't (or can't) take no for an answer. What are they going to do next? Peaceful demonstrations have not worked and the opposition have threatened to take it up a notch . What's that notch entail? Have they reached a point where they are cutting off their nose to spite their face? Have they reached a point where they will take down the whole country because their demands have not been met?

How long is this shit going to go on before BOTH SIDES COME BACK TO THE TABLE AND COMPROMISE?

Today's Examples of idiots on both sides....

Hizballah/Manar for choosing Hmadeh as the one who apparently pointed out the location of Nasrallah to the Americans and Israelis during the war, I mean ha ha ha you idiots, out of all the M14 you could have chosen you pick this one?

and

Jumblatt for his ridiculous accusation that Hizballah was involved in the assassinations, thanks J', we really needed more shit-talk out there in the air, the crap already floating around apparently wasn't enough.

Our eternal thanks to all these wonderful politicians for trying to bring us closer together as a people.......

Eid Mubarak, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.
May the new year bring peace to Lebanon and peace of mind to the Lebanese.

New TV's Idiot Employees


So these wonderful " journalists" decided to break in to Siddiq's Apartment to run their own investigation on the Harriri Murder. Apparently Brammertz isn't doing a good enough job and they wanted to give him a hand. They didn't see the guy stationed by the security forces with instructions to watch the apartment who took pictures of them breaking and entering. They didn't bother with gloves, leaving their fingerprints all over the place. They also decided to take a few choice documents and videos from the apartment.

All this I can understand. They're just your basic garden variety idiots (I'll ignore conspiracy theories for now). What I don't understand is the uproar against them being arrested: apparently arresting them violates the "freedom of the press". I didn't realize freedom of the press meant freedom to break the law, become thieves, and tamper with evidence in an ongoing criminal investigation.
Hooray for our twisted interpretations of freedom, it's what's keeping our country so "civilized".

Finally the truth straight from his mouth.......


The real reason Hizballah took the streets as described by Nasrallah himself to Al-Arabi Newspaper.....

دعونا نسألكم بصراحة سماحة السيد، يبدو للمراقبين أن المحرك الأكبر خلف تحركاتكم كمعارضة هو موضوع المحكمة الدولية الخاصة بقتلة الحريرى، ترى هل تخشون هذه المحكمة؟ وهل موضوع الثلث الضامن هو محاولة استباق لإجهاضها؟ -- أجاب: دعنى أصارحك وأصارح الأمة كلها، لقد كنا أول من وافق على هذه المحكمة من حيث المبدأ، ومازلنا نوافق ولكن طالبنا بأن نضع ضمانات وضوابط حتى لا تتحول الى سيف مصلت على رقاب اللبنانيين وأداة ابتزاز وحصار للمقاومة.. ضمانات للبحث الفعلى عن الحقيقة فى جريمة اغتيال الشهيد رفيق الحريرى والتى تهمنا وتهم كل الشرفاء فى لبنان والمنطقة ربما قبل أن تهم أغلب فريق 14 آذار الذين تاجروا ولا يزالون يتاجرون بدم الرجل، ولأذكر لك هنا واقعة محددة لتعرف من خلالها كيف يفكر ويخطط الأمريكى لاستثمار هذه المحكمة لمصالحه ولمصالح اسرائيل فقبل أيام من رحيله غير المأسوف عليه أكد جون بولتون المندوب الأمريكى فى مجلس الأمن لأحد الوزراء اللبنانيين صرح لنا هنا السيد نصر الله باسمه ولكننا لن ننشره احتراما لرغبة السيد وقال له نصا: أعطونا قرار المحكمة وموافقتكم عليه نعطيكم رأس حسن نصر الله وزمرة المعارضين من السنة والشيعة والدروز وغيرهم فى أقل من أسبوع واحد، طبعا الأمريكى سيتمكن من ذلك حتما بالتلفيق والتزوير والتدليس وعبر المؤامرات كما هو حاصل فى العراق وغيرها من بلادنا التى نكبت به، حاولنا عبر الحوار الشاق أن نحصن قرار المحكمة ذات الطابع الدولى بضوابط وطنية لا تسمح باستغلاله إلا أننا فشلنا، وأمام ذلك وأمام غيره من ممارسات الحكومة اضطررنا للنزول الى الشارع والى فرض مطالبنا عبر الوسائل الديمقراطية.

Ana bikrah Isra-eel wa ba7ib Amr Moussa.......


Mr Moussa is leaving, having disclosed very little about his meetings. He promises us a solution within two weeks......one can only hope. There's a new formula in the works (10+1+19) and talk about meetings regarding the tribunal, and something about removing the guy who still thinks he is president. I wonder why Mr. Moussa is leaving at this critical juncture? Probably, he just needs a break from Lebanese Politics. It is well known to be detrimental to your health if not taken in small divided doses.

In the meantime, PM Sanioura is in Russia which begs the question of what is the use of surrounding someone in the Serail when they can "escape" whenever they want.

I've noticed less coverage of downtown and other Lebanese problems lately, it seems the world is getting a little bored with us.

And now for something completely different ....

Jean Claude Rabbath of Lebanon won the gold medal in the men's high jump at the Asian Games in Qatar! YAY!

Good for him, we're totally proud!

It's all Sanioura's fault......


The war was in no way a result of Hizballah's actions.

Now we know the dirty secret: the war was caused by PM Sanioura. He personally called up Olmert and told him to destroy the country. The war had nothing to do with a trap set up by the Israelis for months, waiting for Nasrallah to make his idiotic move.
What's more the ISF traitors were actively looking for Nasrallah during the war so that they could tag him for the Israelis. Hmmmm.....are we getting a little paranoid buddy?

I saw Sanioura a few days before the war, walking downtown, smiling at the people and their families having a nice early evening stroll. Didn't strike me as a man planning to annihilate his own country. Of course, I must be mistaken, because Nasrallah tells me that he himself is the only patriotic person left in Lebanon. Everybody who disagrees with him apparently, must be in collusion with the enemy.

It's all starting to unravel.....

A young man died yesterday. A mother lost her son, a sister lost her brother. He was only twenty years old. What did the people who organized this think was going to happen if they start an "open ended" provocation . If they had made their statement on their first day and left it at that, this young man might still be alive. Did they really think they were going to be able to control everyone all the time to keep it "peaceful". And I fear it's only going to get worse.

I hope Hassan Nasrallah knows that this young man's blood is on his hands now, whoever pulled the trigger.

What I don't understand about the opposition is that they demand and demand and demand but are not willing to give up anything in return. All take and no give. No give Lahoud, no give weapons, no give firm OK for tribunal. They could have so rejoined the government for one session to OK the tribunal and then resigned again to prove their honest intentions. But no , they talk the talk -they claim they will OK the tribunal (just give them veto power) and once they get the Veto they'll start: but in the UN?With Europeans judging our dear Syrian friends? With so and so as the judge? No let's have the tribunal here and let everybody get away with murder as usual, or better still the Syrians try their own citizens in Syria.

I'm sick of it all.

Here's a piece of advice for Hizballah, if you want to achieve your goals, how about giving as well as taking?

Finally!

Phew, finally!
I thought they'd never get it done.
Apparently they're going to live in tents till the PM leaves office. I hope they brought lots of blankets, its winter, and its going to be a long long long wait till never.

Glad it all went by without incident though, kudos to all sides for keeping the peace, but most love to our Army for doing it just right.

"Surprise" : The Sword of Damocles

It's hanging over our heads, this wonderful "surprise". As much as I don't want the demonstrations and crap, sometimes I wish they'd get "the surprise" over and done with instead of the whole country hanging in this limbo. I'm sure I'm going to regret these words very soon when all hell breaks loose.

In the meantime every faction has rumors of other factions arming themselves to the teeth. I wouldn't be surprised if it were all so sadly true. I'm sure they all just hid their weapons from the civil war anyway, and are just bringing them all back out again. Even if it all miraculously settles down and we go back to some semblance of normality , we'll all know everyone is armed "and ready". Except for us, the poor old Average Joe who never took part in any wars/murders/ assassinations. I wonder how many of us are left in Lebanon. Put your hands up if you don't even own a hunting rifle. Poor me. Poor us . All we want is a country.

Today's examples of the idiots on both sides : one will drink our blood and the other will sell his blood.

from the safir newspaper
http://www.assafir.com/iso/today/front/2980.html

If the idiots on the one side don't disarm this will give the idiots on the other side the incentive to arm themselves.
Idiots all around, that's Lebanon.

What's happening within the FPM?

From the "daily star":
"However, seeming to break ranks from the Hizbullah-aligned Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), an MP from the Reform and Change parliamentary bloc urged the resigned ministers to return to their duties in order for Cabinet to pass the draft.
"We urge the resigned ministers and ... Lahoud to participate in the session in order to approve the international tribunal," Neamatallah Abi Nasr said after meeting with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir Friday.
FPM leader MP Michel Aoun said Nasr has expressed a "personal opinion," but hoped it would help resolve the crisis. "


It was quite obvious that the biggest losers politically from the fallout over Pierre Gemayel's murder was the FPM. I could never understand the anti-syrian platform but pro-syrian stance in that movement. I've said it before and I'll say it agian, they seem to be a well educated decent party that truely cares for Lebanon, if only they'd jettison Aoun and his personal ambitions....

Never Again !

It's a bit depressing seeing the action unfold and reading the news about Lebanon these days. Everyone is starting to whisper those dreaded words: civil war. Are we really heading there? Could we honestly be that stupid? If we have another civil war Lebanon would be finished, forever.

I think whatever our problems, the Lebanese still have that lesson carved into their brains. Hopefully that one fact will save us. If you can't remember how awful civil war is, take a look at what is happening in Iraq and tell me if you want to go back to living like that?

Somebody do something, get this impasse over and done with. Yalla ya Nabih.....

Yet another funeral in martyr's square

Here we are again, at yet another funeral in martyr's square. You watch and all you can do is weep for your country.

Very good move by Berri showing up at the funeral, still trying to stay as centered as he possibly can. Who'd have ever thought Nabih would be a stabilizing force in the country? Isn't it ironic?

Despite it all, when I see Muslims, Christians, and Druze standing together like they did today, I think that well, maybe there's still hope for this country.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=77085

The full details of the offer. An "overly" fair deal I think, still they don't want it, what's with these people?

Another anti-Syrian Lebanese politician was assassinated today. Pierre Gemayel was killed in Sin el Fil. He was a minister in the current government.

I would like to see how the March 8 supporters explain this one. Considering who was killed and the method(-shooting), I seriously doubt they can blame their usual suspects this time. When will they admit that the Syrian regime only want a weak and subordinated Lebanon for them to rule and milk?

When will Lebanon ever rest?

Lebanon: Painting by Numbers

Apparently its all set for Thursday. That's Lebanon for you, always something going on to keep the citizenry entertained.

So if we assume that the best case scenario happens and the M14's and M8/M22 (14--->8) do not confront each other directly in street battles what is going to be the result of the demonstrations? What if the M14's decide not to give in to their demands? Will they demonstrate for ever? Will the jobs they quit be given to other people? Will we have to maneuver round them while driving in the streets of Beirut for the next few years?

The M14's have stated publicly today that they are willing to offer veto power as long as the tribunal is allowed to go through. If this is true then the M8's should jump on the offer since they have stated repeatedly that there aim never was to derail the tribunal. In the meantime we are still in a countdown for Thursday.............

An attachment doing the email rounds. I wonder who comes up with these things?
If you can't read it because it isn't too clear, just click on it and a clearer version comes up.

It's interesting going from blog to blog seeing what everybody's opinion is about the situation. It's funny, each an every one of us thinks we are so very right and anybody who disagrees is so very wrong. I wonder where this is all going to lead us. Nowhere good I think. An Iraq like situation I fear. I don't want this country to degenerate into sectarian violence. Whatever the reason. I want to curse all those who are pushing us in that direction. We've been there remember? It wan't good.
I find that I sit and mourn the lost potential that is Lebanon.

The Talks Fail

Well, as expected the talks failed.
Monday the 13th is just two days away.
Someone wake me up on the 14th and tell me if my country still exists.

This photo from al-balad newspaper shows an unexploded Israeli cluster bomb filled with an estimated 600 bomblets . Had this exploded it would have spread these bomblets all over the area, ready to kill any man, woman , or child who had the misfortune to disturb them. The Israelis deployed most of these in the last few days of the war when it was apparent that they were going to be leaving soon. Just a going away present I guess. Since then several men women and children have been killed and maimed by these bomblets. It is estimated that there are over a million bomblets left and that it is going to take about two years to clear them up. I think this is an optimistic view: in Vietnam they are still dying to this day from similar devices left over from the Vietnam war.

Let's leave the Lebanese and our politicians for a moment here. Let's go just a little to the south of us where a tragedy has been occurring more or less continuously since 1948.

Today the Israelis committed another War Crime. If anybody hasn't seen the images I suggest you log on to any one of the Arabic websites that will show you the dead women and children that were massacred in their sleep in Beit Hanoun.

My question is this, I understand that the Israelis are inhuman, I understand that the Americans are going to stand by their bastard child whatever happens, I understand that the Arabs have sunk so low on the totem pole that their opinion doesn't matter anymore, so my question is (perhaps naively) directed at the Europeans. Since you have money/organization/and clout why on earth are you not doing anything about this? How many more massacres are going to happen before you wake up? The Palestinian people are the tragedy of the modern world, and if you really espouse human rights then show them that all humans count, including them.

They're all in the meeting now, deciding the fate of our country.
One minute they're killing each other , the next they're having lunch together and cracking jokes. At our expense. One minute they're branding each other as traitors, and the next they're shaking hands with a smile.
Does anybody really care about the outcome of these negotiations any more? Isn't it just another part of the game till the next round of political maneuvering?
Is anybody as fed up as I am of the whole lot of them?

So can anybody hazard a guess at what is going to happen when a mob takes to the streets to get what they want?

Apparently it's all in the name of democracy. Yes, the new definition of democracy says if you can't get what you want, you threaten people to get it. Democracy means you put your country in jeopardy to achieve your aims.

Also democracy apparently only works in one direction, because when you decided unilaterally to take my country to war without consulting anybody, you chose to completely ignore democracy then. So be honest, you don't believe in democracy as you claim repeatedly, but instead you advocate a decidedly selective use of democracy that is only applied when you need it to achieve your own gains. You also criticize everyone else's involvement with foreigners and for some reason, you chose to ignore the fact that the Persian Iranians are foreigners too.

The tactical error you committed this summer saw you fall into a trap that had been set up to get you for months. It gave the Idiot Israelis the excuse they wanted to invade the country. Perhaps if you had consulted the rest of us this tragedy would have been averted.

What about the Aounists? Are they going to join the mob? Is this their really their vision of the educated, modern and forward thinking Lebanon? How can they bear being involved in this fiasco? How can they bear putting Lebanon in danger from disintegration whatever the reason?

All I can say , is God help us all.

La Lebanessa

So, I was actually intending to write about something completely unrelated to Lebanon today, but no , some idiot had to go fire a grenade in the middle of downtown and hurt a some perfectly innocent civilians going about their lives.
So who did this , hmm ? Lets see.
Who wants to fuck up the Eid holiday season coming up ?
Who doesn't want any tourists to come back to Lebanon?
Who gets to gain by our misery?
Syrians ?
Israelis ?
Yes well , the usual suspects, either one of those would do equally well if our tourist season is scrapped again, and the country is kept as unstable as possible.
Personally I suspect the former since the latter have just had a huge dose of "Lebanon Elixir" over the summer and are probably all lebanoned out for the time being.

Well, what can I say, I don't agree with most of what was said at the rally yesterday. The only thing we agree about is the fact that the Lebanese fighters were extremely brave and strong in the face of the enemy and won all the ground battles. We are all proud that they are Lebanese and they served their country well.

About the rest of it, I disagree. I find it abominable that we are celebrating when so many people have died, so much infrastructure and so many buildings were brought down, so much of the economy was decimated, and so much hope and trust in the future has been destroyed.

For now, in Lebanon, I am still allowed to disagree. Considering the people he lauded (bashar, khaminiei) I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be allowed to disagree, because in the countries they represent nobody is allowed to disagree with the ruling authorities.

We have an evil, inhuman, and heartless enemy called Israel, let us make all the decisions about dealing with them together. There are other people in this country and their opinions must be taken into account for Lebanon to function as a viable entity. We all have a right to a say in the decisions that affect the fate of our country.

Ok, he apologized. I must say I didn't expect it, but was relieved he did. It must have been very difficult for a man of his stature, but in this day and age, he must know that his words have implications that affect more than just his congregation. Luckily no one went crazy over this in Lebanon (this time), the criticism was voiced in a civilized manner, rather than being acted out in the way of barbarians. Hey, maybe there's hope for us yet.

Now lets forget about it and move on, we have a lot of more important things to worry about, we have a country to rebuild structurally, financially and emotionally.

Today, the words of the new Pope really made me miss Pope John Paul II. He was a man with carefully studied and balanced words that tried to bridge divides and link the whole of humanity to each other.

Are any other Lebanese as tired of Lebanese politicians as I am?

I'm sick of all the endless talk, the hidden agendas, the backstabbing , the maneuvering for the best positions. Every five minutes somebody appears on TV and rants and raves about other politicians or sect leaders and their deficiencies and mistakes, conveniently ignoring their own deficiencies and mis-steps.

Can we have new politicians please?
Politicians....
......who are not religious leaders so that we are allowed to criticize them without being accused of insulting a religious sect?
......who are not surgically attached to their political seats?
......who will serve in their position rather than try to make more money for themselves out of it ?
......who are not all related to each other one way or another?
......who have no blood on their hands?
......who don't identify themselves with one group of Lebanese, but identify all Lebanese as one group?

Is this just too much wishful thinking?

I'm with the Lebanese Government. I think the Government had a lot on its plate during a War that was foisted on us, and I think the Government was instrumental in ending the War through diplomatic maneuvering.

Having said all that , I completely disagree with what they did yesterday. How on earth could they allow Tony Blair to set foot in this country? This man stood and watched while our children were butchered. He refused to advocate a ceasefire, he allowed weapons carrying US planes to stopover in the UK on their way to Israel, he firmly stood on the Israeli side of the equation during the war while they committed all kinds of war crimes in our land. How on Earth could they let such a depraved individual into this country? His own people have shunned him, I suggest we do the same.

So who are the Israelis kidding with this blockade? They claim that they're trying to stop weapons arriving to Hezbollah, when we all know the main route of arrival was always via Syria, and the road to Syria has been open for weeks. So yesterday they lifted the air blockade, but they've kept the sea blockade for another two days. Typical Israeli posturing. When are they going to just come to terms with the fact that their strategy for this war was a complete fiasco from beginning to end?
In the meantime, it lifts the heart to see the first MEA plane arriving directly to Beirut's Harriri International Airport. Hooray for us Lebanese, we've been here for thousands of years and may we stay for thousands more.

Lt. Col. Shehadeh, who has been investigating the Harriri murder, himself escaped an assassination attempt today. Four of his aides and bodyguards died. God save Lebanon from its neighbours, if it's not one committing murder and mayhem, it's the other.
At least we have the sea on the remaining side, although the way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if we get hit by a tidal wave just to complete the circle.