Wednesday, October 22, 2014

The myth of Lebanese civil society

You know, reading the posts, the campaigns launched, and the traffic makes me sad.
I often LIKE a post; lots of what is posted seems worth supporting.
Lebanese civil society is dynamic and active, yet rarely witness national campaigns, in addition campaigns and lobbying for causes rarely reach across to the grassroots.

I often wondered why.

I notice that the campaigns are divided along the lines of the political and sectarian polarization.
Civil society activists seem to launch campaigns focused on subjects that are detrimental or criticize the political figures affiliated to the political faction they personally stand against. They never cross the bridge to bring to light wrong doings by their political faction or sect.

For example; those who support Aoun are virulently against renewing for the Parliament while those who support the Future Movement are loudly against the Deputies refusing to make quorum to elect a President. In a perfect world they would meet to launch a campaign of protest against messing with the Constitution being it renewing for the Parliament or keeping the country without a President of the Republic.
The same goes for green campaigns, if they are related to electricity, then we rarely hear the voice of the NGOs who support the 8th of March and if it’s about public spaces we rarely hear the voice of the 14th of March.

It is so sad.

It is also the proof that change cannot happen through civil society.

Again I sing with Ziad Rahbani
This is not a country; it is a bunch of grouped people
Haydeh mush balad!  haydeh urtet nas majmou3een

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Blackouts are a Lebanese enigma

Not hearing any mention of electricity on the news I assumed the problem is solved.
A phone call to Beirut informed me that the situation is still the same, in some regions almost 12 hours of total blackout.

I am amazed at the silent acceptance by the Lebanese who register one the highest rates of posts on social media and are taking to the streets and engage in the practice of road blockages for many a cause.
I am more amazed because now that the weather is less hot the power consumption from air conditioners must have dropped dramatically with no change in power supply!
I am extremely amazed to hear the people of Gaza complain even though they had a destructive war just a month ago and the people of Lebanon are shutting up!

The reason it seems is that the ingenuous Lebanese have taken on themselves to step in and find solutions to the problem:

  • Many buildings in Beirut have common generators that kick in when the power supply is disturbed. These are the lucky ones, they do not have to climb stairs or sit in darkness for hours.
  • Those who are not so lucky but are lucky enough to be able to buy electricity from a nearby privately owned generator can watch TV and power the refrigerator, but they still have to climb stairs, sweat when hot and freeze when it is cold as these "ishtirak" do not usually exceed the 10 ampere which is not enough for a full household normal power supply.
  • Then there are the unlucky ones who have to rely on UPS and APS power supply which is the least to say inefficient.
  • And the most unlucky are those who cannot afford any of the above because they cannot pay the costs of two electrical bills, so they stay in the darkness of candles and in summer end up with gastroenteritis due to food that went bad as there is no refrigeration.

Fine to be resilient and clutch to a semblance of normalcy.
BUT 
Do those engaged in ecologic campaigning understand the consequences of this aberration? Thousands of generators are churning for at least 9 hours per day their fumes close to the ground, near the windows of each and every woman, man, child, and baby in Beirut.
These fumes contain Carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) and some sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).
We are poisoning our children and hindering their growth.
Don't you notice the increase in pulmonary problems and cancers around the country?
Yet I do not hear any ecological NGO or movement post about the problem and hold vigils or demonstrations. This is an easier problem to solve than many they are campaigning for.
I wish our lovely citizens come to the amazing conclusion that Christians, Sunni, Shiite, Druze, Maronite, Orthodox, Armenian, and all others breath the same air.
Yes believe me they do!

I will not lose time mentioning the extra costs to each and every citizen. They pay the regular electricity bill that seems to stay the same whether the supply is 24 or 12 hours a day??
In addition and depending on your standing in the community you must pay fuel for the building generator or electricity subscription "istirak", or for UPS replacement batteries, or for some miserable candles. And I am not accounting for electrical appliances that seem to get strokes and sudden death syndrome due to the electricity current see sawing.
Accounting is not a popular Lebanese sport.
Men and women alike spend what is in the pocket and what they expect to have in the pocket.

A crazy puzzle that summarizes the state of a country that is as Ziad Rahbani sang
Haydeh mush balad!  haydeh urtet nas majmou3een
This is not a country, it is a bunch of grouped people  
 



Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Criminal arrogance and double standards!


I have no lost love with the actual Turkish Islamic democrat government, but I have no tolerance to the never ending  
"The US or the U.K. or the Coalition or whoever is not happy with Turkey inaction in the face of the fighting in Kobani".
 So the Obama says "no boots on the ground whatever happens", and the U.K. votes against intervention in Syria in the face of Assad using chemical weapons against his people, YET now taking a fake high moral ground they are asking Turkey to start a ground war according to their rules and according to their priorities!

Sorry but I do not understand.

  • Why it is acceptable that the world stands still for three years watching Assad butcher his people and now it is not acceptable that Turkey does not enter a ground war against ISIL?
  • Why is permissible for the US or the UK to put Hamas who never took any action outside Palestine on the terrorism list and Turkey does not have the right to put the Kurdish PKK who carried tens of car bombing on the terrorism list?
  • Why is ISIL's beheading of an American hostage is a horrible crime while Assad's security forces chopping both legs of a 13 years old from the knee down because he trampled a picture of the President is an event that is barely mentioned.
  • Why is it acceptable for Iranian backed militias from Lebanon and Iraq to kill Syrian civilians.
  • Why killing a Kurd, Christian, Yzedi, or member of any minority is an unacceptable crime while suffocating hundreds of children who were unlucky to be born to Syrian Arab Sunni parents who are the majority in Syria can be overlooked.

and I can go on forever......

The world has gone berserk!

I understand that religious fascists such as ISIL engage in hate actions but I do not understand the so called civilized world to stand still in the face of the suffering of the Syrian people.

The US, the U.K., the EU, Turkey, are to blame
All Arab countries and Iran are guilty


Each and every one of us is a witness that turned a blind eye in line with the proverb "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil".




Thursday, October 2, 2014

Ziad Rahbani, the story of a generation

I heard today that Ziad Rahbani decided to leave the country for Moscow.
It is said that he left after a squabble with Hezbollah.
I do not know if the story is true or not.
Strangely I am not concerned by checking the truth of the story.
It opened a wound I carry since long.

Ziad Rahbani's music and engaged theater represents the dreams and deception of a generation who reached youth before the 1975 Civil War. They were the foot soldiers and officers of this war and most importantly they were its intelligentsia.
The war started as a clash of parties divided along Left and Right parties, Lebanese isolationism versus Arab nationalism, Cold War East West tug of war, with an underlying sectarian conflict and tension. Ziad was as a person in the Leftist camp but his music and plays were heard and played in both camps, he was the comedian and musician of a generation whatever its political ideological inclination.
I will never forget going to see one of his play in dark streets filled with the sounds of Kalashnikov fire and mortar shelling. It was intense, thrilling, airy...
The Civil War opponents changed and shifted as time went by and with the Syrian domination the pillars of the dissent shifted to become blurred for many of the romantic leftists. They remained stuck in the past struggles. Resistance remained their motto not considering the meaning and purpose of this resistance. They replaced the Palestinian revolution with the Islamic Resistance not noticing that Hezbollah is allied to the Persian power and stands in ideology against all they adhere to as principle. The enemy remained the same in name without consideration for evolution or devolution. Most surprising is that Russia melted into the old Soviet Union and they did not notice that Russia is the ultimate capitalist state now. A state with a nationalist religious identity. They look and see the old Marxist state and remember the Soviet stance as to the Palestinian cause.
Ziad Rahbani is the two dimensional model of this generation, the old Lebanese leftists.

As I said, I do not know if the story of Ziad self imposed diaspora is real or not, but I can easily imagine a scenario where Ziad who followed blindly Hezbollah, neglecting to see the religious fascist ideology. I can imagine him saying the Resistance cannot be wrong "They are fighting Israel and American imperialism"
Then came the reality check of not allowing alcohol in their regions, imposing on people their religious ideology, intolerance for any micron of dissent, nepotism and corruption....
Hezbollah became stripped from the sainthood of the Resistance, what remained is a Lebanese political party with foreign allegiance that practice politics as usual and whose aim is power and the promotion of its ideology.

I can imagine the shock of it.
I just hope that the peers of Ziad come to term with their romanticism and come back to earth.