We* are living today parallel realities; two worlds that do not meet (unless God wills it). Ironically, both realities are being fueled by the same factor: Fear. I just crossed Hamra Street without bothering to look for incoming cars, that feat would be Houdini-esque (or what's the name of that new freak on TV?) in regular days. I was expecting a delivery today and the distributor asked me if it is safe for his 4 Syrian workers to come along; otherwise I'd have to carry the half ton fridge on my own.
But I** can't dwell on that. As one of my reader pointed out in the comments section of the previous post, I** have to provide solutions. I** wish he or she was as demanding of his or her elected representatvie who gets paid to come up with and implement solutions. It is our right as citizens to criticize and demand better governance, but I** still appreciate that vote of confidence.
To find a solution we need to identify the problem or problems. In our case I'm pretty sure it's the latter. Just off the top of my head there's Syria, the Syrians in the Palestinian camps, Israel of course, the biggest killer of them all which is traffic accidents, and finally Al Jazeera.
We'll start with hateful Television that can be solved remotely by switching the channel. The Syrians in Palestinian camps are almost done. Israel was kicked out, we just need an air defense system to stop the overflights. The roads can be fixed through law enforcement by properly trainig traffic police and better maintenance of roads which could be financed through the collection of parking tickets issued to all the cars lining up the streets outside Crystal.
Which leaves us with Syria, which is our biggest problem not because they are so hard to deal with. Au Contraire, Assad's regime has proven over and over again a level of ineptitude only surpassed in Syria's little offshoot. The problem is that we are entrusting former Assad tools to take care of that problem for us. We* are living with rats to keep an elephant away.
P.S. For real solutions to real problems just trust Elie Skaff.
* مساطيل
** مسطول
8 comments:
Decent.
The thing about Skaff is that despite technically being in the "opposition", it is more a reflection of his local politics (land sectarian-based land ownership in the Zahle area) than national ones.
Thats the impression I get, correct me if I'm wrong.
Oh, and as for the 'rats' and 'former tools' business, I think there is quite a bit of leeway in that argument when it refers to Hariri's policies throughout the nineties in Lebanon.
Not that I'm a Mustaqbal supporter, its just a matter of non-generalization and an accurate interpretation of the political scene in the "Syrain tutelage era" (as Naharnet likes to call it).
we just need and air defense system to stop the overflights.
for lebanon to have no problem with israel a good start would be to return the 2 kidnapped israeli soldiers from last summer and the bodies of the other 2 israelis that lebanon holds.
then, disarm hezbollah as per the UN security council resolution and actually take control of your territory.
if you want a good peaceful israel you maay also consider not damming off the water supply..
What is Occupation, don't you know how to read?
Israel was kicked out
Go back to sleep, please, and don't interfere in our internal affairs.
I am the anonymous reader you referred to in your post...
It is very true what you said about identifying problems before suggesting any solutions. The issue of Syria, as you said, is the biggest of all.I would really appreciate it if you could elaborate more about it, by mentioning what exactly the problems with Syria are. Do they want to come back to Lebanon? Do they want to help establish the "shia crescent".... Or maybe they want to destroy Lebanon just because the Lebanese keep inventing jokes about them.
After identifying what the goals of Syria are, comes the question about what/who are the tools Syria is utilizing to acheive its goals. This, to me, seems the biggest problem, since no matter how evil the Syrian plans for Lebanon are, such plans could never come into fruition without somebody (or a group) within the Lebanese society to implement them (unless they declare war and try to invade Lebanon of course).
Here I would like to ask you for more solutions (enta kareem wo ana..... tamma3). How should we deal with these "tools" that are collaborating in the implementation of the Syrian evil plans... that's if you agree that Syria's plans are evil in the first place?
I really appreciate your views, and hope you'll find some time to comment on this.
P.S I would appreciate it if others, who usuall love to criticize, reveal their enlightenment about this subject and show how they are fahmaneen el ossa kella, unlike the masateel around them.
Take care everyone and stay safe.
Nice posts, the last two, others aren't bad either.
Jamal, every so often you write something that reminds me why i keep coming back. This is one of those gems!
Anonymous said...
What is Occupation, don't you know how to read?
Israel was kicked out
Go back to sleep, please, and don't interfere in our internal affairs.
So you kicked out israel, and israel lost the war, so return the bodies of the dead israelis, return the kidnapped ones and stop damming rivers which are acts of war.
oh since israel lost the last war, how goes the victory rebuilding? how many hezbollah died? how many billions did that victory cost?
Jamal,
Good post, very practical, though I might disagree with the "labeling system" we Lebanese are big fans of.
"Judge poeple based on what they are doing NOW, not what they did in the past, and almost always, avoid generalization" my history teacher used to tell us that all the time in school....
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