The Lebanese rainy season started today. The protestors downtown claim they will not leave their tents, but undoubtedly the numbers of unpaid visitors will diminish.
Hopefully, the rain will not halt the road construction that is going on across the country. A bridge is being constructed in Sin el Fil. There is construction on the Dekwane freeway. The coastal road at Raouche is torn up.
Lebanese Labor
Something strange is happening in the Lebanese labor market. On the two occassions I took servis I had to provide the drivers with directions. That rarely ever happened before. However, what is truly remarkable is that these drivers didn't know two of the most prominent locations in Beirut.
The first servis driver had never heard of ABC Ashrafieh, a popular Beirut shopping mall. After conversing with him a bit, he revealed that he is Syrian from Idlib.
The second servis driver had never heard of UNESCO. This was truly amazing given that UNESCO is a large and prominent region in West Beirut named after the UNESCO Palace in the district. It's next to two other prominent areas, Verdun and Ramleit al Bayda. What granted the occassion an even greater degree of oddity was that I hopped in the cab at Mathaf, the National Museum, and had to provide the driver with directions to Corniche al Mazraa.
After conversing with him, he revealed that he had only been driving for 5 days, and had just moved to Beirut from the south.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
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10 comments:
Que! You had to provide the directions! That is really going to hurt tourism. I'll have to rent a car the next time I go back over then :)
See I told you, all this "digging" is where I work ;)
Surprisingly they did not know ABC or UNESCO? they had probably been in Lebanon for 2 days maybe!
See you on Friday.
if you meet syrian tanks asking for directions, send some our way...
There are two major problems that need attention of the highest degree by all Free Lebanese:
• The International Court that will presumably bring justice to crimes of political assassinations.
• The weapons in the hands of militias of so-called Hezbollah.
These two issues cannot be separated from each other and should be dealt with concurrently in order to deliver Lebanon out of the bottleneck and into the fold of civilized democratic nations.
The International Court is of great importance because it will bring the sense of security that no citizen in any country in the world can live without. Whenever, a crime goes unresolved by the responsible authorities, the sense of insecurity it engenders among the citizens will threaten the basic existence of the State. The State, thus, has the fundamental responsibility of ensuring civic security. Lebanon has suffered from lawlessness for over 30 years. High profile crimes of major political leaders were designed to deprive the country of its political elite in an effort to make it an easy prey for foreigners; and to cause the continued flight of Lebanese talent outside the homeland to be absorbed by countries eager to make use of such talent to their own benefits.
The other entwined issue is the illegal weaponry in the hands of militias dedicated to serving foreign agendas. It is clear that the subservience of this militia to despotic States (Iran and Syria) is serving the same purpose as the crimes committed against prominent Lebanese political leaders. South Lebanon has been practically free of occupation for over five years. So-called Hezbollah refuses to disarm based on its alleged claim over so-called resistance. Well, it is time to tell those so-called ‘resistance flag bearers’ that their ‘resistance’ is no longer needed. It is obvious that the world community has taken a clear decision to create a demilitarized zone in the south of Lebanon. Any use of such weapons in the south will be a direct challenge to will of the International Community. Lebanon cannot face such a challenge. In addition, there may be an escalation of the International presence in South Lebanon in an effort to give the International Community more teeth in dealing with such challenges. The possibility of transferring the mandate of UNIFIL to Chapter Seven of the UN is very real.
On the other hand, the challenge posed by so-called Hezbollah through its occupation of downtown Beirut should not go un-answered. We believe that the proper solution for the political crisis engendered by such occupation begins by removing all the tents that are threatening the social peace as well as the livelihoods of the original owners and businesses of this vital part of the capital. The removal of such uncivilized presence in the middle of the most civilized part of the country is of the highest importance to preserving democratic political traditions. Selling falafel, narjillahs and other petty merchandises by dispossessed supporters of the Hizb, whose houses were destroyed by the foolishness of so-called resistance is an affront to common sense and is simply not acceptable. Central Beirut is the financial district of Lebanon and it has its owners and businesses that deserve to have the character of their beloved city preserved.
Therefore, the Legitimate Government of Lebanon must convene and take the bold step of ordering the security forces to clear Downtown Beirut of such parasitic elements. At the same time, the political leadership must mobilize all the Free Lebanese to descend on Central Beirut in a show of solidarity with the inhabitants of this part of the capital. True free Lebanese from Tripoli, Sidon, Northern and Western Bekaa, Chouf, Kharroub and Mount Lebanon must all descend hand in hand on Central Beirut. Their slogan should be Beirut for the Beirutis, Syrian and Iranian agents get out. We believe this show will put tremendous pressure on the security forces as well as the army to act in the best interests of Lebanon and its citizens, particularly those affected – the citizens of central Beirut.
On the other hand, the creation of so-called national unity government should not be governed by the so-called ‘tie neutral’ minister. The majority block in government should never relinquish its absolute majority on the decision making process. In the current circumstances this is equivalent to betraying the people of Lebanon who voted the current parliament in and handing the whole country to the despotic whims of Syria and Iran. In addition, having a single minister deciding the fate of the government is political heresy. We believe that two third of the ministers should come from the majority political block as this is clearly the will of the people who voted their representatives into office.
In addition, we would like to point out the issue of the most importance confronting Lebanon and the region as whole. Khomeinism is not Shiism. Khomeini has brought a new religion which has nothing to do with Islam. His ideology is based on so-called Wilayat al-Faqih which is deeply rooted in Persian political philosophy and has no basis in Islam. Therefore, those who subscribe to such ideology have diverted from Shia Islam and may not be eligible to be considered as part of the constitutionally recognized sect of Shiism in Lebanon. Therefore, members or supporters of Hezbollah should not be allowed to partake in political life because of their diversion from the Shiism recognized by the constitution. These are Iranian agents and their proper place is in Iran where their Wilayat of Khomeini exists. If they are allowed to participate in political activities in Lebanon they will eventually seek to destroy democracy and replace it by their own Wilayat. Deceit and hypocrisy have been the hall mark of this movement of so-called Hezbollah. Anyone who is familiar with the term dissimilution (Taqiyya) should not feel surprised. The Hizb has been practicing Taqiyya in Lebanon for over twenty years. It feels now it can force itself on the scene due to its self induced hallucination that it represents the threshold of population necessary to carry out its plan. By the way, Taqiyya does not require an absolute majority to grab power. It only needs a military arm and a certain undefined size of a population. True Shia figures from the Amel Mountain and the Bekaa must be encouraged to take their roles as the proper representatives of Lebanese Shia.
Lebanon Lover,
We await your return. We'll have to head down to Nabatiyeh again for Sunday lunch.
Nobody,
LOL!!!
Nobody,
Send them your way so you can bomb Lebanon back another 20 years?
How thoughtful of you. That's what makes good neighbors,
Charles,
" Unpaid Visitors " ??? do they look like the people who runs to Koreitem to get paid for a vote and start shouting for a Kid who can not even speak proper arabic with a lebanese accent !!! Come on man, I really do respect your views and read every article you write but please do not write about rumours you heard on the street. I have been there a couple times and never got such a proposal or heard about it. I was in Lebanon in mid december and heard such rumours from friends who supports 14th of march (What a coincidence !!! ).
After all, we will wait and see the results
Fadi,
In fact, I know people who are being paid to camp out in the tents. It's their job.
Hezbollah does not hide the fact that they are paying people to camp out. It's giving people work. And $30 a day is a lot of money in Lebanon.
What I don't know is how much the Indibat are paid.
Anonymous said...
Nobody,
Send them your way so you can bomb Lebanon back another 20 years?
How thoughtful of you. That's what makes good neighbors,
---------
to the contrary, anon.. i am just trying to take some of the load off you
also after our botched last war we started installing an active protection system on merkawas .. so we need to run some basic tests on it to ensure that it's working properly now ..
It's new that the taxi drivers don't know where they're going? I caught a cab in Beirut in September 2000, accompanied by my American husband. I really don't know Beirut well at all, having spent a week there in 1995, and another in 2000. I told the driver to take us to the corner of Jeanne D'Arc and Hamra street - because that's the closest main drop off to my parents' former apt. building. The driver pretended he knew where this was, but he got lost. I could tell he was lost, but I could not tell how to get us to Hamra. We started arguing, and he got angry that I asked if he knew where he was going. Turns out he was Syrian. My Arabic isn't good enough to argue with a cab driver, and I think that's what made him so mad - that I questioned where he was going, even though I don't speak Arabic that well and I'm obviously an American. Well, I may be an American but I'm not stupid and I knew we were not on Hamra Street or anywhere near. We just got out and found ourselves another cab driver.
In any case. It just seems to me that the problem of the newbie clueless foreign cab driver is not a new one in Beirut. (it's very old in New YOrk)
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