What is "independence?"

When the state of Belgium was formed in 1839, the Europeans who signed the Treaty of London did not realize what a monster it was that they had created. No, Belgium is not a monster (though rising calls for the dissolution of the Belgian state could become one.) The concept of the modern nation state is the monster, and borders are its claws.

Let's go back a bit in history to the Peace of Westphalia (1648) that ended (temporarily) non-stop fighting in Europe between the Holy Roman Empire, the Hapsburgs, the Kingdom of Spain, France, Sweden...am I forgetting someone? The treaty sort of drew up Europe and assigned territorial borders and is generally considered to be the birth of the nation-state concept in political science/international relations. Aside from assigned borders, the treaty also agreed that states were to be free from external interference. A state's domestic affairs belonged to the state and to no one else. (Unless it was in Africa where the Europeans were free to do whatever they liked, ahem...)

The Westphalian System did seem to be a good system. Prior to that, borders were forever changing as rival empires fought for more land and more riches and for revenge on family members with whom they did not get along. The Holy Roman Empire continued to pretend that the fall of Rome hadn't occurred, the Hapsburgs' thirst for land was never quenched, and a variety of Kingdoms and Dukedoms and I'm-better-than-youdoms were forever skirmishing over the same parcels of earth.

Belgium was created under the Treaty of London (after the Belgian Revolution) because the UK, France, and Germany couldn't respect Westphalian boundries. Belgium was to be a buffer state between them. The treaty took neither ethnicity nor history into account, gave land to Belgium that belonged to other states, and pretty much set in motion the events that led to World War I (which led to World War II which led to Europe getting sick of war so that they entered into economic union to never fight each other again. It's worked so far...)

At the same time, colonialism was still in full swing. In what we now call the Middle East, perpetual war was fought between the Sassinids and the Byzantines from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Rise of the Islamic Empire at the time of the Prophet. Then came the Abassids, the Fatimids, the Umayyads, and the Moors. Throw in some Mamluks and others, and the Middle East was no different than Europe at the time of The Billion Years War. The Ottomans later took over for the other Muslim empires like the Safavids and the Mughals, and since they were defeated in World War I, the territory was divided up among the victors. It's been that way since the dawn of human history, only this time, lines mattered. Before that, there was never any state called Lebanon, never any country called Palestine, never any government called Syria, and certainly no lines that drew borders. No, today's lines that have caused so many conflicts in the region are largely a product of the European Westphalian idea. I guess it should be called West-fail-ian.

I read something from a Lebanese Twitterer about how there is no independence in Lebanon "while parts of it are occupied." I argue that there is no independence while Lebanon is gripped by fear and suspicion of the people within its internationally recognized borders. I also see a fierce independence among so many young Lebanese and so many civil society activists for whom lines on a map are not as important as feeding your people, running your economy, striving for progress, and ending perpetual conflict.

Lebanon may not be able to change the world outside its artificial borders, but it certainly has the power to change from within. When Prime Minister Hariri said, "Lebanon will not remain a playground for regional conflicts," he was standing up for Lebanon's independence. It's up to the Lebanese people to help him make that a reality. Let it be known, Lebanon, that you have a lot of people cheering for you!

Friday Fodder

Civil Society in Global Governance - a preview

Pulling Torn Pictures of W out of Arab Trashcans

The Westerners who melded the Mayan religion with the writings of St. John the Divine and then turned it into what is apparently a horrific movie may have been right, because I’m quite certain what I heard at the National Endowment for Democracy at the conference on “Middle East Democrats and Their Vision for the Future” means the end of the world is coming.

An Arab said he wished George W. Bush would come back.

This wasn’t just any Arab, this was perhaps the most famous civil society activist in the entire Middle East North African chain of dictatorships pretending to be democracies, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, founder of the Ibn Khaldoun Center for Development Studies, former political prisoner in Egypt, Wallerstein Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Drew University, and generally all around hero for humanity.

Dr. Ibrahim was part of a panel discussing “What assistance can the international community provide?” I’m really taking his idea out of context. His point – and there were others who agreed – was that the Obama administration is very weak in its democracy promotion efforts and that the level of pressure on regimes to change is not there. It is not the first time he has criticized President Obama - his August editorial in the Wall Street Journal outlined his disillusionment.

The panel – which consisted of Tamara Cofman Wittes, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs; Daniel Brumberg, United States Institute of Peace; Scott Carpenter, Keston Family Fellow, Washington Institute for Near East Policy; Vidar Helgesen, Secretary-General of International IDEA; Dr. Aseel al-Awadhi, one of the four women members of the Kuwaiti Parliament; Musa Maaytah, Minister of Political Development in Jordan; and Nouzha Skalli, Minister of Social Development, Family, and Solidarity in Morocco – discussed the lack of pressure on Arab governments to reform, unlike during the Bush years, when even Pharaoh Mubarak relented a bit and held presidential elections (even if the elections themselves were a farce).

Cofman Wittes is a well-respected, academically-minded individual who up until her appointment was Senior Fellow and Director, Middle East Democracy and Development Project, Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. Her CV is here. Her appointment means that she oversees the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). Daniel Brumberg has written a lot about liberalization and Arab reform. Vidar Helgesen talked about European approaches to foreign assistance and spoke of the need to stop being so condescending to those groups receiving aid.

The tone of the conversation changed when Scott Carpenter began to speak. Carpenter formerly held Mrs. Cofman Wittes’ post under the Bush administration. He told us that an Egyptian civil society activist said to him they were pulling their torn pictures of Bush out of the garbage and taping them back together. Dr. Ibrahim agreed.

The problem, they say, is that the Obama administration focuses on talking to regimes rather than people, that the level of pressure on regimes to reform just isn’t there, and it is affecting what civil society reformers can accomplish.

Is the criticism warranted? Well let’s see. You have a prominent civil society activist saying there was more done during the Bush years than there has been under Obama. You have an appointment to the head of USAID that takes ten months. You have NGOs on the ground waiting to see what direction the administration is going to go.

Yet.

Even during the twilight of the Bush years, the international community wondered if decades of foreign assistance to the Middle East North Africa region was all for naught. Nothing was changing, and regimes seemed to be getting stronger. In fact, the space created – a sort of Bizarro World kind of freedom – allowed just enough room for “Islamists” to have a voice that was loud enough for regimes to crack down on their people, claiming they were fighting terrorism. There was no political reform, no economic reform, just lip service spilling from the mouths of dictators (no matter how benign they were).

This was enough for the international community to begin asking itself how to change its approach to foreign aid. (In 2003, for example, Daniel Brumberg wrote Liberalization Versus Democracy: Understanding Arab Reform," Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Working Paper #37). Throwing money at groups intent on loosening the dictatorial reigns of the Arab World has resulted in…the dethroning of Pharaoh Mubarak? No. The election of someone other than Ben Ali in Tunisia? No. The House of Saud becoming the House of Someone Else? No. Bashar Assad giving a concession speech after hotly contested elections? No.

I was four years old when Pharaoh Mubarak came to power. Lebanon was trying to commit suicide then, and Yemen was split into a microcosm of the commie vs. democracy world order. Habib Bourguiba had been Presidictator of Tunisia for twenty years and lasted another ten before Ben Ali became Presidictator in a coup. An Assad was the Presidictator of Syria. Jordan was ruled by the current king’s dad. Morocco was ruled by the current king’s dad. Saudi was ruled by the current king’s brother or half brother or something like that.

No, change has not come to the Middle East despite all of my tax dollars being funneled there. No we can’t!

Finally, though, someone woke up and started to ask why nothing is different except there are more people willing to blow themselves up. The international community began to reconsider its strategy to “make the world a better place” and decided that bandaids are not appropriate when your arm has been cut off. More democracy people began to say, “Forget the dinosaurs, let’s help the kids!” and youth and community development programs started to receive attention. Foreign assistance programs began to focus on the future rather than choking on the present.

I think like so many other aspects of his presidency, Obama is a victim of history when it comes to strategies towards foreign assistance. Seems that everyone is asking why hasn’t this worked, why have we failed, what can we do differently. He’s jumped into a time of uncertainty and transformation even in the approach to foreign aid. There is a reason it took ten months to appoint someone as head of USAID, and it isn’t because Obama was chopping brush on a ranch in Texas.

And who can honestly say his public diplomacy approach to international relations is a bad idea? Do those civil society activists longing for a return to foreign assistance under the Bush years want the bombs that come with it? That’s part of the package – scare dictators with bombs just enough to allow for some space, isn't it?

Look, President Obama’s deliberate approach to everything is frustrating, especially in the Twitterverse we live in, when two seconds is too long a wait for so many people. It has been ten months, hardly enough time to solve all of the world’s problems. With the appointment of Rajiv Shah as head of USAID and Cofman Wittes to Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, it looks like the approach to foreign assistance is coming around, that a new strategy focusing on the long-term is being shaped, rather than bandaid fixes to election and economic laws that have been applied for so long now.

Right now, I guess it’s just wait and see.

A History Lesson

The National Endowment for Democracy held a conference entitled “Middle Eastern Democrats and their Vision for the Future” with a full cast of high profile democracy types from across the Middle East and Washington.

Before reporting on the day’s acts, I must give a bit of a prologue regarding NED. Think what you will about democracy promotion, but please note that it has its roots in noble minds. There is a name for those who oppose human freedom – in English we call them tyrants.

The NED was established in 1983 by congressional mandate. While NED has its own programs, it has the greater responsibility of managing funding from Congress to its four core institutes – the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), the International Republican Institute (IRI), the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), and the Solidarity Center. The activities of NDI and IRI are well-known – NDI is the Democratic Party’s political reform program and IRI is the Republican Party’s. CIPE is an affiliate of the United States Chamber of Commerce, and Solidarity Center is an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).

Current NED and core institute programs in Lebanon include:

NED - You can find a list of NED projects in Lebanon here.

NDI - NDI is very active in Lebanon, helping the Civil Campaign for Electoral Reform and Lebanon Budget Project and groups like Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections, Development for People and Nature Association, Nahwa al-Muwatiniya, Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, and a coalition of seven civic organizations to implement Citizen Lebanon, a civic education and advocacy program taking place in 30 municipalities across the nation.

IRI - IRI does polling and political party development in Lebanon.

CIPE - Lebanese Anti-Bribery Network with Lebanese Transparency Association

SC (none)

Each of these programs involves local Lebanese NGOs who seek to improve democracy in the country. These are hardworking folks who rise above politics and put the good of their country first. I’ve met many of them, and they all are inspiring human beings. There’s nothing cooler in the world than to watch democracy in action (real democracy involving real people doing real things for their country not involving bombs, religions, or egos).

What I’m getting at is that despite an occasional controversy and the persistent conspiracy theories regarding NED programs, NED really does have people at heart. Is there a national security element to democracy promotion? Of course. The old adage “democracies don’t fight other democracies” tells us that we are safer with more democracies in the world.

Quite honestly, if you meet staff of one of these organizations, you’ll come to find that they’re all a bunch of bleeding hearts intent on saving the world from its own mutually assured destruction.

I suppose I had to perform this narrative because I’ve often been confronted by anti-NED rhetoric and accusations that NED and its core institutes are a front for the CIA! (Can we say X-Files?) The bottom line is that NED and its core institutes do great work.

Up next: Part two of this NED event - a post about what actually transpired at the event.

Women's Empowerment through IT

Visit WITmena's YouTube channel to find out more about Women in Information Technology.

More on migrant rights

Caritas efforts to protect the rights of migrant workers.

A Good Hope for Lebanon

Amel Association is celebrating 30 years of existence this year. Tell them happy anniversary! They produced this great video in August of this year. Keep up the good work!

Visit their website here.
Find them on Facebook here.

Modern Slavery Rampant in Lebanon

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Imagine what 26-year-old Zeditu Kebede Matente thought when she traveled from her homeland of Ethopia to Lebanon in search of a better life. If you have any sense of empathy, you can probably feel the hope that she most likely felt as she packed her things. A future could have been in her sights, one in which she did not have to face the tragedy of poverty that she may have faced in her own country.

Alas, there was no future for Zeditu. She hung herself last month.

The list of names grows:

Ram Embwe
Kassaye Atsegenet
Saneet Mariam
Vololona
Mampionona
Tezeta Yalmiya
Sarada Phuyal

Just a sample of names, so many more names. Real people. Too many.

Where is the Lebanese civil society activism regarding this tragic issue? It seems that journalists are driving the awareness campaign, as they are a great part of civil society. Aljazeera, LA Times, Guardian, and Lebanon's own Daily Star have covered this issue recently. International NGO's like Human Rights Watch and Migrant Rights have called attention to the matter.

A Lebanese blogger is writing about this issue at Ethiopian Suicides. (We have added this to our blogroll in the sidebar.) I highly recommend a trip over there.

If you know of an organization in Lebanon that is working towards ending this horrific treatment of human beings, please let us know. Safadi Foundation USA is looking to raise the profile of these NGOs and to raise awareness about the plight of these women in an effort to stop the abuse.

Isn't it time that Lebanon takes a stand against slavery within its borders?

UPDATE: Today, Anget R. from Madagascar took her life. She was 20 years old.

Women's coalition calls on the new government to recognize women's equality

(Click on the photo to read the letter)

The Equality Without Reservation campaign is calling on the new Lebanese government to recognize women's equality. The coalition wants all Arab Governments to withdraw reservations and to ratify the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

You can find the Equality Without Reservation blog here. Information about the CEDAW situation regarding Lebanon can be found here.

Lebanon, isn't it time?

It's the little things...

CNN has posted a report on smoking in Lebanon. What struck me in particular were the comments made by several Lebanese who are proud to harm their health and the health of others in the name of "freedom."

The use of the word freedom reminded me of small D democracy, power of the people. Lebanon votes, yes, but Lebanese citizens often feel powerless in the system, and that's where this idea of "freedom" comes from. However, true democracy is not just ballot boxes. True democracy is about institutions centered around the rule of law. If Lebanon wants to be a democracy, a change in the "freedom" attitude that defies laws and rules is necessary. Real freedom is not having to worry about when the next war is going to come, not whether you can smoke (and endanger the health of others) or not.

Democracy is also citizen action. Dr. Georges Saade is a good example of democracy in action as he works to better the lives of all Lebanese. Civil society groups like Rotary Club Lebanon are also working to make Lebanon a healthier place to live and breathe. In the end, the people of Lebanon are the ones who will bring about change and make Lebanon a truly free society. It starts with the little things, like respecting those around you. But maybe that's not so little...

Read more about the no smoking cause at our earlier post here.

Recommendations for Lebanon's New Government

Prime Minister designate Saad Hariri submitted a thirty-member Cabinet line-up to the President of the Lebanese Republic today. The new government will now prepare a policy statement to be presented to the Parliament for a vote-of-confidence. Safadi Foundation USA believes the formation of a Cabinet in Lebanon presents an opportunity to advance Lebanon's development and build support for state institutions that will ensure Lebanon's true independence and sovereignty. "The Lebanese parliament should immediately assert its role as a center for national debate and dialogue and begin to constructively engage youth and civil society in an effort to abolish confessionalism, accelerate administrative decentralization and spread a culture of peace in accordance with the Taif Accord," said Lara Alameh, Executive Director of Safadi Foundation USA. Reforms are necessary to ensure Lebanon's independence so that it is not vulnerable to external influence and regional relationships.

The following benchmarks outline recommendations for the Government of Lebanon in the areas of political reform, civil society and education. The donor community should support these reforms for a more sustainable development in Lebanon:

Political Reform

Electoral Law: In light of recent parliamentary elections and the upcoming municipal elections, the government of Lebanon should give new life to the establishment of a revised electoral law that includes additional reforms not yet passed. Specifically, the President should designate an independent and nonpartisan Committee to reaffirm the findings of the Boutros Commission and outline a set of recommendations for parliament to implement in advance of the 2010 municipal elections.

Decentralization: The Government of Lebanon is working with local and regional councils to draft a decentralization law to be debated and passed by Parliament. The Government of Lebanon should request assistance and resources from the donor community to help draft a modern decentralization law that would be adopted for the Lebanese case and would not threaten any of its communities. Additionally, donors should work with current municipalities to provide them with technical and infrastructure related assistance needed to implement administrative reforms. A certain percentage of budget support to the Government of Lebanon should be based on conditionalities to disburse that aid to the municipalities.

Capacity Building: Lebanon's ministries face serious governance challenges. Most positions reflect the confessional design of Lebanon's political institutions and acute levels of patronage. The donor community should help the government of Lebanon build a culture based on meritocracy through expanding training and technical support programs for individual Ministries. These programs will help raise the quality and knowledge of people within the government. Programs should include increased pay for public sector positions, which are approximately sixty percent less than private sector positions. Donor countries should coordinate their efforts to sponsor reform in Ministries that demonstrate leadership at the Director General and/or Ministerial level.

Civil Society

Donor Assistance: Currently, mechanisms for oversight of donor funding in Lebanon are limited. The Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR) and the High Relief Committee (HRC) are not long-term solutions to addressing Lebanon's development needs as they do not address Lebanon's national needs in a comprehensive manner. Oversight of all donor assistance in Lebanon needs to be expanded to include appropriate parliamentary committees, local and regional representatives and increased community participation. The Government of Lebanon should establish a Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation in order to coordinate donor assistance and ensure that donor projects are in line with national strategies.

Capacity Building: Lebanon has many registered NGOs from smaller towns and villages who do not benefit from international donor funding because they do not yet have the technical know-how or the support of a donor network to apply. Larger Lebanese NGOs should use their experience and expertise to reach out to smaller NGOs and form partnerships to help them build their capacities.

Education

Youth: Lebanese youth face high rates of unemployment, violence, school dropout, delinquency, and emigration. These youth should be taught skills to enhance their job prospects such as training in entrepreneurship, English language, and information technology. In addition, peace-building programs that promote tolerance and cross-confessional dialogue should continue to be implemented. The Government of Lebanon should formulate economic policies that focus on job creation for youth and encourage college graduates to remain in the country.

Civic Participation: The political system and public administration are over centralized, mostly corrupt, and inefficient; the lack of meritocracy has limited citizen participation, particularly of youth. Civic Education that features concepts of citizenship, good governance, and public participation in the democratic process should be standardized in all schools. Enhancing citizen participation on a municipal and regional level will help break down traditional barriers and improve the efficiency and authority of the central government throughout the country. Citizen awareness campaigns should continue to be implemented at the local level.

Environment: Lebanon faces severe environmental issues ranging from desertification and clean water to the endangerment of the famed cedars. These issues transcend confessional lines and if they are not solved can lead to future conflict. Civil society and local and national governments should promote public awareness about the consequences of poor environmental policies and practices.

Safadi Foundation USA is a non-partisan registered 501 (c) (3) public charitable tax-exempt organization dedicated to promoting a national and strategic framework for Lebanon's development.

On Walls

Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades.

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner."

- John F. Kennedy, June 26, 1963

I remember it vividly. It was 11/9/89. 11/9, a reverse of 9/11, and what had happened on that day was the reverse, too.

I first stepped into the city of Berlin on the eighth anniversary of that day, and it seemed like the celebration had never stopped. In 1997, Berlin held the promise of the future in its cranes and crania. The city looked much like Beirut does today and sounded much the same, too, a symphony of jackhammers and big yellow machines and clanging steel. Most of all, though, I remember the energy - it felt like the future, like possibility, like...Hope.

I was 12 years old when I watched people with sledgehammers breaking up a wall that had symbolized a global division and had been responsible for so many ruined lives, so many heartbreaks, so many deaths. In 1989 I saw that wall fall down through the miracle of television, a wall that had kept prosperity and humanity out, a prison wall, a tragedy. The wall fell and the cranes went up to start the rebuilding process that would give back Berlin its heart.

I remember it all even if I didn't understand it at the time. In school we had this good thing called democracy and this other, evil thing called communism, and that was the world and there was no other way to look at it. Then suddenly the definition of the world no longer defined it and people were proclaiming the "End of History" and other ridiculous notions and a lot of peacocks ruffled their feathers and couldn't keep their beaks shut about triumph and victory and blah, blah, blah. What was a kid to do except either ignore it or try to find out about the world and what was going to happen to it now that all the world's problems had been solved?

Indeed, it did feel like a victory of sorts. Back then cable news reported news instead of balloon boys. Back then my twelve year old eyes and heart knew this was something that was changing history. I didn't know why or how, but you could just feel it. The joy and unity people felt in seeing those Berliners dancing on top of concrete and graffiti was shared by everyone (aside from those Soviet fat cats who benefited from imprisoning a city and much of the globe for all those years.) There was a certain energy in the air that made it feel like that illusion the English language called "peace" was possible across the rest of the world.

Eight years later, I found myself getting off a train at the Zoo Station, a twenty year old university student carrying that same optimism for the world that had been born all those years earlier. (Whether that optimism and idealism was inspired by divinity or insanity has not yet been determined.) I had yet to notice the world's optimism was slipping, and it was tough to feel anything but awe and amazement as a city was rebuilding itself.

Another twelve years have passed since the first time I set foot in Berlin. The world is a vastly different place, and ominous clouds have replaced the sunshine of hope that could be felt in the last days of the twentieth century. When once the promise of peace graced us with its presence, now, "times of uncertainty" has become a cliche.

BBC posted images of separation walls that still exist in the world, walls built after we should have learned our lesson.

Curious, I asked Lebanese Twitterers if there were any walls in Lebanon which divided the different communities. The responses:

@MXML: plenty of psychological walls, that's for sure.

@srichani: imaginary walls btw different sects, political affiliations, social classes, ethnicities.

@patrickgaley: I can think of about 400,000 cases of this

@patrickgaley: There are REAL walls, like the ones that surround each of the Palestinian camps in #Lebanon

@UxSoup: I am gonna get arrested for this one...that's wall #1 PSEUDO freedom of speech and belief in Lebanon

@DalilaMahdawi: Many walls- religious, social class, linguistic (french seems to be used as a status symbol), dress, lifestyle, the list goes on

I imagine psychological walls are far more difficult to take down. In fact, psychological walls are the reason physical walls are erected.

On Friday, a group of Palestinian youth knocked down a section of the Israel Wall.



Their retreat and the bullet trails that followed were nothing like those iconic images of sledgehammers and dancing on top of graffiti covered concrete. Yet - there is a tiny victory in the defiance of these youth, a little of the spirit of Berlin, some of the hope.

That's enough to keep fighting for the future.

We are all Berliners. We are all Palestinians. We are all Earthians. Humans. And we all deserve the freedom that we watched unfold before our eyes on that blessed day in 1989 - 11/9, or as it's written outside of America, 9/11. That's the 9/11 that should shape our world.

Many thanks to the Lebanese Twitterverse for their comments!

We...have...liftoff...

I found it interesting the way news organizations across the globe wrote headlines about Lebanese politicians finally agreeing to a cabinet formation. Some headlines (in no particular order):

Associated Press: Rival Lebanon factions agree on unity government

AFP: Lebanon's Hariri to announce new govt

Voice of America: Lebanon Opposition Agrees to Unity Government

Tayyar: Bassil meets Hariri to convey opposition's approval of government lineup

Jerusalem Post: Lebanon: Factions agree on unity gov't

Xinhua: Reports: Lebanon's new cabinet to be formed in two days

Daily Star: Cabinet formation expected within next 48 hours

The National: Hizbollah agrees to cabinet proposals

Journal of Turkish Weekly: Lebanon Opposition Agrees To Unity Government

Naharnet: Suleiman: Government a 'Lebanese Product' for the First Time

RTTNews: Hezbollah Ends Political Impasse In Lebanon By Agreeing To Join Unity Government

Islam Online: Lebanon Opposition Okays Unity Govt

Euronews: Lebanon opposition agrees to form government

Earth Times: Lebanon's rival factions agree on national unity cabinet - sources

Press TV: Lebanon's Hariri set to announce new govt

ABC News: Lebanon Set to Form Government With Hezbollah: Hezbollah Is Listed as a Terror Organization by Washington

BBC: Lebanon government accord reached

Reuters: Opposition to join Lebanese coalition

There are those who emphasize "unity," those who make a point to say "opposition agrees," and those who say it was Hizbollah's fault it took so long. Not one of them mentions Aoun.

I found nothing in the New York Times, Washington Post, Le Monde, Spiegel, CNN, etc. Maybe they just don't want to report something that might not happen? After all, there is this: Cabinet Policy Statement New Point of Contention As a great New York Yankees catcher once said, "It's deja vu all over again."

Apologies for not covering the papers in Arabic - my Arabic is really bad and takes me quite a long time to read it. Maybe I'll try to focus on it later?

How long must we sing this song?

The human voice, a product of the lungs, the vocal folds within the larynx, and the articulators, a sort of sound machine, if you will. A radio without radio waves. A powerful weapon.

Then there's the brain part of it, that squishy mass of cells in a human head that somehow manages to produce thought (in some people) and sounds that represent objects and concepts, that great Babel of a thing we call language.

For several months now, an Iranian people fed up with the abuses of an oppressive regime have fought back with their voices.



The amazing thing about what's happening in Iran right now is that the people have kept it up. I can only imagine what it is like to hear the calls of "Allahu Akbar" ringing out from the rooftops night after night. There must be a divine presence in those voices, something felt deep within the soul, the proverbial good lashing out at evil. They have such strength and resilience to have lasted so long, to have not given up. Powerful thing, that Hope. Change can only come with patience and perseverance.

Change doesn't happen by complaining about something and then sitting around waiting for someone else to do something about it. Change is the result of action, of hardwork, of sacrifice. A protest chant can be a song of freedom. In countries like Iran, these songs of freedom are all they have.

Even in Iran, civil society works to bring about change, albeit with very tough restrictions. In places like Lebanon, civil society is much freer to work towards reform. Indeed, in many cases, civil society has replaced government in providing services that in other countries a government would provide. Civil society organizations are working with donor organizations to develop water maintenance systems, to clean up waste, and to fight forest fires, for example.

How long can they continue to do this without a government? No one knows. It's starting to feel like government isn't really necessary, like the Lebanese people can just go about their daily lives while the politicians squabble in their palaces. Much better to have squabbling politicians than a government that murders its own people, right?

Well, yes. But squabbling politicians have too often in history caused death and destruction.

People are talking about how Lebanon has been at peace for too long, that they are due for another conflict. They point to an arms shipment destined for Hezbollah and an increasing "paranoia" that has put Hezbollah on high alert. Beirut's prosperity masks the economic problems of the rest of the country - the high youth unemployment, the poverty, the lack of opportunity. These things cause unrest. These things cause conflict. Lebanon needs a government. (And Hezbollah needs to publicly come out with one English spelling if they insist on being in the news all the time.)

Which brings me back to the human voice, Lebanese version, a voice that sings in three languages. Once, it gathered at Martyr's Square, 800,000 strong, about a quarter of the country. I found this really cool panorama photo of it here. Powerful stuff there, to see all of those Sunnis, Druze, and Christians united. Seems to me the politicians have forgotten about the PEOPLE of Lebanon. Maybe it's time to use some voices to remind them.

Ghassan Karam from blog Rational Republic says this on Qifa Nabki's post about Aoun controlling the political weather:

I don’t expect the Lebanese “sheeple” to change anytime soon but the apathy and total inactivity is no less than a “scarlet letter” that we wear with pride. How , for the love of God or whatever you believe in, do we have the right to complain about an outcome and yet we refuse to make any effort to change it. The Lebanese “citizen” must be one of the least deserving of a responsible government of any people in the world but the sad thing is that we do not know it. We love to pretend that we are modern, educated, well informed, responsible and democratic when in fact we are just the opposite of each of the above. Healing starts by accepting reality and stopping the denial. A people get the government that they deserve.

Wouldn't it be grand to see a crowd at Martyr's Square - Sunnis, Shia, Christians, Druze - singing their protest songs to those who continue to block a government formation, see that sea of red, white, and green, feel the the change that Lebanon so desperately needs - unity?

Oh, sometimes being an idealist can be so...disillusioning. But hey, if idealists had never succeeded in the history of humanity, we'd all still be living in caves and eating raw meat and dying by age thirty.

Still, how long must we sing this song?

U2 - New Music - More Music Videos

Fun Raising

Maya Zankoul of Amalgam fame and others have started a toy drive for Christmas called Fun Raising to benefit Lebanese children.

Please hop on over to the website to find out more.

Power of the People

Democracy. Derived from the Greek words δῆμος (dêmos) "people" and κράτος (krátos) "power." What an odd race we are, us humans, to make such a simple concept so needlessly complicated. Power of the people. Control over our own lives. Except for this group and that group. No votes for you! No representation for you! You can only vote for a Christian, and you, a Muslim!

Today is Election Day in the United States. The US Constitution mandates that Election Day be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, but the way the federal system works makes odd numbered years rather dull, or in political terms "use three or four electoral races in the country and pretend the outcomes will predict what will happen in the next year." As someone with a degree in Political Science, I am something of a political junkie, which can be frustrating, depressing, and disillusioning at times.

See, democracy is not about getting everything you want. It's about compromise. Now, I wasn't around in 1789 when the founders of this country drafted the US Constitution and then went about holding elections and all, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't as toxic as today's electoral races seem to be. Case in point - one of the most watched election races today is a special election for the NY-23 congressional district. Why? Because a form of rightwing extremism has so polluted one of the two parties in this country that the actual candidate for that party was trashed by those deeming her too "moderate," and she ended up dropping out of the race at the last minute. So the race is between a third party candidate whose ideology is more in line with the extremists than not and a member of the other party, a party which hasn't won that seat for 140 years.

Alright, I've waded too far into the realm politique and probably should pull back a bit. My point is that in some regards, the US has gotten to the point where compromise is akin to treason. What is happening now, what has been happening for a decade or two or even three is that the system has shown cracks. Allegations of voter fraud abound - some based on evidence, most based on wild paranoia - and today, in NY-23, supporters of the extremist candidate are violating electioneering laws and trying to intimidate voters who don't agree with their narrow world views.

Which reminds me of Lebanon. Because compromise seems to be a dirty word in Lebanese politics. What Lebanon has is not democracy. Sure, there are votes and ballots (if you can call them that) and all that, but the only institutions in the country are confessional groups who won't put the quasi-democratically elected government together because what is compromise but a sign of weakness, right?

Then I started thinking about our electoral problems here in the US and I thought, it isn't as bad as it seems (or as the media makes it out to be). I only wish that Americans would stop taking their democracy for granted, because when you look at a country like Lebanon (or worse - Egypt), and you see the people thirsting for real freedom and democracy and not getting it, not getting their human rights, well, it should make a person with a soul want to embrace what they have. The cracks are nothing. They can be repaired as long as we do something about it and not wait for the levee to break. But Lebanon? The levee breaks, and still politicians are squabbling over - what do they even squabble over? - while they're all drowning in the sea that has engulfed them.

It's these people who give democracy a bad name, who have created capital D Democracy, ideology masked as real democracy or used to dismiss real democracy. These are the ones who drag democracy through the miry clay, use it to promote their own political agendas, while real people suffer and real people die. Capital D Democracy is not democracy.

Democracy is a fundamental human right. It's like a gift. Control over our lives, our destinies. But it can be used and abused and we as human beings are the ones who are tasked to protect it from those who seek to destroy it. It's a tough job, it really is, but human beings haven't survived for 10,000 years (or whatever it is) because they are incapable of progress. We are capable of organization, of action, and we see it everyday in the projects and activities of civil society. Civil society is the backbone, the heart, the very essence of democracy.

Like those Greeks told us, we survive because someone managed to shut Pandora's box in time to save Hope.

Leb links

Democracy, the Arab World, and the US. It takes two to tango. It takes three to tangle.

Speaking of that triumvirate, the US is launching a new techy-civil society initiative for the Middle East. So maybe Lebanese civil society organizations will start updating their websites instead of using Facebook? Secretary Clinton Announces Civil Society 2.0 Initiative to Build Capacity of Grassroots Organizations.

Organic food organization Souk El Tayeb is opening restaurant in Beirut.

Is it time Leb explodes again? The UN thinks it might be.

Leb maids and suicide – a major problem. KAFA can help.

Hibr, formerly Sawt Ashabab, is launching in Lebanon.

Hezbollah beefing up security. Great. Just great. All Lebanon needs is another civil war (but is it a civil war if the fighters are foreigners?)

The Power of Language

See Khede Kasra on Facebook.

On a related note, Lina Abou Habib writes about the Age of Stupid regarding women's rights in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the state of New Hampshire becomes the first legislature to reach a majority of women.