The Year Coming To A Close

Looking at my past post for the year it does not look good, the year was from start to end sad, bad, and then sad some more.  What the New Year holds for Lebanon is up in the air I wish all of you a happy and joyful New Year. May the New Year bring with it peace, and prosperity to all in Lebanon, my this New Year bring with it a solution that will make all happy.  I hope that the politicians in Lebanon can give up a little for the benefit of the many, the people of Lebanon are waiting  for you to grow up and put your differences aside for the betterment of your country.

Happy New Year Tears For Lebanon

Lebanon is the loser, no matter who wins

By Ghassan Karam
Special to Ya Libnan
What
appears to be unlikely now will soon occur: Lebanon will have a new
president. What is tragic is that one of the two major camps will
behave as the victor when in reality no matter which of the two sides
wins Lebanon has already lost.

One
side is determined to bring back the old status quo—as if that era was
a Golden Age when in reality it was what gave rise to the current
social, political and economic problems—while the other side is driven
by even more backward-looking ideologies that will only strengthen
confessionalism and religious identity, both of which are the bane of
the Lebanese retrogression.

No country can celebrate its diversity through constructing barriers
that separate, discriminate and forbid talent to rise. No country can
claim to promote individual liberty and human rights when its citizens
are not subjected to the same sets of laws. How can the same people who
decry racism, social injustice and inequality support vigorously a
system based on religious practice; the epitome of inequality and
discrimination? As if it is not bad enough for one side to have given
Bkirki the right to appoint a President the other side claims to be
fighting for the rights of the “aggrieved” Christian and one of its
spoke persons went even as far as to claim that the “West looks at the
Christians in terms of their relative numbers instead of their
intrinsic worth”.

Where
is the outrage when such statements are made? Is the FPM really
suggesting that they espouse an Orwellian democracy where society
promotes equality but some are more equal than others? Is the Christian
equal to two non Christians or is it maybe 21/2 non Christians in the
FPM calculus. (This Maronite has only one expectation from his elected
officials, to be vigorous in their defense of Lebanese sovereignty and
individual rights even though they might profess the Muslim, Druze or
Christian faith or maybe have no faith at all).

Lebanon has a golden opportunity to embark immediately on the only
path to modernity, democracy and individual rights. It is time that we
renounce the chains that have shackled us for over six decades. A
Nation State does not need to exist if its own permanent residents do
not share a political identity that transcends their individual beliefs
and selfish desires. Unless we build a strong wall that separates the
sacred from the secular then we are condemned to repeat the mistakes of
the past. No religious group needs worry about its rights under a
secular state because ALL people are treated equally and All people are
given the same opportunities to rise to the highest level of their
abilities.

The
best guarantees for a Christian, a Muslim or an Atheist is equal
protection under the law that does not make any allowances to ones
personal religious beliefs. In the same sense that equality before the
law should not be based on race, national origin, religious
convictions, gender or sexual orientation elective office should not be
based on anything else but the nominees character, political program
and her commitment to the national good. Elective office, in the final
analysis, is public service and as such no one should be prevented from
becoming public servant except on meritorious grounds. Anything short
of that is tragic and unacceptable.

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MPs Submit Petition to Parliament in Bid to Name Suleiman as President

MPs from the ruling majority submitted a petition to the Lebanese parliament on Thursday seeking a constitutional amendment that would allow the election of army commander Gen. Michel Suleiman as president. The petition, signed by 13 MPs, calls for the amendment of the constitution “for a single time” to allow a senior public servant to become president.

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