Lebanon 2005

Until recently, I continued to believe that there is a country called Lebanon. I mean by country, a government, institutions, people, defense forces, etc. But I changed my mind. Looking back at the history of this beautiful land, we can see that it's people have been famous of being merchants of services, all kind of services. This land called Lebanon has the best food in the middle east, the sexiest women, nicest nature, but it does not have a country! Since independence, Lebanon had two authorities, the formal one, the government, and a militia, that decided for whatever reason, to maintain an army parallel to the formal one. The current example is Hizbullah and the formal government. The Lebanese are famous of trade, they have been trading their country and their existence since the mid fifties to whoever pays more or protects more. The Lebanese people never found a common ground to agree on to form a country and government based on institutions; their system is based on strange formula to share power among the religious groups. They used to say, Lebanon strength is in it's weakness. This statement proved to be one of the most deceiving political statements ever created. Lebanon's weakness, and the fact that you can buy it's leaders, have wrecked this beautiful land and killed it's leaders, last, but maybe not least, Rafiq Al Hariri, the former prime minister, and a Sunni leader. Lebanon could have been the Switzerland of the East, both countries have different ethnic groups, Switzerland has even different languages, yet it managed to found a formula to exist as a country and gained an international recognition of it's unique status. In Lebanon everyone speaks the same language, Arabic, and they speak other languages. The Israeli Arab conflict has affected Lebanon since the start. Lebanon has couple of hundred of thousands Palestinian refugees in it's areas, some are militarized. Lebanon, more than any border Arab country with Israel, has been torn apart by this conflict, the Arab Israeli. From now on, to the unforeseen future, there is a piece of land in the middle east called Lebanon. One day this land might produce an example of a transparent democracy in the area.