Municipality elections don't make sense to me

There are times when a loyal citizen should state what bothers her in her own city. So there are the municipal elections coming soon (or maybe will be delayed for another 2 months), but my real problem with this electoral law (Daily Star), isn't changing the voting age from 21 to 18, and it isn't about dividing Beirut into 3 districts, it's merely, simply about being able to vote for the municipality where I live and now where I'm from.

I am from the North, but I rarely go there, I live in Matn, and I would like to vote for the municipality of the city I live in, why? Because I am sick and tired of the fact that we are affiliated with a certain municipality, who basically takes care of their own region, and ignore the rest of us.

One of the silly problems I would like to see tackled and I want to vote for someone qualified enough to do it, is the fact that we have few garbage containers where I live, the nearest one is 300 meters away. What about those shops who reserve the parking spot in front of them, not allowing us people who live there to park our cars, day and sometimes night.What about those huge pot-holes that keep breaking our cars? Cleanliness of the streets? Decorations on holidays? Recycling
garbage containers? The sense of feeling appreciated and respected as a citizen who pay their yearly "municipality" fee.

Lebanon needs a whole new system. We are not progressing, we are only regressing and quickly. And this is just plain sad and pathetic.

Pre-Election time is getting disgusting

Even though I am on the other end of the earth from Lebanon, I still feel like the elections and their prior period are haunting me. You would think that being thousands of miles away would heal you from the Lebanese elections fever, but that is only possible if you do not stay in contact with any Lebanese person.

Everywhere I go, they ask me how long are you staying in the US and when are you going be in Lebanon, and as soon as I say June 3rd, I get the: "Oh so you will be there in time to vote!", my immediate response is: "No, I will not vote!", "But why?" they ask in a curious manner, "because I do not want to.", some agree and then say "yeah you're right, less headache", as we say in Lebanese "bala waj3et ras", and some actually take the time to give me a sermon, and the cutest thing is when they tell me, "put a white paper", and this is when I take the time to tell them:

-"It is not because there are no candidates I like that I am not voting, I am not voting because I do not approve of the whole system, and when I do not approve of the whole system, by voting with a white paper, it means I am saying I like your system and I just don't like any of your candidates. see the difference?"

Whatever their response I have set my mind, I do wonder though, right now it's 14 March who is ruling, what if the government falls in the hands of the opposition. I personally think 14 March could've or should've done things better, but we all know that we are afraid of what we don't know, they call it change. But change for what exactly? What can they guarantee?

The way I see it, when 14 March were ruling, we had a war with Israel, we had a violent demonstration which included beating each other up, shooting at some, burning tires, creating a polluted day etc.., we had a mini war in Beirut for 3 days that brought back the memory of another civil war in May 2008 (can you tell me not one Lebanese sat on TV and watched it like it was a game of counter strike?), we had no president for almost 6 months, in summer 2007 the Army was in war in Nahr el Bared and we lost a lot of soldiers...

I mean, could it be worse? 14 March did a lot of mistakes and boy do we need new leaders, but seriously, would you want to be ruled by a group that their sole purpose in life is to vanquish Israel, their "zionist" ennemy? Hezbollah believes in a cause, no one denies this, but would you want to be ruled by such a group? Nasrallah said on so many occasions that Hezbollah is something and the resistance is something else, he said if they go in power, they will use this power to bring more weapons to the Lebanese Army.

We all want to see our Army stronger and more powerful, but honestly I do not want to see it in action. So sometimes I wonder, should I vote? Should I be pretty and go vote? I don't know. It's only a 1% whisper in my ear that I tend to ignore.

Funny thing I heard Jumblat a couple of days ago say he's pro optional civil marriage now. I don't know if he backed Hrawi up in the nineties or not. But it's the first time I hear Jumblat being pro secular activities.

What change do I want to see? I do not want to see one party win and another lose, I do not want to see hatred towards another party which most probably you might end up being in alliance with after a year. Think before you offend another party or sect, because you never know when your leader might join them.

I am a sunni/armenian orthodox/maronite person. And I don't mind being ruled by red monkeys if those red monkeys care enough to end corruption, help create more jobs, improve our education even more and more, work on enhancing tourism, ending violence, raising our children not to hate the other because the granpa of the granpa of his granpa killed the granpa of the granpa of his granpa! I would like them to find a solution for traffic, and not just build bridges that take 5 years that don't make a difference. I would like to see them clean this country, have optional civil marriage, have 2 or 3 days per week that is non-smoking, educate people on how to drive and respect the other la2anno ktir bala zo2 sayrin bil swe2a. But I won't vote.

Even diners are now in it!

Well, they might as well take advantage of the whole elections fiesta! So Bob's diner advices everyone, don't go vote on an empty stomach!

Billboards, some getting creative, some just plain ridiculous

As you have probably noticed my dear reader, I have a fascination with Billboards, but I think many other Lebanese residents do too. Why you wonder? It's because they are too many of them and just everywhere. You cannot but stare at 4 or 5 at the same time while driving. Billboards in Lebanon are a very effective way of advertising, due to the repetitive traffic we encounter on a daily and regionally basis!

Especially lately, politics has stumbled upon billboards as diamonds to... everyone! Billboards are not just there to advertise products or shops or events, they're there to advertise politicians. Since Hariri's assassination in February 2005 we have seen many of them move their propaganda war to billboards (more like copy, because no one really gives up on media propaganda), and now with the elections, billboards are just sitting there waiting for candidates to take a picture of themselves, with so many kinds of poses, frowning, smiling, laughing, reflective, you name it, and then throw in a little catchy slogan down below. (I promise, I will try to take pictures of them as much as I can), but for now, below are my evalution of these three different kinds of billboard promotions:


I love playing on words, it's my hobby! And this billboard, makes me laugh everytime I see it :) For those of you who don't know arabic, Chery can be associated with Buy! In Lebanon we have a saying "Shtiree Ra7tak", which is translated to "Buy your comfort" and means that sometimes you need to spend a bit more money on something but it's worth it as you will be getting something that will just relieve your mind from worries and lead you to comfort!


It's smart, MTC (one of the two mobile companies in Lebanon) is declaring that it now has 1 million voices, and well you need a voice to use a mobile phone, so yes it's smart, especially with the up-coming elections, a vote is a voice...


And finally, one of the most ridiculous billboard ads ever, Mr Farid Al Khazen ad. Before this one, the billboard contained the same landscape picture with the same text on it, excluding the candidate's name and portrait. The dude believes... There are a series of billboards saying that he believes in youth and elderly, he believes in nation and women, etc.. In Arabic there is some closeness between the 2 words he chose to believe in, but nonetheless, it is a bit pointless. You want to believe? Believe! Just don't go about saying it to the world as your campaign to get elected... I wouldn't vote for you.

That's it for today. More coming soon

Lebanese expatriates to be able to vote from abroad?

I have received an email from www.lebanese-abroad.com concerning the electoral law and lebanese expatriates voting from abroad, below is an extract:

The election law voted by the Lebanese Parliament has finally recognized the right to vote of those Lebanese citizens residing abroad at the consulates and embassies.

This is a giant step.

However, and in spite of the infallible support of the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the Minister of the Interior, the members of the Administration and Justice parliamentary commission, and a large number of MP's to whom we express our thanks, the text does not contain any measures guaranteeing the effective exercise of this right as of the 2009 elections.

[...]

I did not find anywhere on the net whether these news are valid or not, or maybe not publicized yet, however I have to honestly declare that I do not agree with expatriates voting from abroad. The thing is the whole electoral law and system in Lebanon is false and has a lot of loop holes.

For example, it is a bit illogical that a person has to go to where he/she is registered (born by default) in order to vote, usually somewhere far from where they live where the voted parliament members wont directly affect or improve the person's area and way of life and transmitting their own voices to the parliament, instead of doing it where he/she lives (let's say for the past 10 years). There should be different and more effective rules concerning voting, situations should be thoroughly studied to be able to re-write a good electoral law.

We know that this law can be manipulated to make a certain team win more seats than the other, we know that this law is functioning the way it is now, because some poor people still vote due to a receipt of a certain amount of money, and other do it because they're sheep, and others because they're greedy. And leaders in Lebanon make use of the ignorance and poverty of some Lebanese.

But in a utopic world, maybe we'd have a better electoral law accompagnied with a better understanding of voting, of elections, or parliament, of government and of politics.

Elections in Lebanon, are they really elections?

Excercising your right

The subject of elections came up last week between my friend and me.
-"Do you vote?"
-"No I don't", I answered with confidence. "I don't even put a white paper!"

He was surprised to hear this answer, he continued: "I don't put a white paper either! People tell me, go put a white paper but at least you would have excercised your democratic right to vote! And I would tell them, putting a white paper is like saying I don't agree or approve of any candidates, but the thing is..."

This is when I cut him off and said: "We don't approve of the whole elections system and the way elections are held in this country!"

Rafic Khoury

I was watching Nharkoum Sa3id today, a daily morning show on LBCI, which starts with a political section when the host has a guest whether politician, reporter, political party leader, economy expert, etc... Today Dolly Ghanem, had as a guest, Mr. Rafic Khoury (most recent article here). He's probably one of the few persons if they appear on TV that would actually keep the chanel still. Mr. Rafic Khoury is a local reporter and political analyst, he's been writing since a long time in the local newspaper Al-Anwar. I find this guy to be non-biased, completely objective, wise, smart, peaceful, has a lot of knowledge and very logical. I like listening to the dude.

He said something very interesting, and it was about how the current leaders are regarding the elections as destiny-defining events. He said that elections happen every 4 years, and no team can cancel the other, whatever teams rules they cannot be ennemies with either Syria or the US. He critized that none of them actually provides good programs that deal with the "people's" issues, such as education, economy, tourism, finance, commerce, poverty, etc... They all talk about the enormous strategic plans, with Syria or the US or Iran or Israel... He said everybody in the world are dialoguing and negotiating, why is Lebanon, the poor Lebanon trying to stand in the faces of all these big players? They should just deal with the people's issues.

Constitutional or not Constitutional, this is the question

Not because it's a historical day, but it's because it is one of the most contradictory days that Lebanon has ever witnessed.
1- 109 Parliament members including opposition arrive to the parliament at noon.
2- Session postponed till November 30th in order to elect a president agreed upon from all sides
3- Post the canceled session, deputies talk back to each other through the media
4- The Cabinet is in session since 6:30pm discussing the latest updates
5- The president (till 11:59pm on November 23, 2007) Emile Lahoud declares a state of emergency starting 24 November 2007
6- The Cabinet denies it, based on the constitution, explaining that only the cabinet after passing it to the parliament as well and the majority's signature can declare such state. (That was at 8:30 pm today)

Stay tuned for any updated, today is not finished yet.

How are the presidential elections affecting the average Lebanese citizen?

Many people are delaying big purchases such as apartments or cars till after the elections. Others are postponing payments of monthly bills or installments till the end of the month. One case I've heard is postponing a wedding and buying furniture for their house. I personally postponed buying a ticket to a concert till next week. And of course, many have canceled going out this week, many rumors of staying home is safer, embassies sending message to their people to avoid going out all this week. Moreover many Lebanese are worried of a potential rage riot, roads blocking, area occupation and such. Every side is accusing the other of going to start a fight. A company is also waiting for all this to finish before they move to a new location. Thursday is a holiday, independence day, so many schools are going to close on Wednesday and Friday as well.

But in general, it isn't as worrisome as it sounds, we are more than used to this, for example all work places are not affected by this. (lucky us)

Lebanon, land of utopia

Definitely not something we have anticipated, or at least I didn't. I had forseen Kamil Khoury's victory, or Amin Gemayel's victory, but certainly not both at the same time.
Tuning in to OTV, you will notice that the first won, tuning in to LBC for example, it is Gemayel that won.
MSN personal messages are hilarious, everybody declaring the victory of the political party they side with.
I also discovered that there has been cloning in Bourj Hammoud. As some people went to vote and discovered they had "already" voted today, amnesia? or what!
What else, I wanted to blog in a serious way about the Matn Elections for the parliament seat that has been emptied when Sheik Pierre Gemayel died last November 2006, but this is just too funny.

Update: I just saw on LBCI, two groups of people spread each on one side, with the Lebanese army between them.
I am surprised that this was not thought of, they should've put a curfew, and I hope they will notice this soon enough and declare this decision. I understand that the maximum that can happen is people from opposing parties will beat each other up, but for me, I think I still have like 0,01% of hope for Lebanon, and everytime I see this picture, I am afraid my hope will completely die.

Update: Leaders of both parties has called out for their supporters to get out of Jdeideh's area. Yey

Elections by colors

Colors are very hip nowadays in Lebanon. Tomorrow, August 5th, will be holding elections, between a representative from FPM aka Aounists, and the Phalange's Amine Gemayel who is trying to replace his son, Pierre Gemayel, after he was assassinated in November 2006.
I have received many e-mails with the subject "Vote Orange", I've seen many convoys with orange flags and pictures for Aoun, while they were honking their special "ta ra rat tat tat, General" tone, moreover, I saw many other convoys for Phalanges, with pictures of Amine and Pierre Gemayels, and flags with the Phalange's cedar on them.
Many army troops are spread everywhere in Metn area to make sure no "problems" occur between the excited and overzealous youth out-there, the pro-honking and colorful flags youth.
What is most amazing and just impressive, is hearing both sides, blame each other for starting it, they hear the bad side of the other, and the good side of their own.

How will we ever love each other and build a good country? Christians are ruining each other, although I am pro secular country, I still think, sects should be preserved to a certain point.