It is a worrying spectacle to see our local politicians travel the globe, scurrying around to meet the great and (not so) good of the world, and earn their support. The worry has to do with our country's current dynamics...
Political Campaigns
In normal countries, all this travelling and visiting is carried out “in house”. In their quest to reach ultimate “Alpha Male” status, politicians jaw-jaw with local power-brokers, shake a few hands, talk up some ravenous crowds into frenzies of support, or smooch a few uncooperative babies.
In Lebanon, their traveling and visiting is carried out “extra muro”. In their quest to reach ultimate “Alpha Male” status, Lebanese politicians jaw-jaw with regional power-brokers, kiss a few hands (or worse), bribe some local ravenous crowds into frenzies of support, or display a few dead babies.
Welcome to Oceania
The reason for all this is simple; more than anything else, politics may really be about a game aimed at the pursuit of "power equilibriums"...
In George Orwell’s 1984, such equilibrium was “internal”. Oceania, one of the world's three intercontinental totalitarian super-states, used its conflict with other super states, Eurasia and Eastasia, to maintain control over its population. The “Telescreens” kept the population in a state of “internal” torpor, its vigilance mobilized by the Ministry of Truth’s reporting of conflicts and wars.
Lebanon’s 2008 is not much different. Yes, we are spared the two-way surveillance of “Big Brother”, but the “Inner Parties” can deploy much media manipulation. With this “noise”, they can control countless “Little Brothers”; those intellectual zombies form the phalange of many “Outer Parties”, who patrol our daily life to kill any semblance of intelligent discourse with regurgitated blabber.
“Fund” Raising
In the absence of a stabilizing effect of the state, someone has to pay to maintain the country’s internal power equilibrium. Yet, since the Zombies of the “Inner Parties” have little value economically, the “Proles” cannot afford to fund such social parasitism.
So the support can only be external, and each leader has to find patrons to support this political addiction. To a certain extent, all our politicians become pawns in the regional chess game. They can at best try to be opportunistic.
With all the patronage pouring in from outside Lebanon, polticians such as Geagea have to find patrons somewhere; Israel is courting Syria, Iran feeds Hezb'O, Saudi takes care of Hariri... So it is no wonder they went to Bush’s United States.
But there is no magic pill, and someday, all those different patrons will ask for payments for the “services” they rendered. And then;
SOLIDA:. There are more than 400 Lebanese citizens still rotting in Syrian Jails, and the government does nothing about it. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Jeha sold his house for a ridiculously low price. But he had one condition; “on one of the walls there is a Nail I do not want to sell". The buyer agreed; after all, what did he need the nail for? After a few days, Jeha came back to the house “to visit his nail”. He soon hung his coat on it, then brought his bed and started to sleep there, to stay close to the nail. Then he brought his family to visit the nail… In the end, the only way the new owner could get rid of him was to buy the nail for a price many times higher than that of the house... This goes to tell you; we may leave Lebanon, but we will NEVER sell that nail.
A Very well researched monograph by on the problems on the southern boundary of Lebanon from the time it was first established by the French and British after World War I. It covers the Zionist thirst for the waters of the Litani, the impotence of the Lebanese government and its neglect of the South and its inhabitants, the PLO, Israel's policies and actions, and finally the Israeli invasions of 1978 and 1982.
"The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy", By Matthew Simmons..
The focus is on Saudi Arabia, home to the largest proven reserves. It is based on analysis of technical papers by ARAMCO engineers. The largest and most productive fields may be at peak production, and current high production is shortening their productive lives. New Saudi fields are unlikely to replace them; extensive exploration has produced little. Soon, Saudi production may not reach the expected 15-20 million BPD.
I like books that challenge orthodox ideology and make you think. Otherwise, we have plain vanilla CNN and Al-Jazeera, each pandering to their lowest common denominator. Such books, however, have to be methodical and well reasoned. You may or may not like what they tell you, and you others yet disprove their findings, but you can find no fault with the method. I find that I learn a lot in the process.
This is easily a “groundbreaking and essential” book. Tim Flannery “argues passionately for the urgent need to address - NOW - the implications of a global climate change that is damaging all life on earth and endangering our very survival”. I have little to add to that…
By answering two question;: “when was the Bible written?” and “why was it written?”, the author places the Hebrew Bible in its historical/social context, and much of it becomes clearer to understand. He also unwittingly illuminates the pre-Islamic Arab word…
"There are lies, damned lies and statistics"… Enough said, go read the book. The math is not too hard, and it should be required reading for anyone who is ever planning in discussing numbers. There are timeless classic; this is one of them.
This is a reading of the Koran from the perspective of the ancient Jahiliyya dialects, closer in some respects to an Aramaic-Arabic mixed language than to modern Arabic. A challenging read and many may consider that the author oversimplifies. But it makes you think and ponder, and the author makes many excellent points.
Many will disagree strongly with Prof. Saliby’s conclusions, many of which fly in the face of archeological evidence. True, this once acclaimed Lebanese historian now apparently belongs to the group of “everyone's got it wrong, I've got it right" conspiracy theorists, but he does raise a few good questions. The mental exercise of debunking him when he overreaches is worth it; all too often, we tend to forget those aspects of Monotheism that go back to Akhenaton…
In normal countries, all this travelling and visiting is carried out “in house”. In their quest to reach ultimate “Alpha Male” status, politicians jaw-jaw with local power-brokers, shake a few hands, talk up some ravenous crowds into frenzies of support, or smooch a few uncooperative babies.
In 
In George Orwell’s 1984, such equilibrium was “internal”. 
So the support can only be external, and each leader has to find patrons to support this political addiction. To a certain extent, all our politicians become pawns in the regional chess game. They can at best try to be opportunistic. 
With all the patronage pouring in from outside 
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