Persiflage & Paroxysm

The perfect gift that puts a smile on the recipient’s face is not so easy to find. It requires some effort, but the reward is priceless. Giving is truly a blessing, it makes us feel good inside. Its really not how much you spend on a gift, it’s the impact it has on the recipient that matters, like flying lessons, for example, or tickets to a concert that has been sold out for months. Of course the Holiday season is an especially stressful time for the gift hunters, because normal business life goes on as usual but added to that are the demands of family and friends on your time and attention that is simply overwhelming. So, gift buying is often left to the last minute. Wrong! Never go out with the idea of buying a gift in a few hours. Chances are you will find nothing and the wasted trip will only add to your already elevated stress levels. I find that even in the middle of a busy work day, one should find time to go for a brisk walk after lunch. I am the sort who scoffs down lunch in ...

Like first-time parents (who often do not know which end the bottle goes) you could forgive the Arab revolutionaries almost anything, anything that is except giving up. That is simply not an option. Giving up now would mean at least another 40 years of virtual hibernation, isolation, cultural and social decay. By stopping now we condemn our grandchildren to a life with blinders on, content with slurping the tasteless life-sustaining gruel poured for them into the national trough by the moneyed and powerful elite. Nose first in the trough we are deaf to the world, just like our dictators want us to be. And when someone comes along to show us a better life, we can only think of how this person threatens our source of gruel. We need to leave behind a better legacy than that. We all cheered when certain symbols of repression were torn down, individuals like Mubarak, who we all saw as the one obstacle standing between the Egyptian people and achieving a constitutional, law-based society, fr...

The mutiny and occupation of a power plant south of the Capital by power utility workers is just a small example of how vulnerable the Lebanese State is from certain groups. It’s a symptom of a deeper malaise. I refuse to accept that the utility workers at the power plant decided on their own to take the action they did, no one in Lebanon takes such decisions without making very fine political calculations first. It is the same for MPs, ministers, government civil servants, and the ordinary masses; it’s simply how we are. Independent action in Lebanon, like real independent thought, is a rarity in constant danger of extinction; some even think it a myth. But certain people in this country, certain groups, seem to have more leeway to take actions that seriously impact public order, safety, and normal life than others. The tent city of down town Beirut of a couple of years ago comes to mind. And what a mess that was, a year of unrealized profits and opportunities lost for all the busines...