Lebanon: Not as bad as the rest yet... or is it?
When I look at the mess other countries are in, with crises to the left of us, and crises to the right of us, I thank whatever all powerful being out there that is watching out for us, and who has so far spared us from being plunged down a deep dark abyss. Take the Greeks for example. A recent BBC documentary on the real repercussions of the Greek crisis on ordinary Greeks sent a shiver up my spine as I thought to myself: “My God, if Europe can fail, if all that was golden and shiny in the eyes of third-world folk like myself can suddenly all fall apart, what hope have we got!?”
In the back of my mind, and in minds of many Lebanese, there was one simple question being asked and it was searching for an answer: Where do I go now if my country actually turns into a failed state (again) and I can no longer live in safety here or earn enough to feed myself and my family? For us, packing a suit case and boarding a flight to 'anywhere other than here,' is a fact of life that I have learned to live with ever since I was five. In fact, my mother was in a panic recently because her passport expired and she desperately wanted to renew it, just in case!
Yes, it’s that ‘just in case’ that many first-worlders out there never really think about. They don’t go to other countries as economic or political refugees. They are used to going abroad as tourists, spending hard currency, and as such have been more than welcome in my part of the world, and still are. But now, many Europeans are going back to former colonies to find jobs, to find a better life. Soon, they will even come to Lebanon in larger numbers than ever, all looking for jobs. But where do I go now if all hell breaks loose in my country? The Gulf? No thanks. The US? Its in bad shape, and the last thing they need is one more immigrant. Maybe Australia? Too big. Or New Zealand? Too far away. Maybe Africa? Too many Lebanese!
The fact is Lebanon remains in a unique position, its banking system has, so far at least, done well, despite the occasional hiccup and US allegations of suspected money laundering activities through the financial system. We are proud of our banks, and justly so. But the real economy is what is suffering. Its suffering from built in inefficiencies, from the fact that nothing works. The state certainly doesn’t work, or maybe it can’t work because it's hamstrung by conflicting interests. The modus operandi of Lebanese politics is: “If you don’t give me what I want, all I want, I won’t give you anything you want.” The result is no one gets anything and everyone waits to see who blinks first.
Even if the private sector wanted to step in to take over in some areas, they really can’t because of our laws which place so much in public hands, like the electricity sector. Great projects are launched (a favorite word of local media) or announced, you think things are about to change, but then you hear: “Oh, sorry, all we were talking about, the great things we told you about that the private sector can do, well, we need the government to issue a law to allow us to do them, and they won’t you see, so... better luck next time.” So, why the big words, why the announcement of the launch of the inauguration of the start of a great project if all it is at this moment is talk?
Hope is a great thing, its morphine for the soul! But for those among us who are awake, the writing is on the wall: We manufacture ‘nothing-to-very-little’ that matters to the world, and that what we do produce is on such a small scale that it would have to be something really special and rare and exceptionally well crafted or unique in some way for it to really wow export markets.
Our industry is laughed away as irrelevant, our farmers are told they are free loaders who live of state aid whenever crops fail, and our students are told they don’t have work for them here and they need to go abroad to find jobs. So, exactly whose country is this anyway? Ah ha, thought you’d never ask: It’s the service providers’ country of course, the bankers, the ad men, the hoteliers serving $50 scotches to richie rich of course, that’s whose country it is. It’s not our children’s country certainly, because they can’t afford to live here, or buy a house here, can they!?
The fact is, if you want to eat, if you want to have a roof over your head, if you want clothes on your back, you either have to have connections high up in your sectarian political structure, or you work four jobs, or you go to the Gulf. Options are very limited and the real level of poverty in this country is only concealed by the lack of credible accurate statistics and information, which is curiously convenient for those in power. But, the really poor don’t matter to politicians do they? Many of them can’t or won’t vote. In fact, many in my own ‘so-called-middle-class’ family don’t vote either, we don’t see the point. After all those running the show will get elected no matter how we vote, right?! Maybe, but by not voting we loose the right to claim the morale outrage high ground, as so many of us do so eloquently.
Maybe that is what we should bottle and export: Hot air! It’s bound to be a success, especially in the colder country’s when Russia switches off the gas again come winter! Brrrrrrrrr. A cheap shot I know, I just couldn’t resist.
In the back of my mind, and in minds of many Lebanese, there was one simple question being asked and it was searching for an answer: Where do I go now if my country actually turns into a failed state (again) and I can no longer live in safety here or earn enough to feed myself and my family? For us, packing a suit case and boarding a flight to 'anywhere other than here,' is a fact of life that I have learned to live with ever since I was five. In fact, my mother was in a panic recently because her passport expired and she desperately wanted to renew it, just in case!
Yes, it’s that ‘just in case’ that many first-worlders out there never really think about. They don’t go to other countries as economic or political refugees. They are used to going abroad as tourists, spending hard currency, and as such have been more than welcome in my part of the world, and still are. But now, many Europeans are going back to former colonies to find jobs, to find a better life. Soon, they will even come to Lebanon in larger numbers than ever, all looking for jobs. But where do I go now if all hell breaks loose in my country? The Gulf? No thanks. The US? Its in bad shape, and the last thing they need is one more immigrant. Maybe Australia? Too big. Or New Zealand? Too far away. Maybe Africa? Too many Lebanese!
The fact is Lebanon remains in a unique position, its banking system has, so far at least, done well, despite the occasional hiccup and US allegations of suspected money laundering activities through the financial system. We are proud of our banks, and justly so. But the real economy is what is suffering. Its suffering from built in inefficiencies, from the fact that nothing works. The state certainly doesn’t work, or maybe it can’t work because it's hamstrung by conflicting interests. The modus operandi of Lebanese politics is: “If you don’t give me what I want, all I want, I won’t give you anything you want.” The result is no one gets anything and everyone waits to see who blinks first.
Even if the private sector wanted to step in to take over in some areas, they really can’t because of our laws which place so much in public hands, like the electricity sector. Great projects are launched (a favorite word of local media) or announced, you think things are about to change, but then you hear: “Oh, sorry, all we were talking about, the great things we told you about that the private sector can do, well, we need the government to issue a law to allow us to do them, and they won’t you see, so... better luck next time.” So, why the big words, why the announcement of the launch of the inauguration of the start of a great project if all it is at this moment is talk?
Hope is a great thing, its morphine for the soul! But for those among us who are awake, the writing is on the wall: We manufacture ‘nothing-to-very-little’ that matters to the world, and that what we do produce is on such a small scale that it would have to be something really special and rare and exceptionally well crafted or unique in some way for it to really wow export markets.
Our industry is laughed away as irrelevant, our farmers are told they are free loaders who live of state aid whenever crops fail, and our students are told they don’t have work for them here and they need to go abroad to find jobs. So, exactly whose country is this anyway? Ah ha, thought you’d never ask: It’s the service providers’ country of course, the bankers, the ad men, the hoteliers serving $50 scotches to richie rich of course, that’s whose country it is. It’s not our children’s country certainly, because they can’t afford to live here, or buy a house here, can they!?
The fact is, if you want to eat, if you want to have a roof over your head, if you want clothes on your back, you either have to have connections high up in your sectarian political structure, or you work four jobs, or you go to the Gulf. Options are very limited and the real level of poverty in this country is only concealed by the lack of credible accurate statistics and information, which is curiously convenient for those in power. But, the really poor don’t matter to politicians do they? Many of them can’t or won’t vote. In fact, many in my own ‘so-called-middle-class’ family don’t vote either, we don’t see the point. After all those running the show will get elected no matter how we vote, right?! Maybe, but by not voting we loose the right to claim the morale outrage high ground, as so many of us do so eloquently.
Maybe that is what we should bottle and export: Hot air! It’s bound to be a success, especially in the colder country’s when Russia switches off the gas again come winter! Brrrrrrrrr. A cheap shot I know, I just couldn’t resist.
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