Balad Cirque
Monaco is just 2.05 square kilometers in area and has over $100 billion in deposits in its banking system. Lebanon is 10,452 square kilometers in area and has just $118.9 billion in deposits as off May 2012. The banking system we are so proud off seems a little lack luster now that it is compared to a tiny principality.
To over simplify banking: Banks make their living from deposit inflows from our economic exiles’ paychecks, our hard working sons and daughters, those working in the Gulf or Africa because they could not find anything better to do at home, or because they found their hard earned skills were unappreciated.
The banks then lend that money to the state and in the process make a good deal of money without having to work very hard. Of course, we DO work very hard to pay off the interest on the national debt with our taxes.
The state takes the funds and agrees a budget that neither makes provisions to generate revenue nor agrees a proper spending plan to enhance and upgrade vital infrastructure, such as roads, electricity, schools, and the national social security fund.
Then they turn around and tell our economic exiles that they don’t have the right to vote unless they pay for an airline ticket to come home and vote, or accept an airline ticket from one of the parties running in the elections and vote accordingly.
Let’s face it, the system is rigged and we are the losers every time. When will we learn, at what point will we have had enough, and when will we finally overturn the tables of the money changers in the temple?
There are two kinds of sales men in Lebanon: One sells the ‘all is well and nice and rosy’ brand of bullshit, the other sells the ‘Oh, beware, the world is about to end’ brand of bullshit. In fact there is so much bullshit that our streets seem to be paved with it and if you don’t watch your step you will likely trip over some and land face first in it.
Well, I know one thing for certain: The Lebanese are nothing if not predictable, in politics, as in business, and on the roads too. You can predict with considerable certainty, for example, which way the driver maneuvering to cut you off will go. You continue on your path, stick to your lane, watch your speed, and observe his amazing acrobatic antics. All the effort he expends is just to get one car’s length ahead of the rest.
It’s like watching caged animals in a zoo. In fact, I would say its more of a circus and the entire population are performers. In fact a regular commentator on VDL 93.3 FM made a very valid observation recently: We are all entertainers. It’s what we do best when we go out of our way to show off our skills and brilliance no matter how vulgar or dangerous our actions.
In politics too, everyone maneuvers, everyone wants to get noticed, everyone wants to get ‘one car’s length’ ahead of the other guy, to appear the winner, as a result everyone is focused on their competitor, rather than on the road ahead of them and how they can work together to solve problems. Our attitude means we usually end up crashing or clashing or both, and then we wonder why and blame ‘outside meddlers’ for our troubles.
I wonder on whom the blame will fall next for the inevitable lack of government spending on infrastructure this year because we couldn’t be adult about the budget. Instead our Cabinet passed a wishy-washy ‘no new taxes’ budget that upsets no one, pleases no one, and only gives the government, any government in fact, just enough steam to keep clattering along. Like an old car falling to pieces on the road, our old clunker of state, ploughs ahead, soldiering on, issuing plumes of dark smoke from behind, its gears screech as metal grinds on metal, its engine overheating, its radiator steaming, until one fine day it just stops and never starts again.
There was an interesting article in a recent issue of Scientific American that comes out and says quite bluntly that competition and Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’ is not the only path to follow, that evolution has given us much more. It highlights the role of cooperation in the evolution of human civilizations. Altruism and self sacrifice are shown to be cornerstones of the human edifice. Not only is the instinct to work together and cooperate part of who we are as humans, it is an essential building block of modernity without which we would still be swinging from tree to tree, hunting and gathering.
Scholars and students of human behavior would find Lebanon quite a unique, Galapagos-like, treasure trove of deviant and self destructive human habits and behaviors that show how the interplay of culture, politics, and sectarian/tribal loyalties in a rugged mountainous setting all play a crucial role in shaping the human mind and perception of self and others.
Amid the inane channel surfing that I tend to do late at night until I fall asleep on the couch, I stop occasionally and watch certain talk show guests babbling away, talking as if pearls of wisdom were dripping from the corners of their mouths instead of saliva. Most want the talk show host to allow their voice to be the only one heard, to occupy the airwaves for the duration of the program, not allowing others the time to speak, and interrupting them when they do. This is normal enough anywhere, guests will want to hog the airwaves for themselves, but it’s the host’s obligation to stop them. Very few hosts do so effectively.
We are taught from a young age that no one will give us anything and whatever we want we have to take. To an extent that maybe true, we all have to work very hard to get what we want and even then there is no guarantee. But this maxim has allowed some in society to act in ways that are inexplicably rude and inconsiderate, thinking perhaps that mindless aggression shows everyone whose boss.
In a country plagued by chronic self image problems, citizens’ individual perception of self is assailed from every quarter. Hailing from a small, politically disjointed country does not help. So, the response from locals is to combat this feeling of inferiority with a bloated and exaggerated sense of self worth, a superiority complex of sorts, coupled with an exaggerated sense of national worth, which is often seen in sugary, drippy, praise of the homeland and its natural wonders. Or, what's left of them.
So, we live in the circus of life, painting our faces, putting on a fake smile, and we hope we get noticed, and maybe we also get a bit of applause too.
To over simplify banking: Banks make their living from deposit inflows from our economic exiles’ paychecks, our hard working sons and daughters, those working in the Gulf or Africa because they could not find anything better to do at home, or because they found their hard earned skills were unappreciated.
The banks then lend that money to the state and in the process make a good deal of money without having to work very hard. Of course, we DO work very hard to pay off the interest on the national debt with our taxes.
The state takes the funds and agrees a budget that neither makes provisions to generate revenue nor agrees a proper spending plan to enhance and upgrade vital infrastructure, such as roads, electricity, schools, and the national social security fund.
Then they turn around and tell our economic exiles that they don’t have the right to vote unless they pay for an airline ticket to come home and vote, or accept an airline ticket from one of the parties running in the elections and vote accordingly.
Let’s face it, the system is rigged and we are the losers every time. When will we learn, at what point will we have had enough, and when will we finally overturn the tables of the money changers in the temple?
There are two kinds of sales men in Lebanon: One sells the ‘all is well and nice and rosy’ brand of bullshit, the other sells the ‘Oh, beware, the world is about to end’ brand of bullshit. In fact there is so much bullshit that our streets seem to be paved with it and if you don’t watch your step you will likely trip over some and land face first in it.
Well, I know one thing for certain: The Lebanese are nothing if not predictable, in politics, as in business, and on the roads too. You can predict with considerable certainty, for example, which way the driver maneuvering to cut you off will go. You continue on your path, stick to your lane, watch your speed, and observe his amazing acrobatic antics. All the effort he expends is just to get one car’s length ahead of the rest.
It’s like watching caged animals in a zoo. In fact, I would say its more of a circus and the entire population are performers. In fact a regular commentator on VDL 93.3 FM made a very valid observation recently: We are all entertainers. It’s what we do best when we go out of our way to show off our skills and brilliance no matter how vulgar or dangerous our actions.
In politics too, everyone maneuvers, everyone wants to get noticed, everyone wants to get ‘one car’s length’ ahead of the other guy, to appear the winner, as a result everyone is focused on their competitor, rather than on the road ahead of them and how they can work together to solve problems. Our attitude means we usually end up crashing or clashing or both, and then we wonder why and blame ‘outside meddlers’ for our troubles.
I wonder on whom the blame will fall next for the inevitable lack of government spending on infrastructure this year because we couldn’t be adult about the budget. Instead our Cabinet passed a wishy-washy ‘no new taxes’ budget that upsets no one, pleases no one, and only gives the government, any government in fact, just enough steam to keep clattering along. Like an old car falling to pieces on the road, our old clunker of state, ploughs ahead, soldiering on, issuing plumes of dark smoke from behind, its gears screech as metal grinds on metal, its engine overheating, its radiator steaming, until one fine day it just stops and never starts again.
There was an interesting article in a recent issue of Scientific American that comes out and says quite bluntly that competition and Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’ is not the only path to follow, that evolution has given us much more. It highlights the role of cooperation in the evolution of human civilizations. Altruism and self sacrifice are shown to be cornerstones of the human edifice. Not only is the instinct to work together and cooperate part of who we are as humans, it is an essential building block of modernity without which we would still be swinging from tree to tree, hunting and gathering.
Scholars and students of human behavior would find Lebanon quite a unique, Galapagos-like, treasure trove of deviant and self destructive human habits and behaviors that show how the interplay of culture, politics, and sectarian/tribal loyalties in a rugged mountainous setting all play a crucial role in shaping the human mind and perception of self and others.
Amid the inane channel surfing that I tend to do late at night until I fall asleep on the couch, I stop occasionally and watch certain talk show guests babbling away, talking as if pearls of wisdom were dripping from the corners of their mouths instead of saliva. Most want the talk show host to allow their voice to be the only one heard, to occupy the airwaves for the duration of the program, not allowing others the time to speak, and interrupting them when they do. This is normal enough anywhere, guests will want to hog the airwaves for themselves, but it’s the host’s obligation to stop them. Very few hosts do so effectively.
We are taught from a young age that no one will give us anything and whatever we want we have to take. To an extent that maybe true, we all have to work very hard to get what we want and even then there is no guarantee. But this maxim has allowed some in society to act in ways that are inexplicably rude and inconsiderate, thinking perhaps that mindless aggression shows everyone whose boss.
In a country plagued by chronic self image problems, citizens’ individual perception of self is assailed from every quarter. Hailing from a small, politically disjointed country does not help. So, the response from locals is to combat this feeling of inferiority with a bloated and exaggerated sense of self worth, a superiority complex of sorts, coupled with an exaggerated sense of national worth, which is often seen in sugary, drippy, praise of the homeland and its natural wonders. Or, what's left of them.
So, we live in the circus of life, painting our faces, putting on a fake smile, and we hope we get noticed, and maybe we also get a bit of applause too.
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