I can't even fathom the number of times our “leaders” have decided to leave things the way they were because they could not find it in them to arrive at a consensus regarding how to move forward.

This is why most of the Lebanese bloggers' entries last week dealt with regional matters, like the Iranian Nuclear stalemate, the Dahab Bombings in Egypt, and, the Israeli blogosphere.

But before that, why do Lebanese politics have to always be depressing? Rampurple asked. So she set out to make a list of the “bright side” of Lebanese politics and laboriously squeezed out one. ( for example: “We all had something to discuss during social gatherings” and “All Arab nationals turned into experts of Lebanese politics”).

Now away from Lebanon; the Iranian Nuclear Standoff has gotten a fair amount of commentary from the Lebanese Bloggosphere. This is mainly because of Lebanon’s Hezbollah connection with Iran.

The Lebanese Political Journal denounced The Daily Star, Lebanon’s main English newspaper, for setting up a moral equivalence between the US and Iran. The Star had opined: “there is absolutely no hard evidence that Iran is guilty of violating its international obligations”, to which Lebanon.Profile responded:

There doesn't need to be core evidence of Iran developing a nuclear weapons program (although there is minor “evidence” coming from the IAEA) when all of the major leaders in Iran continuously claim they have a “right” to nuclear weapons. If they have a “right” to possess bombs to destroy the world, the world has the “right” to the Iranian regime building those weapons.

Mustapha in The Beirut Spring (your author) wrote about the Sunni-Shiaa conflict in the region.

Abu-Kais in From Beirut To the Beltway, brought up Iraqi’s Ayatollah Sistani’s calls to disarm the militias, since weapons should belong to the Government. Abu-Kais noted that this is exactly what the Lebanese have always asked from Hezbollah to do.

Lebanon.Profile sought to build bridges with the Israeli Bloggosphere. Of the different Israeli blogs he investigated, he speaks fondly of Israeli bloggers like Lisa Goldman (who is also Global Voices’ Israel Author) and advices the Lebanese to be more aware of “them” (the Israelis):

Not knowing about “them” is the worst crime we can commit. It invalidates them as humans, as if they don't even matter. They are Stalin's faceless enemy, the rabid dog, the evil blood suckers whom it is righteous to kill. Our papers definitely need to start covering more than major political events in Israel. We should remember their tragedies. ‘They” already have a massive internal debate going on about the Palestinians, the war in Lebanon, and the wall.

Finally, In the same objection to the “Us” versus “them” mentality, The Perpetual Refugee speaks of how the reactions of his Egyptian and Israeli colleagues to the Dahab bombings are racially or politically motivated, with complete disregard to the humanitarian aspect of the matter: 23 people have died:

Mothers, fathers, brothers, religious, secular, children. People on vacation. People making a living… Not Germans. Not Americans. Not Egyptians. People.

Delirious writes on The Lebanese Blogger Forum:

When I think about the war, I feel as though it was always there, lurking in the shadows hand in hand with death and destruction. I was born to the lullaby of shells falling everywhere, and raised according to a simple Pavlovian principle: the moment your parents tell you to run to the shelter, even if it's in the middle of the night, you run, no questions asked

Jamal From Jamal’s Propaganda Site gives us various tidbits from his experience of the war:

I remember my parents not being able to go to my school because they feared for their lifes. My school was 10 minutes from home yet people there were of a different…. species, Nope,….. race, nah, ……. nationality, definitely not ……. religion, not necessarily, …….Sect , that's what it was.

Kais in Beirut To The Beltway gives us an account of the most terrible event he didn’t see:

Growing up I saw many horrors. But it was one that I didn’t see that stuck in my mind. When one day in 1982 we decided nowhere in Lebanon was safe anymore, we took a taxi to Damascus with the intention to fly to Paris. This was early August and “Christians” and “Druze” were massacring each other in the mountains. Our smoky taxi took us up and down the narrow and frightening Karameh road and passed through a ravaged Christian village. My father ordered me not to look, so I hid my head in my mother’s lap but I could hear the awfulness of what they saw: Mutilated corpses dug up from graveyards were put on display on rooftops, declaring to the world their guilt of being Christian in Lebanon.

Omega80 from The Blog of The Free Patriotic Movement offers further anecdotes:

I saw my mother crying at home one day, and my father trying to console her. The next day my father, sister, and I dropped her off at the airport, only then getting an explanation from my father on the way home that she had to go to Lebanon for a few days because my uncle was sick and she needed to help take care of him. It was only years later that I found out he had been kidnapped by a certain militia whose head is now currently in the Lebanese government

The Lebanese are bent on forgetting the bad old days and are trying to make a difference. Fortunately, it seems they haven’t lost their resilience: After giving up writing about politics for a while, Doha, from The Lebanese Bloggers has decided that she will continue to write to be able to make a difference to the life of her 20-year old brother, Abboudi.

First, Desmond from A View From A Bar Stool In Beirut gives us an idea on why the Lebanese bloggers are sick and tired of politics:

I seem to have lost interest in any headline or supposed news story - maybe it's just that there is absolutely nothing happening or I'm feeling thoroughly marginalized by the Olympian level of inertia practiced by the ruling class of our fair state.

Another glimpse of desperation from Doha in The Lebanese Bloggers:

I wonder what all these politicians meeting for the n-teenth time around a round table dubbed a national dialogue do for a living. Really? Have we ever asked ourselves this question. They have so much spare time on them, so much time, to schedule a meeting after another that garners absolutely no tangible results.

No wonder everyone is looking elsewhere for more “fun” stuff. Take Jamal from Jamal’s Propaganda Site. He writes about the wild imagination and fickle character of Lebanese taxi drivers:

I rode with the improvisational poetry champion on “Almumayazoun”, another time I had a driver fall asleep at the wheel. Of course there is the regular fight on where the drop off point is. Also, always be ready for the indecisive driver who tells you to get in and then changes his mind half way to your destination and just tells you to get out.

Jamal also snipes at the Lebanese love for titles in a different post.

Lebanon.Profile from The Lebanese Political Journal has been particularly prolific this week. He wrote about how the Art and Architecture of Lebanese Jews should be better taken care of. He also writes two different posts on Homosexuals and the problems with the Lebanese media.

Letters Apart and Ur Shalim were both exploring linguistics. The former is at awe at the semantics displayed in a letter written from President Assad of Syria to Premiere Berri of Lebanon. The latter muses that the characters used in mobile phone messaging to transliterate Arabic into English are helping the old dream of an eccentric Lebanese poet come true.

Mustapha from The Beirut Spring (your author) read an article in The Economist about the lack of reading in Brazil and thinks he knows why: It’s because there’s so many Lebanese there.

Meanwhile, Kais from Beirut To The Beltway is still concerned with Politics. In a sarcastic post, he tells us why he thinks opposition leader Michel Aoun should not have his own Satellite TV station

This week however, we’re giving politics a break; thanks to Eve in Mysterious Eve, I’m going to translate some excerpts from the Arabic side of the Lebanese Blogosphere, which usually covers more personal stuff than its English counterpart.

Eve, in her trademark contemplative and poetic style, imagines a scenario where God and an angel are assigning the destinies of newborn children in this world.

Eve gives another example, then moves to her own life:

Other bloggers were busy writing about their parents. Sasmen writes a touching poem to his mother on Mothers’ Day, which occurs on March 21st in Lebanon.

Hilal from Nostalgia wrote a piece about a father who can’t let go of his daughter, only to inspire Rat to write a letter to her father who passed away last year. Rat’s experience is unfortunately very common in our part of the world. Here’s an excerpt:

Of course, not all Lebanese entries in Arabic are personal. Some are still writing about, you guessed it, the National Dialogue.

Zadigvoltair from Beirut Notes opined:

Tensions in Lebanon will remain until the military and political defeat of either Iran or the US in the region. [..] It seems that Nietzche was referring to Lebanon when he said: “Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of man”.

The mainstream media also joined the frenzy of distrust and pinning culpability on politicians. Lebanon.Profile from Lebanese Political Journal and Mustapha from The Beirut Spring both noticed an article by an otherwise composed commentator thrashing one of the politicians. Lazarus from Letters Apart highlights the role of the media in sewing distrust among the various parties. He points to a photo one newspaper chose to publish, of US president George W. Bush giving an interview to a Lebanese TV Station. Lazarus noted that the picture is frozen at the exact moment where Mr. Bush was saying “Peace With Israel”, with its accompanying Arabic subtitle.

Raja from The Lebanese Bloggers thinks the Lebanese are Priming themselves. In other words the Lebanese are mentally preparing themselves to fight.

But Raja’s bleak forecast didn’t seem to rub much on other Lebanese bloggers, who are having a “life goes on” attitude. For instance, La La from Land La La posted three pictures that she thinks summarize what it means to be Lebanese.

Kais from Beirut To The Beltway is exploring the freedom to have no religion in Lebanon:

Because personal status matters are controlled by religious courts, intolerant parents can get away with placing legal and moral obstacles in the path of their children.

Jamal from Jamal's Propaganda Site decides to go to the movies but finds out that most of the Oscar nominees are censored:

3 of 5 Movies nominated for the Best picture Oscar will not be shown in Lebanese movie theaters.* One for Homophobia, one for Zionophobia, and one for Islamopyrophobia.

Ad-Libanaises, A blog where most female Lebanese bloggers contribute, wrote an “ode to femininity” on Women’s Day:

…a moment of respect. an ode to femininity. a time to reflect. a call for change. a thought, carefully treasured for you: my mothers, sisters, daughters, friends, virtual friends, working wives, household wives, grocery store ladies, scary childhood dentists, unloved teachers, strangers smiling at me in a crowded street … you, my “ordinary” women, makers of my history, who have shaped me into the woman I am today. To all of you, today I say: thank you.

One blogger, Moussa from Ur Shalim, posted on a very mundane subject that has nothing to do with the national dialogue, but is nevertheless very important: Teaching teachers a lesson.

That the meeting took place was hailed as an achievement by itself. Many point to the fact that it was the first such meeting to take place without foreign sponsorship. But the Lebanese bloggers are yet to be convinced. In fact, they have proven to be a very skeptical and cynical bunch.

Jamal, From Jamal’s Propaganda Site, started his post before the talks had even started with: “Here’s to a failed National Dialogue”. He wrote, in reference to the leaders: “The best thing that could possibly come out of these people is a truce”, and concludes cynically: “But it doesn't matter, unfortunately I think the dialogue will be successful, and we will be told that we can love each other again.”

Zadigvoltaire from Beirut Notes complained that “Even when they talk, the heart of Beirut stops”. He was referring to the draconic security measures that brought Beirut to a standstill.

Kais, from Beirut to the Beltway, sums up the Lebanese mood:

Lebanese are expecting the worst and hoping for the best today, as their leaders meet face-to-face for the first time in years to hash out differences over key national issues. There isn't a lot of optimism in the air, with commentators calling the conference the country's last shot at national reconciliation.

Doha from The Lebanese Bloggers, writes about the high stakes at the meeting:

..if this meeting fails, it will be even more depressing to see that perhaps Lebanon as a country, as a nation, is a failed idea

The heightened drama and cynicism have pushed other bloggers to take a humorous approach. Kais posted a photo commentary on the pictures taken inside the meeting, while Mustapha (your author) and Jamal posted mock dialogues and unanswered questions respectively. Lazarus from Letters Apart compared the event to scenes from The Godfather.

The meetings are still taking place and everyone is waiting for the results. French Eagle sums it up best (French): “While we’re waiting for the results of this national dialogue, there’s nothing to say.”

Today, a prominent anti-Syrian politician and Journalist was killed in a car-bomb explosion in Beirut.

The Lebanese bloggers were quick to show their disgust, shock and fury.
Rampurple explains what Gebran Tueni meant to her:

Gebran Tueni was the person who gave me hope through his editorials, through his interviews, and through his speeches. He did not lead a political party, he wanted the youth of Lebanon to get out of the ancient structure of Lebanese political structure and to think on their own. He did not want the Lebanese youth to follow warlords but to be united… just like they were on March 14th, Christians, Muslims, and Druze all united for the cause of Lebanon.

Lebanon.Profile from Lebanese Political Journal writes an obituary of the man and thinks he knows why he was killed today:

That Tueni was targeted is not surprising. However, the timing of the attack does draw attention. The UN Commission just turned in their report on the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq al Hariri. The report is due to be made public soon.

Raja and Doha from The Lebanese Bloggers are both very upset. Raja shouts: “The Damn Syrians! DAMN SYRIANS!!!! They don't know how to do anything else.”. Doha is rather mellow:

Another lamb slaughtered before the altar of Lebanon's bloody path to freedom and liberty from servitude. Another one leaves us, another martyr, another set of tears and sorrow.

Desmond from A View From A Bar Stool In Beirut concludes eerily:

It seems that the attackers feel they have nothing to lose and that only spells disaster for Lebanon

Needless to say, the Lebanese Bloggers cried foul. Hani from The Lebanese Bloggers called it a “feeble attempts at dividing the Lebanese people whilst they (the Syrians) crumble”. Kais from Beirut To The Beltway called it a “stunt” and said it was a part of a “smear campaign”:

In another effort to discredit the investigation, the Syrian regime, still stuck at Mehlis’ interim report, has been waging a crusade to undermine the witnesses mentioned in the report. Unfortunately for the regime, the investigation has moved beyond the interim report and this latest stunt will not derail it. The suspects are on the way to Vienna and we still have a long way to go.

Kais didn’t let go of the issue. He wrote several posts throughout the week on the matter, but at the end, he concluded with obvious relief: “the investigation was not hurt.”
Many theories about the Husam saga have been tossed around. What they all have in common is their deep skepticism of his motivations. This was Raja’s (from The Lebanese Bloggers) hypothesis:

It is clear, that in return for giving up Syrian officers for questioning, the Syrian regime is trying to bolster its position in its public's eyes…or else, such yielding of power and “sovereignty” would lead to disastrous outcomes on the Syrian streets.

Mustapha from The Beirut Spring however sees the Husam saga as an aberration. In fact, he argued, things are going for the better:

Forget that clown Hossam for a moment; if you look at the Lebanese scene in the last few days, you can’t avoid the feeling that things are not looking as hopeless as they used to.

Pessimism/Hezbollah:

Mustapha’s optimism didn’t convince too much people; many were disheartened by what they saw as targeting the Mehlis investigation. A sense of despair poked its head on the Blogosphere with headlines like: A Pessimistic Take and The Lost Moral Compass. What added more to that despair was Hezbollah’s intransigence on the international tribunal; the Party of God seems bent on sabotaging plans for such a tribunal, prompting yet another angry round of posts on Hezbollah. Kais went to the extent of comparing them to the Iranian Basij:

In the 1990s we were asked to view them [Hezbollah] solely through the resistance prism. Nobody paid attention to what Hizbullah was creating in the towns it controlled: a mini-Islamic order. This isn't freedom of religion, this is oppression of an extremely moldable community with a history of persecution and neglect by the government and its self-appointed leaders. Hizbullah found it easy to fill the vacuum in those areas and lure some of the disenchanted youth into its ranks (I should add Hizbullah was very “generous”, thanks to Iranian funding).

Lazarus in Letters Apart, wrote extensively about the Shebaa Farms, which is one of the reasons why Hezbollah says it needs to keep its arms.

Miscellaneous

Some other Lebanese bloggers think (rightly) that other issues are worth pointing out as well. On World AIDS Day, Moussa from Ur-Shalim raises the issue of HIV awareness in Lebanon and says that more should be done about it because “HIV patients are discriminated against at work at in the society, so some simply do not seek help, preventing them from having access to health care”

In the same spirit, La La from La La Land asks her readers to Help educate children with brain injuries.

Lebanon.Profile from Lebanese Political Journal also rest politics aside to write about the “positive news:” The brisk pace of re-construction in Lebanon.

It shows the Prime Minister planting a fatherly kiss on May Chidiac's forehead. May Chidiac is the Journalist who lost a foot and an arm in a terrorist car bomb.

To Anton, this kiss symbolizes the story of Lebanon: a country that throughout its history, survived by countering devastating acts of violence and adversity with great compassion.

The Lebanese have a strange relationship with their country. Most of them leave to find opportunity somewhere else, they complain constantly of its wrongs, they are very vocal of its shortcomings and have built a reputation worldwide for self-hate. Yet at the same time, they all harbor an unbridled sense of belonging, a sense of passion for their motherland, an optimism that one day, the sun of the land of the Cedars will rise again.

It is this paradox that defines what it truly means to be Lebanese, and it is in this context that we have to look at the Lebanese Blogosphere.

My name is Mustapha, and I'll be writing about the Lebanese side of the Blogosphere for the Global Voices project. I'll try every week to summarize what various Lebanese Bloggers are writing, but today, please allow me to introduce you to a lovely bunch: The Lebanon Bloggers.

What makes someone a Lebanon blogger?

Some Lebanese only write about their personal lives, but deserve the title for the cheer fact of them being Lebanese. Take Lala for instance, she wrote yesterday about how upset she is that her best friend is devoting her entire time to her boyfriend. If Lala didn't occasionally mention her Lebanese heritage, you couldn't possibly tell from her blog that she's Lebanese. The same can be said of Opinion From Bloggistan, or The Suffragettes.

Some bloggers lay claim to the title not because they're Lebanese, but because they write about Lebanon. One example is Micheal Totten, an American who lives in and writes about Lebanon. Another is Unfrozen-Caveman-Linguist (UCL), author of Bliss Street Journal. UCL is also an American who lived for a while in Lebanon, but who still blogs about it even after he left.

There are many Lebanon Bloggers out there, and thanks to the great effort of people like Eve, Rampurple, Delirious, Liminal, Tempest, Maldolor, Ramzi and others, they can be found in Lebanon Heart Blogs, a blog about the Lebanon bloggers.
But For the Purpose of the Global Voices project, I found it useful to introduce the bloggers who post regular commentary about current affairs. I already mentioned Anton Efendi, who writes in Across The Bay, a rather highbrow blog that sees current events as the manifestation of Machiavellian machinations of the political class.

Across The Bay has been around for a while, but a significant chunk of blogs came to light right after the colossal Assassination of Rafic Hariri, Lebanon's previous Prime Minister, and the ensuing “Cedar Revolution”. Those bloggers sometimes like to call themselves the March 14 bloggers, in reference to the day where the Lebanese from all sects and regions stood together to ask for The Truth and for the Syrians to leave.

Raja and Doha from The Lebanese Bloggers, Lebanon.profile from Lebanese Political Journal, and Mustapha from The Beirut Spring (yours truly), started their blogs right after the Hariri Assassination.
This is how The Lebanese Bloggers explain the raison-d'etre of their blog:

This blog was created to honor the memory of heroes of all the Lebanese sects who were assassinated for their patriotic stands…. May God bless their souls and bless Lebanon.

Other bloggers immediately followed. While they don't see eye to eye on some issues, they write with obvious passion and strong wit. Kais author of From Beirut To The Beltway, Carine from Chercheuse D'or, Vox from The Federal Republic of Lebanon (who also writes in French), Ramzi from Ramzi’s Blah Blah, Jose Wales from Lebanonesque, Maya in her space and Abu Takla all have their distinctive personalities and styles.

Those and many more constitute the wonderful world of the Lebanon Bloggers. You will hopefully hear from them all soon.

The elections are important because they’re like mini-general elections. The same parties compete and similar alliances are at work. Which brings us to why they are important: they can actually predict the trends in Lebanese public opinion.

The convoluted dynamics and confusing alliances shocked and fascinated many Lebanese bloggers, who tried to come up with theories on why the opposition movement lead by MP Michel Aoun triumphed:

Lebanon.Profile from The Lebanese Political Journal writes:

Michel Aoun and the Free Patriotic Movement have become the alternative to Lebanese politics as usual. Support for Aoun is support for change. Regardless of what kind of change that is, he's a new face.

He then went further into analyzing the Aoun phenomenon and concludes:

Aoun is the single most powerful politician in Lebanon and offers the potential for social change.

Raja from The Lebanese bloggers suggests:

It has become clear that there is a divide between the political (party) leadership in Lebanon and the people, the followers of these political parties.

Mustapha in The Beirut Spring proposes looking to the elections from an economic angle:

this is not a battle between the Pro-Syrians and the Anti Syrians, This is very much a battle between the proletariat and the bourgeois, the people versus the elite, the left versus the right, the Socialists versus the Conservatives

Anton Efendi from Across The Bay disagreed with Mustapha. He cautions against what he called “a quick and exclusive socio-economic diagnosis” and noted that “identities (sectarian, socio-economic, political…) in Lebanon often interlace”

Miscelaneous

The Lebanese blogger Arch Memory made it to Blogging Poet's “100 Blogging Poets” list,
and Kais is very happy that The Economist magazine considers Lebanon to be the Arab World's most sophisticated and liberal state.