Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Why I hate Lebanon: let me count the ways

I of course detest the very idea of Lebanon and I have always been of the opinion that the entity should be dissolved in a larger one. Think about it: if there is a decent Syrian regime (once this regime is overthrown), there can be a nice larger entity there, and Lebanon will cease being the twin-sister of Zionism in the Arab East. But what bothers me about the Lebanese national idea is this obsession with pleasing and appeasing the White Man, and the need to prove one's credential as a "misplaced European in the dessert." So the New York Times magazine carried a paid advertisement from Lebanese banks, and what was the title of the supplement? "Lebanon: leading with sophistication." It should have been: Lebanon: leading nowhere, and misleading everywhere. Or Lebanon: leading with nothing. Absolutely nothing, unless you count the skills of savagery in the Lebanese civil war.