Le Whore Lebnan

Walking the streets of Beirut in 2010, one would see a city full of glitz wealth and conspicuous consumption, apart from the odd shelled out derelict building ,who would suspect that 20 years prior Beirut and Lebanon was just coming out of a bloody and devastating civil war. The Philangist militants that once controlled the streets of Gemezeaya in East Beirut have been replaced by bright young things more focused on frittering away their wealth on the many pubs and clubs. Yet this picture of a new young,wealthy and confident Beirut and hence Lebanon is a misleading and conflicting one. Whilst the war ended 20 years ago, the wounds have not healed at all. the Lebanon of 2010, has much of the same foundational issues as that which created and sustained the bloody civil war. These foundational issues are based on the sectarianism that has been enshrined and sustained by a complicity of the the leaders of the 18 various sects supporting a system of power being divided amongst them, which in practise has paralysed the traditional modes of politics and governance, in the past this lead power and government to be dictated by the militias.

In 2010 The rules of the game remain the same but the appetite for war has diminished, much of the power politics in Lebanon is dictated by foreign powers such as Iran and Syriac through hezbollah, the U.S, Israel and Saudi Arabia(Saudi Arabia was the country who orchestrated the Doha agreement which brought Lebanon back from the brink of another potentially crippling war in 2008), when I was in Lebanon in the summer of 2009, a french traveller I met noted the analogy of Lebanon being like a cheap prostitute with its legs open to anyone, if anyone goes to Lebanon they will see the facade of wealth paid for by the vested interests of national backers like the U.S and Saudi Arabia, yet underneath this facade is all the disease that afflicts such as vice, like corruption and the continual state paralysis that threatens to plunge Lebanon into yet another needless war.

Until a new system of rules is proposed and adopted then Lebanon will continually be held hostage to its own weakness and the international community. Yet there is a glimmer of hope, ever since the withdrawal of Syrian troops in 2005, thier has been a new resurgence in civil society, it is these groups such as the Lebanese Transparency association, which will be the bastion of a new Lebanon, there very nature transcends the conflicting sectarian divisions by focusing on issues that unite all Lebanese citizens. In April this resurgent civil society has very openly started to flex its muscles by demonstrating in the heart of Beirut for an end to sectarianism. These civil society groups if they can unite and work together can truly put an end to the old ways and empower Lebanese society to promote the interests of all communities in Lebanon and create a great Democracy in the Middle East.