Lebanon: Politics of Economy · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

The Lebanese blogosphere seems to be in a semi-lull this week. Nevertheless some bloggers reflected on topics such as the theory of evolution, the economical situation in Lebanon and the execution of Iraq’s ex-president.
Omar does not believe Darwin’s theory of evolution. He discusses natural selection, fossil records, hominid theory and his faith to explain the reasons why.
Anarchorev, at Blogging the Middle East, posts a photo of Jews celebrating Bar Mitzvah at Magen Abraham Synagogue in Beirut.
And check out Ibn Bint Jbeil’s attempt at a bi-lingual poem (English and Arabic).
Now away from science, photos and poetry and back to war, economics and politics.
A special eulogy dedicated to the ex-president of Iraq titled “Saddam Died Beautiful” is posted at The Middle East Memo.
The Lebanese government is preparing for a conference in Paris, called Paris III, with the goal of getting financial aid for Lebanon. Remarkz is among the blogs posting about this topic.
Marxist From Lebanon also discusses the Paris III conference, criticizing both the government and the opposition for their positions towards such conferences and the financial and political obligations attached:
The “opposition” and the “government” reached a stalemate. The Seniora government is proceeding with Rafiq Harriri's grand plan which is to integrate Lebanon to the World Trade Organization. …Seniora is using the conference … to by-pass the “opposition” and place Lebanon at the mercy of the transnational corporations and the US administration.
The Opposition is angry not because of the concept of 100% free market and US imperialism; on the contrary… What Seniora's move made the “opposition” angry is that they will not [get] a juicy share of the cake.
Anecdotes from a Banana Republic criticizes the aggressive nature of the pro-government “I Love Life” campaign:
I nearly had a violent altercation with some of the life-loving elves who were blocking my path in Achrafiye. They offered me a pamphlet, which I politely refused. They persisted. I told them that I find the whole campaign sickening. Within seconds a mob of rabid elves descended upon me, accusing me of loving death and being a Hezbollah sympathizer. It felt like some sick twist on the “Night before Christmas” story.
Michael Totten at Middle East Journal starts his first part of a series of articles of his journey through South Lebanon after the July war to survey the devastation, to check in on the United Nations peacekeeping force, and to talk to the civilians
Jeha’s Nail has a very dark yet interesting description of the system by which Lebanon is ran:
Our system is such that the country is run like a (short term) for-profit business by whoever controls Beirut. Those people happen to be “commissionaires”; with their focus on “short-term” profits, they are no “real” businessman in this sense. Even the great Rafic Hariri was essentially a “deal maker”. No one who “produces” anything “real” can hope to make much headway in Lebanon.
And finally for this week, Bob, who writes at Bob's Blog, believes that the demonstrations staged by the opposition in Beirut are starting to lose momentum:
I think the opposition is losing steam. People no longer believe that demonstrations and protests can achieve anything positive. On the contrary, they are starting to feel their negative effects.