Lebanon... a true backwater!

There are two visions of Lebanon from an academic perspective. The first, the vision which Lebanese themselves prefer, is a Lebanon that leads the world as an example of inter-faith and inter-sectarian coexistence. An existence where all sects have a say in the country's affairs, and no one sect suffers from persecution. The other vision of Lebanon though, is one that the proud Lebanese cannot bring themselves to accept.

Lebanon, in this case, is a backwater. It is a backwater of a lot of things, but most importantly, it is a backwater of ideas. Whereas the real capitals of this earth churn out ideas and innovations, sleepy Beirut sits there and waits for the scraps. The even bigger problem is that by the time we get the scraps of one idea, the world has already moved on to the next one.

• Nationalism first became a fad in the late 19th century and early 20th century, but in Lebanon and the Middle East it took off in the fifties and sixties as Arab Nationalism
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• Fascism became a fad in the nineteen twenties and flowered in the thirties, only to hit Lebanon in the post-independence era up until the civil war.
  
  
• Had it not been for the Soviet Union, which outlived its natural life by twenty years or so (only because of oil exports which kept it financially viable), Socialism and Communism would have come and gone, while Lebanese struggled over its scraps during the civil war.

After so much experience collecting obsolete scraps from foreigners, you would think that Lebanese have learnt their lesson: (either keep up with the times, or come up with your own damn ideas). But No!!!!!!!!!!!! We insist on eating scraps!

Two days ago, Kais (owner of the blog From Beirut to the Beltway) posted an entry titled "Who is allowing Hizbullah to become Lebanon's Basij?" For those of you who do not know what the Basij is, it is a fundamentalist paramilitary organization in Iran that Kais explains very well in his entry (I also try to elaborate on its role in Iranian politics in one of my previous entries).

What really bothers me... in fact it tears me apart... is that just as the Iranians are breaking down the revolutionary regime, Hizballah is doing its best to replicate it in Lebanon. The Iranian revolution took place in 1979, and it is now taking place within certain segments of Lebanese society in 2006! What the hell?!?!?

Whereas Iranian heroes like the academic, Akbar Ganji, are cracking the legitimacy of the revolutionary regime in Iran from behind their jail cells, certain Lebanese fool themselves into thinking that their salvation lies in that very regime! Where is our Akbar Ganji? Why are we still stuck with Khomeini??? Haven't we learnt our lessons???