I can't believe my eyes!!! Are these scenes from last year? Could this be true?
Hundreds of thousands in Martyr's Square/Freedom Square; tens of buses still flocking from all sides of Lebanon. And yes, Achrafieh is there, taking part in this commemoration!
We're alive; we have not been defeated. The Lebanese people's will has not been broken.
Jumblatt is there. Geagea is there. Saad Hariri is there...
I wish I was one with this glorious crowd, raising a Lebanese flag. Alas, I'm thousands of miles away. My heart is in Beirut today.
It's been a year since Rafiq Hariri was brutally killed, since Bassil Fleihan left us, since Lebanon seized to become what it was for 30 years long.
3asha Loubnan!
"Nobody knows how many rebellions, besides political rebellions, ferment in the masses of life which people earth."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
22 comments:
compared to last year, to hariri's funeral and to the 14 of march, there are 500 000 persons missing,
u re damn right about it vox
on my side i would say the future defintly lost their dynamic of mobilisating their christian part.
frenchaounist,
I know you weren't expecting such a turnout for today's event, and that now you are busy looking for all kinds of links in foreign press (because we lebanese are more impressed by foreign stuff) to show that there weren't one million people. But so what? It still is significantly larger than Aoun's comeback party and not that smaller than March 14. There also was a very strong participationg from the part of the LF. I understand how you must feel today, seeing that aounists claim they are 75% of March 14 (while the others are March 14 #2) and they represent 90% of the Christians (I don't know where they come up with these numbers. Must be some weird aouni calculators they are using); and of course today you were proved wrong. Cheer up, you could always try to get back at us on March 8..
@ anonymous
the LF movement is not really representing the christians, they are a minority that makes a huge noise to appear to be a majority.
still u re claiming i m a aounist, u re making me honored as far i m not having anything in common with the liers and what is remaining from the 14 of march that i believed to one year ago.
i love that most of the blind followers of the erroded 14 of march movement are saying that if u re not with us, therefore u re against us.
this simplicity of though is just showing the simplicity of their mind, they dont understand there are others ways, they just turning to dictate what we can think and they are not better then the those who supported the syrian occupation during 15 years.
joujou, gaga , hariri even collaborated with the syrians for 15 years i m having nothing in common with the collaborators and the traitors they were
they were just smart enough to see that the american intervention in iraq was changing the equilibrium in the middle east. hariri got killed and it only accelerated the processus but the processus was already here.
we had all together a convergency of interest one year ago, but this convergency now ended, lebanon doesnt face syria as being the biggest threat but that international islamism and i believe that rafic hariri as he was having a mind would have been seeing it.
the actual leaders are pushing toward now the syrians as they are not able to cope with the actual challenges of what the situation needs
if u re telling me i m a aounist, it is not because i m blindly following him but bcz i m seeing him taking in consideration other parameters that are right now important to be understood and adopting a strategy toward theses parameters
the blinded partisans of the LF do not see.
i m not judging emotionally like you but i m judging through facts and forecasts we lake usualy to most of the people emotionally leaded by leaders
regards
I love it when I hear aounists claiming others are blind.
I love it when I hear aounists claiming that Aoun's 15 years in Paris were heroic when all the heroic patriotic resistance was done by aounists in Lebanon.
Aoun shot himself in the foot by boycotting today's solidarity.
As for aounists, you were missed.
But if you honestly claim you felt no urge in yourself to attend today, you must be more far gone than I thought...
the real day of celebration should have been the 28 of april, date by which the last syrian soldier left lebanon
it was a one sided political commemoration today and not a solidarity day anyway
just focus on facts ramzi , facts only
yeah dude you're right. Ja3ja3 was a syrian puppet while in Jail. And it's so easy to be a vocal anti-syrian when you spend your days in Paris Cafes, but the other people you mentionned (along with their bases) didn't have this luxury as they were in Lebanon under the syrian boot. I bet you've never been to muslim areas in Lebanon under the syrian occupation, and you have no idea that syrian mukhabarat offices were more numerous than lebanese police stations in west beirut, and how even a student who wanted to enter a select faculty of the Lebanese University (such as the faculties of medecine or pharmacy) in muslim areas had to kiss ass to some syrian or pro-syrian lebanese mukhabarat officer. You have no idea what it meant for a muslim (shia, sunni or druze) to even hint at their refusal of the syrian "role" in Lebanon (you can ask Kamal Jumblatt, Sheikh Sobhi al saleh, Mufti Hassan Khaled and finally Rafic Hariri to get an idea). It's so easy for expat idealists to come lecture us on facing challenges or resisting the occupation, but doing it under the occupation (while being muslim) is a totally different ball game. And btw, your dear general always refused to return to Lebanon before the syrians left, even after hariri invited him in 2001 and gave him guarantees. Why was that? Is he better than the millions of people living under the syrian occupation or the thousands of his aouni students who were getting their ass kicked by Michel el Murr's thugs? You should read the testimony of the aounists who were arrested on august 7 2001 to see how the few muslims amongst them were beaten and treated many times worse than christians because it was forbidden for muslims to be anti-syrian, while they left the christians a small marge de manoeuvre in order to portray the demands for their departure as a purely christian idea while muslims supported them (which is in fact complete nonsense as muslims were much more affected in their day-to-day lives by syrians).
Do not lecture people on things you did not live and have no idea how they were. While you might not be a aounist, you have this holier-than-thou aounist attitude where you sit on an ivory tower and look down on the rest of the people. Get this straight: Aoun is no better than the rest of the politicians, his reckless wars cost thousands of innocent civilians their lives (both in east and west beirut) and billions of dollars in damage. They also lead to a total take-over of the lebanese political system by the syrians after they occupied the baabda palace. He still hasen't explained what happened to the millions of dollars in donations he received while he was in baabda. He uses cheap sectarian tactics and expressions (such as calling the future movement "hamaj" and the March 14 christians "zimmiyin") and generally insulting words (like when he said to a group of aouni students that your opponents "ma byousalo la jazmikton"). He is only free of public corruption because he hasen't been in office for the last 15 years, and thus had no opportunity to be corrupt (or stay clean for that matter). He is only clean by default.
Aoun and his movement are just as lebanese as any other party and share the same defects as others; they're not a super-democratic and super-secular race imported from Scandinavia who is fundamentally different than the rest of us.
@ anonymous
i m in lebanon dude, so from the beginning u re just damn wrong ;)
tell me why hariri didnt ask the syrian withdrawal while he was in the governement
u have to learn to think not only lebanon and globalising lebanon in the whole region, by doing that u would understand how the politicians are playing.
trust me get a global picture and think again
DUde, you just dont get don't you??? It was FORBIDDEN for a muslim to be anti-syrian!!!! Allo those who tried were killed, and the last victim was hariri himself !!! re-read what I posted, it seems you can't read for sh*t!!
and dont forget when it comes to appreciate this image to put ur heart aside and to think with your brain
it s really nice to be emotionally attracted to someone but being attracted makes u making mistakes when it comes to impartial analysis of the situations.
just to remind u one thing, the program of the LF for the moment is to run after the money, to get their war treasury back but they dont ve the will of transforming themselves into a political party as if they do so geagea would loose a direct control of the money due to legal issues. Aoun about the donations is willing to make that step
if aoun is commiting today a mistake is it because he s not a politician, he doesnt explain that the current issue is not about the current syrian regim but about the possibilities to have an islamic republic in syria, he seems to follow a strategy, not to prevent this to happen but to protect lebanon against the impact of such regime on lebanon. here comes the key to understand him. if u re globalising the picture u re able to see that threat.
we have here to understand short term objectives, medium and long term objectives.
when u re not seeing that threat , connected to the current regional situation, i m seeing that ur appartenance to one side makes u not able to understand the current game
try always as well to understand not only ur ennemy but as well your friends
and to end this comment
u re making me remembering of the subject in philosophy i got in 95
should the public opinion rule a country.
i developped that the public opinion will always choose short term interest and not taking in account long term interests of a country, i added that we need public opinion but we need politics that are explaining what are the games that are played, for this opinion to be enlighted.
aoun failed to explain even if he s having a strategy but the others failed to see the threats, to react to the threat.
"It was FORBIDDEN for a muslim to be anti-syrian!!!!"
i didnt say so, i was wondering why hariri accepted for 15 years the syrian occupation, like joumblatt to turn after to be anti syrian.
my answer is that the equilibrium of the forces turned to be against the syrians after the american war in iraq, which explains that hariri was smart enough to turn his back from them.
"It was forbidden for a Muslim to be anti-syrian"
Did you read that in the Quran or something? I must have missed that part. Was it just after the Pork and Wine bit?
Ooh Ooh let's add it:
And the good Lord Spake: "Thou, who will dwell by the name Muslim, shall not be anti-syrian, lest thou threefold cursed be, untill the morrow of the day that the great Martyr (TM) shedeth his blood, that thou , his fellow brethern may chase the darkness from thine heart, and anti-syrianism shall flow, pure as the springs of the Heavens"
Comte Almaviva, (aka. Dr Vic)
Very poetic. Also very insulting, vulgar, bigoted and rank with hypocrisy.
Hariri killed for trying to get Syria out, and you're still not satisfied. You mock his supporters' resistance to Syria, unaware that without that there would have been no Syrian withdrawl. And to add insult to injury, you make it a 'muslim' thing.
I recall muslims like Kamal Jumblatt killed because they refused Syria's entry into Lebanon, invited by.... hmmm. Ah yes. Maybe now you remember.
read well I was responding to this statement:
"It was forbidden for a Muslim to be anti-syrian"
If you're not able to tell the difference in style and diction between what I write and what others write, then I'm sorry for that.
But if you can't see the differences in ideas, then that is due to the paintbrush that so many people love to use, to paint everyone who disagrees with them with the same colour.
comte,
I believe ramzi was trying to allude to the fact that throughout the occupation the Syrians' number-one priority was to isolate opposition to the Maronite community.
They knew that once the opposition to their presense overflowed from the Maronites to the other sects their time would be up.
That logic is the rationale of Ramzi's claim that "Muslims were absolutly forbidden" from opposing the Syrian presense. Once a muslim head rose from the crowd, it was immediately cut off - so to speak - in order to prevent the entire population from rising.
I guess what the Syrians didn't figure out was that when they cut Rafik el Hariri's head, the entire population would not continue to cower under their thumb, but rise!
There... I've just restated platitudes for you... I hope you're happy!
:)
raja:
i answered to your question of the other post if u want to reply :)
Frencheagle,
Aoun tried to get Syria out in his own way and we all know what happened. Hariri wanted Syria out from the beginning, he however knew it was NOT possible then. In the meantime he was rebuilding the war torn country, in everyway,to put it back on the world map. (Don't you think his job would have been much easier without them?) He acted on getting them out when he thought the right time has come.
@ anonymous
u should see 2 movies made by the french and german arte about the lebanese war i m having,
"Aoun tried to get Syria out in his own way and we all know what happened"
of course aoun lost in 90,it was for but the point wasnt here , the point was to proove that a part of the population at that time was against the syrian occupation when everyone else was accepting it.
"Hariri wanted Syria out from the beginning"
he lead 5 government during 12 years of the 15 years after the war, he could have been declaring that the syrian have to go while he was the prime.
he didnt
"he was rebuilding the war torn country, in everyway,to put it back on the world map"
i think he commited several HUGE mistakes.
i dont mind having 100 billion dollars of debt if the return on investment is higher then the service of the debt.
first mistake and this is why by the way lahoud mandate was extended till 07, since in 07, lebanon would have to reembourse 5 billions of dollars they dont have.
Paris 2 saved lebanon the fisrt time but in france chirac was in power, in 2007 he would leave the office and sarkozy that was opposed to this deal might be in the office.
look to the central bank reserves, remove the foreign countries reserves, remove the foreign note required reserve from the central bank, they net reserv can be estimate to be around 1 to 1.5 billions, let say 2 max. lebanon is in bankrupcy from long time but they are not saying it. they can still swap but due to the country risk and the risk of failure we ll have more interest to pay.
per capita, if we re including the debt the governement has and the amount of money du to the hospital, due to the entrepreneu, the amount of money that for exemple the MEA is having toward the hospital etc.... we are not having 38 billions of dollars but maybe 45- 50 billions , which make us the highest debt/ per capita of the world.
however, the second mistake saved us to face the consequences of the first mistake. he pegged the lebanese pound (LP) to the dollars and not to a basket of foreign currencies that reflect the lebanese balance. he also and this is worldwide illegal forced the lebanese banks to deposit a required reserve on their foreign currencies. why illegal? because the central bank of a country cannot legaly oblige the bank to deposit the currency of another country, by doing so he removed the pressure of the lebanese point... for the moment , but due to the gap btw real exchange rate and nominal exchange rate we ll face a problem at one time of another (this is what happened in argentina by the way when the governement forced the dollars to have a certain value we saw the effect of the argentina crisis in 2001)
i dont know if u re hearing about the basel ratio etc.. and hearing how great they are in lebanon.
for me it s a bad news as long as if they are so high it is not a symbol of quality but a symbol of risk, showing that if the LP collapses, the financial sector would this time be severely damaged, nearly destroyed.
why groups like BNP, like citybank, like goldman and sach etc... do not buy lebanese bank if they were so efficient?
third mistake: he bet lebanon as a touristic country, but our situation on the map is clearly showing we are a risky country where any kind of threat would lead to a touristc season failure
he didnt rebuild the basement of the country, he just build a illusion as far if we re going to deeply analyse what is going on, how the things can turn to be etc...
we are not paying yet the price of the mistakes he commited on that point of view, but when it ll be time, it will be very bad for the country.
at the time of hariri we should have been privitising the telecom, we should have been a real exchange rate reflecting the real value of the LP.
the only advantage he got was to introduce the cell tech which was representing about 10% of the GDP, to rebuild downtown, and the global infrastructure, telecom even if he failed in the electrical sector.
but today this is more then 10 years ago, we need to build lebanon with today's instruments and not yesterday instruments. we need high speed internet, i m sorry but the DSL is a joke when u re considering only 3000 people would enjoy it in beirut in the first phases, that lebanon has only 3*45 mega/s of link to be connected worldwide. we are lacking of today's infrastructure because he missed to see what are today's need yesterday.
i was about to open a company that would have been employing around 50 persons, i was in contact with foreign companies to outsource their stuff here. Gosh DSL exists in philipine for about 5 years, madagascar has it. the deal wasnt done because we missed to offer such service.
we are not on the world map, we are aside of the world map otherwise dont you think that most of us would stay in this country instead of leaving?
i m not for anyone but i m judging the actions of the people from another point of view, i like to critize everything till i m clearly seeing what was hidden to most of us.
if u re saying to be it something is white, i would tell u it s blue for ex, till u re prooving me it s white or til u re discovering by yourself it s gray.
let me tell u one last thing, 6 years ago i was working for the weekly of a well know organisation, dealing with confidendial datas etc.. and aside writing articles for that weekly, many of the articles were refused:
they were true, they were exposing forecasts but due to the structure of shareholders they were not published.
since that day i m doubting of all the informations we read in lebanon, and today i m truefully do not believe in anything i m hearing as far as my sources are telling me things very different that what we re hearing in the lebanse media and theses sources are convergent.
i m just feeling there is something wrong
Ya french eagle:
just one question: have you ever lived in west beirut or tripoli for a significant amount of time? Msaytbeh and tari2 il jdideh were very more oppressive than frenchie East Beirut...
No it wasn't: That was a flat out lie. And I lived 10 meters from AlQiyada al Qitrayya la 7izb al Ba3th.
anonymous
one question back
still living on illusion?
wait for the time when we all going to pay "hariri's dreams"
again just few things, some stuff about the beginning of the 80's
did u got your father wounded by a syrian bomb beginning of the 80's, did u believe for about 5 years that your father was dead as they announced it on the radio, as 17 persons were killed around him and that the bomb was just under his car?
did u need bodyguards because your dad saved the life of someone that person didnt like that during this process he lost a leg?
did u need to be sent in a safe place because your dad was the surgeon of an important leader and at that time one pro syrian leader and one pro leader made an alliance to get ride of that leader?
and i have more stories like that if you wish
sorry but i think after all that u would prefer your childhood then mine.
but with all that i prefer to think with my brain then my heart
i prefer reality then illusion, pragmatism.
correction :
*at that time one pro syrian leader and one pro leader israelian made an alliance to get ride of that leader*
Post a Comment