Red state/Blue state... Lebanese style
A country on a verge of a crucial election is divided into two very vocal opposing camps...
Both these camps organize large rallies... both camps are deeply distrustful of each other, both are very self-righteous, both accuse the other of being less nationalistic, both are very resourceful and both believe they're the majority... the rhetoric at both sides is virulent, and they both see nothing less than the future of the whole country at stake...
The first camp is roughly composed of the young, educated, intellectual, the liberal and the media...
The second is roughly made of large interest holders, religious conservatives, illiterates, traditionalists, older people, and gun holders...
Third parties, alarmed at the unprecedented level of partisanship, are trying to form, but their following is scant and negligible...
No, I'm not talking about America before the November 2004 elections, this is very much Beirut Yesterday.
Welcome to our own culture war American-style...
When Hassan Nassrallah of Hizbullah took to the podium yesterday, hundreds of thousands of crowds listened and cheered...
'Puppets!' screamed the opposition; 'traitors' answered the loyalists...
All this is scary stuff, but the Lebanese, like the Americans before them, need to remember that Democracy is a mess, and no matter how much we try to question the legitimacy of the other, both camps do exist and have support on the street.
So I propose that people start looking to the positive side of the story:
Both parties made peaceful demonstrations, both parties predominantly held the Lebanese Flag, and both parties are showing cautious trust towards each other (albeit marred by populist offensive comments every now and then).
My fellow bloggers should be screaming foul by now (we are the liberal media after all). They would say that I couldn't possibly put the Syrian stooges and the Nationalists on the same moral level...
To that I have an answer: Remember how The Europeans could not even imagine that George W. Bush had people that would actually vote for him? They thought no sane person would possibly vote for that war-mongering, superficial polluter, but yet, the American voters proved them wrong.
What I'm trying to say is that we should waste less energy on panicking and questioning intentions, and more on trying to secure a free and fair election next spring... The Syrians should withdraw fully and we should have international observers for the elections, but, that having happened, we should not, under any circumstances refuse the results...
As for you Mr. Nasrallah, don't be too smug; you have much more in common with George W. Bush than you'd like to think.
(This opinion piece also appears on The Beirut Spring )
Both these camps organize large rallies... both camps are deeply distrustful of each other, both are very self-righteous, both accuse the other of being less nationalistic, both are very resourceful and both believe they're the majority... the rhetoric at both sides is virulent, and they both see nothing less than the future of the whole country at stake...
The first camp is roughly composed of the young, educated, intellectual, the liberal and the media...
The second is roughly made of large interest holders, religious conservatives, illiterates, traditionalists, older people, and gun holders...
Third parties, alarmed at the unprecedented level of partisanship, are trying to form, but their following is scant and negligible...
No, I'm not talking about America before the November 2004 elections, this is very much Beirut Yesterday.
Welcome to our own culture war American-style...
When Hassan Nassrallah of Hizbullah took to the podium yesterday, hundreds of thousands of crowds listened and cheered...
'Puppets!' screamed the opposition; 'traitors' answered the loyalists...
All this is scary stuff, but the Lebanese, like the Americans before them, need to remember that Democracy is a mess, and no matter how much we try to question the legitimacy of the other, both camps do exist and have support on the street.
So I propose that people start looking to the positive side of the story:
Both parties made peaceful demonstrations, both parties predominantly held the Lebanese Flag, and both parties are showing cautious trust towards each other (albeit marred by populist offensive comments every now and then).
My fellow bloggers should be screaming foul by now (we are the liberal media after all). They would say that I couldn't possibly put the Syrian stooges and the Nationalists on the same moral level...
To that I have an answer: Remember how The Europeans could not even imagine that George W. Bush had people that would actually vote for him? They thought no sane person would possibly vote for that war-mongering, superficial polluter, but yet, the American voters proved them wrong.
What I'm trying to say is that we should waste less energy on panicking and questioning intentions, and more on trying to secure a free and fair election next spring... The Syrians should withdraw fully and we should have international observers for the elections, but, that having happened, we should not, under any circumstances refuse the results...
As for you Mr. Nasrallah, don't be too smug; you have much more in common with George W. Bush than you'd like to think.
(This opinion piece also appears on The Beirut Spring )
posted by Mustapha at 12:36 PM
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