When Lebanon turned 100 in September 2020, very few Lebanese celebrated. Many of them realised that, for all intents and purposes, their country had more or less ended as a commonwealth of the country’s sectarian communities. What remains is a dysfunctional place in which any shared sense of national community appears to be dead.
That’s not surprising, and everyday events only reaffirm this. A delegation from the International Monetary Fund visited Beirut two weeks ago, and the general impression after they had left was that the members of Lebanon’s political and financial elite have no intention of implementing IMF reforms to address the financial collapse of 2019.
In pursuit of their personal or sectoral interests, this elite prefers to do nothing rather than adopt reforms that might save at least a portion of the deposits of a large number of Lebanese. An estimated 80 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line.
In other words, the minimal responsibility of the political and financial leadership, which is to work for the benefit of the country’s population, is utterly absent. Instead, leaders help only their communities, and almost always only in ways that enhance their power over them, while doing nothing that can revive Lebanon as a nation.
However, it would be naive to assume that financial and economic reforms are a panacea for Lebanon’s problems. What collapsed in October 2019 was much more than the country’s economy. It was an entire system of governance that had emerged from the civil war of 1975-1990. This system was effectively a transposition of the wartime order to a peacetime order in which former militia leaders captured the state.
Sectarian wartime leaders took over ministries and began profiting from post-war reconstruction. The impresario of this post-war order was Rafiq Hariri, who had the credibility and energy to attract foreign capital. His appointment was the consequence of an understanding between Saudi Arabia and Syria, in which Mr Hariri would manage the economy and reconstruction while Syria would run political affairs.
Syrian dominance led to two main developments: the systematic undermining of constitutional principles, as Lebanon’s basic law was violated time and again, or manipulated in such a way that it created precedents that were entirely at odds with the intentions of the framers of the constitution.
The minimal responsibility of the political and financial leadership is utterly absent
And second, Syria decided that Hezbollah and other pro-Syrian groups would not be disarmed as most militias had been, because they were engaged in “resistance” against Israel. This allowed Hezbollah to build up a weapons arsenal so that in 2005, after the withdrawal of Syrian forces, the party emerged as the dominant force in Lebanon, imposing its will on all and contributing to the demise of the sectarian social contract.
And lest we blame only the Lebanese for what happened, the post-war system was blessed by the international community and the Arab world, who gave Syria free rein to impose its preferences on the country. Lebanon’s abandonment to former gunmen and to a Syrian regime that devastated its national institutions was a collective crime.
The reality today is that the Lebanese system has run its course. The shocking wastefulness of the post-war years, in which the financial order was built around funding the political and financial elite, is dead. Society has lost all confidence in the banking sector, which continues to rob them on a daily basis. The former governor of the central bank, Riad Salameh, for so long praised as the guru of Lebanon’s financial success, was shown to be a grifter who only delayed and compounded the country’s ruin.
Despite all this, the post-war ruling class appears to have no proposal to take Lebanon out of its mess. Now that they cannot unite around collectively plundering the state, the politicians are more divided than ever, agreeing only that IMF reforms could weaken their position by changing their way of doing things and generating popular unrest.
It’s in that context that we must understand Lebanon’s inability to rally around a unifying figure they can elect to the presidency. Constitutionally, the president is the “symbol of the nation’s unity”, except that today the presidency is nothing more than the embodiment of Lebanon’s chronic absence of unity. Therefore, in being incapable of agreeing on a successor to Michel Aoun, the country’s political forces have sounded the death knell of the Second Republic, which followed the Taif Accord of 1989.
Lebanon finds itself in a destructive limbo today – caught between a system that doesn’t work and that is rejected by a majority of the population, but that is also remarkably resilient because most Lebanese remain, paradoxically, loyal to their sectarian leaderships. In light of this stalemate, the country’s dissolution is likely to continue, with no prospect of resurrecting the system on more solid, consensual foundations.
As the system pursues its decline, other dynamics are coming into play to make any revival all but impossible. Hezbollah is profiting from the vacuum at the level of the state to expand its margin of manoeuvre and advance Iranian regional interests, not least on the Palestinian front. Thousands of Syrians are entering Lebanon every day, escaping the dire economic conditions in Syria, further altering Lebanese demographics.
Such developments will only increase sectarian anxieties and tensions, pushing all communities to harden their position. Even the war years were not as bad as things are today. The Lebanon my generation knew is gone. What remains is a crippled country that does not even have the means to acknowledge its own passing.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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GOLF’S RAHMBO
- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
- 45 pro starts worldwide: 5 wins, 17 top 5s
- Ranked 551th in world on debut, now No 4 (was No 2 earlier this year)
- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
About Proto21
Date started: May 2018
Founder: Pir Arkam
Based: Dubai
Sector: Additive manufacturing (aka, 3D printing)
Staff: 18
Funding: Invested, supported and partnered by Joseph Group
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
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Company%20Profile
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Zayed Sustainability Prize
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The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
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The Specs:
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EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBERS
Estijaba – 8001717 – number to call to request coronavirus testing
Ministry of Health and Prevention – 80011111
Dubai Health Authority – 800342 – The number to book a free video or voice consultation with a doctor or connect to a local health centre
Emirates airline – 600555555
Etihad Airways – 600555666
Ambulance – 998
Knowledge and Human Development Authority – 8005432 ext. 4 for Covid-19 queries
About Karol Nawrocki
• Supports military aid for Ukraine, unlike other eurosceptic leaders, but he will oppose its membership in western alliances.
• A nationalist, his campaign slogan was Poland First. "Let's help others, but let's take care of our own citizens first," he said on social media in April.
• Cultivates tough-guy image, posting videos of himself at shooting ranges and in boxing rings.
• Met Donald Trump at the White House and received his backing.
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Key figures in the life of the fort
Sheikh Dhiyab bin Isa (ruled 1761-1793) Built Qasr Al Hosn as a watchtower to guard over the only freshwater well on Abu Dhabi island.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Dhiyab (ruled 1793-1816) Expanded the tower into a small fort and transferred his ruling place of residence from Liwa Oasis to the fort on the island.
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Shakhbut (ruled 1818-1833) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further as Abu Dhabi grew from a small village of palm huts to a town of more than 5,000 inhabitants.
Sheikh Khalifa bin Shakhbut (ruled 1833-1845) Repaired and fortified the fort.
Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoon (ruled 1845-1855) Turned Qasr Al Hosn into a strong two-storied structure.
Sheikh Zayed bin Khalifa (ruled 1855-1909) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further to reflect the emirate's increasing prominence.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan (ruled 1928-1966) Renovated and enlarged Qasr Al Hosn, adding a decorative arch and two new villas.
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan (ruled 1966-2004) Moved the royal residence to Al Manhal palace and kept his diwan at Qasr Al Hosn.
Sources: Jayanti Maitra, www.adach.ae
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Know your camel milk:
Flavour: Similar to goat’s milk, although less pungent. Vaguely sweet with a subtle, salty aftertaste.
Texture: Smooth and creamy, with a slightly thinner consistency than cow’s milk.
Use it: In your morning coffee, to add flavour to homemade ice cream and milk-heavy desserts, smoothies, spiced camel-milk hot chocolate.
Goes well with: chocolate and caramel, saffron, cardamom and cloves. Also works well with honey and dates.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
THE BIO
Ms Al Ameri likes the variety of her job, and the daily environmental challenges she is presented with.
Regular contact with wildlife is the most appealing part of her role at the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi.
She loves to explore new destinations and lives by her motto of being a voice in the world, and not an echo.
She is the youngest of three children, and has a brother and sister.
Her favourite book, Moby Dick by Herman Melville helped inspire her towards a career exploring the natural world.
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Everton 1 Stoke City 0
Everton (Rooney 45 1')
Man of the Match Phil Jagielka (Everton)
The six points:
1. Ministers should be in the field, instead of always at conferences
2. Foreign diplomacy must be left to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation
3. Emiratisation is a top priority that will have a renewed push behind it
4. The UAE's economy must continue to thrive and grow
5. Complaints from the public must be addressed, not avoided
6. Have hope for the future, what is yet to come is bigger and better than before
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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HAEMOGLOBIN DISORDERS EXPLAINED
Thalassaemia is part of a family of genetic conditions affecting the blood known as haemoglobin disorders.
Haemoglobin is a substance in the red blood cells that carries oxygen and a lack of it triggers anemia, leaving patients very weak, short of breath and pale.
The most severe type of the condition is typically inherited when both parents are carriers. Those patients often require regular blood transfusions - about 450 of the UAE's 2,000 thalassaemia patients - though frequent transfusions can lead to too much iron in the body and heart and liver problems.
The condition mainly affects people of Mediterranean, South Asian, South-East Asian and Middle Eastern origin. Saudi Arabia recorded 45,892 cases of carriers between 2004 and 2014.
A World Health Organisation study estimated that globally there are at least 950,000 'new carrier couples' every year and annually there are 1.33 million at-risk pregnancies.
Fixtures
Wednesday
4.15pm: Japan v Spain (Group A)
5.30pm: UAE v Italy (Group A)
6.45pm: Russia v Mexico (Group B)
8pm: Iran v Egypt (Group B)
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