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Thursday, February 01, 2007

Somethin's cookin

Seems like somethin's cookin... the rags have tuned it down a bit and the politicians have been tradin not so negative signals...

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

…but unfortunately it doesn’t mean the tabkha is ready.
After what happened last week, I think it’s normal for the politicians to reduce the tension a little bit and maybe try to avoid other street confrontations but we’re still too far from a political settlement. Not only the opposition doesn’t seem ready to compromise, but they keep raising the stakes making it even harder to find a solution in a country where political settlement = no winners, no losers.

JoseyWales said...

Thanks for linking me guys, but the link is not correct. Could you please fix it.

Regards

R said...

Oops. sorry about that... Fixed.

Blacksmith Jade said...

One of my biggest complaints about the political system in Lebanon is that all major decisions, and the negotiations surrounding them, seem to be taken in secret!

Drives me crazy, and stands as a direct contradiction to the principal of democracy and accountability.

Journalists and the general public seem to be all the happier to let the situation go on. All the while, politicians mobilize their masses in order to gain greater leverage at the negotiations table perhaps, and Lebanon's regular Joe's pay the price with their lives.

R said...

We are completely on the same page Jade, it completely sickens me as well. There is no accountability whatsoever in Lebnaon. How can there be any, when every judge, every officer and every ranking civil servant owes his job to the Client/Patron System...
Eventually the Patrons get to do as they please as long as they don't piss each other off too much... The only "accountability" we ever smell are the threats of opening "files".... truly pathetic.

Jeha said...

The "not so negative signals" could well be a prelude to war. The more they talk about the need to avoid "fitna", the more they are preparing for it.

R said...

Well.. I am not so sure... I am definitely not optimistic but the future seems less and less predictable as more and more regional and international factors come into play. What will go on between Syria and Iran Vs the US. How about the Saudi/Iran talks. While SYria and Iran might share the same goals in Lebanon they might differ on tactics. How will that reflect on the likes of Berri, Aoun and Hizbulla and on their alliance. How far are the international players willing to gamble with Lebanese stability to achieve minor points against each other in a bigger game? Too many factors and too much secrecy to make a solid prediction... But I would say that I am somewhere between you and Ghassan Karam in terms of inevitibality of a crappy future....