Note

If posts do not appear immediately, please wait for a few seconds. For some reason, the blog sometimes takes a while to load. Thanks!

On Other Blogs: From Beirut to the Beltway

On Other Blogs: Jeha"s Nail - مسمار جحا

On Other Blogs: Blacksmiths of Lebanon

On Other Blogs:The Beirut Spring

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Oh really ?

Here's a quote from Lebanese president Michel Sleiman.

نحن نتقاسم واوروبا القيم الانسانية المعاصرة ذاتها، كالديموقراطية والحرية واحترام حقوق الانسان، والعدالة والسلام. وقد تمسك لبنان دوماً بهذه القيم الاساسية، على رغم كل الظروف الصعبة التي مر بها


Translation:
We share with Europe the same contemporary human values like democracy and respect for human rights, justice and peace. Lebanon has always held on to these basic values despite all the tough times that it has been through.


Now lets not kid ourselves, there is nothing in our long civil war that respects justice, peace, human rights or democracy. There is nothing in the events of the recent coup that respects democracy, justice or peace. Lebanon has never held on to the principles of human rights, be they the rights of refugees, foreign laborers, sexual minorities, or any other group we are capable of oppressing. In fact, we have very little to be proud of in the way of our respect for either democracy, social justice, rule of law, or any of the contemporary values that we are supposed to share with the west.

We need to be honest with ourselves and admit that we have a problem in all those areas, and if the highest ranking official in Lebanon does not recognize that, or chooses to ignore all our problems and claim otherwise, then he is only exacerbating the situation. What we need from our officials is honesty, not empty rhetoric.

3 comments:

Marillionlb said...

And I have heard many wish for Suleiman to turn out to be another Fouad Chehab. People forget the increase of human right abuse when Chehab was in power.
Lebanese have (Since independence) no notion of "rule of law", this has always been a foreign concept to them.
I am sure that will have the chance to hear even more words of wisdom from the newly APPOINTED president.

Anonymous said...

K'mon give the President a brake, he has to go through so much, the Government steps all over him, and the opposition steps all over him. It's unfair for a newly elected president with such good intentions.

R said...

lol, courtfool... I am not one to judge people's intentions. I would rather judge the actions and words of public officials and I find presidential hyperbole heavy on my ear :).