Beirut and Dubai

Two Ex Lebanese money Ministers say Beirut should be more like Dubai.


When the then Prime Minister Najib Mikati formed his transitional technocrat government last year, he appointed Mr. Demianos Khattar to be his Minister of finance. This youngish, knowledgeable man with thick glasses appeared on a TV program today after a long absence from the public sphere. He was commenting on the current government’s performance and was criticizing Mr. Jihad Azour’s economic plan. The thing that caught my attention was what he said about the lack of creativity on the part of our government.
He said: (I’m paraphrasing)

Dubai has 19 free zones and Lebanon doesn’t even have one. Lebanese publishers and media companies are setting up businesses in those free Zones. I can’t see why the Lebanese government doesn’t create a media or publishing free zone with no taxes, no red tape, and high business incentives. In an age of cross-border services, why should our experts be working outside of their countries?

Mr. Khattar is not the only money-related Lebanese Minister who was asking for progressive economic action a la Dubai.
Mr. Nasser Saidi (pictured above), an Ex Lebanese Minister of Economy, the man who has his signature on the various Lebanese denominations, not only praises Dubai, but he walked the talk. He moved there to become Chief Financial Economist in the Dubai Financial Centre. The Washington Post ran a feature about Dubai today in which it spoke about Mr. Saidi:

The boom [in Dubai] has drawn the Arab world's best and brightest, and many of its most influential expatriates speak with the force of the converted. Saidi is one. He recalled a generation of disappointments. In 1960, he noted bitterly, Egypt had the same per capita income as South Korea. More than a decade ago, when he returned to Lebanon after its civil war and served as a Central Bank official and later a government minister, he envisioned a Dubai model for Beirut. Those hopes were dashed by Lebanon's intractable politics.
"What is attractive for me is they effectively told me that what you weren't able to do in Lebanon, we're going to open the door here," he said from the 14th floor of a building aptly called the Gate, the cornerstone of the new International Financial Center.
He sees Dubai as the champion of greater economic unity in the Arab world, finally realizing the promises nationalist leaders made for 50 years that were broken by political divisions and economic failure.

How sad..

Is it a coincidence that neither Mr. Khattar (today a proud Aounist), Nor Mr. Saidi have ever worked under Prime Minister Hariri.? Could we draw any conclusions?

Lahhoud Wins

Between the two evils of having General Lahhoud's term as President extended, and having General Michel Aoun as President, the March 14 coalition has chosen the former. Don't bother waiting for a miracle tomorow..


(Self sensorship: friends and family have emailed about the previous picture and the opinions ranged between "inapropriate" and "tasteless". Those of you lucky enough to have seen it, sorry. As for the rest of you, well, you're not missing on much)

Something You'll Never See

This was done last Year, (I could swear the withdrawal happened on the 22nd), but my blog was still in its infancy and I figured it deserves more exposure since we'll never see the real thing anyway...

If You Build, Will They Come?

Mind Boggling Figures

Today, Assafir proudly carried on its first page this fantastic piece of news: Real Estate Project worth 1 Billion Dollars to be launched in the heart of the Beirut Central District.

My father was so happy he printed it out for me, just in case I haven’t seen it. We talked about how many jobs this project could create, how this might alleviate Lebanon’s economical woes. We felt really proud..

..Until we read this piece of news in, of al places, Hariri-owned Almustaqbal newspaper:
27 Billion Dollars earmarked to develop a touristic project in a small island next to Abu Dhabi, UAE.

27 Billion dollars, for an island? That would be Just below the 35 Billion dollar of debt that has been giving Lebanon so much headache those last years. I’m not even beginning to mention Dubai, where a cute little 18 Billion dollar project has just been added to its mega construction site.

I have a degree in business, but everytime I try to make sense of this supply-sided construction drive, my mind shuts down. I’ve been trying to make sense of this by reading, and reading, and reading, but still, something just doesn’t add up and I can't put my finger on it.

Perhaps I’m wrong.

The Savior

Darn humans, why do we always prefer thieves to Saints?

The long awaited post on the Aounist blog has finally arrived... Jesus! What took them so long?

To The Box Office

Zeu Inspector Is silently collecting his evidence... Could he solve zis great mystery?

Doom From Zion

How about a little Doom and Gloom about Lebanon from an Israeli blogger?

Here’s a post on about why “Lebanon Will Explode All Over Again”, plus some Israeli comments further down. Warning though, the author’s motto is: In Zion We Trust.

I’d like to know what you guys think of the points raised..

Also, a Haaretz editorial on Hezbollah and the UN.

The Sushi War

The Sunni-Shiia quarrel is an increasingly pervasive, cross-border and high-stakes affair


This post picks up from where my friend LP from Lebanese Political Journal left. He testified that the word on the Lebanese Sunni street indicates that the Sunnis are starting to see Iran as a bigger threat than Israel.

In my opinion, calling this conflict a Sunni-Shiaa one is misleading because it implies a dogmatic confrontation. Instead, this is a high-stakes war between two ways of looking at the world and two ways of spending large amounts of money.

I made this argument before, but the heart of the conflict is really of the “Clash of Civilizations” nature. It’s a clash between two kinds of Moslems: One that wants to be part of the international trade system and live off oil-driven prosperity. They want to build new cities, modern schools, malls and banks in arms-free environments. The other group sees its way of life under threat. It sees the outside world as a predator who only understands the language of force. It wants to spread weapons, build nuclear bombs and protect itself. Both groups contain Sunnis and Shias, but it so happens that the first group is dominated by powerful Sunni countries, and the second by Shiaa ones.

The war was initially a cold one, but we are witnessing the various Sunni leaders coming out of their silence one after the other to denounce “Shiaa” designs. Why? because the Arab layman is increasingly believing the Iranian (and now Bin Laden’s) storyline, that the Americans are out to get Moslems. If you watch Aljazeera, which is the most popular T.V. station in the Arab world, you’d think its editorial team is Iranian.

The problem is, America and Israel are both real liabilities to the Sunnis’ vision of economic prosperity, and this is showing most profoundly in divided countries like Lebanon and Palestine. "You think America really wants free trade and democracy?" The Lay man asks, “Look at what they did with Dubai’s ports deal.” “look how they back the Saudi dictatorship.” “You think Israel wants peace?” Why is it that it only responds to power? Didn’t it withdraw from Lebanon and from Gaza only because of the heroic resistance? Doesn’t the United Nations ignore Israel’s wrongdoings? Why are they punishing the democratically elected Hamas? Don’t they want democracy?

The Sunnis are on the defensive. After Jordan’s King comments about the Shiia crescent and the Egyptian President’s comments about the Arab Shiaa’s loyalties, we find today that the Lebanese newspaper Almustaqbal, (which is owned by Lebanon’s most powerful Sunni), is co-publishing with a Jordanian newspaper an interview where Sunni-backed Palestinian President lashes out at Tehran-backed yet democratically elected Hamas. Congratulations, Palestine has officially been Lebanonized.

In the countries where both influences are strong, like Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq, we are witnessing the strongest schisms. Let’s hope is that this doesn’t spread to other countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, but the news so far are not very good:
Today, I read an article in Al-Arabiya entitled: “The Egyptian People is Sunni in Name but Shiaa in Nature.” Ouch!

No Sex Please, We're From Trablos

Wain'l wawa? Bahh..


No Comment... (I like the little explanation they have for poor Al-Arabiya readers who can't tell what a G-String is...). Also, make sure you read the comments in Alarabiya..

Mullah Trumps Eagle

The Lebanese Prime Minister might have met the American President, but don’t be too happy, Iran is where the real power has moved

Nothing cheered up the March 14 supporters more than the sight of their champion Mr. Seniora shoulder to shoulder with the man who’s supposed to be the world’s most powerful. The pictures of the smiling men getting all chummy with each other were gleefully posted in Almustaqbal’s and Annahar’s front pages this morning.

Yet with all the swagger, the pomp and the work launches in the oval office, the real power in the region is moving to Tehran, where a Hezbollah delegation sneaked with much less fanfare to “congratulate” the Iranians for their new Nuclear prowess.

This letter by Arnold Pedowitz to the New York Times explains very well the American predicament with Iran:

President Bush should be held responsible for Iran's nuclear threat. He recklessly attacked Iraq with no exit strategy [..] In doing so, President Bush abused the moral imperative, wasted our fiscal and human resources, embittered the Arab world and squandered this country's limited tolerance for war. Now, when confronted with a true threat, we have been rendered powerless.

The key word here would be powerless. Iran has played the game right. It surprised the world with enriching Uranium and, by raising the stakes and consolidating its alliances, has being playing the brinkmanship game with much more skill than the Americans.

The sad thing is the implication of such power shift on Lebanon. When a UN diplomat asks Syria to “establish embassies and delineate the border between Syria and Lebanon”, the now-smug Iranian-backed Hezbollah can feel free to publicly denounce him as “serving Israel’s agenda”.

What's An Embassy Between Friends?

The Syrian Foreign Minister thinks there's no need for an embassy between Lebanon and Syria... Who are we to disagree?