The Dirty Propaganda War

Free tutorial: How to discredit a political opponent.

Step 1:
Find a picture of a scary armed Lebanese man from an online news source:


Step 2:
Grab a picture of a demonstration in Lebanon:


Step 3:
Get your opponent's logo:


Step 4:
Open Photoshop, Slap the logo on the scary man's shoulder, mask his picture out, play with the colors and saturation and carefully position it on the Lebanon demo pic:



Step 5:
Let your leader hold the picture on TV. (PS: Since the Photoshop job is so lousy, make sure you give him a black-and-white version lest he embarrasses himself)


Job done. Your opponents are now officially tarnished...

It's sad. The FPM has a history with this kind of image doctoring. Remember the sprayed "FPM car" incident? It was when Canada's FPM faction showed us a vandalized BMW picture, messed up by orange paint. The FPM said back then that it was a vandalism act by the hatred-driven LF and their -the keyword cometh- 'militia' ways:


It turned out that the picture was taken from a website, and that the car was sprayed by a 'cheated wife' to spite her husband (Thx blondy for the valuable links).

Here's a plea to the FPM's Photoshop artist: You're welcome to express your talents here in The Beirut Spring. Forgery is serious matter in the real-world.

Selling Paris III

The government has begun an advertising campaign for its reform Plan.

Not long ago, this picture symbolized the billboard scene in Lebanon:

The billboards reflected a futile shouting match between the two sides on who loves life more.

Fortunately, the Ads now hold more substance and are over economic policy. Here's a challenge from the opposition:


Now countered by a series of ads to sell the Paris III conference:





So, are you now ready to trust this government with $7.6Bn ?

Meet "March 11"

A new political movement is not the only sign that the center is starting to matter.



"Do you support March 14 or March 8?" a question I asked to my 16 year old cousin in a family launch here in Lebanon. "Both Suck, I am with Lebanon", came his immediate response. My cousin is not alone. It is becoming increasingly fashionable here to say that you're neither with the (pro-western) March 14 movement nor with the (Iranian-backed) March 8 alliance..

People are growing disillusioned by the less-than-innocent posturings of the two dominant parties in this bitterly polarized and tired country. Even the Maronite Patriarch who used to sympathize with March 14 said recently that both sides are equally responsible for the bad situation. As The Economist puts it:

What is missing is a leader who might rise above the mudslinging and find common ground. Mr Siniora has valiantly tried to stay calm under pressure [..] But he has failed to project a grand vision that would have to include, for example, fresh elections under a fairer system.

In this climate, a "disgusted", independent center is growing and becoming a political force to be reckoned with. March 11, a new political movement (With which I am not affiliated, although I specifically suggested a year and a half ago that March 11 should be Lebanon's day) is capitalizing on that disgust.

With a logo that wittily uses the 11 to show the two 'faces' of Lebanon, the movement is making itself felt on the billboards. Why the dull, white color in the background? You might ask. Another billboard has the answer: 'we are tired of colors', in reference to the different colors each party uses.



The center is becoming large enough to tip the balance in this very symmetrical country. This is why another trend is being felt on Lebanese billboards: Selling Economic policy.

That will be the subject of my next post.

Fire Management

Did yesterday's violent outbreaks in Beirut surprise the opposition?

Now go back home

The spiraling violence that left many dead and injured in Beirut yesterday seemed to have surprised the let's-block-roads-and-burn-tires-and-provoke-people crowd; Nabih Berri and Hassan Nassrallah appeared genuinely freaked out as they made their "please calm down and go back home" televised fatwas.

Moreover, the Beirut curfew wouldn't have materialized if it weren't for unanimous political approval. March 8 seemed to be surprised by the violence. But were they really?

Nassrallah's "If I only knew" speech comes to my mind. The pro-Syrians are consolidating their reputation for their uncanny ability to be shocked by things everyone else sees coming.

Too much PR energy is being spent on a blame-game that rings increasingly hollow. When you and your opponent are pumping sectarian fuel in your media, it becomes irrelevant who started the fire and who's fanning the flames (although Al-mustaqbal gave us a hint this morning: A Syrian and a Palestinian sniper who were shooting at the crowds were caught by the army yesterday.)

The opposition can't forever talk about peaceful demonstrations and then burn tires and provoke people. They should know that people out there would be more than happy to let us kill each other (I say Syrians, they say Americans).

You can't put this Genie back in the bottle every time.

Stay Updated

How to know when there's a new post on The Beirut Spring.

First, sorry for the slow blogging, I hope you understand.

Second, I'm getting emails from readers who are sending a version or another of the question: "I understand you're getting married and you're busy and all, but how can I know when you write a new post? is there an email list or something I can subscribe to?"

The short answer is "yes". If you already know about blog Aggregators and RSS, you can safely ignore this post. If not, please read on.

The Beirut Spring is a blog, and unlike news websites like Naharnet, blogs are written by common people who don't have regular posting schedules and are sometimes very busy and unpredictable. This is why it is always useful, if you like blogs, to subscribe to something we call an Aggregator.

An aggregator is a website or a computer program that tells you whenever a blog you like is updated. The idea is that once you use an aggregator, you can subscribe to as many blogs as you wish, and you'll be notified whenever a blog you like is updated. It will be like your own "my blogs" page whenever you log on.

Two common online aggregators are Bloglines and Google Reader. I prefer Bloglines but Google Reader is perhaps easier.

If you don't like to set up your own blogs list and don't feel like going through the hassle of logging in, you can always use ready made aggregating websites. These are websites that have selected blogs around a certain theme and always display their last entries. If you're interested in Lebanon for example, you can always log on to OpenLebanon, Rampurple or Lebanon Aggregator. If you're more into Middle eastern/Arab blogs, you can always use the excellent Itoot website. (The Beirut Spring is on all those websites)

I hope that was helpful and I hope I'll be back to more regular posting soon (after the honeymoon perhaps :) )