New group urges leaders to 'Resolve it, Solve it'

New group urges leaders to 'Resolve it, Solve it'
The Daily Star

A new group in Lebanon called the "Resolve it, Solve it" group will organize a human chain in Beirut on Saturday, to publicly demand an "immediate and peaceful" solution to the current political deadlock. The chain will stretch from Bechara Khoury to Sodeco and participants will sign a petition including their demands. The petition is to be submitted to MPs. Resolve it Solve it is a group of Lebanese citizens who reject "empty promises, sectarian speeches and subliminal calls for violence." "We reject civil war. We can no longer tolerate the growing violence leaving us anxious about our present and fearful for our future," the group said in a statement on Wednesday.

Photo Miraculeuse de St. Charbel

La photo ci-jointe m'est parvenue d'une dame d'un certain âge, qui vendait des « Manakishs » dans les parages de l'église de St Charbel, Annaya. J'y passais prendre mon petit déjeuner, après la messe, chaque fois que je faisais du pèlerinage avec ma famille. J'avais une certaine tendresse envers cette dame, étant donné qu'elle était obligée de travailler malgré son âge. Un jour, elle m'a donné la photo me disant : tu me promets de l'honorer, prier et en prendre soin, sinon je ne te la donne pas. C'est l'une des rares photos de St Charbel où il a les yeux ouverts - elle a été prise lors de l'une de ses apparitions. Elle est miraculeuse...

La dame m'avait raconté qu'elle devait au propriétaire des arriérés du loyer qu'elle lui versait au fur et à mesure. Il lui restait encore 450.000LL, quand il lui demanda de les régler dans le délai de 3 jours, sinon elle devrait quitter les lieux. Ce fut un week-end du mois de Février. Elle était certaine qu'elle ne peut vendre des « Manakish » pour une telle somme mais elle priait pour St Charbel afin de sauver sa situation (elle avait cette même photo accrochée au mur). Mais, une violente tempête de neige bloqua les routes et pas une personne ne passa, même pas un chasse-neige. Elle était là, seule, et elle continuait à prier, peut-être pensait-elle que le propriétaire pourrait reconsidérer le délai, car les routes étaient totalement fermées. Soudain, un « Hummer » bien équipé coupa le silence, et 3 jeunes couples rentrent chez elle, et lui demandent un repas. Leur facture ne dépasse pas les 10 dollars, pourtant, ils lui règlent 300$. Elle les rend, croyant qu'ils se sont trompés. Mais ils insistent de lui donner toute la somme car lui dit-on : c'est mérité, tu es la seule dans toute la région qui a pu nous donner de quoi manger, on crevait de faim depuis la veille. Et c'était exactement la somme dont elle avait besoin....

Amis, cela n'est pas à comparer avec les milliers de miracles de St. Charbel, surtout ceux relatifs à des guérisons que la médecine a jugé incurables, mais, c'est peut être indicatif: Même dans les petits problèmes de la vie quotidienne, St Charbel vous soutiendra. Ayez la foi, priez, St Charbel répondra à vos appels.

Imprimer la photo avec les dimensions de votre choix et circulez
N'oubliez pas : l'Honorer, prier, et en prendre soin)
Lara Skayem

New March 11 bloc restricts political message to 'enough is enough'

New March 11 bloc restricts political message to 'enough is enough'
By Hani M. Bathish
Special to The Daily Star

BEIRUT: An independent movement opposed to the continuous escalation and provocation of Lebanese political life has emerged and is set to be launched at a public gathering on March 11, under a banner of rejection of politics as usual. Its moniker? March 11. One of the movement's founding members told The Daily Star that the idea behind the gathering was to "give voice to those who are largely ignored, those who have been harmed the most by the political bickering and violence, those who lost their jobs, those whose shops and businesses closed down and all the Lebanese people who want to live free of fear." March 11's message is that "enough is enough" and it is a message aimed at the international community, those in power and politicians on both sides of the political divide, according to Merhi Abou Merhi, CEO of Abou Merhi Cruises in Beirut. "We want to let out a collective shout, get the people's voices out to the politicians," Abou Merhi said. "The situation deteriorated very quickly in the past two weeks, no one is happy, not even the supporters of March 8 and March 14." Abou Merhi claimed that the gathering "is not political in any way" and only aims to show that the majority in the country is neither March 8 nor March 14, but those who have suffered in silence as a result of the escalating crisis. "We are opposed to closures and any side that forces closures. Who will reimburse business owners when they close? Will the government forgive them their taxes, or will a landlord forgo the rent or workers forgo their salaries? No one will show mercy to business owners," Abou Merhi said.

He said the group's action will be civilized and peaceful and that it is working with supporters to organize a gathering on March 11 if the crisis is not defused by then. "We will gather to show how many we really are. You cannot get the message across to politicians except through the same methods they understand and fear: the voice of the people," Abou Merhi said. "Many people talk to me over the phone and tell me they are with me but cannot openly show it. Either they or someone in their family holds a certain position they do not want to risk losing. We, on the other hand, are independent. We are saying in a loud voice: 'Enough is enough, it is impossible to continue down this road.'" The businessman said he hopes that the number of those who respond to the call and gather on March 11 will not be too great, as those who come will likely be those who have suffered the most as a result of the deteriorating political situation. "Regrettably, I feel they will be many," Abou Merhi said.

The shape and form that the actual gathering will take and its location will be announced during a press conference that March 11 plans to hold this week. "We will also hold meetings with religious leaders and confessional leaderships to inform them of the actions we will take," Abou Merhi said. The most important element of the gathering, Abou Merhi said, is that it has no political aims; it is rather "just a conduit to give voice to those who have no one to speak for them." The campaign includes billboards put up across the country, as well as radio and television advertisements. Abou Merhi said he has "no personal political aspirations whatsoever." "Those who support us include businessmen, doctors, university lecturers, lawyers, expatriate Lebanese, in fact a sizable number are Lebanese who have lived abroad and have come back to live and work in Lebanon. It is our right to get our voice out," Abou Merhi said. The gathering has no political program. In fact it should conclude on March 11 if the crisis is resolved by then, Merhi said, but if is not, the organization will continue to work toward resolving the crisis. "The gathering is a campaign to create awareness of the low level of political performance in the country," said Rabih Saba, business consultant for Abou Merhi Cruises.

Saba said the gathering is not a political party or a "third party." "All we are saying is there is a silent power, a major chunk of people who are not fanatic about either March 8 or March 14, who go to work every day, and come home to their families, and they are tired of living under constant tension," Rabih said. The gathering says it represents "all fathers who dream of a bright future for their children, all workers who have lost their jobs due to the situation, all students who dream of going to their school or university in peace, and everyone who sees Lebanon as a country for coexistence, life and dialogue." The group also aims to be a bridge across which the March 8 and March 14 forces can meet.

To learn more about the organization and its upcoming plans, check out www.11march.org.

Lebanon is as good a place to find out what tosh the 'terror' merchants talk- by Robert Fisk

Lebanon is as good a place to find out what tosh the 'terror' merchants talk
By Robert Fisk

02/03/07 "The Independent" -- -- So it was back to terror, terror, terror this week. The "terrorist" Hizbollah was trying to destroy the "democratically elected government" of Fouad Siniora in Lebanon. The "terrorist" Hamas government cannot rule Palestine. Iranian "terrorists" in Iraq are going to be gunned down by US troops. My favourite line of the week came from the "security source" - just how one becomes a "security source" remains a mystery to me -- who announced: "Terrorists are always looking for new ways to strike terror... There is no end of the possibilities where terrorists can try to cause terror to the public." Well, you could have fooled me.

Lebanon is as good a place as any to find out what a load of old tosh the "terror" merchants talk. For here it is that the hydra-headed monster of Iran is supposedly stalking the streets of Beirut, staging a coup against Mr Siniora and his ministers. Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, the Hizbollah leader, is the man Israel spent all last summer trying - vainly, of course - to kill, his black-bearded, turbaned appearance on Hizbollah's own TV station a source of fury to both Ehud Olmert and - nowadays - to Siniora's men in government. Now it's true that Nasrallah - an intelligent, former military commander of Hizbollah in southern Lebanon - is developing a rather odd cult of personality. His massive features tower over the Beirut airport highway, a giant hand waving at motorists in both directions. And these days, you can buy Hizbollah T-shirts and Nasrallah key chains. But somehow "terror" is not quite the word that comes to mind. This is partly because the tens of thousands of Shia Muslims whom Hizbollah represents are staging a social revolution rather than a coup, a mass uprising of the poor who have traditionally been ignored by the great and the good of Lebanese society. The men in their tent city downtown are a powerful symbol in Lebanon. They are smoking their hooker pipes and playing cards and sleeping rough next to the shining new city which Rafiq Hariri rebuilt from the ruins of Beirut - a city to impress foreigners but one in which the south Lebanese poor could not afford to buy a cup of coffee. Hariri's theory - or at least this is how he explained it to me before his murder - was that if the centre of Beirut was reconstructed, the money which it generated would trickle down to the rest of Lebanon. But it didn't trickle. The bright lights of downtown Beirut were enjoyed by the rich and purchased by the Saudis and admired by the likes of Jacques Chirac but they were not for the Shia. For them, Hizbollah provided the social services and the economic foundation of its part of Lebanon as well as the military spearhead to strike at Israel and demand the return of Shebaa Farms.

The Lebanese government may have its troops mixed in with the new UN force in the south but no one doubts that Hizbollah remain in their villages, as powerful and as influential as ever. Harirism, it seems, failed and now Hariri's old friend Siniora - who, by the way, was never elected (he was appointed to the prime minister's job although you'd never know if from watching Western television) - has returned from Paris with millions of dollars to sit once more in his little "green zone", surrounded by barbed wire and soldiers and, outside the gates of his serail, by the poor of southern Lebanon and the suburbs of Beirut.

Hizbollah's electoral partners are also interesting. General Michel Aoun - whom the Americans** have not yet got round to calling a "terrorist" - is the [anti-Syrian] Christian leader who allows Nasrallah to claim that the opposition is non-sectarian. Aoun's supporters were involved in pitched battles with Samir Geagea's Phalangists last week and what was striking was how poor many of Aoun's Christian supporters also appeared to be. Indeed, Aoun was himself born in the same southern slums of Beirut which is Hizbollah's power base and his constant refrain - that the government is corrupt - is beginning to take hold among the disenfranchised Christian communities in the east of Beirut. The fact that Aoun is also a little cracked does not change this. Even when this week he produced a doctored photograph supposedly showing an armed Phalangist on the streets - the image was of a Hizbollah gunman, originally taken during last summer's war but stuck on to a photograph of crowds on a north Beirut roadway - his loyal supporters did not desert him. Nestling beside their tents in central Beirut are canvas homes containing Lebanese communists - how friendly the old hammer and sickle seems these days - and a host of lesser groups which may or may not come under Syria's patronage. [Note: Aoun’s group admitted to the mistake showing a doctored photo, claiming it was sent to them as a set-up].

Of course, the crisis in Lebanon is also about Iran and Syria, especially Iran's determination to damage or destroy any Middle East government which has earned America's friendship. In the growing, overheated drama being played out between Washington and Tehran (and Israel, of course), Lebanon is another board game for the two sides to use. America thus lined up to defend Lebanon's democracy - though it didn't care a damn about it when Israel bombarded the country last summer - while Iran continues to support Hizbollah whose government ministers resigned last year, provoking the current crisis.

Nasrallah is said to have been personally shocked by the extent of the violence and hatred manifested in last week's miniature civil war in which both Sunni and Shia Muslims used guns against each other for the first time. But they too emerged from the slums to do battle with their co-religionists and I rather suspect that - when this latest conflict is over - there will have to be a serious evaluation of the explosive nature of Lebanon's poverty belts, a re-examination of a country whose super-wealthy launder the money which never reaches the poor, whose French restaurants and Italian designer shops are for the princes of the Gulf, whose government - however democratically elected (and Washington still doesn't seem to understand that sectarian politics mean that Lebanon cannot have a normal democracy) - seems so out of touch with its largest religious community.

But as the story of Lebanon continues, please spare me the word "terrorist".

[** The US threatened to place Aoun on its terrorist list if he maintains his political alliance with Hizbullah, even though Aoun’s group works for democracy, transparency, reform, secularism and peaceful resistance and protest.]

Copyright The Independent

Downtown becomes ghost town as protests continue

Downtown becomes ghost town as protests continue
Number of vacated businesses is multiplying
By Lysandra Ohrstrom
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: After two months, the tent city in Downtown Beirut has become a fact of life for most residents of the capital, but for many commercial tenants the opposition demonstrations have proven to be the final straw after a string of political disruptions stretching back to 2005. What began in January with a few restaurant owners and retailers trickling out of the Beirut Central District (BCD) to other locations in the capital now looks like a mass exodus from what was once one of Lebanon's most popular districts. On Friday, The Daily Star counted more than 30 vacated properties, empty of both merchandise and customers. At least 20 more stores were closed. Some shop windows still bear liquidation signs; others read "For Rent;" and a few point customers to different branches. "Hope to see you in better circumstances," is scrawled in black marker on a dry-erase board hanging inside the Massaya Beirut Restaurant.

Those establishments that are still open advertise sales and promotions, taking last stabs at luring the stray customer. Most of the remaining merchants say they plan to wait one more month before making a final decision to close or relocate. An employee at the Doodle Doo sweet shop says most tenants began closing two weeks ago. Even though the store sees little customer traffic - by mid-afternoon on Friday it had made only one LL 4,500 sale - the employee says his boss refuses to quit the BCD on principle. "I'm a supervisor but I have no employees to supervise," Hadi Adnan says. Since the war, Doodle Doo, like many employers, has had to cut down on shifts, prompting many employees in the BCD to find other jobs or leave the country, he explains. "It's really bad because 90 percent of the employees here are university students. Most didn't register for the fall semester because they did not work this summer. I don't think a lot of them will register for classes in spring either," Adnan says.

Since the summer 2006 war with Israel, 100 of the Virgin Megastore's 300 employees have left for other countries and, to a lesser extent, other jobs, says Jihad Murr, the owner of Virgin's Lebanon franchise. The store has not taken steps to replace them. Instead the Martyrs Square location has narrowed its operating hours, from 10 a.m. to midnight to 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. "We are living on a day-by-day basis," Murr says. "In three months we will re-evaluate ... The worst-case scenario would be to temporarily close Downtown for a year or two, but it really depends on the results of our next promotion. December was not a catastrophe because we did all of the ad campaigns." The franchise has lost more than $2 million from all Lebanon locations combined since the war, but the Martyrs Square flagship has suffered most of all, he says. Sales in January were 70 percent below the expected levels. Murr's landlord forgave one month's rent in 2006, a gesture Murr calls "nice but far from reality."

Solidere - the real-estate development company responsible for the reconstruction of Downtown following the Civil War - exempted businesses from two months of rent payments during the July-August war. In December the company told some tenants that they would offer similar compensation if the demonstrations wore on for a second month, says Sami Hochon, the owner of the Lina's sandwich franchise whose flagship is in the BCD. But he has not heard the offer mentioned since. Individual landlords have been less generous, according to many business owners. Though demand for property in the BCD is obviously down, they have refused to lower rents. Dida Ghossoub, the owner of the Dayama clothing store on Rue d'Uruguay, has been shipping clothes to Dubai to be sold because "no one is buying clothes in Lebanon right now." "I want to order my summer collection now, but I'm afraid to," she says. "Who knows if we will be open?"

Deficit balloons to nearly 40 percent of spending

Deficit balloons to nearly 40 percent of spending
By Osama Habib
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: Higher spending and lower revenues took their toll on the government's 2006 finances as the budget deficit increased to almost 40 percent of public expenditures or LL4.581 trillion ($3.05 billion), the Finance Ministry said on Thursday. The ministry did not explain the reasons behind the deficit increase in its statement but most officials point to the negative fallout following the July-August war in 2006 and the ensuing showdown between rival political groups in Lebanon.

The statement said the budget deficit at the end of 2006 reached 38.59 percent compared to 27.42 percent in 2005, an increase of 11.6 percent. The budget deficit in the month of December alone rose to 53.78 percent compared to 40.25 percent in the same month of 2005. The public debt in 2006 is estimated to have reached nearly $41 billion, or 188 percent of the country's GDP. Total government revenues in 2006 reached LL7.295 trillion compared to LL7.405 trillion in 2005, a drop of LL110 billion.

The ministry said that VAT revenues fell by LL35 billion while tariffs on imports decreased by LL194 billion. "The Israeli naval, ground and air blockade on Lebanon during the war was the main cause behind the drop in revenues," the statement said. It added that the government subsidy on the prices of gasoline and fuel oil was another factor behind reduced income. The Finance Ministry stopped collecting VAT tax on fuel sold at gas stations in 2006 due to the sharp rise in the prices of oil on the international markets. VAT contributes the largest portion of the government's budget after tariffs and the telecom sector revenues. But the government intends to increase the VAT ceiling ratio to 12 percent in 2008 and 15 percent in 2010. Premier Fouad Siniora has also proposed lifting its fuel subsidy, which may increase the price of 20 liters of gas from LL22,000 to over LL30,000, according to some estimates. The statement said that revenues collected from the telecom sector fell by LL158 billion while income from Beirut Port dropped by LL58 billion. The government's total expenditures in 2006 reached LL11.877 trillion compared to LL10.203 trillion in 2005, an increase of LL1.673 trillion. The cost of debt servicing, the highest spending item, reached LL4.555 trillion in 2006 compared to LL3.534 trillion in 2005, an increase of LL1.023 trillion.

SHAME ON US - Pix from 23 & 25 Jan. 07

I have posted here only a few of the pictures I have received.

Shame on us for such behavior!!!

Funny though, it took a full week before these pix reached me. Usually my fellow spammers are a lot quicker in sending such emails. Maybe Lebanese are just reluctant and shamed in showing the rest of the world how utterly stupid and drone-like we have become... I know that I was very hesitant in posting these images myself. But in the end, I hope that when people see them they will snap out of this state of mindlessness and conscienceless hate and destructive behavior and realize that killing each other is NOT the answer!

(Click on the each picture to see a full sized image)

JZ