Here you go again, more trouble in the making!
Hezbollah has set up 12 centers to organise the hand-out of cash for families who's homes were destroyed.
Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, promised the money in his first speech after the truce took hold this week.
He said 15,000 dwellings had been completely destroyed in the Israeli bombardment but the islamic guerrilla group, which also runs a large network of health, education and social programs, would pay for the repairs of houses that are still standing plus reimburse people who lost their dwelling.
The problem with this scenario is, that again Hezbollah and not the Lebanese government takes the lead!
Of course the people in need will gladly take the average $12,000 handouts, (source Reuters) that is only human... But please do the math, 15,000 times $12,000 - it's a lot of cash, I don't even want to know where all that money came from ...
You see, Hezbollah has taken over the role of "GOD" and "RULER" in Lebanon: "It can take (destroy) - and it can giveth again!"
The official government, a mandated pluralistic mix of different religious makeups in the mean time stands in the shadow of things to come, powerless, weak and fragile. The only hope I see is that the educated middle-class people will rise up and stand on their hind legs and shout: Enough is enough! This action of course can't be the task of those who live in the south, understandably.
Lebanese people - will you stand by and watch your dream of a country in making get sold out to a Sheikh , or will you stand up and demand your country to be free of religious mingling in politics.
I'm watching ...intensively!
Friday, August 18
will money buy unity?
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10 comments:
don't you wish things were as simple as that lukas..
there are hundreds of thousands of people who were invaded and bombed and killed and kidnapped by israelis for decades, those people found a savior in HA who drove the israelis out of the country and who still is trying to get their prisoners and the little piece of land that who knows to whom it belongs, back. Hundreds of thousands of lebanese, simple, non westernized, lebanese folks who have seen HA bend over backwards to protect them and make them prosper, and who is now again fixing the damage that Israel has done again, even if their kidnapping of the soldiers was portrayed as the trigger behind the war when we both know it wasn't. This is HA for the masses of people in the south. You cannot demonize HA to them. You cannot even TOUCH HA. HA has become the people of the South, and I completely understand that although my personal view is divergent. For too many years we've sported incompetent corrupt governments leading an intrinsically weak country towards disaster while HA was doing everything towards helping its people. There's one thing about Nasrallah no one can deny, whether one loves him or despises the very air he breathes, is that he's a man of his word and he is equal to himself, a virute you'll live and die teen thousand times in arabia without ever finding it in a political leader. People see that and reach out to embrace it. Unfortunately, for people like us who advocate peace, Nasrallah is evil. But he isn't. Our agendas are just dissonent, and he has the financial and ideological support we don't have. The man is here to stay, because the people of the south are here to stay. Whether a united sovereign lebanon is here to stay is however another story.
Thank you very much for your answer Fouad!
It is your ability to verbalize and sketch the imagery, being a compatriot of Lebanon, that will always be superior to my own attempts whenever I struggle to say the same things.
I think you are correct with your assessment of the South. I do still wish though that the actual government of Lebanon could be strengthened as well...
Hezbollah has been the main social service agency, road builder, affordable housing provider, food provider and secuity in parts of Lebanon since the first Israeli invasion in the 1980s. Even people who don't like their politics (and their guns) have a tough time saying no to help. The other interesting thing to me is that Hezbollah is a militia organization. In other words, the local town social worker, truck driver, school teacher, engineer all may be members (and very visible).
Yes, if the Lebanese government can be stronger and more efficient (and perhaps given some rebuilding money) it will be helpful.
Sorry to tell you man, but most of the money comes from Iran.
I have been saying this in my own posts, that in order to get the people behind you, you need to assist them. Supplant HA with aid, true help and assistance. That is why when you want to ensure people not rising up against you, you need to have a PLAN..and with the arrogant 'the end justifies the means' and 'people are ok collatoral dammage'..the powers that be, either in Israel or the current US administration, will not think of anything like that but merely look at the world in terms of military options and solutions. When oh when will someone wise stand up to this all? We need another Ghandi!
Ingrid
Yes we need an other "Ghandi" Ingrid - I totally agree.
The "official (Lebanese) government, a mandated pluralistic mix of different religious makeups in the mean time stands in the shadow of things to come, powerless, weak and fragile"... as you put it, is made up entirely of multibillionaire cleptocrats, such as mini-hariri and sanioura, or bloody handed warlords such as geagea, gemayel and joumblat. the only parties that did not take a major role in the lebanese civil war, and are not financially corrupt, are HA and the orange Tayyar. You cannot steal from the people of the South their victory with your theoretical bourgeois armchair rantings. go ahead and try! if you don't like it that the Southerners have defeated the whole world with their own will and arms, and have developed a system of self-sufficiency in the face of long-standing lebanese corruption, degredation, abandonment and oppression, then too bad for you. your expectations that the East must mimic the West in their development of civil society and breaking of chains is an attitude rooted in orientalist racism.
Oh, and Ingrid, the U.S, government (not just republican, but democratic administrations as well) DO have plan! it is to dominate and subjegate and control and LEAD. you must understand that no one in the world should feel obligated to "follow" the U.S. or the West in any matter.
Ibn Bint Jbeil
I have never said that the East should mimic the West - in the contrary, my belief is that the Middle East should continue to find its own way of governance and also pursue a free cultural and educational life without interference of other entities. The only thing where we might differ is my strong conviction that statehood (any state) should not be influenced by religion (any religion)!
The three pillars of civilization, namely law (statehood), economics (business, trade) and the cultural life (education, arts, religion) should be organized in a fashion that they can function independently without corrupting each other. To use an old concept:
People should have Equality under Law, Liberty in the Economic sphere and Freedom in Spiritual life (culture).
So much for now from an bourgeois armchair philosopher ...
i could look at it and say it shows who really runs lebanon.instead i shall say,,,,,,,,if i lived there and my house was destroyed i would take the money from whoever stepped forward and offered it to me.
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