The investigation of President Hariri's assessination is pointing to the Hizballah, the Party of God. This may result in the renewal of the civil war. But the economic situation is stable, said Riad Salame of the Lebanese Central Bank, in Detroit. The 2010 budget has a 2.7 billion surplus. A quarter of country's GNP is generated by Lebanese living in America. Is Lebanon a country?
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
The Strangeness of Lebanon
The investigation of President Hariri's assessination is pointing to the Hizballah, the Party of God. This may result in the renewal of the civil war. But the economic situation is stable, said Riad Salame of the Lebanese Central Bank, in Detroit. The 2010 budget has a 2.7 billion surplus. A quarter of country's GNP is generated by Lebanese living in America. Is Lebanon a country?
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A quarter of country's GNP is generated by Lebanese living in America.
Wow. By "America", do you mean both continents, or just the US of A?
I meant the United States of America, with accent in Detroit.
I used to live in Peoria, Illinois.
The Lebanese had many businesses there. They weren't all successful but they always catered to the lowest common denominator. I recall a really bad steakhouse/saloon for poor whites, a furniture store in a black neighborhood, and a apparel store for Blacks (Black people buy garish suits you can't find at the department store).
I have a hard time believing they were making much money with these enterprises. Maybe these were just the unsuccessful ones.
R
Ia Lebanon a country? If a country is a place that is self governing without foreign powers behind the scenes, no. Lebanon is too ethnically fractured to govern itself without foreign interference. Other choices available to it are civil war, partition and dictatorship. Then again this also describes Iraq and a lot of places in Africa and even the Balkans - what they all have in common is that Britain and France drew their boundaries for them - these were not real "countries" to begin with.
K
K
Regarding R's comments, these seemingly ramshackle businesses are often surprisingly profitable, if only because they cut corners on costs - fail to declare all income, violate labor laws, etc. Certainly the owners do much better than they would if they were working at a Walmart for $10/hr, though the price they pay is long hours, no vacation, etc. - the typical immigrant story. Also, as is typical, their kids go to college and find an easier way to make a living.
K
They have sexy women with large titties. What more do you want?
Just when you think you have the Arabs all figured out, they surprise you - the beauty queen is a Shiite but attended Christian schools and is clearly not a religious fanatic (or religious at all). Not all Arabs are reactionaries. They appeared to be on the way to entering the modern world until Saudi and Iranian $ and indoctrination dragged most of them back to the middle ages.
K
Lebanese Christians are hardly Arabs.
It is the usual Middle Eastern thing... me and my brother against my cousin, me, my brother and my cousin against the other tribesmen, me brother, my cousin and my fellow tribesmen against the other tribe, etc. Lebanese Christians hate Muslims but (when it suits them) they hate Jews too - see Helen Thomas. Or at other times they are your "friends" . When an Arab calls you "friend" , watch out.
K
Lebanese Christians are hardly Arabs.
Leftover Romans?
Lebanese Christians are hardly Arabs.
Leftover Romans?
Crypto Scandinavians!
Leftover Phoenicians.
Are you implying that the Lebanese Christians are Semitic?
Semitic is kind of a made up term that doesn't mean anything. The Maronites are certainly Syraic. Their bible is written in a script that is very akin to Hebrew. They were very isolated on Mt. Lebanon - when the Crusaders came upon them they had been out of contact with the West for maybe 6 centuries.
K
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