Ronny Karam

If you have time to keep track of the “news” these days, you’ll be hit by walls of crap thrown at you from both sides (8 & 14th of March/February/etc.); nowadays, our politicians have one thing in mind: the 2009 Elections. So no matter what the story is, no matter how documented and well presented, you should probably believe 2 to 5% of it.

Everything is invested in the elections and for the elections, and I mean EVERYTHING. There are no red lines to draw, no boundaries to hold and no ethics, moral values or rules to keep; Greed has taken control…

I’m writing this introduction just to reflect how miserable we are when we take advantage of a just cause, not because we believe in it, but because it empowers the aura around our electoral campaign.

Poor are the parents, wives, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, etc. who are still awaiting the return of their loved ones from Syria, or need to know any news about them to give an ending to their everlasting misery. Whether they were abducted, killed (in Syria or in Lebanon) or imprisoned, their families need to know the truth.

They’re not seeking revenge, they’re not looking for sympathy or financial aids; they just want to know.
Is it too much, to ask for the truth? Is it a right for some and not the others? Is it an instant National Obligation when a prime minister or a politician is assassinated and a forgotten file for thousands of citizens lost, abducted, imprisoned or killed in the last 30 years?

Poor are the people who have nothing in this country but their dignity and pride, for they are wandering like lost sheep in a dark forest.

A lot have been said about this topic but little has been done; lately the Lebanese president & ministers visited Syria and returned empty handed; we all know that in the Arab world, when things are assigned to committees, they’re officially dead.

Syria already denies the existence of any war or political prisoners. So what is the committee doing?

It’s really hard to understand how we can act like some things are less important than others. As if the relation between the 2 countries and the diplomatic exchange are more important than the numerous humans held against their will.

I urge our politicians to reconsider their choices and really think about our priorities. We can’t deny that good relations with Syria are for the best of our country but making it the highest priority at this time is not acceptable.
General Michel Aoun should know better that his visit to Syria should be set after all the issues between the 2 countries are solved; we’re not asking him to keep fighting Syria the same way he did during the occupation but the “fight” shouldn’t stop ‘till the Lebanese people has his full rights back.

12 years after their first protest, the Matn citizens are still fighting against the project aiming to place high tension electrical poles in their backyards.

It’s not the esthetical image they’re worried about but the health of more than 20,000 students exposed everyday and constantly to the electromagnetic fields created by the hanging wires.

12 years and ‘till now, no official governmental community or institute even made a move, or even better, prepared any study about the issue. Why? Maybe we lack the necessary engineers, doctors, specialized personnel, etc. (NOT…), or maybe we can’t afford the materials and the cost (also NOT…), or maybe because the people we elected don’t give a damn about us (Most probably…  Am I kidding…? It’s for SURE).

The problem is not based in Matn only. Many other towns and cities are constantly exposed to different kinds of health threatening materials; whether it was the garbage, the polluted air (smoke, gases, etc.), the polluted waters (garbage, chemicals, etc.), the high tension power lines, etc..
We have them all.

Yet, for the first time in Lebanon, actual living Lebanese individuals decided to move their butts and say loudly…“NO”.
NO… we won’t allow the power lines to pass near our houses, churches, and for sure not near our schools.
NO… we won’t stand still watching our children’s lives get threatened because some stupid politician (whom we all know…) decided to reroute the actual line this project should have taken for his own benefit.
NO… we won’t be crushed under the highest bidders’ feet anymore.
NO and NO and NO and NO… we won’t accept all the bullshit our politicians throw at us and expect us to stupidly believe.

High tension electromagnetic fields are believed to be the main cause of several types of cancer. If there’s a 1% chance of this being true, the government should take the right decisions to prevent such disaster. Yet, there are many studies and proofs that the risk is high and real.

ScienceDaily, a source for the latest research news, posted on its website on the 16th of October 2000, an article titled: “Electromagnetic Fields Affect Human Cells”.
The article lists the results and experiments conducted at Michigan State University (USA) by Professor James E. Trosko (Pediatrics & Human development specialist) and other colleagues, and which result to verify the fact that overhead power lines can cause cancer.

NewScientist, a science & technology news service, posted on its website on the 3rd of June 2005, an article titled: “Large study links power lines to childhood cancer”.
The article states that children living near power lines show an increased risk of leukemia. The study was conducted by the Childhood Cancer Research Group at the University of Oxford (UK) and the National Grid Owners.

You can find a dozen other researches online which prove that high voltage overhead power lines have severe effects on the human body and especially on children (leukemia).

On the other hand, you can find hundreds of researches that contradict this fact. Why? Because they’re all funded by governments and guided by politicians.

I salute the will the Matn citizens have; it takes courage to defy the government. It takes frightened parents to face the world. But most of all, it takes believing humans to fight for their right in a just cause.

“NO MORE TENSION!”

Staying home this weekend wasn’t the best choice to make, unless you have cable. All the Lebanese TV channels had to cover the boring endless speeches of our parliament members because these speeches were more of electoral speeches aimed to enforce their campaigns; some of them placed heavy loads on the 10 months government’s back, others didn’t even read the governmental statement and was placing more loads on its head. 4 days of speeches ended yesterday (Sunday) with 2 conclusions: the government is approved but dead and useless.

There’s only one thing all the members agreed on: these sessions were made to address the public and the supporters. Not because they missed us or because they cared but it’s this time of the year where people go stupidly to elect the same parliament members who were stealing their money, taking the food out of their mouths, depriving them of all the rights/requirements needed for a good living (water, electricity, gas, etc.) and leaving them 4 years (or 3 years 6 months) to battle with poverty, sickness and internally created religious problems.
I’m not going to generalize so a friend of mine won’t take a stand against me saying that he doesn’t do that or know people that don’t do that. But the majority does…

Yes, the majority of the Lebanese people, votes for the wrong politicians. Why? ‘Cause they love to blame others for their own mistakes; they love to complain on how tough it is to live in Lebanon where salaries are so low ($200) and the prices are so high (20 Liters of gas = $22), where you can die on the streets because you don’t have a social security card or the ministry of health’s approval (yes we have so many options :), where each citizen have to kiss 100 hands to get his rights and where a stupid guy who didn’t finish first grade can make you go on your knees and kiss his boots just ‘cause he has the army or internal security suit on and he’s having a bad day.

That’s how low life is in Lebanon; it’s about the night life, the tourism and the summer carnivals & festivals when people are killing each other in Tripoli a few Kilometers away from us. It’s about owning the most beautiful cars when our families are dying of hunger. It’s about studying all our lives to travel and work abroad when our country is in need for our expertise. It’s about the people who died and are dying now and whom no one is asking about. It’s how low we are in how we act, how we live and how we think, yet pretend to be civilized.

We can’t handle the change. We got used to the shame and dishonor we’re living every day. We forgot who we are what we do and where we live. We became careless. We lost our pride…

And every time, we go and do the same mistakes all over and over again. We gather in millions to cheer for our stupid politicians but can’t agree once on gathering to improve our streets, our salaries, and our social security.  We can find the time to attend a gathering for a political party but have no time to revolt against the lack of competence that’s causing the vanishing of our forests. We can unite to kick the Syrian regime out of our country but can’t put our hands together to build this country up from the ruins.

We are the problem, not them. Stop blaming your politicians for your mistakes; they’re business men. They do what’s needed to get what they want. You should also do what’s needed to get what you want even if it was electing competent people who are willing to work for this country not your usual old fashioned family/religious driven parties’ candidates.
And what you want should be one thing: Lebanon.

When I listen to politicians talk about the squandered resources/money/brains of the country, I nearly believe that they care.

We all agree that the country have been robbed several times by either the Syrians (I mean the system that occupied Lebanon) or even by our own politicians, though I’m not writing to talk about those.
We all know that all those who were part of the parliament or the government from 1991 ‘till 2005, and their gangs, did everything they can to put their dirty hands on whatever they can get; if it was by legal or illegal means.

Still, the Lebanese people are being robbed since 1943 and exactly since the famous Independence Day by his parliament. How? Let me put this in simplified Mathematical formulas and explanation:

The number of deputes have changed since 1943 ‘till now so I’m going to round the number at 100.
When elected, each member stays for a 4 years period.
He’s paid approximately 10,000,000 LPD (~ $6,666.66 – Strange coincidence?).

We don’t have to argue about the salary. It’s fine by me, even though the minimum salaries in Lebanon go down to $200/month. That’s fine.

Over 4 years a parliament of 100 spends:
10 M * 12 months * 4 years = 480,000,000 L.L. ($320,000)

480 M * 100 = 48,000,000,000 L.L ($32,000,000)

That’s also fine by me. They’re doing their jobs (…) and they’re getting paid.

But why, why, why do I still have to pay a member of the parliament, after he leaves and new members are elected? Can someone explain that to me?

Let’s compare Lebanon to a company, where the parliament and government are its board of directors and we, the Lebanese people are its shareholders.
We elect the board of directors and pay them salaries. If a member of the board is not doing his job, we fire him (in other words, he’s not elected for a second round).
Which company/institute/organization in the world pays an employee that it fired for the rest of his life? And if he dies, it keeps paying the same salary to his wife, then his daughter if she’s single or divorced?

Let’s go to another Mathematical formula:

Since 1991 ‘till now, we had 4 parliaments of 128 members.

4 x 80 (since they’re always the same members) = 320 members

320 members * 10 M/month = 3,200,000,000L.L (~$2,133,333.33)

We’re paying $2 Million/month ($24 M/year) for our parliament members from 1991 ‘till now. I didn’t add the ones before 1991, so you do the Math.

When a member is in the parliament, he should have a salary as he’s an employee of the Lebanese people. But once the people fire him, he should get a job and start producing.

Note: I may be wrong about the numbers, but I’m sure about the law.

If you were watching step by step, the birth of the new Lebanese Government, you would’ve noticed the partitioning made by/between the Lebanese parties and politicians as if the country was a chocolate cake.

It was really tough trying to have the biggest bite and really tough trying to please everyone, mostly themselves.
What hurts the most is that on every election, government assignment, etc., you see the Lebanese people, who were complaining all the time of the politicians, cheer and party for the new depute/government/president who’s probably the same politician but with a different tie.

And while watching “Nahar el Shabab”, held at Jeita, I couldn’t hold my frustration every time a new guy/girl was up to ask a question or to deliver a message; they all started with “Congratulating the Lebanese People” of the new Government.
This happens every time! When Pr. Emile Lahoud was elected, the Lebanese People was so happy they made him songs, named streets, not one, STREETS after him, boulevards, highways, etc.
What did they get in return? A Dam-n (or damns)

Why can’t the Lebanese people wait till the politician actually starts producing and starts finding solutions before they start partying?  Why can’t we, the Lebanese people, wait till the end of the era before judging and evaluating?
We always have a prejudgment that most of the time is not accurate or true, and a couple of months later, we’re disappointed and have to live the rest of the time complaining. POWER changes people. It’s evil and contagious.

Anyway, it’s Lebanon. We’ll never understand anything or anyone, not even ourselves.

Let’s get back to the “Tribal Government”.
Tribal because the tribes are all represented. Yes the Tribes. Some gained from the last attack on Beirut; others gained through the foreign embassies and the support of the West and the KSA. Both victorious in their own way, they were trying to divide the wealth and power.
But after 45 days, they agreed to share since there’s enough for everyone.

To me, this Government is like the IFL.
IFL stands for “International Fight League” where teams battle in 5 fights (different weights), for the IFL championship title.

This is the Lebanese Government now: a battlefield. It’s a Government of no decision. Both 8 & the 14 of March will do anything to make each other look “UGLY”; it’s not a pageant, I know, but both will do their best to disable the other’s work, projects, decisions, etc.
They’ll lie, they’ll cheat, they’ll go against anything the other proposes whether it’s good or bad, whether the community, the people, the country benefit from it or not.

Don’t worry, all this hard work they’ll be doing will just be a preparation for the 2009 elections. They’re not worried about the social and the economical situations or the stability of the country. They’re worried about their “own” future; who’s going to be the next depute of Matn or Baalbak or Tripoli or Jezzine or etc.? Who’s going to have the majority in the parliament? Who’s going to prove he has the majority of the Christians, Muslims, etc.?

After that, they’ll all go and share again the wealth and power in the next Lebanese Government.

Yet, we still have a small hope that this competition held will eventually force the battling parties to try to work to improve each the ministry they “own” and eventually we’ll see, in the next 9 months, the real birth of a good thing (I don’t want to be too optimistic, so I’m not going to say the birth of a new Lebanon; this is too much to ask and hope for).

I have faith in the new Minister of Interior, Mr. Baroud. And I really hope that Power won’t change him. I hope he stays the man he is and try his best to spread his good will and intention among other Ministers. And maybe his experience in the Government will encourage other respectable and God fearing men/women to walk his walk. Maybe the next Government will be full of those hard working people whose only goal is “Lebanon”.

Ok, kick me so I wake up

As some of you noticed, if you’ve been trying to access my website the past few days, you would’ve seen a “Database connection error” displaying instead of my actual pages and posts.

Unfortunately, my hosting company’s MySQL server was down. And when they tried to fix it, they erased everything.

The good news is, I’m back and willing to write more everyday. The bad news… I lost all my previous articles. I didn’t backup my articles because usually, I write those in a few minutes and post them online. Yes it’s partially my fault, but one should/will learn from his own mistakes.

I’ll get back to you with new articles as soon as I finish setting up Worldpress.

For those of you who actually read what I write, thank you whether you agree with me or not.

I’ll get back to you soon.

Ronny Karam