Thursday, June 16, 2005

HEAT - The Lebanese Elections

Dear Lebanon

For about 2 months now, the only topic discussed in Lebanon is the parliamentary elections.
It is the first time elections take place after the end of the Syrian occupation.
After the first two rounds of elections (Beirut & the South), in which the result was known way before elections' day, last Sunday witnessed round 3.
The Mount Lebanon and Bekaa parliamentary elections witnessed a fierce electoral battle.
The Lebanese people had the chance to choose between 2 major forces.
And what a choice they made... They chose to change, they chose to express their disgust from the traditional lawmakers.
The losers expressed their worries that the country was heading back to war following the Free Patriotic Movement's win, as if they expected the Lebanese people were in the mood or even ready for another civil war.
With the rise of a new and strong leader, the political scene witnessed a severe reshuffling of cards.
We might be witnessing for the first time in modern Lebanon the switch from sectarian divide to political agenda partisanship.
Next Sunday, the final round of the elections will take place in the North and will be decisive as to who will control the next parliament: The Master of Mukhtara or The Against-All-Odds General.

PS: For those wondering, I voted ORANGE.

Thursday, June 02, 2005

Explosion in Ashrafieh

(Updated)

2nd of June 2005

A bomb targeting An-Nahar columnist Samir Kassir killed him instantly.
The explosion took place around 11:00 am Beirut Time.
He was in his car in Ashrafieh, a christian town of Beirut.

Later in the evening, Mr. Marcel Ghanem dedicated the episode of his talk show "Kalam El Nass" (Peoples's discussions) to commemorate the martyr of the press.
The show's guests were politicians, journalists and most importantly some of Mr. Kassir's students.
As the show progressed, the students started to give their testimonies of their beloved teacher, which was more like a mentor and a friend for them.
All four students expressed their admiration for their martyr, and their shock and disgust over the use of his martyrdom for electoral and political reasons by politicians.
Rather then mourning the martyr, the so-called opposition decided to benefit from the sad event to promote its political agenda through their speeches and the clearly biased media.


Below is a photo of his wrecked car and his portrait taken from the tayyar.org website:





Links:
1- MSNBC
2- CNN
3- Reuters

Lebanon News - Aggregated by Google