The $10 rip-off

Welcome to Lebanon -the land that has forgotten its role as the region’s free economy, where levying taxes has become the national sport and stupid government decisions run free. The latest doozy was a gift from sports minister Mohammed Youssef Beydoun. He decided to tax visitors $IO for each night spent at any hotel during the Asian Cup and for the entire month of October, claiming it w~ the best way to recover costs for the three new stadiums. That’s on top of the current 5% tax on transactions at hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions. The only people exempt from the new tax were the football players participating in the Asian Cup. The hotel industry cried foul – and rightfully so. Pierre Achkar, president of the association of Lebanese hotel owners, resigned from his post last month in protest. Josianne Chaccour, sales and marketing executive at Palm Beach Sofitel, was