State of mind

ENAR

As Lebanon picks itself up after months of enduring post-traumatic stress syndrome in the wake of Rafik Hariri’s murder, the Syrian withdrawal, and subsequent bombings and assassinations (a syndrome that will, in all probability, resume in the aftermath of the Mehlis report’s release), little has been said about revamping the country’s political-economic culture. Yet few things seemed more useful when, in mid-August, Walid Jumblatt announced he would consider withdrawing his ministers from Fouad Siniora’s government when it came time to address privatization. There were several ways to interpret his shot across the Hariri yacht’s bow: Jumblatt was upping the ante to ensure he would profit from privatization; he was warning his Hariri camp allies that he was no potted plant on national policy; he sought to show that as a ‘socialist,’ he had little sympathy for the capitalism favored by the prime minister. One might add that Jumblatt was also