My good friend Mishaal from Dubai told me the other day that he thought of Lebanon as, and I quote him, a “big momma.” He elaborated: “She just can’t stop having kids, and when they are grown up she sends them out into the world to work so that every month they wire her money so she can live. This is like Lebanon, which cannot stop sending its sons and daughters out into the world and which would not be able to survive without the money they send home.” He has, of course, got a point. It is a not an inaccurate rule of thumb — as far as rules of thumbs go — that Lebanon’s GDP is made up of one third banking, one third remittances and one third “the rest,” (i.e. tourism, industry, agriculture, retail etc.). It’s not the most balanced economic model but then again, no one
