When Energy Minister Gebran Bassil announced his blueprint for electricity reform, he started his presentation with the phrase “itafaqna,” or “we agreed.” Whenever our so-called leaders use this, something is not quite right. More often than not it hints at conspiracy rather than cooperation. And so, the worrying absence of a mechanism of private sector involvement in the draft proposal and only a hint of the creation of a regulatory body to see that the plan outlives the minister’s term came as no surprise. What was present, however, were clues that Lebanon’s future electricity had been ‘allocated’ along troublingly familiar lines, with proposed regional networks following the county’s traditional power bases. We were told of plans to implement wind power (presumably in the north), waste power (presumably close to urban areas) and hydroelectric power (presumably in the south). A student of Lebanese politics 101 will tell you how that particular
