As 2009 draws to a close, two centers of business can publish two very different end of year reports. Lebanon, for so long the whipping boy of regional fortunes, is signing off on a year that should see it achieve 7 percent growth. Dubai on the other hand, until recently the jewel in the regional crown, was hammered by global financial meltdown. As I write, the chief investment vehicle of Dubai’s government, Dubai World, has just told its creditors they will not be receiving the billions of dollars in payments they are owed in December, and asked them to put off this repayment until May 2010. In Lebanon, the business community showed what it can do even when the government is absent — literally absent. For five months in 2009, following the June 7 elections, the state sat in limbo as protracted negotiations over the formation of a new cabinet
