We promised we wouldn’t mention the Arab league meeting in Damascus last month but it is hard not to be moved by the reaction of the majority of the Arab world to Lebanon’s plight. Yes, there was support from some quarters, but the overwhelming feeling was one of indifference when it came to Lebanon.
In fact, Lebanon is unfinished business and the Arab League has its head in the sand. Created in the 1920s, this country still has no officially demarcated borders with Syria, neither, for that matter, diplomatic relations. What was started must be followed through — the Arab League must do its utmost in backing one of its most important members.
But this indifference not only thwarts Lebanon’s potential; it is a damning indictment in regards to how the rest of the world sees Arabs. We can be as advanced as we like with our museums, universities, hotels and malls but until we climb out of the narrow confines of equally narrow interests, the international community will never take us as seriously as it should. And while this may not be bad for business … business could be much better.
Staying with Lebanon, one of its greatest ironies is that the vibrant private sector that has sustained this tiny Mediterranean nation is quite possibly what has also sustained the tragic political dynamic that has cursed Lebanon for over 40 years. With billions poured into the country from Lebanese living and working abroad, there has been no urgency for a fully functioning public sector, one that could contribute to a fully functioning state instead of a family business with borders, which is more or less what Lebanon is. If we had a genuine public sector we might see genuine stability rather than the forum for political self-interest we have today.
And while the region flourishes, inflation is rampant in Lebanon, where the cost of diesel has doubled in recent years putting huge strain on an already struggling industrial sector. In the property market, where prices have risen by 30% in the last year, activity by those whose business life is sustained by the excess petro-dollars is seen as a correction, where to those living in Lebanon on Lebanese wages it is simply inflation and that is their reality.
Sadly, this subject was not on the agenda in Damascus.
