Seeded by neglect

In late May, Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli erupted into deadly violence with the shockwaves eventually spreading south onto the streets of Beirut. By the time the politicians, generals and sheikhs had scrambled together some semblance of order, more than a dozen people had been killed and the stability of the nation was shaken to its feeble core. The collapse in security was, of course, intrinsically linked to the unremitting uprising in Syria and the shaft that it drives through the opposing camps within Lebanon. However, generations of economic neglect and the more recent political estrangement of much of the north have helped lay the foundations for the unrest we see today.  During the most recent fighting in Tripoli I spent a couple of days with the residents-cum-combatants in the staunchly anti-Syrian regime neighborhood of Bab El Tabbeneh. With his new high-powered rifle lying nearby — his last one had