Fog of Politics

With most Lebanese media preoccupied with today's parliamentary session meant to approve the new electoral law (or at least a part of it), I wasn't surprised to see them overlook this little anecdote that showed up on BBC.

Apparently Human Rights Watch reported that since 2007, ninety-five migrant maids have died by either suicide or by accident when trying to escape (usually by falling from a high altitude). That's about one per week.

It isn't a secret in Lebanon that the commonly Sri Lankan, Filipino and Ethiopian maids are often abused by Lebanese employers who see them more as household appliances than employees. And with little legal protection and government regulation, these people have very little means to protect themselves against such abuse.

The article describes some horrible stories, one about a woman who was locked up with no food or water for two days before she tried to escape by climbing out of her window and ended up falling and injuring herself.

So when it comes to reasons for being ashamed of my country, this one certainly tops the list. The fact that there are Lebanese people who drive their maids to suicide alone is incredibly disgusting. Top that with how little the average Lebanese cares about this matter and the virtually unanimous indifference our politicians demonstrate in face of this kind of issue. After all, it's not like these women were gonna vote for one party or another had they lived.

What is also amazing is the ridiculously low standard HRW is holding us to: the BBC article says that HRW asked "the official Lebanese committee tasked with improving the status of domestic workers to develop a strategy to reduce the number of deaths." Seriously? So if only 20 maids commit suicide every year instead of the current 40-something, then all will be well?

Even zero suicides from employer abuse is a pessimistic objective. What we need to aim for is to eliminate any kind of employer abuse by offering these women a legal mechanism to make their employees pay for any blatant mistreatment that qualifies as abuse. Some Lebanese people need to be taught a lesson on how to treat other human beings.

I'm curious to see if and where tomorrow morning's Lebanese papers will mention this little story. I'm also curious to understand why the BBC decided to put a picture of a dog for this article... OK I know, there's clearly a foreign maid holding its leash. But still...

Homsi Joke

Hey, did you hear the one about the Homsi who decided to declare himself a prophet?

He went to Saudi Arabia to do it and ended up in jail... Ha ha ha...

So actually, he wasn't Homsi, he was Lebanese... And it's not a joke, it's a true story: Naharnet. And here I thought Lebanese people were smart...

Conflict of Interest?

Issam Abou Jamra, who just took over the position of deputy PM decided that the deputy PM should be given more oversight on the PM’s work. Shocking! (Tayyar.org)

Also, he turns 71 this year. So expect him to decide soon that public officials over 70 should be paid more than those 70 or under.

Photo from Tayyar.org

Bomb in Tripoli

11 people (according to the latest reports at this point) were killed in a bomb blast in Tripoli this morning. The bomb was placed on the sidewalk and apparently detonated remotely.

This particular bus normally transports off-duty soldiers to their positions, so most of the victims were soldiers. So who did it? The correct answer is, "I have no idea. Let's not dish out accusations and wait for the investigation to take its course." But in the mean time, let's bring out the usual suspects:

1. Fateh Al-Islam: a fundamentalist islamist militant group that fought our army last year, were defeated. On January 7, 2008, their leader Shaker Al-Absi made a speech in which he vowed revenge against the Lebanese army (YaLibnan). Some 300 people accused of belonging to Fateh Al-Islam are currently detained at Roumieh prison, and some of them are on hunger strike to protest the delay in their trials (The Daily Star). Yesterday I talked about how their families staged a protest demanding that they be released.

2. Jabal Muhsen/Bab El-Tabbaneh conflict: the sectarian conflict between the Sunnis and Alawites in these two neighborhoods of the north has been going on for a while. With the army trying to end the conflict using force (Ya Libnan), it's possible that one of them is fighting back. But the sectarian nature of their conflict and the very un-sectarian nature of the attack make the matter a bit more complicated.

And of course, no suspect list would be complete without our two favorite accusees:

3. Syria: Our sisterly neighbor is always accused of something. If not directly accused of committing the crime (CNN), then they're indirectly accused of supporting or inciting those who did it (Time). The most common argument is that Syria wants to invoke chaos in Lebanon cause that would permit it to regain its military presence there. But of course we cannot overlook the fact that Syria is quite comfortable these days with the way things are happening in Lebanon. Its allies in Lebanon are now in the government, and our president is visiting Damascus today. Why they would start causing chaos today is beyond me.

4. Israel / United States: Up until 2004, this duo had a virtual monopoly on accusations concerning anything that goes wrong. What about today? Do we have a case against them? I don't think so. Sure, they might be pissed off at the formation of a new government in which Hezbollah has some power. Sure they're definitely pissed off that the new government platform implicitly allows Hezbollah to keep its weapons for the time being (Jerusalem Post). Sure they're pissed off at how the Lebanese celebrated the return of Samir Kuntar (Jerusalem Post). And it’s also possible that they’re not very happy about the Lebanese president visiting Damascus today, a clear sign of improving relations between Lebanon and Syria. But the very nature of the attack all but eliminates the possibility that Israel was behind it. Why Tripoli? Why attack the Lebanese army? Why blow up a civilian bus? I'm sure there are people out there who are already cursing at Israel and the US. But not me. Not this time.

Photo by AFP taken from BBC.

Demanding Justice

"Enough Injustice," reads the poster this woman is carrying during a protest earlier this week demanding the release of alleged islamist fighters who were detained by the army last summer during the Nahr El-Bared crisis.

One of their arguments (from Naharnet (in Arabic)) is that they "see a lot of others who have wronged this country and its people walk free." And on some level, they're might be right. With war criminals being appointed and elected into office, why should these guys have to serve time, especially since they haven't even been tried yet?

But then again, these people aren't Lebanese citizens who got caught up in a civil war and did some bad things to their country and fellow citizens. In fact, a lot of these people aren't Lebanese citizens at all. And they weren't fighting other groups of militants. They were fighting the Lebanese army, which at that point, was one of the few (if not the only) remaining institutions in the country that wasn't paralyzed by politics.

That said, I must note that I agree with these protestors on one thing. These people still deserve justice. They need to be tried, and those that are found guilty sentenced, those that aren't released. We don't want to have our very own Guantanamo Bay.

Going back to the picture... Am I the only one who finds it ironic that a woman, in the burning heat of August, completely covers herself up in black, for no reason other than the fact that she's a woman, and then demands "justice"?

Photo from Tayyar.org