A Dangerous Habit
As I read through Lebanese blogs such as BeirutSpring or the Lebanese Bloggers, I find a dangerous habit evolving through their comments section; one which requires special attention as it will lead Lebanon to Iraq's reality.
For years it has been practice in the Arab world to blame the "Big Satan" (U.S.) and the "Little Satan" (Israel), for all the troubles that befell the Arab world. Raja's recent post about Hezbollah's role in the recent conflict has brought on it a fury of these attitudes ("Desperate and Stupid: a rant" in Lebanese Bloggers); which I find culminating with Mustapha's post on US aid ("Wrong Move from Bush" in Beirutspring). It is exactly this kind of attitude that will leave the Arab world where it is.
What has blaming the West brought the Arab world so far? absolutly nothing. It may have had it feel good about itself and clean itself from its part of the blame; but on the whole the West and Israel have continued to evolve and the Arab world has... well, I don't need to tell you, just look at UNICEF and UNDP stats to know.
Edward Said, the famous Palestinian scholar, was a champion of this approach of blaming the west. For him, as his critics note, Arab culture was a result of Imperialism and Western Orientalists like Bernard Lewis. More than 1500 years of intelectual prose reduced to being a Western invention in the stroke of a pen! What can one say to that other than the pen is mightier than the sword indeed. ..
Though he opposed Islamic radicalism (which for him was a western creation as well), Said has in fact adopted this radical Islamic tactic of blaming the West. But what are th risks of that? Isn't everybody trying to shirk away from responsibility? Probably, but when they do that, it is for their benefit; not their disadvantage. Let us take Iraq for example.
To date, the US has thrown in the way of Iraq an amount of money to the tune of 300 billion dollars and counting. A rough calculation based on 65 million Iraqis would mean that this amounts to about 4200$ a person in Iraq, a hefty sum indeed. Yet all of the Arab world is busy blaming them for imperialism and so more than half that money ended up being spent on miltary budget. Military budget to fight Shia insurgents who want their payback time; Military budget to fight Sunni insurgents who want to go back to Saddam's "good old days"; and a military budget to fight everyday profiteers who decided to make kidnaping aid agency workers into Iraq's number one industry. In the end both the US and the West will be fed up and will decide to invest the money in barricading themselves; leaving Iraqis back in the dust. The prophet's wife, Fatima, who was an astute business woman (In Islam? 1500 years ago?? Yes, all ye who do not bother to learn about Islam) would not have seen this as a smart business move.
And so how does all this relate to Lebanon and the rest of the Arab world and to Mustapha's post? I am glad you asked. In his post Mustapha suggested to reject US aid of 230 million$ to Lebanon. He definitely showed them! and as a reward, Siniora's government will have no money to rebuild Lebanon and combat Hezbollah. Instead Lebanon will get to a situation in which Lebanon would fund the bigger projects like bridges etc. that nobody notices and everybody needs; and Hezbollah will put the icing on the cake in the form of compansations leaving Lebanon in the hands of radical Islam and its backwardness. What a reward. And so instead of focusing on blaming the West, rejecting its help and focusing on being left behind; perhaps it is time to reach out and get some freakin help before it is too late!
For years it has been practice in the Arab world to blame the "Big Satan" (U.S.) and the "Little Satan" (Israel), for all the troubles that befell the Arab world. Raja's recent post about Hezbollah's role in the recent conflict has brought on it a fury of these attitudes ("Desperate and Stupid: a rant" in Lebanese Bloggers); which I find culminating with Mustapha's post on US aid ("Wrong Move from Bush" in Beirutspring). It is exactly this kind of attitude that will leave the Arab world where it is.
What has blaming the West brought the Arab world so far? absolutly nothing. It may have had it feel good about itself and clean itself from its part of the blame; but on the whole the West and Israel have continued to evolve and the Arab world has... well, I don't need to tell you, just look at UNICEF and UNDP stats to know.
Edward Said, the famous Palestinian scholar, was a champion of this approach of blaming the west. For him, as his critics note, Arab culture was a result of Imperialism and Western Orientalists like Bernard Lewis. More than 1500 years of intelectual prose reduced to being a Western invention in the stroke of a pen! What can one say to that other than the pen is mightier than the sword indeed. ..
Though he opposed Islamic radicalism (which for him was a western creation as well), Said has in fact adopted this radical Islamic tactic of blaming the West. But what are th risks of that? Isn't everybody trying to shirk away from responsibility? Probably, but when they do that, it is for their benefit; not their disadvantage. Let us take Iraq for example.
To date, the US has thrown in the way of Iraq an amount of money to the tune of 300 billion dollars and counting. A rough calculation based on 65 million Iraqis would mean that this amounts to about 4200$ a person in Iraq, a hefty sum indeed. Yet all of the Arab world is busy blaming them for imperialism and so more than half that money ended up being spent on miltary budget. Military budget to fight Shia insurgents who want their payback time; Military budget to fight Sunni insurgents who want to go back to Saddam's "good old days"; and a military budget to fight everyday profiteers who decided to make kidnaping aid agency workers into Iraq's number one industry. In the end both the US and the West will be fed up and will decide to invest the money in barricading themselves; leaving Iraqis back in the dust. The prophet's wife, Fatima, who was an astute business woman (In Islam? 1500 years ago?? Yes, all ye who do not bother to learn about Islam) would not have seen this as a smart business move.
And so how does all this relate to Lebanon and the rest of the Arab world and to Mustapha's post? I am glad you asked. In his post Mustapha suggested to reject US aid of 230 million$ to Lebanon. He definitely showed them! and as a reward, Siniora's government will have no money to rebuild Lebanon and combat Hezbollah. Instead Lebanon will get to a situation in which Lebanon would fund the bigger projects like bridges etc. that nobody notices and everybody needs; and Hezbollah will put the icing on the cake in the form of compansations leaving Lebanon in the hands of radical Islam and its backwardness. What a reward. And so instead of focusing on blaming the West, rejecting its help and focusing on being left behind; perhaps it is time to reach out and get some freakin help before it is too late!
posted by The Middle East News Addict at 5:04 PM
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