Opinion Editorials, October 2003, www.aljazeerah.info
Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people
Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
Cities, localities, and tourist attractions
Challenges for Lebanon
Arab News
10/26/03
Lebanese workers took to the streets on Thursday in response to union calls for a general strike to protest against a seven-year wage freeze — an action that suspended flights out of Beirut for seven hours. Public transport workers stayed home and government offices and companies were closed. That sent a powerful signal to the Lebanese government that its economic chickens have come home to roost. The country is now looking at crippling public debts of more than $32 billion and is running out of money. Marginal economic growth has done little to soak up the country’s unemployed, while at the same time the state’s tax take has gone down. The welfare demands of the poor and sick have risen at the precise moment that the government’s ability to pay has dropped.
Here is a state of four million people that for almost 25 years was the devastated cockpit in which its neighbors fought out their own battles. Differences between the various Lebanese communities, Muslim, Maronite Christian, Druze and Palestinian were exploited by outsiders. When the country was finally left to its own devices, hardly ten years ago, it faced a mammoth task of rebuilding.
The omens were good. Wealthy Lebanese who had fled the fighting promised to return with their pocketbooks to fund investment in the stricken economy. Ambitious plans to rebuild the shattered heart of Beirut began almost immediately. A further boost to state income was expected from the privatization of a number of services, including the two state owned cell phone nets.
But the pace of privatization and cost cutting has now slowed to a crawl amid bickering from ministers and factions. The investment needed to rebuild the ruined economy did not come. Wealthy expatriate Lebanese were notable by their lack of big-ticket commitments. It seemed as if each was waiting for another to be first. As a result, virtually none of them came. Thus non-Lebanese investors very properly asked the question, if the Lebanese themselves are not prepared to invest in their own country, why should anyone else?
The Lebanese government did not recognize the quandary. It took the gamble of seeding recovery with taxes, in the hope that outside funds would then be attracted. They were not. Yet the government continued to spend way beyond its tax revenues, turning to ever greater quantities of debt. As a result, the ratio of public debt to gross domestic product now stands at 170 percent, one of the highest in the world.
Lebanon must find a solution to the current standoff, and fast. Outside forces have exploited internal Lebanese divisions before; they may do so again. At this point, the Middle East cannot afford another headache.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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