After many posts and comments on Aoun’s visit to Syria, and because Aoun himself compared his visit with the visit of Charles De Gaulle to Germany after WW2, and described it as historical, this is why I don’t agree with him (not only on this issue but on nearly everything else).
First, why the visit to Syria is not historical, because De Gaulle made his visit to Germany after the fall of Hitler’s Regime, while the Regime of Assad (whether Hafez or Bashar: the same) is still in power with all the hurting and sufferance he caused for Lebanon, so what is Historical in this??
De Gaulle made the visit after Germany lost the war and all the German soldiers withdrew from France, while the Syrians are still in Lebanon with all their intelligence and followers. Nothing Historical.
De Gaulle visited while being victorious in war, while Aoun has nothing to do with victory, especially against the Syrians, he lost all the wars against them. Again nothing Historical.
De Gaulle went there on an a French plane, Aoun used a Syrian plane (maybe MEA refused to participate in this Farce).
De Gaulle made the visit while all France was behind him, while Aoun had only the village idiots backing him.
De Gaulle was really fighting the Germans, while Aoun was their best agent and only fought them for personal reasons.
And last but not least, because there will be no good result for Lebanon after that visit, while the French General has established good relations for the future between both countries.
Now why Aoun is not De Gaulle, because the latter went there as the French President, while Aoun will never ever dream of being president.
Because De Gaulle was a real leader who fought hard, while Aoun run away with the people’s money grabbing the first chance he had.
Because De Gaulle liberated France and threw out Hitler’s army (of course with the help of the allies), while Aoun allowed the Syrians to enter additional areas in Lebanon (eastern areas, Christians areas) by his stupidity or treason, after they have failed to do so during 15 years of war.
Because De Gaulle is a patriotic person who loved and sacrificed for his country, while Aoun is only an agent and a small soldier in Assad’s army.
Because De Gaulle lived by his principles and “sa7ebna Aoun” denied all his so called beliefs.
Because De Gaulle didn’t ask the French to apologize when he was visiting.
In my opinion, they share two little things, first they both lived in France for a certain time, and second the both were militaries, but De Gaulle turned out to be one of the best Generals in the world, while Aoun became a smaller insane lunatic politician after being a general by force.
This visit was rather Hastirical (from Aoun’s Hastiria)

In his latest lapse, and while defending Syria as often, Aoun asked for a Public Apology from Kataeb as a condition to resume good relations with them.

I wonder did Aoun ask or get this same Apology from Syria, so he decided to make that historical visit, or maybe he’s the one who apologized to the Syrians for the miseries he caused them during the last 33 years????

Maybe because he felt the Syrians are poor and innocent and they have suffered enough from the Lebanese people. Haram!!!

Far from our internal politics and daily concerns, I think the Piracy acts on the rise in Eden Gulf and Somalia’s shores represent an important issue to talk about.

Who could ever think we will see this kind of Piracy again, we are in the 21^st century

for God’s sake, meaning more than 100 years after the last act of such piracy occurred.

I mean we’re more familiar with E-Piracy, Music Piracy, or the one related to intellectual property, but living in an era of sea piracy, the original one and in real not in the movies, is something so strange in my opinion.

With all this development and progress, one should ask how the hell this is happening again, and how these new pirates are moving that easy without any serious action to curb them so far.

In my humble opinion, I think the international community is guilty of not reacting fast and enough against this new-old phenomenon.

I also think that the late respond was deliberate at first, maybe because the developed countries felt that leaving these people solve their poorness issues through these acts is better than providing them with financial assistance which will cost them more, or maybe because they were planning a military intervention in that area, so they waited a little further to justify it.

On the other hand, maybe some regional countries are supporting these acts in order to benefit from the outcomes.

In anyway, the increase of acts (about 200 ships high jacked till now, the biggest was the Saudi Oil Tanker, and the Ukrainian ship) represents a dangerous development that should be taken care of, and the late international naval missions to be in place by next month, are the best response to that, since they are expected to protect the vulnerable vessels off the coast and help ensure a safe traffic in that area, as well as the delivery of material aid to Somalia.

What is amazing also the level of technology those pirates achieved, since they managed to acquire the latest technology and weapons, as well as the best communication and satellite equipments, which should raise many question marks!!!!

I have decided before not to write any post about Michel Aoun, even though I’m sure it could serve as awareness for those who are still believing this guy or believing in him.

But this little general keeps on amazing us with his statements and acts, until it is not certain to which low level he will get.

Anyway, I just want to talk about his latest shocking statement last Monday, when he was answering a question about his coming visit to …. Syria??? Yes to Syria, his favorite country, of course after Iran.

He said: “During my visit to Syria, I will have the chance to know them and they will get to know me also, since they know everybody in Lebanon except me, they know all those who are criticizing them now, and I’m the only one they don’t know. Today things have changed and we’ll meet”.

“إنني خلال زيارة سوريا، سأتعرف اليهم وسيتعرفون إليّ. هم يعرفون الجميع في لبنان إلا أنا، يعرفون كل من ينتقدونهم اليوم، أنا الوحيد الذي لا يعرفونني. اليوم الأوضاع تغيّرت وسنتلاقى”

First of all, mon petit general, they know you very well, in fact they know you better than all the rest, since you are their best friends, you were always, since before 1988.

Also You know them, You know well that you’re their best “soldier” in Lebanon, this “little soldier in Hafez Al Assad army” who has made the best achievements for them, who has implemented their plan perfectly, but your plans and aspirations were denied, because in Lebanon there are still people who didn’t and couldn’t believe your “Shaab loubnan Al Azim” slogan.

Second, “Things have changed and we’ll meet”, which things and what have changed?? The only thing that changed is that the Syrians are military outside Lebanon, but not politically, not anything else, you didn’t change, you are still the same insane and mad soldier, who unfortunately had luck and compromised a lot to become general and then Army chief and later a so called leader.

Maybe Aoun thinks the Syrians have changed and may accept him as president, but we say let them put him president to a Syrian association, or maybe their president, cause here in Lebanon the presidency for him will stay a dream, and in the future, even the love of some people who are still supporting him, will become also a dream, and likely a nightmare, cause history doesn’t lie and will put Michel Aoun into the trash can.

What I want to say in this post may disturb some people, and others may not like what I have to say or may not agree with me, but I decided to talk about this issue to see other people’s opinions in this and to have a sane trade of ideas (please).

Before I say what I have in mind, I should emphasis that I’m a Christian Maronite and very proud to be, so I’m not trying to undermine any of the Maronites rights here.

BUT, and in time people are asking why we have that much of traitors among the Christian politicians in Lebanon, and mainly on the Maronites scene, I find in my humble thinking that the main reason for that is the Presidency chair, and the dream which invades nearly every Lebanese Maronite head since his birth of becoming President (including myself), and we have many samples to prove it, unfortunately bad ones.

LOOK AT OUR HISTORY, it was and still full of differences between Maronite leaders, if anyone still remember the “Nahej” and the “Hilf” (النهج والحلف) in the 50s and 60s, and later in the 70s and 80s (Sleiman Frangieh vs Lebanese Front leaders), passing on to the late 80s and 90s with Michel Aoun and le petit Sleiman, arriving to Elias Hrawi, Emile Lahoud and Michel Sleiman among others.

All those named here and others were and still are ready to do anything, whatever it is, to become Presidents, or even to extend their stay in Baabda.

They have launched wars after wars (aka Aoun), destroying the country (aka Aoun, Lahoud), dividing the Christian community (Aoun, both Frangieh the grandfather and le petit), selling themselves and their people to anyone who can help them to get the chair (Aoun, Frangieh, Hrawi, Lahoud, and more than 1000 others), change their beliefs and principles (Aoun, Lahoud, Sleiman), and to commit murders (Lahoud), everything for the chair.

So, and as a result, I Rodge the Lebanese Maronite from Mount Lebanon, clearly ask everyone concerned to take away this position from Maronites for God sake, or else we will keep on killing each others.

In fact, we should ask ourselves what our former Presidents have achieved for us by sitting in that chair?? Nothing, most of them haven’t done anything special for us, in fact they hurt us a lot, look what Lahoud did, see what Aoun did and still doing, both Frangiehs, Hrawi, and maybe Sleiman in the future.

Personally I prefer a Kurdish coming from anywhere in this world to be President IF he will make my country better and serve it with loyalty and faith and ensure us a better life, and make me and other immigrants think of coming back to Lebanon.

Eventually maybe it is better for us to have another chair, maybe PM or speaker of the Parliament, they are more effective, look at Berri for instance, he was ruling the country for the past couple of years, refusing to open the parliament and keeping the key of all the solutions with him.

In conclusion, I want, and I think you all do, what is best for Lebanon, no matter who will bring it, because IF we can’t have a GOOD and STRONG and POWERFUL Maronite president (like BASHIR or maybe DSG or anyone who could be strong enough), a president that we can elect with our own will and not by the others’ agreements, why would we need that position?? Let us refuse it, maybe we’ll live in peace and unity after.

2 days after the explosion in Damascus, and about 45 days after the first one of its kind, here they are again, this morning an explosion hit a mini bus transporting Army soldiers and some civilians, some 10 killed or injured are reported, and I’m confident the same people planned and executed the 3 explosions.

Now the question should be what is the relation, and I think many of you girls and guys have already answered the question, cause it seems, and since the summer of 2007, the Syrians are trying all they can to return to Lebanon through the north gate, mainly Tripoli, and at the same time they are implementing there own part of the deal done with the Americans and Israelis, so they are assassinating some of the officers involved in Hariri’s death, while blame it on the extremists.

I can say they are playing it so smart, so for us to be aware and abolish the plan.

I see a real danger up in the north, but again innocent civilians and soldiers are paying the price. 

Yesterday, the “Transparency International” organization (a global organization which takes Berlin as headquarter) issued its latest “Corruption Perception Index” for the year 2008, in which our dear Lebanon was sadly ranked 102^nd among 180 countries included in the report. This rank considers a retreat from last year’s position (99^th) as well as the 2006 classification where it was ranked in the 63^rd position. But even though the position is getting worse, the grades given saw some improvement since 2005 (after the end of the Syrian occupation), since Lebanon earned an average of over 3 points in the last 3 years after scoring only a poor 2.7 points in 2004.

Of course nothing to be happy with this ranking, and it isn’t a surprise for anyone, since we already knew that we suffer from corruption in Lebanon on all levels, but what is sad about the issue is that we came in a really late position among Arab countries (11^th among 20), with only Mauritania, Egypt (both 115), Libya (126), Comoros (134), Yemen (141), Syria (147 – the only good news in the report), Sudan (173), Iraq (174), and Somalia (180) coming behind.

Maybe it shows how much we are losing, but also how much others are gaining on us, and not only regarding corruption, but concerning other signs of civilization, education, culture, and others.

This reminds me of lots of things we are losing in Lebanon, mainly our lifestyle that others were envying us for having, and were trying and still to do the same.

We are losing our education level, and here I remember a while ago hearing that Lebanese students used to score more than 95% in the Toefel test, but lately they couldn’t manage to score more than 73%.

It is a sign of backwardness caused by corruption in everything in Lebanon, and that’s why we are lacking the simplest services, such as electricity, water, telephones, medical, educational (we were the best in the last 2), good social security, and security as a whole.

Obviously we have our whole sectarian, policitical, and administrative system to blame, but we should not only hold our governments and politicians responsible for that, we should also blame ourselves, because we the Lebanese people have been contributing a lot in this regard, since we still have the culture of “Wasta”, “Tozbitat” and Bribery among others, so to help our score to improve in corruption, let us first try to abolish that culture, and do something without seeking “Wasta” first, and without trying to bribe the public servants.