20 Comments. Add your own...

• 1. GARY | March 2nd, 2008 at 12:42 am

  Nothing is more terrible than to see ignorance in action.

• 2. theCourtFool | March 2nd, 2008 at 1:02 am

  I don’t think I’d go so far to say Lebanon is portrayed as an Islamic country, we all know how sensitive mentioning that can be outrageous to many Lebanese (including moderate and liberal Lebanese muslims which are by far one of the most liberal muslims of the ‘arab’ world).

  But nonetheless, I think the harsh boycott by our government is due to the recent war with Israel 2 years ago.

  I wonder if the government would have still have abandoned its francophone identity to an extent of boycotting the book fair if the summer war of 2006 didn’t happen.

• 3. danny/palmbeach | March 2nd, 2008 at 1:13 am

  We are nothing more than bunch of pussies, no balls.

• 4. theCourtFool | March 2nd, 2008 at 1:37 am

  KALAM EL NASS… I miss it :(… ehem… (hint, hint) :p

• 5. mountain | March 2nd, 2008 at 1:39 am

  no worries, now the book got a free ad and people who wants to buy it will do so in a way or another. kil shi mamnou3 marghoub.
  we are in the 21st century, boycotting books is not a smart move , wake up GOV’t

• 6. SONIA | March 2nd, 2008 at 2:55 am

  So bad,so sad.

• 7. elie | March 2nd, 2008 at 3:07 am

  isecsco is controlled by a bunch of idiots from south east asia(pakistan ..indonesia…)
  i don’t know what is their problem with israel.anyway one billion muslims buy less books then the 15 million jews …so …i don’t see the meaning of their boycott.

• 8. nona | March 2nd, 2008 at 7:14 am

  N,
  I don’t understand how you can justify attending an event the honours someone who a little over one year ago butchered 300 of your children.
  I think they did the right thing by not attending, if only to honor our dead.

• 9. Michele | March 2nd, 2008 at 7:47 am

  This is truly sad… Maybe Lebanon should be the guest of honor at the Iran fair book?

• 10. Michele | March 2nd, 2008 at 7:48 am

  i meant book fair

• 11. Johnny.B | March 2nd, 2008 at 8:49 am

  this is what happens when HA and his weapons are present …. the government is intimidated by his weapons and is trying to ease the tension between each other …

  H.A go to hell you and nassrallah, it’s all coz of you we are becoming like that ignorant and illiterate … if it was up to me I personally would give Israel the honor trophy … and would give H.A and all the rest who are with H.A the middle finger you and your stupid chador …

• 12. paul | March 2nd, 2008 at 10:38 am

  Typical Arabs, they boycott everything they don´t like, discussions and dialogues are already present in the Arabic literature .This shows only how weak they are…bahdaltna ya tareq mitri.

• 13. Marco (Quebec) | March 2nd, 2008 at 11:29 am

  what a shame 3anjad.. too bad for leb!
  I feel such an anger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! where all countries are developing intelectually and we are still a ” political victim” being manipulated and taking the country to the unknown… f it!!!:@

• 14. LFFE | March 2nd, 2008 at 1:07 pm

  sad very sad…
  this reminds me a couple of years ago when lebanon was about to participate in the eurovision song contest and we withdrew our participation bec they wouldnt let us show black image when the israeli contestant would sing… because of some radical idiots lebanon always misses the chance to show its culture to the world. shame

• 15. Peter | March 2nd, 2008 at 4:16 pm

  I will not call this ignorance but stupidity

• 16. Tarek | March 2nd, 2008 at 4:36 pm

  I find no meaning for this decision. You want to boycott who hurt Lebanon!? Start with Syria and Iran and the list is loooooooooooong. We’ll end up boycotting everything. This is stupid.

• 17. Markus | March 3rd, 2008 at 12:16 pm

  Until the Lebanese find a way to be proud of their identity as one people, they really have no basic right to attack or criticize any other.
  Lebanon is a land that produced so many wonderful thinkers, artists, and sometimes even leaders. But it is a land, not a nation. Why? Because when there is no one understanding among the people as to what Lebanon means to them then there is a tribal intent of owning the land according to their various wishes.
  At the moment, the Lebanese discuss Lebanon in terms of personal ownership. You don’t hear them being proud of being Arabs or Lebanese. No, they are Druze, Sunni, Maronites, etc.
  Your Gods are crying over and for you and not even His tears will save your present dilemma, because you are not able to care for it yourself.
  And you discuss boycotts? What a hypocrisy. Boycott your own values and boycott your own prejudices and then you can begin to earn a right to call yourselves Lebanese.

• 18. Patrick | March 3rd, 2008 at 8:30 pm

  elie,

  “anyway one billion muslims buy less books then the 15 million jews …so …i don’t see the meaning of their boycott.”

  COULDN’T HAVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF.

  anyway i think johnny is right. the reason for the boycott is the same reason for hariri and jumblatt sending representatives to HA to express their condolences for the loss of mughniyeh, and the same reason for siniora’s reaction to the u.s. warships:

  after mughniyeh’s assassination, HA was (and is) ready to go crazy, and everyone feels intimidated and are going out of their way to ease tensions…

• 19. Patrick | March 3rd, 2008 at 8:43 pm

  forgot one thing: SHAME on our 14 march leaders for bowing to HA’s intimidation!

  if i felt the boycott was sincere, i would call it stupid like everyone else. but i feel it’s just to ease tensions because our leaders are intimidated by HA, and for that reason it puts the SAME feeling inside me as when jumblatt announced he will send condolences to HA because of what happened to mughniyeh… MERE DAYS after he told nasrallah he welcomed war and was ready to take his rockets from him!

  SHOO YE3NY!?!

  is there no way to ease tensions without going back on everything we have been saying lately??

  in my opinion, jumblatt and hariri said what they said about war and conflict because they are scared. if they weren’t scared, either they would say it and stick by it, or they wouldn’t say it all.

  so, let’s not be scared and say things we’re not going to stick by. instead, let’s be cautious, and challenge HA as hakim has challenged them… let’s debate the issues, let’s make speeches, let’s publish books and write articles, let’s speak to the media…

  hakim is right, the pen is mightier than the sword… but only if your pen has ink and your soul has the will to make a difference.

• 20. Michele | March 4th, 2008 at 11:22 am

  Patrick, i totally agree wz u

Leave a Reply

Trackback this post  |  Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed