What is happening in this country? I watch the news and feel like I’m in class and should be explaining fallacies!

Watching the news has become a pain… a pain I can’t live without sadly! I always find myself ready to scream…and the causes are a few. So I decided to list them in a post here, plus provide an example.

A Fallacy is any error of reasoning. Now what are some common fallacies? and as you read this list, please try to remember whether you’ve encountered any of these, and I am sure you have in the news or in our dear politicians’ speeches.

Now what are some common fallacies that I have seen?

Ad Hominem – attacking the person instead of refuting the argument

Faulty Cause/effect – arguing that one event caused another without sufficient evidence of a causal relationship.

Hasty conclusion – drawing a firm conclusion without enough evidence confirming it.

Hasty generalization – arguing that what is true of a few members of a group must be true of the whole.

Non Sequitur – where the conclusion does not follow from the evidence provided and reasoning (most fallacies can be described as Non Sequitur in one way or another)

Tu Quoque – (you too fallacy) responding to charges of wrongdoing by claiming the other person has also done something wrong.

The above is just a small list of fallacies. Now, why did I decide to write this before going to the nighclub and dancing my heart out on saturday night?

Because of one story I heard on OTV.

and just because i am using the story on OTV does not mean other channels don’t do the same.

The story goes like this:

Michel Faraoun said that Tarek Mitri’s wife told him of how Aoun bombed Ashrafieh pre 1990. So OTV took this story and made it into a whole discussion of how Annahar had once posted an article on Tarek Mitri in 2008, talking about how he was involved in trying to nationalize the Palestinians. and this article was used as a means to refute what Mitri’s wife said about bombs falling on her house!

In class, I would usually ask my students to name the fallacies in this reasoning. But that’s not my point here. my point is to vent! yes, vent! because our younger generation is being exposed to these reasoning techniques.

I just hope they have the strength to suppess these and move ahead…that’s my only hope.

So what seems to be the problem?

Many people I talk to are either unaware of this issue or don’t think it’s such a problem.

Inno you tell me whether it is a problem to have more than 50% of the population unable to claim their full rights as lebanese citizens? people who hear me talking about this assume i must have a personal stake in this, because of course… as if only those who are married to non-lebanese should care.

Well no, I don’t have a personal stake.
And No, I am not doing this because I’m on Hariri’s payroll and want to naturalize the Palestinians.

I, and those like me, are doing this because it is not fair for women to continuously be treated as second class citizens in a country that they have built and sacrificed for.

So yes, we have one final chance before the current batch of “wonderful” ministers leave the cabinet. one last chance to get them to pass the law in one of their ad hoc sessions. After that, it will be discussed by the new parliament and amended if necessary (especially concerning the Palestinian dimension).

So please, Join us tomorrow from 4 to 7 pm in front of the Grand Serail.

We are the change that we want to achieve!

a regular student in the library, checked out a movie that i wanted to watch for class, and then i think… let me check my mobile phone and i get the message. they killed pierre.

i may look like a regular student… but you know whats different about me? i am lebanese. and as a lebanese i cannot expect to have the usual worries other people have. no as a lebanese you just have to think of murder and death every single minute of ever single day. heaven forbid you feel like a normal person for two days in a row.

as i was walking back home, i could only think of one incident, which is a bit sad really. it was in a thread long ago about the president of lebanon. and i remember debating with 3ajib, where i said i want my president to be handsome at least. and he asked… do you mean pierre el gemayel? and all i could think about walking home…was that he couldnt be president now. he doesnt even have that option anymore. and what is his crime? he is working in politics in lebanon.

 i can honestly say that i have seen him twice. the first time was about four years ago. i was working in a patisserie in bikfaya and he was chatting with my boss. they kept laughing and his laugh was so loud. he was just telling jokes. god rest his soul, he always had a smile on his face.

the second time i met him was last year  in the opening of beit el kataeb.

 the question here remains… what is our fate? what is to become of us? is this what we have to look forward to? so many people dying. so young. he could have achieved so much still. why are we doing this to ourselves…

and you know whats worse?

that soon people will for the most part forget. they will get on with their lives. trying to be normal until the next blast hits.

but for how long can we endure? and what are these people all dying for?

forgive a girl that has been abroad for about a month not to be aware of all the “new” gossip in lebanon. but to hear people talk of bringing back jamil elsayyid and considering him a “good” candidate for the interior ministry has got to be a drastic change! and to have amal and HA guys discussing amongst themselves that maybe el sayyid could be the next head of parliament must be amazing!!

what is going on in this country we call home?

what are we doing to ourselves?

have we become so tired of maybe seeking independence and decided that the syrian boot is all we can achieve? yeah i guess that must be it. we just dont like being free.

are we destined to run around in circles bringing back criminals once and again until they die? if that is our destiny, i’d rather not worry anymore, let them have full reign, let us all think of leaving.

and whats even more funny is that these people believe we should compensate el sayyid jamil el sayyid for his days in prison by giving him an important role. now isnt that nice? i wonder whether el sayyid compensated the old man that stood up to him one night in a restaurant because he didnt want to leave the table on el sayyid’s orders? i wonder if that man was compensated for being taken to jail on a whim?

but no, of course we should compensate a dirty, corrupt, criminal…

 i dont know what to say, the disappointment i feel is increasing by the moment and by ever word that comes out of my fellow patriots’ mouths.