Independents, Don’t Lose Your Base.

You might have noticed that I have been silent on the independents election campaigns springing up all over Lebanon the past few weeks. The independent, secular campaigns trying to coalesce into something that hopefully isn’t an amorphous blob of compromise and disappointment. That’s because I am still hoping that with the start of March 2018, these campaigns will realize that they need to energize their base, before trying to appeal to voters who would otherwise not vote for them under normal circumstances.

The “Too Risky” Excuse

With potential “independent” lists including so many prominent not-so-long-ago politically affiliated individuals, you might dismiss that as just how elections work, where you tone down the idealism and think pragmatically. Compromise after compromise, I’m worried we’ll end up with something ambiguous, and a far cry from what catalyzed the popular uprising in 2015 and the following impressive results in the municipal elections of 2016.

Too risky to be openly for gender equality, too risky to support LGBT rights, too risky to reassert the constitutionally guaranteed right of believing whatever you want, or not believing at all, too risky to raise issues such as the crisis of hashish arrests plaguing more than 3500 young people a year, too risky, too risky…

With these many asterisks, what exactly differentiates us from the ruling political class? The tired, cliche, over-used, bland slogans and tip-toeing around issues that might be controversial, is what the political parties do, and I don’t know about you, but I will not be committed and excited to work and volunteer and vote for groups that simply say “we’re not them”, while including prominent figures of the “them” in their own lists to be “pragmatic” and toning down the demands that made movements we support popular with voters in the first place.

Demands such as having a secular system, real gender equality, wasta-proof transparency and tackling issues that the political parties consider taboo such as civil marriage, the right for Lebanese women to pass their citizenship to spouses and children and reform of the judiciary and police infrastructure in Lebanon that many unwitting and helpless taxpayers fall victim to every day so a public employee can make a quick buck from bribes.

Focus on the Base First

If campaigns feel the need to include people with them for the sole reason that their original political parties didn’t nominate them, then so be it, but not as part of the independents’ campaign. Form coalition lists with the people that only days ago were members in one of the political parties that have been gripping to power illegally for the past 9 years, but don’t expect us to just accept that they are now one of us, when nothing they have done or achieved proves otherwise: they’re just opportunistic wannabe politicians riding on the wave of support independents have garnered in the face of the astounding failures of the political parties in Lebanon, especially in the last decade.

I did not support and volunteer with movements and organizations because I wanted to maybe win a seat or two here and there. I worked for them because they represented a platform I cared about and could relate to.

A Lebanon where the rotten cheese isn’t split based on whether you worship your deity on a Friday or a Sunday. A Lebanon where old men in black robes don’t decide what’s best for me and my future spouse based on archaic, misogynistic religious laws that take years and a ton of money wasted when a civil court can do a much better, fairer and quicker job at it. A Lebanon where young people aren’t terrified when they see a cop car, but reassured that they are safe. A Lebanon where big corporations don’t wiggle out of their billions of dollar embezzlement lawsuits, while a university kid gets hounded in the justice system for years for a mere tweet.

Before aiming to win new supporters, you need to reassure your base that you’re not just another all-talk, all-compromise bunch of amateurs. We are coming from a place of power, not of weakness. The Lebanese public shares our sentiment, at least the broad lines of it. So why the fuck tone it down? Why would a voter or volunteer choose a group doing the same things as the political parties, just with less money for their campaigns?

Be more aggressive in the demands of voters, especially the younger ones who have never voted and will be the asset that wins us seats across the country.

We Can Be the Largest Bloc

If we get 1 seat in each district, that’s a 15-member parliamentary bloc, which will be the largest, or second largest in Lebanon. This is what we should be working towards. If we get 20 members, then we can flip the tables on this rotten system and begin actually making people’s lives better, not just under-the-table deals for incinerators and power ships to engorge our pockets and party leaders pockets with the people’s money.

Grow a spine and be more assertive on the issues that have allowed you to seek election for public office and be our representatives. Do something different, do something the politicians have never done. Don’t let petty elections politics and unreliable stats and polls of a population that has drastically changed over the last 9 years, make your decisions for you. Take a chance, let people believe in your message.

Stop accepting political partisans in your midst, and instead, figure out how to form loosely-linked coalitions with some of them if need be to ensure we get better chances, but don’t let them fester and crumble what we have worked so long to get to: a Lebanon that looks like us, not the 80-something-year-old gang of warlords and thieves we’ve had to suffer under all our lives.

7 Things We Learned from the FPM-Amal Charade

Amal and FPM MPs kiss and make up after days of violence and unrest over an insult

I, like most of you reading this, watched with a mix of horror and amusement as the slow-burning strife between the Free Patriotic Movement and the Amal Movement boiled over into armed scuffles, roads closing and provocative shows of sectarian slime from both sides.

I didn’t want to write about it, because we knew they would kiss and make-up after they riled up their bases ahead of the elections, and reaped the rewards from this meaningless, brutal fallout while Lebanese taxpayers paid the price.

Here’s what we learned from this disgraceful comedy-noir play these two main political parties performed on our streets and screens over the past week:

1- The “Spontaneous” is Actually Planned

Both party leaderships suggested that the public reactions were spontaneous and grass-roots led, suggesting that people were actually this angry and decided to mobilize themselves to terrorize fellow citizens. This is of course bullshit, and perfectly synchronized “scooter swarms” across Lebanon are either telepathically connected, or were ordered around by their higher-ups to cause some mayhem. Of course, Amal did most of the damage, while the FPM stayed largely silent, telling their supporters on the hush to make banners and reprint billboards that Amal supporters had removed or burned.

It was sad that both party leaderships expected anyone to believe these malicious actions were “spontaneous”. Everything from the hashtags, to the billboards, was planned in the dark rooms they rent or buy with your taxes.

2- You Are Free to Cause Chaos if You Are from a Certain Sect or Party

Amal and FPM supporters both used weapons and violence in their elaborate choreographed actions. Amal supporters spared no insult or attack on the foreign minister and president. Heck, students at LAU Beirut that support Amal were even squeezing oranges and turning it into orange juice, while yelling insults against FPM symbols in the classic “as much as you get high “orange” (reference to FPM), we will stay above you as a juicer”. That’s not counting the armed pre-pubescent teens cursing the president’s daughter and mother, and so much vitriol shared in the past week that I don’t want to remind you of.

However, none of the thousands of people who threatened, insulted and degraded the “symbols” of the nation were indicted or called in to questioning.

This is in stark contrast of any other peaceful citizen who merely criticizes those same symbols, and ends up behind bars for days and weeks, or in court for months and months for simply sharing a peaceful opinion.

This means that Lebanon’s judiciary is too scared to act against political partisans, but doesn’t mind abusing old laws and going beyond their jurisdiction to punish a private citizen, activist, journalist or comedian for simply sharing their opinions, opinions far, far, far less extreme than those shared by Amal and the FPM this week.

So, basically, if you have a scooter and a flag of a political party, you can do whatever the fuck you want: shoot, insult, threaten with murder, and no one will even look at you twice. If you’re a peaceful citizen, who doesn’t worship a Lebanese Civil War warlord, then get ready to be thrown in jail for a tweet or status.

To add insult to injury, while all the chaos was unfolding, Lebanon’s highest court ordered “action taken immediately” against comedian Hicham Haddad for making fun of the lawsuits filed against him over jokes, while the president was “forgiving the people for insulting him and his family”… How rude and obnoxious could they possibly be? In the middle of the fucking chaos that led to all this violence, all they could do was harass a comedian for making a song.

Shame on you.

3- Politicians Will Use the Street to Solve what they Can’t in Government

It’s no secret that this entire thing was because Berri and Aoun have been grappling over Lebanese Army officers’ promotions. Aoun thinks they don’t need the signature of the Finance Minister (which is part of Berri’s slice of the pie) to pass this decree. Berri begs to differ.

This isn’t because of constitutional or legal gray areas, it’s just to set a precedent where the finance minster (ie Berri’s people in recent history and for the foreseeable future), get as big of a say as the President and Prime Minister do. After months of no results, the make-up today will be basically letting a few of Berri’s officers in on the promotion, in order to let this impasse finally leave us the fuck alone.

Business as usual in Lebanon.

4- The Elections Are Happening

This was election gold for both the FPM and Amal. The FPM will be like “look at those thugs, attacking Christian rights that we want to protect! Vote for us despite all the corruption and only being to raise taxes so far in this dynasty”. Amal will be like, “They’re attacking our leader, we must unite as Shiites and show them who’s boss and that no one will ‘break our head’”

Both rile up their base, and coax those that aren’t 100% on their side to feel an existential threat, or an insult that needs to be addressed, to vote their way in May.

This means that the elections are happening, or else they wouldn’t have let this charade go on for so long, while they reap the rewards as ordinary people pick up the pieces left behind.

5- Distraction is their Favorite Weapon

For an entire week, everything else was put on hold as we let the man-children from both sides vent out their insecurities and lack of sexual intercourse that needed to be released by shouting and burning things.

In the meantime, lord knows how many deals and shady agreements happened when we were too busy looking if things were gonna escalate even further. It also shifted focus from the rising number of independent candidates that have begun gearing up for their election campaigns, with all the focus leaning towards the warlord-led parties, not the young men and women trying to replace them to serve their country, not just their sects and partisans.

Garbage who? Right…

6- Political Partisans Will Never Change

In 2015, while drowning in garbage, most of the people who went down to riot and close roads, were nowhere to be seen. It seems letting us live in a garbage dump, is less insulting than calling a warlord “a thug”. The slogans released from both sides were horrible, idolizing humans that are synonymous with most of the tragedies Lebanon has suffered through the past few decades. Despite everything they’ve done to Lebanon, all the insults we get from them every day of our lives, how poor they’ve made us, how many years they’ve shaved off our life expectancy, all that and people still worship their sect leader like a modern-day demi-god.

The key will not be changing those people’s minds, that’s a hopeless case. The solution will be mobilizing those that do not worship octogenarian warlords to go and vote, and instigate change in their communities in any way possible, peacefully and productively.

The less people vote, the more likely the current ruling class will remain.

7- Get Ready for the Elections

Get involved with the candidates and coalitions you like. Volunteer, donate and give advice. If you can, then run for elections, you still have a few days to do so. If these octogenarian demi-gods remain in power, then the country will only keep regressing, and road closures and attacks on TV stations will only become more common and protracted.

You have no excuse not to vote. Let’s get these charlatans and thugs out of the seats their asses have been glued to since before most of us were even born.

Why Independents in Lebanon Shouldn’t Unite Nationwide in the Upcoming Elections

Elections are on many people’s minds, us being just a few months away from the first parliamentary elections held in Lebanon in almost a decade. One recurring question I see online, and get asked myself, is “what’s being done by the independents, are they gonna unite?” It’s also the main question when an independent hopeful candidate goes on TV for an interview.

Beacons of hope like Beirut Madinati’s campaign and astonishing performance during the 2016 municipal elections, has made many Lebanese voters, myself included, feel like it’s time to unite under one banner all over Lebanon. It’s been frustrating, waiting for months for such a campaign to materialize, when it still hasn’t this close to the elections. I was starting to get worried, like many of you.

Recently though, I’ve been putting a lot of thought into this, and having lively discussions with friends and colleagues about the elections, as well as pouring over the new electoral law and figuring out how things might go down. I’m now convinced that uniting nationwide might not actually be in independent candidates’ best interests. Here’s why:

Local, Not Global

Lebanon is divided into 15 electoral districts under this new law. Like the Lebanese, these districts are very diverse, and each one has different concerns, hopes for the future and ideas on policy reform and governance. The concerns of Beirut’s districts aren’t the same as the Baalbek-Hermel district. Zgharta-Koura-Batroun-Bsharre district’s election will be very different from the one in Zahle.

That’s why campaigns that are localized in each district, can do much better. At first glance, it might seem like something bad, campaigning differently in each different district, but that’s how it should be. Elections need to be about what each district wants their representatives to do for them in parliament, not lofty titles that don’t mean anything to the average voter.

The idea of “maronite marriage” alliances forever needs to stop being considered. Coalitions are what we should be focusing on instead. Different members in a coalition might not agree on every single detail, but they share a few broad demands and plans in common and can form a coalition to help make those plans happen.

The Many Madinatis

When Beirut Madinati was happening, similar campaigns popped up all over the country, from Baalbek to Zgharta and many other districts. These campaigns were not united, nor were they coordinating. They each sprang up in their local districts, tailor-made for their electorate, but they all shared common values, such as being eco-friendly, transparent, secular and progressive on issues such as gender equality and individual rights.

This should also happen for the parliamentary elections. Candidates should focus on their districts, create lists with qualified candidates and come up with a platform that focuses on their localities and not just broad national titles. If lists from different districts share the desire for radical change and taxpayer-focused reforms, are secular and condemn sectarianism in politics, have progressive stances on issues such as women’s rights, freedom of expression, decentralization and environmentally sound policies, then by all means support each other.

We cannot afford to waste time and resources trying to unite under one banner, which is highly improbable given how diverse many of the groups and campaigns are and the lack of time to be able to iron out every last detail.

Instead, focus should be on the local, not the global.

Uniting Isn’t the Point

Even decades-old political parties focus on only a few districts, and don’t do nationwide campaigns. Why are independents expected to that, with the fraction of the resources and access to power that the establishment has?

Journalists need to cut down on the obsession with a single campaign, and activists need to stop deliberating if and how that single campaign can be made. Devote all your energy to the districts you want to run and campaign in. Launch them, create enough support, form gender-balanced lists of good, honest candidates and then figure out if and how you can form coalitions among different districts’ campaigns.

This law has a lot of flaws. However, it’s much better than the 1960 law. For one, pre-printed ballots (which we were the absolute last country in the world to finally adopt by the way) will make bribes and intimidation much harder, given campaigns can’t find out who voted for which list anymore like they used to, using different fonts, order of names in a list and other sly ways of duping and forcing voters to vote for them. Another good thing is the proportional distribution, although somewhat gutted because of the “preferential vote”, will allow independents to finally get represented, instead of lose by a slim margin, and still get 0 seats like with Beirut Madinati, who would have 40% of the seats in Beirut’s Municipality had the law been proportional instead of majority (winner takes all).

It’s All on the Same Day

The majority of Beirut Madinati campaigners (like me) weren’t even voters in Beirut, however, the fact the elections in different governorates were on different weeks, meant many of us were able to work hard for BM, even though Beirut isn’t our voting district. The parliamentary elections this year will all happen on the same day, meaning we should focus on specific districts we are working in or are from, instead of on a national effort that might get diluted over all of Lebanon.

Get Involved

Don’t say “I’m not going to vote”. You have to go vote, because lower voter turn out means the current establishment wins. Most of you reading this are like me, and have never voted in a parliamentary election. Do it for the sake of doing it for the first time in your adult life.

Make your voice heard at the ballot box for the first time in your life. Have a say in what is done with your taxes, instead of letting 128 extenders of terms decide to hike up your taxes, so they can hike up their undeserved salaries.

If you have a passion for policy and instigating reform from the halls of elected office, then run for elections and tell us what you plan on doing and how, so we can support your campaign if we agree with you or like the vision and goals you’ve set.

Enough is enough. Time to win seats in parliament.

#EU4YOUth Reflections: What Politics Should Mean to Young Lebanese

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of being of a panel discussing youth and politics in Lebanon. The panel discussion was hosted by the EU Delegation in Lebanon, and included fellow panelists Rana Khoury, Marwan Maalouf and Krystel Tabet, moderated by Karma Ekmekji.

The hall at a Antwork was packed, and included young men and women that showed up from different parts of Lebanon: the North, South, Bekaa, Akkar and of course Beirut and Mount Lebanon.

The topics raised as well as the questions and comments from members of the audience helped make things clearer in my mind when it comes to what politics means to me, and what it should mean to us as young, mostly first-time voters in Lebanon.

Politics is a Dirty Word in Lebanon

It’s no secret that “politics” is basically a dirty word in Lebanon. It’s right there when your parents are warning you against stuff detrimental to your health and future, like “stay away from drugs, don’t drink and drive, and stay away from political parties”. It’s on basically every rule and guidelines page on Lebanese online forums and communities with “no religion/politics” usually in bold or ALL CAPS, and when that is too hard to achieve, a separate thread or section is set up “just for politics” in order to keep the rest of that community “good and clean”. A politically active person is basically referred to the same way a person with a gambling addiction would be: with sympathy and a shaking of the head in disappointment at lost potential.

But, what else would we expect with the politicians Lebanon has had for the past few decades? In a country where “politics” is just which of the 6 or 7 fiefdom chiefs gets awarded a government contract, it’s no wonder we all grow up avoiding political parties like the plague, and automatically tuning out any conversation that turns somewhat political.

What Politics Actually Means

Politics is figuring out how communities should function, with the benefit of all its members’ in mind. Politics is infrastructure, what laws to pass, abolish or reform. Politics is how each of us believes the country should be like, and how we go about trying to achieve that in a transparent, peaceful and democratic way. Politics is ensuring every member of the community has equal rights, responsibilities and opportunity.

Politics is securing money for your local municipality, to figure out how to solve a local problem the central government hasn’t been able to. Politics is changing archaic laws that put more than half of our society at a disadvantage because of their gender. Politics is making sure everybody pays their fair share in taxes, but also gets the services and benefits those taxes are supposed to be funding.

Politics isn’t what Geagea did, or Aoun said, or where Hariri went, and where Junblat is going and when Nasrallah’s next televised speech is. Politics is how we work to achieve what we aspire to, and join the rest of the world in the 21st Century.

Three Main Takeaways

Elections, Elections, Elections

It’s paramount Lebanon’s young men and women participate in the upcoming 2018 elections, both by voting and running, and in heavy numbers. I’ve been covering all the wonderful news and work coming out from young Lebanese activists, such as AUB Secular Club’s steady rise year after year, to the establishment of the nationwide, youth-focused political movement Mada.

This is encouraging news, but far from what’s needed to make Lebanon’s youth stop being the country’s most marginalized, silent and oppressed segment. It’s time to get elected to office, and if that is going to happen, and I wholeheartedly believe it will, we need to focus on higher voter turnout. Beirut Madinati was a great test run, and we now know the main obstacle the youth face is getting a higher turnout on elections day.

The new law, despite its many shortcomings, has made it easier for independent candidates to win seats that represent their true popularity among voters. What might have been a minimum of 50,001 votes in 2009 to get a seat in a voting district of 100,000 voters, will need just a bit more than 10,000 this time to secure one seat out of 10.

I believe this will be key in pushing younger, first-time voters like myself to go out and vote and not just dismiss their vote as meaningless in the face of the money and tactics employed by the ruling class to bulldoze any independent effort to get to elected office.

Gender Equality

Gender equality can no longer just be a nice buzz word that politicians and parties sprinkle into their speeches and platforms, without meaningful actions to back it up. Withhold your support from any group or campaign that doesn’t commit to a gender-balanced list of candidates, similar to Beirut Madinati’s in the 2016 municipal elections.

Women-focused issues need to take a front seat when discussing legislative reform and action. Passing on the citizenship to foreign spouses and children needs to be a top priority, not something we say in hopes that one day it might come true in the distant future. Cutting the dependence of Lebanese women on male guardians also needs to be an issue we tackle seriously, not just in official paperwork and procedures, but also policies at banks and corporations which still do not acknowledge equality between genders in many instances.

Let’s start by choosing a women’s affairs minister, that’s actually a woman, especually given that the current 30-member cabinet of ministers has only one woman…

Hope Despite All Odds

With so much wrong, it’s easy to lose hope and just go about your daily life struggles, not sparing a thought to larger issues that you might not be aware also directly impact your life. The trick for me is to be more pragmatic and less ambitious with our goals and targets.

In 2005, the titles were so lofty and grand, “independence” “freedom” “sovereignty”. The problem with those titles, is there’s no way to gauge or measure the success, and no direct impact can be felt on us: the average taxpayer.

In 2015, the demands were far clearer and more attainable: “eco-friendly solution to the garbage crisis” “money reimbursed to local authorities” and “elections now!”.

In 2018, that shift in demands, needs to become a push towards elected office, and I am personally extremely excited to embark on that challenge.

In Conclusion

Fellow young Lebanese, you are more than just an export for the war generation to send off abroad to make money there and send it back to them. We’re this country’s present, and its future. It’s time to start acting like it.

Start organizing if you still haven’t already. Figure out who’s running, and who you will support and why. If there isn’t anyone, then why not run yourself?

It’s time to take back our country from those that have kept it hostage for decades. It’s time to make politics stop being a dirty word in Lebanon.

Mada: The Post-War Generation in Lebanon is Mobilizing

I was born after the Lebanese Civil War. If you regularly read this blog, you probably were too. In the past few years, with all the political turmoil and rollercoaster of high hopes that interrupted a general feel of depressing hopelessness, one thing has been tough to do: find a common denominator between us all.

You can see the diversity in every spontaneous movement, which eventually fractures into several groups each occupying a different lane on a highway that kinda seems to be leading to the same destination. Whether you’re a YouStink advocate, or a Badna Nhaseb supporter, joined Sabaa or are part of Mouwatinon wa Mouwatinat, your longterm goals are quite similar: an independent, secular, transparent and progressive Lebanon you can be proud of.

The Post-War Generation

Perhaps the unifying theme in all the movements, no matter where they lie on the political spectrum, is that we’re all the post-war generation.

We’re the folks that hear about the war from those around us older than us, but never had to go through it ourselves.

We’re the ones that inherited a bias to one side or the other depending on where our parents stood during those dark 15 years.

We’re the folks that suffer the consequences of the war we were never part of, witness to or even taught about after the guns were silenced.

We’re the folks that got stuck with the war’s warlords as our politicians and leaders, warlords that we never chose.

The War Generation Has Failed Us

Those that were alive during the war, have failed us miserably after it. The hostilities stopped, but the war mentality never did. The warlords took off their military fatigues and donned ill-fitting suits, gave themselves amnesty and pretended like nothing happened, and moved to bank on the “rebuilding” efforts since the early 1990s when that became more lucrative than fighting.

Not Your Cash Cows

Perhaps the biggest sin of that generation, is that they see us as Lebanon’s finest (and only) export. We spend fortunes going to overpriced universities, are wrapped up in a nice package and sent off to other countries for a few years to generate some disposable income, and are expected to come back and spend it here, all the while regularly sending money back to replenish a struggling economy where we still don’t have electricity 24/7, decent Internet or a road not perpetually blocked by suffocating traffic.

We’re not seen as active participants in our society, but only the crutch older generations lean on to pay for their decades of incompetence, lack of vision and criminal corruption. We don’t have a say in how things are run, we can’t even vote when we turn 18. I’m almost 27 years old and I’ve never voted in a parliamentary election yet…

We’re not allowed to vote. We’re not allowed to run. We’re encouraged to get a degree, land a job in the Gulf somewhere, save up and come back to spend on an economy that has never seen a single reform, just lots of tax hikes, burdened by public debt we will never be able to pay off and growth that has proven to be unsustainable since the turn of the century.

The Mada Network

Mada is one answer to that current situation. I don’t want to leave Lebanon and work a job I don’t like, in a country I don’t want to live in, cause this piece of shit minister or that piece of shit member of parliament’s needs me to send money back to pay for the taxes that get siphoned off to their own pockets. I’m not the only one who feels that way, and I believe you share those same beliefs if you clicked on this post and are still reading.

Mada was born to coordinate and group Lebanon’s student movements and youth under one network working towards reforms and demands that Lebanon desperately needs, and that we deserve as this country’s youth.

Mada wants to restore our role in Lebanon’s political, social and economic life. A secular, progressive, civil liberties focused network of young men and women that seek to achieve affordable education, employment opportunities, civil rights gains such as civil marriage, the right to vote when you turn 18 and gender equality and more.

Most of us start to be progressive and proactive in our thinking when we’re still on campuses like AUB’s, but often, after graduating, there’s nowhere to go, no alternative to the parties and movements that were part of the war. Mada might be the answer to that. After your 3 or 4 years at university, and all the progress you might have made there, you can still sustain that in a movement that goes beyond campuses and into society at large.

Join the Effort

We whine a lot. It’s so much easier to complain, protest and post snarky statuses on Facebook. Stop complaining, and do something. Connect with Mada during this early stage, and help form it into what you want it to be. It’s high time the youth become a force to be reckoned with in this country, not just another cash cow to exploit by the country’s loser politicians.

We live during a time where protest and demand movements are transforming into organized efforts that have the potential and ability to set the tone and conversation, instead of just repeat empty slogans and futile rants.

Don’t like the performance of Lebanon’s independent movements? Join them and put what you have to offer on the table. In 2015, we broke the fear barrier and demarcation lines to discover that we weren’t alone, and that we are a majority that no longer wants to be silent.

If issues such as affordable education, sustainable jobs, economic reform, civil liberties, democracy, freedom of speech, gender equality and civil marriage are what you want, then it’s time to start organizing and mobilizing. The elections are coming up, and to ensure they actually do happen, and we transition from being beaten up in the streets, to sitting in elected office, we need to start work. Now.

Connect with Mada today, and be part of the change that’s been long overdue.

The Rise of Lebanon’s Secular Youth: AUB Secular Club’s Story

In 2015, the AUB Secular Club got 4 USFC members (University Student Faculty Committee). In 2016, they won 5 USFC seats. This year, they won 6 USFC seats. One in each of AUB’s 6 faculties.

These encouraging numbers don’t reveal the real impact this independent, secular student political movement has really had though. What’s amazing, is that the Secular Club’s “Campus Choice” campaign ran for every single one of the USFC seats, something even the traditional political party coalitions couldn’t do.

If you’re not familiar with the AUB Secular Club’s mission since 2008, this video will help.

A New Hope

Perhaps the most encouraging thing for me, is the change in tone and message by the current AUB Secular Club. The problem with many anti-establishment and anti-status quo movements in Lebanon, is they are very vocal about what they’re against, but not so much when it comes to what they’re for.

Many of the movements over the years have based their entire messaging and plans, on shaming and discrediting the current political elite and their abysmal performance over decades of corruption, violence and inequality. The Secular Club has moved past that. They’re no longer just chastising the laughable, pathetic performance of political party stooges, they’re also doing their own thing now. They’re setting the tone. They’re past just the protest phase, and in the stage where they set down a comprehensive platform and vision, and fight for it fairly and democratically. Something we have never seen the political partisans do.

This was even clearer when I got in touch with the current president of the AUB Secular Club, Nadine Barakat, to congratulate her and ask her about this shift in discourse, to which she said: “students now vote for our platform and what we have planned on a university level, not just because we’re not running as political parties” adding

“We used to be the opposition, now we’re the largest campaign on campus.”

The Establishment Strikes Back

The problem with Lebanon’s politically affiliated youth, is they are just as corrupt and hopeless as their alumni handlers. Instead of running campaigns they believe in, they calculate probable losses and victories, and divide their efforts accordingly. “Give me this seat in this faculty, and I’ll leave that seat in that other faculty for you”.

This explains why the March 14 remnants-FPM coalition, and the March 8 remnants coalition, did not run for all the seats up for election. “3teene ba3tik” in a sad mirroring of what happens off campus, when politicians that supposedly are at odds, suddenly come together to fight against independent movements, or to at least divide the pie amongst themselves, leaving their constituents’ choices inconsequential. Remember the municipal elections? When folks like Hezbollah, Future, Lebanese Forces and FPM suddenly ran on the same list to oppose Beirut Madinati? Pathetic.

Revenge of the Establishment

Despite the impressive, hope-restoring performance of the Secular Club, AUB’s administration scheduled the election of the USFC cabinet on November 7. That’s almost a month after the elections results were announced. From where I stand, this can only mean one of two things (or maybe a bit of both?)

Give the political parties enough time to deliberate who gets to be VP, Secretary and Treasurer based on their performance in the first round of elections.
Waste time so that the USFC isn’t formed in time to do anything meaningful in the Fall Semester, thus allowing the university administration free reign to do what they want without student resistance to things that might not be to their benefit.

Now, you might think opposing political coalitions might prefer an independent candidate take the VP spot, instead of their political rivals. This might have been the case when I was still at AUB in 6 or 7 years ago, but everything in the political climate in Lebanon the past two years proves otherwise.

Political parties in Lebanon will always collude against a strong, independent, secular movement. Beirut Madinati is an example, Naqabati is another, even Hanna Gharib’s ousting is a great example of how the establishment will get over their seemingly irreconcilable differences, to ensure the prize stays in the hands of the corrupt, not the independent.

The Secular Awakens

I’m optimistic again. I’m a believer again. I haven’t been either for a while. It’s been so humbling to see movements I love and support transform from a ragtag group of hesitant protesters, to organized, progressive and determined political movements.

We’re coming for you in the spring of 2018. Then again in the spring of 2022. And again four years after that. All the smear campaigns, lies, police state tactics and dirty tricks haven’t worked, and they never will.

The march of a post-war, secular, democratic, progressive, tolerant youth might be slower than we’d like, but it’s surer than they think.

Get ready.

Lebanese Government Celebrating Third Nail in Democracy’s Coffin by Beating Protesters in the…

If you watch the videos below, you’d think whoever was beaten to a pulp is a suspected suicide bomber, or a serial killer, or a child rapist. It’s none of those, it’s peaceful protesters in front of the Beirut Municipality and Lebanese Parliament expressing their outrage at a third illegal extension of their term, years after their legitimacy expired.

Watch the savage beating of unarmed, peaceful protesters. The excessive use of force is sickening, especially that the protesters pose no threat whatsoever, and their demands are justified, and their right to express it is sacrosanct in the Lebanese Constitution’s preamble.

https://www.facebook.com/tol3etre7etkom/videos/2071188229809954/

Despicable.

This is why they got such a harsh beating: they threw eggs and tomatos at the MPs’ cars. If anything, the illegitimate MPs should get a ticket for going the wrong way on a one-way street in the heart of Beirut’s Central District. Instead though, the “parliament guard”, the same ones that shot live rounds during the 2015 protests and beat the shit out of several protesters after being gassed.

The third nail in Lebanon’s Democracy’s coffin was hammered in today. Slowly, painfully, till most of Lebanon’s taxpayers didn’t even notice the extension happened today. Our third in almost 10 years. The ones that did notice though, wouldn’t take it silent and at home, and went to express the outrage at the illegitimate MPs cars after they signed a deal robbing us of our right to vote for the third time. For that, they got batons to the face while they lay, pinned down in the streets by men that should not be wearing the Lebanese Army fatigues and Cedar tree.

Heads should roll for this disgusting violence today. Maybe the new Army Commander General Aoun can show us he can do what is necessary to discipline individuals that have tarnished the name and image of the Lebanese Army, and continued to do so, even more grotesquely, today.

Keep up to date with everything You Stink is doing here

https://www.facebook.com/tol3etre7etkom/

It’s Time to Get Elected.

We’ve been protesting in the streets since before we could legally drink alcohol. At first, it was protesting for big, ideological titles and protests and movements were well organized by the traditional political parties in Lebanon. But that changed, and I’m so happy it did.

2015’s Garbage-Induced Seismic Shockwave

In 2015, an earth-shattering paradigm shift happened and the country’s youth broke up with the political parties in light of their criminally stupid and corrupt handling of the garbage crisis, which we are still drowning and swimming in till this day.

It was further solidified when a few months later, independent, anti-establishment and pro-reform lists ran for the municipal elections all across the country.

The shift happened when demanding in the streets, turned into running with an airtight platform, with gender-balanced lists that are openly non-sectarian and transparently crowdfunded. And most importantly, got shock results that saw all the political parties colluding with all their funding, get less than 60%, while the crowdfunded, independent Beirut Madinati list got more than 40%.

If you want proof of how resounding the impact of those municipal elections was, just look how desperately the political elite in Lebanon are trying to push the elections further. Their soap opera handling of the electoral law, with pathetic reasons like “the weather will be bad, so let’s push the elections a year” is proof of how worried they are. How petrified they are of the ballot boxes.

And who can blame them? They have been rearranging their alliances, with mortal enemies suddenly going on TV and telling us all that they’re allied now and no one can change that (given that most of the people in those parties still bicker, and make it to the news, forcing the godfathers to go and reassert their weird, nonsensical alliance after decades of hatred that was never really resolved). They did nothing in their stolen time, but plunge us further into debt and the country into disrepair.

We Need to Get Better Organized

We have 11 months to prepare. Personally, I think the rotten politicians will try to extend for themselves even further, but let’s assume the situation is bad enough, that no excuse of bad weather or “training” people to vote will last past next May. Plus, let’s use their illegal extension to our advantage, and make sure we organize and prepare our candidates and lists to destroy them next elections and start running the country for its taxpayers, not its tax-evading billionaires.

Our Weaknesses

Ego-Driven Disputes and a Transparent Process to Select our Candidates

Most of the prominent activists and community organizers are good friends of mine, and we have worked shoulder to shoulder as the authorities beat some of us to a pulp, tried to smear us and throw us in jail.

However, one thing many of those activists lack is the legitimacy from average voters. No one voted for these people, so how can they speak on everyone’s behalf? Why are they the ones that decide when we protest, why and for how long? Those are just some of the comments heard, and the reason groups bicker amongst themselves sometimes so publicly.

This isn’t an attack against the activist leaders, but many stumbling blocks in our movement was because of political maneuvering by one group or the other. Therefore, it’s time to create a mechanism where the voters themselves can decide, before we get to the elections, who will run for us and who can really win at the ballot box.

Primary elections could be one way. Hold primary elections in districts we plan to run, so voters can register with us their support, and choose the pool of candidates we will eventually help get into office. If primary elections are too costly and difficult, and there are many other ways to find the people we need in office who have so far stayed out of the limelight.

We need candidates that work on the ground, who are experts in their fields and who have given to Lebanon more than a few protests and sound bites on the evening news. The criteria for who can qualify as a candidate for us, need to be clear and every candidate needs to meet them, no matter what.

No Cannibalizing Each Other

If different independent groups decide they want to run in X district, they shouldn’t run against each other, but together. If group A has better chances in dictrict X, group B should throw their support behind them, and group A will throw their support behind group B in a district where group B has better chances of winning.

The scenario of Charbel Nahhas’ group and other independent groups poaching votes from each other that ultimately only help the establishment, cannot happen in the next elections. We need to coordinate, sit down and decide what is the smartest way of tackling the elections and making sure our boys and girls make it to office, and transform our demands in the streets into concrete action translated into government policy.

One Campaign, Many Groups

We need to go into the elections under one campaign. All the groups, with their different areas of operation, different platforms, different hopes and aspirations on the details of reforming this country, need to form an electoral coalition.

We cannot fall into the trap of coalitions being “Maronite weddings” in that they cannot be broken or changed no matter what. This isn’t the Feudal Age, no one needs to pledge allegiance to anything or anyone except their country. These groups might not agree on absolutely everything, but that doesn’t mean they can’t run together because the broad points are the same.

Non-sectarianism, independence from foreign powers (Arab or otherwise), reform and fighting corruption, environmentally friendly policies, focusing on infrastructure and development nationwide (not just Beirut and its immediate surroundings), fair elections, judicial reform, electoral reform, gender equality and a respect for basic human and civil rights.

Does one group prefer sorting garbage from the source, while the other wants to make sorting plants? So fucking what? Get to power, then decide with a vote and the resources and information at the government’s disposal which option is best, most cost-effective and environmentally sound.

This isn’t falling into the trap of “steam rollers” (ma7edel) where everyone just melts into an amorphous blob of ambiguous political opinions like our traditional parties’ electoral alliances (7ilf el roube3e anyone?). It’s being smart, and agreeing on the broad titles, while maintaining each group’s independence and unique agenda. After all, this is what voters will support, and just being “anti” something isn’t enough, we need to show our own plans and what we want to do, not just what we all are against or hate. Kinda like Beirut Madinati did.

The Beirut Madinati Experiment

Beirut Madinati was a very educational experience for everyone involved. The mechanism of selecting candidates, how to fundraise, how to campaign, how to create a detailed, optimistic yet pragmatic platform, and most importantly, how to mobilize people into a loose coalition that had a massive impact.

We should focus on our strongpoints in that campaign, and work on the ones we found needed improvement. The BM model was the most successful attempt we’ve had at going into government, and under a fairer law, we’d have more than third of the seats, given we won one of the 3 electoral districts of Beirut (in the parliamentary elections district of the 1960 law) with a 15 point lead and lost to slim margins in the other 2.

Municipal elections are very different from parliamentary ones though, and we need to get that and make sure the difference is clear. Municipal elections are far more developmental in their concerns, with political leanings not as big of a deciding factor in how people vote, like in parliamentary ones.

Parliamentary elections happen all across the country, at the same time. They also decide the fate of the entire country, not just your hometown or village. They’re a far, far larger effort in terms of scope, funds, volunteers and issues. And I think we can be ready for that in the 11 extra months the current parliament has stolen from us.

It’s Time

Meetings have been ongoing for months, but none have delivered the results we are all hoping for. Yet. The work should come out from the shadows and into the public, including the maximum number of groups and individuals who can run and vote.

Organizing election campaigns should get underway, and figuring out the campaign title and slogan that will unite all of them in a coalition that can get us results, and into parliament, and best of all, the current failures out of it (or some of them at the very least).

There are many names I’d like to see run for elected office, and some of them have already shown intent to run, with some having their teams and platforms already in order and ready to launch.

Joumana Haddad and Ziad Baroud are the potential candidates and candidates I am most excited about. Both are inspirations for so many of us, and I personally love them both and respect the work they‘ve put in trying to make Lebanon the way we want it to be, not the way the current establishment has made it the past few decades.

I’d love to see names from Beirut Madinati, like Yorgui Teyrouz, Ibrahim Mneimneh, Mona Hallak and Serge Yazigi run too.

It will be interesting to see what prominent names and figures from the 7irak that formed in 2015, might run as well. Assaad Thebian, Wadih El Asmar, Marwan Maalouf, Imad Bazzi and many others.

Anyway, it’s time to start work guys. From now till the elections, I will do my best to cover what’s happening, help highlight candidates I support and how we hope to win the seats we deserve. I’ll also try to cover candidates that do not deserve to be re-elected for the dismal performance they have shown us the past years with no elections…

Get ready folks.

A You Stink Report Card, And What Should Happen Next

A Massive You Stink Protest in August 2015

Quick Background

I remember when the garbage started piling on the streets, I was chatting with a good friend of mine and one of the folks behind the early “You Stink” days. He was asking my opinion on whether to call the movement “Ya Nazif” or “Tol3et Ree7etkon” (I was on team Tol3et Ree7tekon if you’re wondering). Little did I know back then how huge this would become, and what would come out of it.

Before delving into the analysis, let’s recap what happened.

July 2015

A couple of dozen protesters head down to the Central District of Beirut, and ignite the protest movement demanding a sustainable and environmental solution to the humiliating garbage crisis, which was the result of gross incompetence and criminal corruption by Lebanon’s ruling elite.

August 2015

In the face of rabid, savage police brutality and several political faux-pas, You Stink’s calls to go to the streets swell the numbers of protesters. For the first time in Lebanon’s history, young, independent, secular, transparent and angry men and women go down to the streets. They forced the spineless Tamam Salam cabinet to erect its famous wall of shame, then remove it, then erect it again, demonstrating how caught off guard the politicians and their parties were by the popular unrest.

October 2015

The ISF escalate their violence against peaceful protesters, and violent scuffles break out, deterring many from going back down to the streets to avoid the unchecked police state tactics against peaceful, unarmed Lebanese taxpayers demanding the most basic of rights: to not drown in garbage as the politicians try to divide the dwindling pie.

Notable Facts

The above were all protests and actions called for by You Stink. There were several instances where other groups, with a different agenda, tried to piggy back on You Stink’s momentum, dragging it into petty politics and the usual smear campaign tactics of the warlords-turned-politicians of Lebanon. I’m not talking about the “mundaseen” here, but politically affiliated movements that tried to ride the wave You Stink created to try and become relevant again.

These protests were the first crowdsourced ones in Lebanon’s history, with financial transparency that made Lebanese politicians weave stories about embassies and espionage to try and explain the money whose source everyone could see online: the protesters themselves. The media coverage, with constant live on many local broadcasters, and consistent coverage on international ones, made the garbage issue known worldwide, and shamed Lebanon’s leadership which stood, mouth open, trying to figure out how they can profit off of the situation in vain.

The Report Card’s As

Telecom sector revenues from the early 2000s were released from the grip of Lebanon’s Finance Ministry, and handed to who it was meant for: the municipalities. This is perhaps the biggest accomplishment of You Stink’s movement
The minister involved with the shameful mismanagement of the garbage crisis, Minister of Environment Mohamad Machnouk, was effectively excised from his job, not having the guts to resign, he stopped doing his job while your taxes kept paying for his salary
The government scrambled to find solutions, and even though they were far from ideal and had their personal bank accounts primarily in mind, they were forced to do the work our taxes pay them to do.
The government’s violent, human rights violating overreaction against protesters with babies and children, showed the true face of Lebanon’s government: one that is helpless in the face of violent drug lords and real criminals, but savage in their attacks on innocent taxpayers demanding what is right, peacefully.

Report Card’s Bs (Indirect Consequences)

Awareness. For the first time ever, folks who would sit at home and complain, got out of their living rooms and came together. Without a political party, without funding, without organization, they all got up and marched down to the streets to try and force the government into proper action
Independent lists in Lebanon’s municipal elections, across the nation. If you told someone in 2014 that almost every district in Lebanon would have lists of independent candidates running which included environmentalists, seculars and a gender-balanced lists, they would have probably laughed and said “maybe in a hundred years”. Well, it took one year of activating in the streets for that to become a reality, and included Beirut Madinati’s mindblowing 40% in the face of all the ruling political parties combined. In many towns, independent candidates won seats, riding the wave of awakening that had driven so many of us to the streets.

The Dalieh project in Raouche was stopped, due to public pressure and protests from the folks at The Dalieh Campaign and many of the same groups that had protested the garbage crisis.
Under popular pressure, Horsh Beirut was opened to the public for the first time in decades. It took till this year, till the current government felt the pressure from the streets was gone, for it to shut it down again and begin constructing a hospital on the last remaining green space in the concrete mess that is Beirut’s non-existent urban planning. Nahnoo and several other groups were instrumental in the initial reopening.
The illegal project of Eden Rock on Beirut’s last public beach, Ramlet El Bayda, was stopped by two major judicial verdicts thanks to public pressure and amazing work by Beirut Madinati activists and Legal Agenda among others. Judicial verdicts that the spineless Lebanese government has failed to execute till this day, in blatant, shameful and despicable disregard for the Lebanese justice system who dealt a verdict in favor of Lebanese taxpayers for once, not the ruling elite.
The Freedom of Information law, which stipulates that any taxpayer can demand information from public institutions and bodies. Even though many of those institutions will and are disobeying these requests, the mere fact we have access to this information, legally now, can be a game-changer in a country like Lebanon, whose administration is synonymous with opaqueness and corruption.

Report Card’s Cs

You Stink rearranged the entire political status quo in Lebanon. Suddenly, former sworn enemies till the bitter end, became BFFs. Today, we see the Lebanese Forces (LF) in the same cabinet as Hezbollah. If Geagea from 2014 saw what Geagea in 2016 did, he might have had a stroke. The LF’s raison d’etre for many years was just opposing and contradicting every word and move Hezbollah (HA) does, suddenly, they are in the same cabinet, conspiring together against the Lebanese taxpayer.

At the same time, less than a year before, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) was calling the Future Movement (FM) ISIS members, with banners depicting Tamam Salam as an ISIS member in a suit. The FM was calling Aoun a mentally ill person. Less than a year after the uprising, Hariri made Aoun president, and Aoun made Hariri prime minister.

If You Stink decide to open a conflict resolution firm, they’d have won the Nobel prize for physics for reconciling what decades of war, sectarian rhetoric and consecutive crises couldn’t… Who knew all it’d take is for Lebanon’s youth to come together spontaneously and say: enough.

What Should Happen Next

It didn’t “fizzle out”

From July 2015 to March 2016, You Stink did things that will go down in history as some of the smartest, most resilient movements Lebanon has ever seen. From protests, to smart stunts and actions and a page which has a quarter of a million supporters.

However, protesting forever is never the answer, and I was glad they stopped actions on the ground to leave space for all the independent municipal elections candidates to run beautiful campaigns and win seats on many places across Lebanon. Also, if they had continued with the “3ahd jdid”, you’d get the usual “give them a chance to govern! (as if they didn’t have several decades already). We have a president now, everything will be fixed!” Well, almost 5 months in, things have only gotten worse.

They increased the pensions of dead presidents, prime ministers, speakers of parliament, members of parliament and ministers from 75% to 100%, even after they die, indefinitely. This without passing the wage increase for all other Lebanese, the actual taxpayers. They’re also passing a savage tax hike, with the excuse to find revenue to fund the wage increase, which they have yet to do if it doesn’t concern their own salaries, which they never have a problem increasing without revenue streams first. They’re planning another extension of this illegitimate parliament’s term. The list goes on and on…

Some More Discipline This Time

Don’t fall into the trap of the politicians, and start asking questions that only serve their purpose. Who cares who the spokesperson is? Who cares about their personal lives? Who believes any of us are spies? This is bigger than all of that, and this time, the stakes are much higher. If protests reignite, they need to be better organized and with clear objectives we can achieve. It mustn’t be a platform for ideologues to pedal dead political ideologies whenever they see a camera and run to recite the speeches they practice in front of their bathroom mirrors.

Enough lies. Enough corruption. Enough audacity. The tax hike, with zero reform concerning the billions in corruption and mismanagement of taxpayer money, is not ok. It never should be. Protest fatigue? Suck it up. Nothing will change? A lot has, but a lot more needs to be. Protests don’t solve anything? Sure, then give us an alternative that doesn’t include applying for visas somewhere far away. We need to do this if we are to win seats in the upcoming parliamentary elections. We need to remind people of how horrifyingly incompetent thieves the current ruling class are, and that the octogenarian warlords need to retire, and leave some space for the young to try and fix the disasters they have plunged us in with their sheer stupidity and unchecked, unpunished greed.

More soon. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: There’s a protest TONIGHT, 7PM. RSVP Here