https://arab.news/yv92n
The 20th-century poet Nadia Tueni wrote of Lebanon: “I belong to a country that commits suicide every day while it is being assassinated.” One of the symptoms today is that when I recently enquired about a promising youth movement I had not heard from for a while, I was told that, out of the 82 members, only two remained and 80 had left the country. This is the brain drain that Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan described as better than brain in the drain.
We are getting all the help we do not need — the impression is that the International Monetary Fund wants to kill the banks and the US government wants to kill the cash companies and add sanctions to the toxic mix. In addition, we are told that we will get help, not for recovery but for the army if it will fight Hezbollah. As if Lebanon needs even more destruction. This will not fix the drain; it will only make it worse.
Lebanon does need help, but the figures just do not add up in the government plan to return people’s deposits. I do not understand the logic myself. In the attempt to decrease the gap, large depositors are considered the enemy, but in any economic recovery they should be allies, the investors you want to attract back. There is an attempt, of dubious legality and practicality, to declare a significant portion of deposits as illegitimate in order to decrease the gap. This will make it certain that nobody will ever trust the country or invest in it again. The age of governments taking over private property is gone forever, let alone in Lebanon. This is not the way to regain trust.
