Tarboush, Hariri, and Aoun

So ... yesterday we went out to Tarboush ( a jordanian turned lebanese restaurant in the bay area) with some lebanese that a friend of mine knew. Mezah, argileh, almaza ... at one point the conversation turned into politics (when doesn't it):

A: You know, I think if Hariri did things properly, he could become a nationalistic leader.

J: Probably. But he has the wrong impression of what a nationalistic leader is. It isn't someone that everyone HAS too like. It's someone that can lead the nation forwards. He is taking the wrong parameters into consideration. He's still trying to please the Sunnis, the Shiites, the Druze, the Christians ... and he'll never succeed that way. He should, for example, try to see what people under 35 want, and work for that. Cross the sectarian boundaries. That's what a nationalistic leader is.

A: Maybe, but I guess he's trying to treat Lebanon as a business.

J: (laughing) Yeah, he came with an already wired mind, and doesn't seem open to politics. But most of our politicians are like that. They're imposing their past behaviors on Lebanon.

A: Like Aoun. He still has a military mentality. Look at his party. They don't go against him.

J: He's even worse. He's a populist. He says what the people want to hear, and no more. He just invokes their emotions.

posted by Lazarus, 11:01 AM