the economy.

as various political players continue to compensate for personal insecurities by hurling accusations and (im)mobilizing people, the lebanese economy is slowly but surely evaporating. several multinational technology companies have had a significant drop in sales within the lebanese market over the past year and a half, and the current bulk of their revenue comes from long-term deals closed over a year ago. even the quota for employees has been reduced in recognition of the faltering tempo of business. internet service providers have been shifting their focus from lebanese markets to international markets over the past year or so to compensate for the inability to grow and foster healthy competition. website ventures, which require bandwidth, have moved to cleaner waters in other countries in the MENA region; they had originally planned out their business model keeping in mind that lebanon would soon introduce DSL, a first step to increasing international bandwidth - of course, DSL still hasn't been introduced. at least two local investment firms have reduced their staff to the bare minimum and have almost closed shop. a private school has less than 50% payment rate (down from 90%), and has been lax in asking parents with economic hardships to keep up with tuition payments. local design firms have spent most of the last year in damage control, compensating for broken contracts and changes in schedules and demands, and as a result, have maintained ZERO growth, which in any industry is tantamount to "death." longterm contracts in general are hard to plan for because they rely on concepts such as "expected" revenue and expenses - a concept that does not work well with the current atmosphere. what business can survive on short-term planning? in fact, the only businesses that seem to gloss over these political "earthquakes" are those that operate in international markets, and thus are not a function of local fluctuations. yet some of these firms have recently relocated outside lebanon. even our hotel industry is no longer a strong competitive force in the region - one of the best hotels in MENA is actually found in our lovely southern friend. two VC-like firms / business incubators have all but moved from lebanon - even though they have received funding from individuals in the "moderate" nation of saudi arabia, they have not been able to find any viable investment opportunity with reliable revenue projections. and yet none of the political elite have such issues on their platforms, except in meaningless phrases such as "improving the economy." even the current tax system is simplistic, and does not differentiate between luxuries and needs. tax brackets on income need to improve, but why anyone would accept paying 20% on their salary in lebanon with the knowledge that most of it goes to private mansions is beyond me. the country is on the verge of an inflation explosion and bad policies such as pegging the lira to the dollar for 15 years will eventually backfire. economical ecosystems within lebanon have not matured and infrastructure has not been developed, yet we seem so proud that lebanese are successful when they reside outside lebanon. we are so proud of our history and our trilingual abilities. we are so proud of our almost extinct cedars and our polluted coast. we our proud of our uniqueness, not understanding that there is nothing unique about our internal makeup or our wonderfully uncivil war, or that there is nothing unique about the lack of internal political and economic development. we are so proud of the intelligence of lebanese, yet are too proud to learn lessons from others, and to "stand on the shoulders of giants" with the aim of creating a viable, self-sustainable, and self-correctable political and economic system.

but hey, what am i talking about. all this will be dealt with at a later stage, because we have an existential crisis on our hands, and thus it should absorb all our energies.

of course, isn't it odd that we seem to have an existential crisis year after year after year ... starting from (insert year of birth) ...

posted by Lazarus, 4:03 AM