I the Crowd – Malek El Khazen

Lebanese elections strange Phenomenon.

Written By Malek el Khazen

The Lebanese elections are a strange phenomenon. Usually in an election in any developed countries, the citizens of these countries are interested about the candidates, biography, achievements and most importantly debating their political electoral Program or the party program they represent.   In another perspective, we the Lebanese voters have been all waiting for the next elections “June 7” 2009. Media, newspapers, elites and us the people we all discuss about these elections with passion. But notice our discussions are who do you think will win? Who will be running? Who will be part of this or that list?

For us to really improve our country I believe it is very important to know what we are voting for. Let us take a simple example, in the United States candidates start campaigning before 2 years of the elections. Yes 2 years!! But the citizens will know everything about the candidate from his personal life to all of his political stands throughout his life and most importantly achievements. Sometimes knowing so much, could backlash!  As an example, let us take many nominations from President Obama Cabinet where candidates have not paid all their taxes and had to withdraw. But in USA we can hold politicians accountable for. Since we know their platform and what they are running for.

 In contrast, In Lebanon can we hold these candidates accountable for? Let us not blame the candidates. The only ones to blame are OURSELVES!. Yes I will not say that all candidates have political programs. But many of them do. The issue is us as Lebanese (most of us) we do not ask about the programs, achievements and experience. All what we care about is who is running with who? We are constantly trying to predict results (note that this is not only in Lebanon even in developed countries their obsession with predicting results hence polls, which could be very bad). But I have to give a break to the Lebanese people since all of them seem to be EXPERT in only ONE field and this is foreign relations! But anything that is domestic we do not have any clue. The elections are in 2 month and we still are not aware of many candidates’ names and stands? My suggestion is for all the candidates to start campaigning and discuss their political programs. Then, when the list is created they can continue their campaign or retract themselves.

Is it About HIV?  Hidden Agenda!

Written by Malek Khazen

Reading the news these last 2 weeks in regards of the visit of His Holiness the Pope to Africa all what I find are extreme articles carrying hidden agenda against Catholics and clergy positions. You might be surprised and wonder is there new positions about condom use from the Catholics Church that we are not aware of? No they are not!! This is the disturbing part of it. These are ideological, spiritual believes that never changed and the Church has always argued against the use of condoms.

I will cite some titles of articles that were posted only during the days between Mach 26^th and March 30^th. The purpose of me citing these articles is to outline the extremism in most of the media thoughts.

1.         Wrong Message from the Pope  Washington post March 30th

2.         Pope ‘distorted’ HIV evidence  guardian.co.uk – ‎Mar 27, 2009‎

3.         Please Pontiffs Remain In Rome New Vision – ‎Mar 27, 2009‎

4.         Pope damns condoms in AIDS-ravaged Africa Vancouver Sun – ‎Mar 27, 2009‎

5.         Facebook group attacks the Vatican with condom campaign Telegraph.co.uk – ‎Mar 27, 2009‎

6.         The Catholic Church should put its own house in order Daily Nation – ‎Mar 26, 2009‎

As you can notice, these journalists (I am not sure if they should be called Journalists), only from the titles of their articles (or should I say propaganda) are not looking for a debate, and/or resolving the HIV sickness  but rather looking to clash with the Catholics in general and specifically with the Catholics Church. The second important point is that this is only a small illustration of the propaganda that Vatican has been dealing with since a decade until now and most importantly this is only 6 articles out of thousands of cartoons and articles mocking the Holy Father. Also, these articles are not just written by ordinary people, but they are published within the biggest Media networks where it is read by thousands of users. Unfortunately I am a person where my article will just be published in my website, twitter account and facebook not much. You can argue I don’t have the skills. Or my English is weak. But then, my question to you is how come all of these huge networks where articles were published were all one sided articles not offering an alternative or an efficient debate about condoms but rather a Personal attack against the Holy Father?

 Malek El Khazen, November 2008 – Let us ask ourselves this first question: How did the Republicans fail? or did the Republicans really fail? Let me rephrase this question to what was different that made the Democrats win? The answer seems easy and yes it is logical, and the same process was applied in France, in Zimbabwe and many other countries during election within these last 2 years. What has made the difference in all of these elections are what we will call in this article the silent citizens but not so silent anymore. They are the new registered voters. There is also another variable that all of these candidates were successful enough in convincing their citizens on the ASSUMPTION of CHANGE, HOPE, TRUST and EXPERIENCE.