by Michael Karam

The Lebanese have a wonderful ability to adapt. I guess it comes from having to fend for themselves under various occupiers down the millennia. But even today, 74 years after winning independence from France, the average Lebanese knows that he cannot rely on the state for health care, education, electricity and water. It is a situation that has allowed sectarian politics to flourish to the extent that allegiance to a political party is often greater than that to the government, but it has also prompted the private sector to take matters into its own hands. Lebanon is, after all, arguably the purest expression of a mercantile culture.

I was thinking about this last week when the British media was once again in a fit of angst over the National Health Service (NHS). Now I happen to think, having lived full-time in the UK for over two decades, that the NHS, along with that of the Sécurité Sociale in France, is not only one of the best healthcare systems in the world, but also one of the greatest expressions of the welfare state anywhere on the planet. Even if it appears to be in terminal crisis: staff shortages, overcrowding (often attributed to so-called health tourists and EU immigration) and underfunding (the austerity measures implemented by the Conservative government have been blamed). Accident and Emergency departments across the country are the regular focus of "NHS in turmoil" stories, with tales of patients lying on stretchers in corridors for hours waiting for treatment. It’s a sorry situation all round. Part of the problem lies with the fact that many people will pop into A&E with non-life- threatening conditions such as a sprained ankle or a bad cold, either because their GP is not available or they are simply lazy and selfish, or both, and there have been calls to give pharmacists greater powers to treat conditions that do not really require a hospital visit. This would in theory free up hospitals to deal with more deserving cases.

The Lebanese have been doing this for decades. The local pharmacy is not just a place to buy Panadol and lozenges. Pharmacists in Lebanon are almost as highly regarded as physicians and play an integral role in coordinating with the ministry of health to ensure what healthcare system there is can function.

Le Pen, who is trying to establish international credentials as part of her current bid for the Elysée Palace, was also meeting business and religious leaders during the two-day visit to the Middle Eastern nation. "We discussed the long and fruitful friendship between our two countries," the National Front (FN) leader said after meeting Aoun at the presidential palace in the hilltop suburb of Baabda. She said they also discussed the refugee crisis in Lebanon, where more than one million war-weary Syrians have fled in recent years. "We raised... the concerns we share over the very serious refugee crisis," she said. "These difficulties are being overcome by the courage and generosity of Lebanon but this cannot go on forever." Opinion polls show that Le Pen is on pace to win the first round of France's presidential election on April 23, but that she will be beaten in the run-off ballot on May 7.

Word of caution

The leader of the anti-immigration FN party also met Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, who cautioned against associating his religion with jihadists who have repeatedly targeted France. "The worst mistake would be the amalgam between Islam and Muslims on one hand and terrorism on the other hand," Hariri said, in a statement issued by his office. "The Lebanese and Arabs, like the majority of the world, consider France to be the homeland of human rights and of the republican state that makes no ethnic, religious or class distinction between its citizens," he said. On Tuesday, Le Pen is to meet Lebanon's grand mufti, the leader of its Sunni community, the Maronite Christian patriarch and rightist Christian party leader Samir Geagea.

By Hashem Osseiran - Middle-East Online - BEIRUT