Lebanon’s austerity plan offers no real reforms

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by DR. DANIA KOLEILAT KHATIB -- arabnews.com/ -- The Lebanese government this week leaked its long-awaited “reform plan,” which is supposed to form the basis for its negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and international donors. The plan is well drafted with technical and professional language and it has many figures, numbers and charts that are guaranteed to impress at first sight. However, it is an austerity plan, where the average citizen will bear the brunt of bailing out the country while existing politicians get a free pass. At the outset, the plan states some realities that have long been denied by the political system. The plan admits that the currency is overvalued, which hinders competitiveness, and that the dollar peg is no longer sustainable. It recognizes that the central bank’s reserves are depleted — something the governor has repeatedly refuted. It also admits that a full-fledged IMF program cannot be avoided. The plan makes other important confessions. The first is to pinpoint the destructive role the central bank played by acting like the government’s cashier and the lethal instruments it utilized; namely the financial engineering that has been in use since 2016. It also admits that the banking sector is too big for the Lebanese economy, standing at about 425 percent of gross domestic product.

It also lays down clear objectives, such as fighting corruption, restructuring debt and the financial system, reforming the public sector, and streamlining expenditures. Though the report says the objectives will be attained if reforms are conducted and if external support is garnered, it still fails to offer a proper execution mechanism, a proper timeline or an indication as to how the Lebanese public and the international donors can verify that the reforms have been conducted. The plan says that the treasury will increase tax audits without giving any explanation about how. The plan talks about tighter control of customs, in ports, airports and at land borders. Again, there is no explanation of how compliance can be measured. Smuggling, which is a large part of Lebanon’s tax evasion, is conducted by influential political parties. It is almost impossible, in the current situation, for the Lebanese government or security forces to stop it. Reforms are impossible with the current political structure. This government was formed only when the corrupt politicians — those who brought the country to its knees — agreed on dividing the positions among themselves and putting their people in the key roles, while they rule from behind the scenes. Will they allow the government to prosecute them? Very unlikely.

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Middle East patriarchs speak of faith, hope, during Easter homilies

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by catholicnews.com -- BEIRUT (CNS) -- Catholic patriarchs of the Middle East, in Easter messages from churches barren of the faithful due to the coronavirus, lamented the scourge of the pandemic while evoking the hope of the Resurrection. Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Rai, Maronite patriarch, acknowledged that the COVID-19 threat had deprived the faithful of celebrating Easter in churches. Still, he said, Jesus wants people to be "a bright light in the darkness." "We pray for the recovery of all those infected and the protection of all citizens, as well as those who care for those afflicted with the virus, such as doctors, nurses and family members," he said appealing to the Lebanese people to stay quarantined in order to prevent the spread of the virus. On top of the pandemic, Lebanon is on the edge of economic collapse. Cardinal Rai urged the government to focus on social justice, to preserve the life savings of Lebanese and to recover what he called the state's "looted" funds.

In Beirut, Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan reminded the faithful of the saving power of Jesus. "Would that those who control the affairs of people in this world ... refrain from their selfishness and narrow interests and realize that their might, no matter how great, is so small in front of a virus that the naked eye cannot see, but has spread through the globe with a tremendous speed," Patriarch Younan said. "We, by the power of Our Lord Jesus, who is victorious over death, will inevitably overcome it, and the life cycle will return to normal," he said. "Let us plead with him from the bottom of our hearts to give the whole world a recovery in spirit and body, so that we can live true peace," he added. While acknowledging the negative consequences of home quarantine, Patriarch Younan emphasized that "we can turn it into a blessing and a time of grace, strengthening the bonds of honor and the bonds of family cohesion and relations of brotherhood, friendship and love between us."

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Lebanese star Elissa releases stay-at-home themed music video

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by arabnews.com -- DUBAI: Lebanese singer Elissa has just released a new quarantine-inspired song and music video, starring fellow popstar Haifa Wehbe, to encourage people to stay at home. Entitled “Hanaghani Kaman Wa Kaman,” which translates to “we will sing again,” the allocated production budget for the video was donated to charity, according to the star’s Instagram post. “Just released my music video featuring @HaifaWehbe. We hope it will put a smile on your faces during these times as we get through it together. All the allocated budget for this project was donated to charity. Stay home and stay safe,” the singer wrote. The clip, which was directed by Lebanese filmmaker Eli Rezkallah, features a pajama-clad Elissa at her residence reaching out to Wehbe, who is also seen self-isolating at home. The screen then splits into a video-conference with family members and fans tuning in and dancing along from their homes.

With self-isolation measures anticipated to continue for the foreseeable future, the idea of producing a music video, at least the traditional way, seems almost impossible. That’s why Elissa and Rezkallah turned to social media for the visual’s casting. The popstar posted a call for her fans to send her a video of themselves dancing to any of her songs using the song’s title as a hashtag. “Hanaghani Kaman Wa Kaman” is the first single from Elissa's highly-anticipated forthcoming album.

COVID-19: Lebanese lover proposes in ‘coronavirus suit’

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by gulfnews.com -- Bassam Za za --Tripoli: A Lebanese coordinator gave his girlfriend a ‘memorable birthday present’ when he dressed up in a corona-isolation suit and forklifted himself to her balcony where he knelt down and proposed. Alike most countries imposing lockdown procedures fighting the pandemic outbreak, Lebanese citizens had just started their third house-quarantine week when 32-year-old Jinane Merhabi had an unparalleled birthday gift when she was proposed to in a ‘dreamlike way’. On April 4 [Jinane’s birthday] her sweetheart, Mohammad Samad, put on a corona-isolation suit and coordinated with a special crane to drive him to Tripoli’s famous Azmi Street to forklift him to the second-floor balcony where he knelt down before his captivated girlfriend and proposed. “Oh my God … I still cannot believe this. I have known him for three and a half years … he is bold and crazy. He has done wild things that nobody ever thought of doing but I didn’t see such a proposal coming. I knew he was up to something for my birthday but zero expectations for a proposal,” Jinane told Gulf News. An office coordinator, who lives and works in Tripoli, Samad has his name saved as ‘majnoon’ [crazy in Arabic] on Jinane’s mobile list of contacts.

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Pope: Easter gives hope in our ‘darkest hour,’ despite fear

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by apnews.com -- By FRANCES D'EMILIO -- VATICAN CITY (AP) — Easter offers a message of hope in people’s “darkest hour,” Pope Francis said, as he celebrated a late-night vigil Mass Saturday in St. Peter’s Basilica, with the public barred because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pontiff in his homily likened the fears of current times to those experienced by Jesus’ followers the day after his crucifixion. “They, like us, had before their eyes the drama of suffering, of an unexpected tragedy that happened all too suddenly,″ Francis said. ”They had seen death and it weighed on their hearts. Pain was mixed with fear” about their own lives. “Then, too, there was fear about the future and all that would need to be rebuilt.” Francis added: “For them, as for us, it was the darkest hour.” Easter vigil Mass in the basilica is among the Vatican’s more evocative ceremonies. Celebrants enter in darkness, except for candlelight. The pontiff holds a tall Easter candle, which is lit for him. Then the basilica’s lights are turned on, in a sign of joy. But this night, when the basilica was illuminated, all its emptiness was painfully visible, and the footsteps of the pope and his small entourage on the marble floor could clearly be heard as they walked in slow procession toward the altar.

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Assassination of Hezbollah commander in South Lebanon sparks speculation

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by thearabweekly.com -- BEIRUT - The assassination of Hezbollah commander Ali Mohammed Younes on April 4 in southern Lebanon could be related to internal feuds with the militant pro-Iran party especially in dealing with certain thorny issues such as ​​financial corruption, Lebanese political sources said. According to the sources, Younes was a known second-rank figure in the party in charge of counter intelligence. He worked on the ground in south Lebanon and his main task was to hunt spies and infiltrators. Younes was assassinated somewhere between the villages of Qaqaiyat al-Jisr and Zutar al-Gharbiyeh in southern Lebanon, an area entirely under Hezbollah’s control. Hezbollah was quick to circulate information saying that Younes was ambushed by assassins who came aboard three cars but observers in southern Lebanon ruled out the possibility that anybody from outside the area, including Israel, would ambush a leading figure of Hezbollah in that Lebanese location simply because Hezbollah knows exactly who is travelling in and out of the region.

While Hezbollah sought to steer suspicion for the killing of Younes towards Israeli intelligence (the Mossad), a resident of the area said that Hezbollah’s account of the assassination did not seem accurate. He noted that a person was accompanying Younes when he was shot and that this person was injured and is now being treated in a hospital in the region out of the sight of the official Lebanese authorities. Lebanese political sources suggested that Younes could have been the victim of internal personal or financial feuds within the party that led to his liquidation in that manner. The fact that the Hezbollah commander was shot and stabbed with a knife made the attack look more like an act of revenge.

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