It is quite amusing how nearly all apologists of globalism heap the same slights (or what they deem to be so) at those who oppose that destructive and morally degenerate ideology.

Here are twenty ‘insults’ that scribes – be they jesters or wannabe ‘analysts’ – invariably sprinkle out in their writings (probably to get a pat on the back from their masters):

1. Populists
2. Protectionists
3. Unilateralists
4. Misogynists
5. Sexists
6. Bigots
7. Xenophobes
8. Homophobes
9. Exclusivists
10. Isolationists
11. Nationalists (yes, this also has become a dirty word in their lexicon)
12. Brexiteers

and …

13. Nativists (that’s the funniest and most recent buzz word among the whatchamacallthem)

There are also the two-word derogations:

14. Trade disrupters
15. Wall builders
16. Closed-borderists

And there are the

17. Trumpists
18. Putinists
19. LePenists
20. Wildersists

Obviously, ‘political correctness’ is a one-way street for the whatchamacallthem.

True to Nineteen Eighty-Four mode of governance, shouldn’t the Orwellian State call in the Speech Police to baton those who oppose global statism? Why not bludgeon them, for good measure? Then unleash the Thought Police after anyone who nurtures dangerous leanings towards nation-states, democracy, and accountability to the people rather than to global corporatocracy.

And if the Speech Police and the Though Police fail in their noble mission, then drone the disruptive elements. (to drone: a verb borrowed from the lexicon of one of the leaders of latter day ‘liberals’ who suggested that such punishment be dished out to the guy who exposed her criminality).

Hail the globalists, for they will rid humanity of democracy, that archaic form of governance.

A.Nasr

Taxonomy: I used to hold the view that it is a simple, forthright, first-round approach to understanding and hence analysis. I was proven wrong, time and again. Now I am convinced that brains are either wired ‘taxonomically’ or they are not – with the latter alternative seemingly more prevalent.

The ‘defect’ seems to be as serious as the inability of some to arrange cutlery according to purpose. In the disciplines of social sciences, this translates into a functional blindness of the wirings that renders hard, nay impossible, the perception of relational meaning, the mental viewing of formations, and the identification of categorical schemata. Disordered wiring also weakens the perception of the need to rank-order variables prior to analysis, and by the same token obliterates the ability to build models, let alone interpret their results.

The educational system’s neglect to include formal logic in primary school curricula is the root cause of mathematical illiteracy, which in turn is the root cause of the weird ‘analyses’ and droll categorizations I so often encounter. The fork and the kitchen. The car and the steering wheel. The building and the doorknob.

Pity the logician in the land of milk and … cedar cones.

A.Nasr

The nation of shopkeepers, innkeepers and bookkeepers may be finally meeting its day of reckoning. The country’s fate is now being juggled between a looming political meltdown, rumbling social turmoil, and a raging geopolitical tempest.

In response, the stalwarts of the kleptocratic system of governance have given free rein to their obtuse ‘economics’, nutty logic, and callous self-serving rhetoric. (It was quite funny how a recent World Bank report stopped just short of branding the country’s governance as kleptocratic.)

This land is afflicted with a political posse whose thought processes simply aren’t cut for public policy making. By insisting on practicing that craft they are doing themselves a twin disservice: first, because the nobility of that craft stands out in stark contrast with their debased ethics, and second because they would be laying bare their pathetic deficiency in neurons and synapses.

They would be much better off minding the hoard they have leached out of the system of thievery they have put in place.

Isn’t it time for zookeepers to intervene? A well-placed, well-timed crack of a whip could do wonders.

A.Nasr

Reform or disintegrate. Never in Lebanon’s history has this been truer than it is today. The country now stands at a crossroads, with one long, harsh and bumpy path of reforms ultimately leading to the emergence of a modern nation, while the other path, short and bloody, would see this stretch of land splintered politically and socially.

Disintegration would offer a new perspective to the awe-inspiring Lebanese mosaic (read: assortment of hate bound tribes).

The mosaic: I have made a half-hearted attempt at tracing back the term to the person who coined it first. The term seems to feature in the literature about Lebanon since time immemorial, since the Mesozoic Era to be precise. (You have to admit the era’s name sounds like mosaic, so there must be a link in there.)

I deduced it must be some mason – free or shackled – who thought about it back then while laying tiles. The country’s ‘intelligentsia’ took it from there.

In a backdrop of degenerating governance, each tile in this mosaic is now seeking to go it alone, to become a mansion on its own.

Speaking of intelligentsia, I am amazed at how everyone and his little brother have become immersed in a variety of sideshows meant to sidetrack and/or entertain. I wouldn’t blame Fulén for trying his mind at ‘analyzing’ the news dished out in the daft media. However, I am startled at how otherwise clear minds could get squeezed into the straightjacket of analyzing minor symptoms while failing to see the underlying formidable maladies.

Well, we should feel solace in that the world envies us for the weather we are having. Blessed be the weather maker.

A.Nasr

I wonder how the present ministerial team would be judged a few years down the road, but being an incorrigible optimist I would say that they would be judged positively. They should go down in the history of latter-day Phoenicia as having tried to start planting the idea in the public’s mind on the necessity of seriously beginning to contemplate attempting to pave the grounds for the emergence of a situation whereby the process of gently starting to apply the brakes on corruption would be facilitated.

Decision makers don’t like to be hurried. They have taken the right direction and the masses should be grateful to them for that.

By the turn of the fourth millennium they should be proven right as the public administration will have probably purged itself of some of the vortices of corruption, but the road ahead would still be a long one. Things take time, you know, and good things are worth waiting for. Besides, the Lebanese think centuries ahead and their actions naturally take centuries to unfold; they owe the ‘long-term-planning’ gene to their Phoenician origins. Of course by that time the country’s name would have changed a dozen times more, and with luck the appellation ‘Lebanon’ would again be chosen for the stretch of land, so people living in that distant future will be able to say Lebanon is fighting corruption.

Come to think of it, why precipitate things and risk regretting this alacrity later? Generations in this millennium need to know more about the theory and practice of bad governance. Therein lies a weighty competitive advantage. Lebanon could establish an institute that teaches the art; better still a university with a research center that covers the region and also a publishing house and why not a hands-on lab facility. The country would attract students from all over the world and charge high tuition fees. The economic spillover effects of such a venture would be ample to say the least.

To be fair, Lebanon has yet to produce blue-ribbon experts in the subject and the book on bad governance was written elsewhere, but brilliant and innovative practitioners of the art abound in the country. With proper encouragement, motivation and incentives they should qualify to start publishing a “Bad Governance for Dummies” series.

A.Nasr

It is understandable that people be worked up about the news; after all, what’s happening in the region and in the world is important. But I wish the news would give us an inkling as to where we would be a few years from now.

Who is minding the economy? Anyone in the cockpit? Or are we heading straight into the wall, on autopilot?

Will the economy be able to generate enough new jobs and decent standards of living for all resident Lebanese? And I mean Lebanese from all colors: Reds and whites, greens and oranges, yellows and purples. And I also mean Lebanese from all calendar days: March 14 as well as March 8, and why not the May 25, and surely November 22, not to forget April 13 and October 13, and May 6 to be sure, and April 26 to top it all, and pride of place for the pranksters of April 1.

Would this mishmash help reduce the confessional-political divide that is blocking any prospect for reform and threatening to rip the country apart?

Without a sturdy economic recovery triggered by radical administrative and fiscal reforms, all colors would fade and all dates would merge into a grey, bleak twilight.

A.Nasr

In the region’s game of thrones, peace dividends go to powerful political entities, whereas lackeys will remain minor mercantile entities. Mar. 31, 2019

Environmental ruin in Lebanon & ensuing public health hazards encourage politicos to invent self-enriching schemes disguised as remediation. Mar. 31, 2019

Corruption underlies unrestrained & untaxed industrial pollution & condones systematic poisoning of agricultural land by merchants of death. Mar. 31, 2019