issue number 117 |April 2012 GOVERNMENT RENTED BUILDINGS CENTRAL INSPECTION “THE MONTHLY” INTERVIEWS DR. HIBAH OSMAN www.iimonthly.com # Published by Information International sal BUDGET-LESS LEBANON Lebanon 5,000LL | Saudi Arabia 15SR | UAE 15DHR | Jordan 2JD| Syria 75SYP | Iraq 3,500IQD | Kuwait 1.5KD | Qatar 15QR | Bahrain 2BD | Oman 2OR | Yemen 15YRI | Egypt 10EP | Europe 5Euros April INDEX 2012 5 BUDGET-LESS LEBANON 8 GOVERNMENT RENTED BUILDINGS 10 DAM PROJECTS AWAIT EXECUTION 12 ELECTORAL DISTRICTS 14 RENT OF POWER-GENERATING SHIPS 15 CENTRAL INSPECTION 20 ORGAN DONATION P: 23 P: 26 21 THE PLACEBO EFFECT: DR. HANNA SAADAH 22 ALF, BA, TA (2): DR. SAMAR ZEBIAN 23 INTERVIEW: DR. HIBAH OSMAN 25 THE BEAUTY AND COMPLEXITY OF TEENAGERS - UNDERPRIVILEGED AND UNDERESTIMATED 26 NOBEL PRIZES IN CHEMISTRY (1) 30 AZM AND SAADE ASSOCIATION P: 10 32 POPULAR CULTURE 33 DEBUNKING MYTH #56: MEMORY 47 REAL ESTATE PRICES IN LEBANON - 34 MUST-READ BOOKS: LEBANON’S QUEST FEBRUARY 2012 35 MUST-READ CHILDREN’S BOOK: THE HUMAN 48 FOOD PRICES - FEBRUARY 2012 BODY 50 TEENAGE PREGNANCY IN USA 36 LEBANON FAMILIES: SHIKHANI FAMILIES 50 BEIRUT RAFIC HARIRI INTERNATIONAL 37 DISCOVER LEBANON: CHOUKIN AIRPORT - FEBRUARY 2012 38 CIVIL STRIFE INTRO (2) 51 LEBANON STATS 40 A 20-YEAR WAIT FOR POWER-GENERATING SHIPS 41 FEBRUARY 2012 TIMELINE 44 TUNISIA’S PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS |EDITORIAL WHAT SHALL WE TELL THEM? “In which country are those?”, the angelic seven-year old Let us tell our children about the followers of boy, playing in his own world, was asking his father when Jamal Basha who turned against him when they were interrupted by the voice of Sheikh Ahmad al- Turkey lost the war and about the French bribes Assir roaring through Martyrs’ Square and reassuring the given to the residents of Tripoli and Beqa’a who resisted being Christians of their safety. annexed to the new Greater Lebanon, and who, as the Syrian brutality The father was planning to tell the boy about the South and !"![#" its capital… about Muslim Saida resting peacefully in the residents are rallying in support of the Syrian Sunnis today. tranquility of Christian Abra… This is how Jean Aziz narrated the events he encountered Let us tell them about the Jewish Agency’s funds to the the day Al-Assir and his allies took to the streets in Martyrs’ clerics, politicians, journalists and the so-called “men of Square, thus prompting a counter protest staged by the Baath P"[ Party and the SSNP in a sick attempt to replay the scenes of provided to our media outlets since the 1920s. Had it not been the “Hamad Cell” and “Qornet Shehwan Gathering”. for the Turks, the French, the Khalijis, the Iranians and the Americans, we couldn’t have had a single newspaper or a O \ R TV station. Likewise we couldn’t have dreamt of a USJ or an engraved in the father’s memory and tore apart the geography AUB if it weren’t for the Catholic and Protestant missionaries. book in front of the eyes of the boy,” stated Jean Aziz, thus initiating what would be a beginning for a real dialogue between Let us tell them about the Patriarch who championed the the concerned parties unlike their so-called “dialogue table”. “Arabism of Lebanon” against the so-called “Persian expansion”, and the Mufti who prayed at the Serail because Let us start. it is a “Sunni property”. Let us tell them about the politician Did Sheikh Al-Assir commit all this? who, after yielding up the harvest of the Mufti’s prayer, repaid Is he responsible for the failure, or rather the bankruptcy ![%# of the Baath Party, the SSNP and all the political bodies in the documents of the Ministry of Finance slip by unnoticed. Lebanon? Is he responsible for the false history woven and And ironically, the Mufti chose not to question him over the fabricated with the purpose of creating a non-existent reality wealth he gathered and the hundreds-of-millions of dollars in a non-existent nation? What should we tell our children? he amassed through the duty-free zone and Sukleen. “Can’t a Let us tell them the bittersweet reality so that they can create man save from his monthly salary for God’s sake?” a sustainable new one for themselves one day. Let us tell them about the Sheikh and the monk who ordered Let us tell them about Fakhreddine who kneeled down to &'! the Countess of Tuscany, begging her to appoint him as others of the Syrians or the devotees of one sect or another. Tuscany’s Consul for his “putative” country, Lebanon. Let us tell them about the secularist party, which took part in the game of manoeuvring for sectarian seats in Parliament Let us tell them about the two Bashirs- Shihab and Jumblat- and the Cabinet, participated in street bloodshed and rejoiced who committed endless atrocities with an aspiration to in its victory after turning a blind eye to the killing of its kiss the Sultan’s hand, not to mention the other parts of his members all for the gain of one ministerial seat. anatomy, and conspired against each other to take over a few villages and control the lives of tens of thousands of people. Let us tell them about the Za’im who said in the 1960s that there is no water pollution in Lebanon, for our country cannot but have pure Let us tell them about the actual reasons behind the events of water. Let us make them aware of the manipulation of medicines and 1845, 1860, 1920, 1943, 1958, 1975, 1989, 2005, 2006, 2007 food products, the misuse of water and air, and the corpses scattered and all the worse that is yet to come without pointing out that a throughout the streets and the victims of medical malpractice. Christian attacked a Druze or a Druze shot a chicken, or claiming that the independence was achieved by heroic acts and that the Let us tell our children that the 15-year civil war, which claimed Ain el-Remmaneh bus massacre ignited a 15-year long war. Let the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and wreaked havoc us study the correct version of history without the tales of theft on the country, ended with an amnesty law and kept us wondering [ [ |EDITORIAL Let us tell them about the PSP, the Lebanese Forces, the SSNP their murderers, the teachers and employees who showed up at and the Amal Movement who forged an alliance to vote against [! Hezbollah and the FPM in the elections of the Teachers’ Union Let us speak to them of the bloodshed and the tears of those few and about the Zu’ama who call for democracy in Syria while who still believe that this country is worth it… holding on to their power in Lebanon at any cost. Let us draw their attention to the Labor Confederation, which stood against Let us tell our children how important it is for people to have a set ()! of values to consult and refer to as a guideline and a main reference. Let us tell them about Saida’s garbage dump and about the If we were to summarize the Commandments of Hammurabi, 23,000 votes cast to him who promised to adopt a waste Moses, Jesus and Muhammad in only one, the choice would fall on management policy and failed to live up to his promises. Let us “do not lie”. Lies are prevalent everywhere around us and within recall the three kisses he printed on Condi’s cheek and about the us. They lied when they said they sought to build a nation and we )! lied when we followed them against the whispers of our hearts. who became champions and lecturers on statehood. Let us educate them on Yasser Arafat’s acts, the displacement of the The question of the boy ran parallel to a question by a seven- villagers of eastern Saida, the assassination attempts and plots year old girl: on over 230 people since 1943 and the ongoing serial murders. “You do not go to the mosque, nor does mom go to the church…What are we? Are we nothing?” (!*[+ “We are the nothing that ascends beyond all the things”, the of Lebanese and buried them in Beqa’a but was later greeted father replied. with cheers and cries of welcome upon his arrival in Beirut. “You mean that “nothing” is better than “everything?”, she said. Let us speak to them of the 2006 July War and of those politicians who broke bread with Condoleezza Rice despite \ Proposed questions for the history test in the how Hezbollah lavished their praise on the 2006 government, [ which they’ve always accused of conspiracy against Lebanon Question 1: Iskandar Riachi quotes Harold Keplin: “The and described it as a “government of resistance”. Mukhtara Palace, which was an English stronghold during the Ottoman rule, has become loyal to France. The rules Let us highlight the quotes of Iskandar Riachi: “…It wouldn’t of politics in Lebanon might transform the Maronites into be even an exaggeration to say that the people of this country English loyalists if the Druze were French…” taught the Turks the art of bribery…” Explain the reasons for the above and write a paragraph detailing the current shifting alliances like the author did Let our children know that the amnesty was given to the since 1989 to date. murderers rather than the victimized, and the compensations Question 2: Is Saida’s waste crisis acceptable in the awarded to the displacers rather than the displaced.