A Christian journalist walks into a bar during Ramadan...

A hot summer evening in Beirut, the traffic is dwindling as people head home for the Iftar. The sun is about to set behind the beautiful Mediterranean horizon, the crimson glow gently caresses the rooftops of Beirut's downtown area. The air is gently perfumed with oriental spices as the evening meal is being prepared. Nearby, an argument over a parking spot kicks off, people are anxious to get home to break their fast. The youth involved decide not to bother with the preliminary fistfights and the automatic rifles make an appearance. A few rocket-propelled grenades are fired in haste, three people die then everyone goes home. Just another typical summer evening in the Paris of the Middle East.

The 'Ground Zero Mosque': Why are we having the wrong debate?

The ongoing debate around the 'Ground Zero Mosque' is astounding for two reasons: firstly because it's taking place at all, and secondly because it has degenerated from a debate about principles into a cultural conflict allowing identity politics to dictate the terms of the debate. This a product of the contemporary inability to debate principles, a situation which sees opponents switching positions depending on circumstances and convenience. Much like with freedom of speech, there should be no ifs and buts when it comes to the freedom of religion. But also much like freedom of speech, we have grown accustomed to accepting statements like 'I'm for freedom of speech but...' The general test in both cases is not how zealous we are in defending what we like and subscribe to, but our commitment to the freedom of ideas and practices that we oppose and even abhor.

The Christians are in despair? Yes, but that's only half the story

Michael Young caused some controversy today when he claimed, in an opinion column entitled Downward, Christian soldiers, that Lebanon's Christians are being increasingly marginalised and becoming less important in shaping the country's development. Young argued that much of the Christian community's woes are self-inflicted, particularly as reflected in the decline of the Maronites which he sees as stemming from their political choices. This decline, Young argues, manifests itself in "...a disturbing lack of political vigor, economic innovation or intellectual dynamism in the community."

Plus ça change: The Chronicles of a Juvenile Nation

There's a central preoccupation in Milan Kundera's work that revolves around the theme of the small nation experiencing the uncertainties of such a precarious condition. His superb intermingling of love and politics often crosses the boundaries between both, asserting once that we are witness to much larger forces than ourselves and often that we are capable of creating a path and a persona that are uniquely ours. What's true of the individual is also true of the small nation. In many respects, Lebanon's modern history has primarily been defined by being a small nation. Too often though, it seemed that Lebanon accepted that it is small, but never figured the nation part out. In what follows are some thoughts on how this failure continues to place the country in a perpetual state of emergency.

The Forensic Alternative to the Truth: Thoughts on the Nasrallah Speech and the Difficulty of Writing History in Lebanon

The artist Walid Raad (The Atlas Project) observed a curious aspect of the Lebanese Civil War: confronted by their own powerlessness in the face of car bombs, the police turned to recording meticulously all details of the crime scene without any serious hope of finding the perpetrators. The press would always report the license plate and engine numbers of the cars used in the bombing, as well as other details such as colour and make. Many questions about the war remain unanswered, but we have an encyclopedic record of all the secondary facts, and this is as close as we ever got to writing the history of the war. As the state disintegrated its agents went through the motions, reducing their official roles to that of skilled scribes.

A style guide to burning effigies

Two comments on burning effigies: 1- how the hell do people get hold of one so quickly, do they have a stash for a rainy day? (well, maybe not a rainy day) 2 - these things never really look like the people they're supposed to represent. If you want to make an impact on the international stage, put some thought into it, don't just do a sloppy job. David Cameron's effigy looked nothing like him, the clothes were all wrong and the head frankly could have been anyone from Eton. Do some research, look at some photographs and choose the right clothes, otherwise, you're just making a fool of yourself.

Society of the Spectacle 1 - Frankfurt School 0, the real World Cup result

I can't better the Stuff White People Like parody of people who don't have a TV, but suffice to say that we all know self-important people like that who feel very smug about opting out of consumer society and popular culture, despite the fact that it makes them more boring. But one thing to note is that this anti-TV tendency, like so many self-congratulatory middle class ideas, derives from a crass vulgarisation of Frankfurt school ideas, in this case Adorno's and Horkeimer's critique of mass media and culture. This high-brow, but wrong, critique of mass media is now articulated in the form of banal statements like "TV is junk food for the mind", essentially agreeing with Adorno that people are not active subjects who can make their own decisions but they are helpless victims being manipulated by The System.

What was interesting during the World Cup, was how even the most ardent Frankfurt School advocates and TV refuseniks couldn't resist watching the football and getting excited about it. Aside from the question about how did they watch it if they didn't have a TV, this was particularly interesting because the World Cup is the epitomization of Debord's Society of the Spectacle, which was a further elaboration of Frankfurt School concepts also masquerading as Marxist, when in fact it's old-school misanthropic conservatism hiding behind fancy language. Despite the fact that the World Cup is a global staged event, those people couldn't resist taking part except, perhaps, for the most miserablist among them who will always find a way to turn their misanthropy into high-minded moralism.

So, once again, it seems that the Global Spectacle has emerged victorious over the petty self-congratulatory antics of the Frankfurt School adherents. Who but the most miserable of souls wouldn't get excited when Gyan scored against the USA?