Lebanese Politicians Play Soccer
Redux: Lebanese Politicians Play Soccer & Lebanese Not Amused
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Lebanon may be cursed with the worst political establishment in the world. Many nations has inept and corrupt politicians. But Lebanese adds to that sectarianism. The nation's political elite are not only incredibly incompetent and vain (many of the MPs and ministers have fake degrees which they buy online and then frame in their offices pretending they have a Masters in International Relations from Harvard ) and buffoonish characters, but they also excel in domestic division and bigotry.
Lebanese, a victim of a short Civil War in 1958 and a 15-year horrific Civil War 1975-1990, remains on the verge of war because its political class believes in zero-sum sectarian politics where each sect leader aligns his groups against all others and preaches that the sect must remain united and protect its power within a confessional system instead of preaching unity and secularism.
The nation's politicians divide Christians against Muslims and even Christians against Christians and Muslims against Muslims. And no matter what they say about unity and partnerships with different religions, all of them are sectarian and it is just a question of when they calculate it is expedient to employ such divisiveness.
All of them preach sectarianism which is the cause of Lebanon's troubles. And some are incredibly vulgar in this art, principle the far-right, Nazi-inspired Christians of the extremist Phalange party.
Hezbullah, the Shia's main group, is also sectarian and seeks to promote Shias vs. Sunnis instead of preaching unity despite its lofty rhetoric which are betrayed by its actions.
Which is why this gimmick is so obnoxious:
Rival political leaders in Lebanon have marked the 35th anniversary of the outbreak of the civil war with a football match to show their unity.
Prime Minister Saad Hariri captained his team against a side led by an MP from the Shia Hezbollah movement.
Commentators had to stifle their laughter as the unfit politicians quickly ran out of breath.
A unity government was formed by Mr Hariri's majority coalition and the Hezbollah-led opposition in November.
The agreement ended five months of deadlock following June's general election which had threatened Lebanon's stability.
'One team'
"We are one team" was the slogan for the 30-minute friendly played by ministers and MPs to commemorate the bloody 1975-1990 civil war, which left more than 150,000 people dead.
Mr Hariri, the Western-backed prime minister, was the captain of the team in red, made up of members of his 14 March movement.
Like all football matches in Lebanon, it was not open to the public
Their rivals from the 8 March alliance - wearing white - were led by Ali Ammar of Hezbollah, which is supported by Iran and Syria.
"In Lebanon, polemics is the national sport, and now we are using real sport to overcome differences. It's important to show that not everything has to be politicised," said one of the players, Information Minister Tarek Mitri.
"I haven't played football since I was 17," he added.
Almost immediately, the 30-minute match revealed that fitness was not one of the strengths of Lebanon's current crop of politicians.
And their mental fitness is even worse.
Are we supposed to be impressed by this? These buffoon place Lebanon in jeopardy of another civil war and then they have the temerity to pretend that they like one another and all is well that they can just play soccer and that a pointless and boring and stupid and poorly played soccer match is what will stop another civil war instead of substantive political reform.
Go build a real country and then play soccer...
