Outside the Box

People who know me know very well that I despise politics and politicians in Lebanon. In fact I do believe that the degree of corruption reached in this country is by far above any corruption achieved anywhere else on this planet throughout the history of the humankind.

Aside from that I do have a political view of course, but this view is in no way a conviction or support for this political side or another. In fact, no matter who you support or vote for, I doubt this party is going to rescue or revive the country. Working on a rescue plan is not even on their political Agenda.
As a matter of fact I do have a very pessimistic view for the region as a whole (and specifically Lebanon) and am a strong believer that the region is doomed altogether (long term that is) be it a result of war or global warming drought/deforestation or financial debt or other nasty stuff you can think of.

Meanwhile however I try to keep a positive attitude and spend a lot of time reading the international press in order to try and understand how 'foreigners' view this country of ours. What are their opinions like. How they analyze things. And of course how far from reality they might get. What strikes out however are the 'foreigners' that nail it though like the 2 guys I will be mentioning below.

This is not a political blog nor is it intended to push opinions of any kind on the readers (if anyone is reading). This is a 'Zero-Intellect' blog and we thrive to keep it this way (How cool is that!!)

By 'foreigners' view on the region I do not mean the kinds of Robert Fisk or Michael Young
who have become more "Lebanonized" than any Lebanese. By 'foreigners' I mean the occasional visiting journalist or the analyst that lives outside but with an eye on the region. It just happened that TODAY I fell simultaneously on 2 such articles that are an extremely interesting read from 2 prestigious magazines:

1. "The Swastika and the Cedar" by Christopher Hitchens in Vanity Fair Magazine.
2. "Hezbollah Doesn't Have Wings" by Michael J. Totten in Commentary Magazine.

Now the above would be a very entertaining reading about the opinions and analysis of these foreign journalists. Furthermore I highly recommend that you keep checking Totten's blog from time to time as it can get quite interesting and educational.

PS: Those 2 journalists are the ones who got assaulted in Hamra street 2 months back by the SSNP (Syrian Socialist National Party) if you ever heard about it on the news.

Enjoy!