Wow, We're Fooled by "Charity"

Scenario:

Scene 1: You live in a country ravaged by war, where misery and poverty characterize most Lebanese people, who are unable to have a decent education.

Scene 2: The world is still under the "cold war," and its two superpowers are competing to gain influence over the region. The Soviet Union is at its peak, and is funding the Lebanese left, including scholarships for studying in Moscow. As a result, our "beloved" youth is going to study in Moscow and coming back with communist ideas that threaten not only the rusted Lebanese system, but also all other Arab regimes, especially kingdoms.

Scene 3: If you haven't heard of it, the usual reaction of the USA would be to implement what we call a "Marshall Plan" in the region, in other words to flood it with money so it won't need Moscow. This is what the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, one of the pillars of US strategy in the region, has done with Lebanon. Using Rafic Hariri, it started to give aid and scholarships to stop communist expansion, and financed the militias that stood with it.

Scene 4: The civil war is over, the left has failed to seize power and implement its national program, and the Syrian-Saudi-American system has sustained itself. The logical conclusion to that is for Hariri to come to power, and implement a policy based on achieving economic growth, not development, financing projects that do not generate revenues. This is what is called "charity."

Conclusion: Yes, I am against charity. Charity means giving money that doesn't generate revenue (neither material nor spiritual). Instead of giving the poor a fish, we better not only teach them fishing, but also let them do it. We are controlling the poor: we forbid them to fish, and we give them fish in exchange of power. We are treating them like dogs: bones for guards.

The funds given all over the years for youth to study in private institutions would have built a modern and competent Lebanese University that gives proper education to all citizens. Instead of giving voters 200 dollars to come with the same businessmen-politicians that governed Lebanon since the 1800's and made it politically and economically dependent, we would rather have them vote for a system that would rebuild Lebanon on a new, independent and solid basis.

Let's just all hope that one day, people will be able to see beyond the tip of their nose.