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| Artwork by Tarek Chemaly |
Creating a banking hub
Encouraging tourism
Legalizing cannabis.
The "banking hub" thing? Well, let us face it - we are not Dubai. That's it, let's not kid ourselves. Already there is a big question in certain circles is the Lebanese Pound to the Dollar peg is going to hold - and whereas the official word is still comforting with a tone of confidence - the fact that banks are giving such high interest rates on the Lebanese Pound is indeed quite freightening (we are talking 12 to 15%).
Encouraging tourism is a lovely idea - people still think outside of Lebanon that there is a war raging, and for those a little more educated, they know what there is no war in Lebanon but we are too close to Syria for comfort.
Let's go now to legalizing cannabis for medical purposes. Surprisingly, the families now planting cannabis are actually for that! They want it legalized so as for the vast patches of poverty in the region be controlled. For the government to step in and do its job. It also helps that arrests warrants will become void so as for the people to actually work outside of the region.
However, development is a political before it being a social issue. All political parties must agree to one thing, or alternatively barter on it against something else.
Which brings us back to almost square zero. Considering our MP elections happened in May it turns out that we still have no government for now because it takes all the different political factions to agree on one thing, which is a quasi impossibility.