800,000 Protestors in Beirut

Buckethead Buckethead

This is a picture of Martyr's Square in downtown Beirut. The caption says that there are 800,000 people there demanding freedom and the immediate departure of the Syrians.

image

Reading that caption, it made me wonder how many people are actually in Lebanon. According to the CIA Factbook for Lebanon, the total population is only 3,777,218 (July 2004 est.) That means that 21%, or more than one out of five Lebanese are in that square demanding their freedom. And that, friends, is really goddamn amazing.

[wik] More news, and more pictures.

Posted by Buckethead Buckethead on   |   § 7

§ 7 Comments

1

Not to be all negative and whatever, but that one in five figure seems absurdly high. Clearly there's a big big crowd there, and that's of course the point, but that 20% figure sounds as useful to me as does Saddam Hussein carrying 99% of the vote.

Johno Johno

2

It seems high to me - but even more conservative reports later say that there were half a million people there - and that's still a very high percentage of the population. And not to say that you're all negative and whatever, that is not even remotely the same as Saddam getting 99% on a rigged vote where only one person is on the ballot. There is no moral equivalence between the two, and imagining that there is is to be willfully cynical. Look, the new situation in Lebanon that began with the first mass protests forced even Hizbollah, an admitted terrorist organization, to bus people in from Syria just to have the pretence of public support. Things is different now - and this is a more like Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary or E. Germany than it is Stalin getting 99% of the vote.

We have unleashed something, and most people they interview point to the example of the Iraqis voting.

Buckethead Buckethead

3

Buddy, buddy, buddy, you're the last person I expected to invoke moral equivalence!

;)

In truth, I chose my analogies poorly. Clearly Lebanon, a fairly unique state in the Middle East, is choosing to do the right thing, and if the total of people there is 300,000, 800,000, or fifteen million is less important than the fact that the people there keep taking to the streets in favor of home rule.

Home rule rules!!

And I'm not so sure that the examples of Eastern Europe are all that instructive, no more so than saying that Iraq is like Vietnam or for that matter saying Iraq is like Germany in 1947. It's more remarkable than that, and really encouraging.

Also, it seems there are a whole lot of democracy-prone hot chicks in Lebanon. Which is good.

Sorry for pressing your buttons on this... we agree substantially.

Johno Johno

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