Posts Tagged ‘March 14 coalition’
Beirut Blast and Branding a Revolution?
The consequences and ramification of the car explosion in Achrafieh that occurred on Friday at 2:30 pm are in progress. More casualties (injured and killed civilians) are increasing: Infighting in Tripoli and in Beirut are still taking place, for no reasons but to vent out the anger of the jobless youth, galvanized by opportunistic political leaders, wanting to secure a ministry in a possible government shuffling…
I knew a friend living in the nearby of the blasted street and sent her a message: “Zeina, this street is familiar to me. Write something…” The apartment of Zeina and her family was blasted but they are all uninjured…
And the scores of dead victims from the blast had no anchor man or woman to cover the grieving of their families and the 110 injured civilians scattered in the hospitals of Beirut…
Habib Battah published this Oct.20, 2012 in “The Beirut Report” under “Branding a revolution”:
It’s been barely 24 hours since the assassination of the Lebanese internal intelligence chief Gen. Wissam Hassan, and the political wheels are already in full gear.
There have been speeches tonight in downtown Beirut calling for the resignation of prime minister and tents being set up for a sleep-in, which organizers promise will not end until their demands are met (see top right image above).
Politicians opposed to Prime Minister Najib Mikati are calling for a massive turnout for Hassan’s funeral tomorrow, and tonight, the media (allied to the Hariri clan) is playing its role in getting the word out.
The Future Television (Hariri or Moustakbal movement) has begun filming one of its talk shows in the tomb of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, seeking to draw his supporters in by creating a visual link between Hariri’s killing and that of Hassan:
Future TV has even created a Hassan graphic with the date of tomorrow’s funeral:
Meanwhile, other stations have been filming nightly talk shows from Martyr’s square where only a few hundred party loyalists have gathered. These crowds are relatively minuscule compared to the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese that have gathered in downtown Beirut in years past (particularly in March 14, 2005), but in filming live from the area, television stations are building momentum for tomorrow’s event by treating the small crowds as a major news story.
On MTV, the scene is carefully framed with the anchor standing in front of the two tents that have been erected earlier this afternoon (see first photo in this post), which pales in comparison to the hundreds of tents set up by Hezbollah and its allies during their occupation of downtown in 2006. Yet the tight shot does not allow viewers to actually count the tents.
Neither does the wide angle, which shows a relatively small crowd of a few dozen, mainly young men holding party flags:
Similarly, Al Jadeed also filmed its evening talk show tonight from Martyr’s Square, but again wide shots revealed almost no one gathered for an event that can barely justify– in terms of news worthiness– the cost of such an outdoor broadcast.
On the other hand, LBC has chosen to film its show in studio tonight. But like the other channels, the guests are familiar faces, with very partisan affiliations, making very familiar, heated arguments.
The same was true for OTV, which is supportive of the government and thus brought out pro-government figures that Lebanese have seen on televisions for years if not decades.
Clearly, all this advertisement about tomorrow’s rally from pro-government channels may have an impact on some viewers. But at the same time, many have grown tired of being spoon-fed polarizing and often sect-specific views from entrenched party figures.
If tomorrow’s rally does not draw the huge crowds it is promising, this could be a small but significant blow to the traditional Lebanese political order, which finds itself under increasing pressure amid the changes going on in the region.
Note: The bodies of Wissam and his bodyguard Sahyoun were being readied to be buried next to late Rafic Hariri PM when a nitwits, standing by ex-Siniora PM, took the micro and harangued the masses to storm the close-by government building (The Grand Serai).
The fanatic youth of the Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb and the radical Islamist extremists surged and overturn the few policemen standing guard. The army commandos came in reinforcement and the “official” leader of March 14 coalition (Saad Hariri) spoke from Paris and ordered the masses to retreat. Why?
He claimed that the government building, constructed in the early 1910, was built by his late assassinated father Rafic Hariri PM.
Adonis Diaries 