Essays and Features

With the passing of Patrick Seale (1930-2015), it might become difficult to read more “authoritative” personal-political biographies of members of the Assad family. Assad the son demonstrated little trust in the past decade, even for the British scholar in whom Assad the father frequently confided. Will anyone else step onto the stage of political biographies about Syria’s elites in order to offer us a stronger grip over the character of Bashar al-Assad? Not certain, at least as of now. 

For almost two years the Lebanese journalistic community has been engaged in continuous debate about the future of their print media. This occurs at a time already impacted by the previous closings of many literary supplements, as well as political and cultural magazines, a time when many of the surviving newspapers must layoff of journalists, severely reduce their daily pages, or finally close their doors, as in the case of the recent shuttering of a 43-year old daily. To a large extent, most of the Lebanese print media problems remain global, but nevertheless, indigenous or “homegrown” causes do exist.

I belong to the 1950s generation, having been brought up socialized by Nasserite, Baathist, Communist and secular cultures. The meaning of nation for me gradually changed through time, although I have felt privately inclined to the term my good folk used, which wasn’t politically and ideologically loaded.