The Lebanon Idea of The Middle East

Economics is connected to Peace

The middle-east is in bad need for an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The OECD is a wonderful Organization started in 1961. The organization consists of many Economically Developing Countries (EDCS) and now included Less Developed Countries. (LDC’s)

“The OECD serves as a forum for member countries to discuss economic issues.” (Boyer Pg. 362) But, Lebanon is only involved with a few trade deals with OSCD, and is mainly on its own to survive whenever it can export and import. Lebanon’s Economic cooperation is tricky, it may export & import one day to its closes countries and not the next day due to political and religious strife. I would put Lebanon in a category of regional economic cooperation. Although it is very versatile how it is looking for more tourism and in accepting tourism, meanwhile the War on Terror continues. “Lebanon’s economic structure is resilient and tourism and its financial sector.” (Economy watch) And as I said surprisingly Lebanon keeps a good sustainable tourism even though “Political Instability” is always looming around the bend.

So, if Lebanon wants a high GDP producing vegetables it isn’t going to cut it, (although Lebanon is very good in exporting prepared vegetables and food processing products) no, they need to keep their “structure” of a “highly liquid financial sector and a flourishing tourism industry that when combined are the biggest contributors to the GDP of Lebanon. (Economy watch) Unfortunately, Lebanon does not belong to the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the World Bank lowers Lebanon’s projected growth. This growth fell by 2.5 to 4.0 even if “Lebanon will have a strong tourist season.” (The daily star) Lebanon gets a lot of Arab tourists, and as I previously stated in other prior essay Lebanon is a unique country, and if all the other countries in the Middle East were Lebanonized, it may hold a bright future for more constitutional ways of governing. And although sometimes, the “World Bank noted that Lebanon along with Jordan enter crisis with weak macroeconomic positions such as high debt, and current account and fiscal deficits.” (The Daily Star) I believe if middle-eastern countries Lebanonize (Factions Co-existing in economics & Laws) middle-east can thrive but the “peace” message must be spread first. I believe Lebanonization is just for the middle-east of course not any other geographic hemisphere. Factions in the middle-east have to work together and the positives of that will be that the middle-east can make money other than leaving a carbon foot print on the earth selling oil , in which only a handful of the “Oil Lords” gain from.

Negatives

This would be the philosophical message to spread for the start of a Good, Healthy Economy followed by a (Lebonization) sustainable peace to a foreseeable extent. The negatives of Lebonization would be that if it doesn’t work for the Middle East, but it’s worth a try. People deserve the chance, it if it works for economy great but most importantly if it works to bring peace then it was definitely worth it.

Positives

The benefits of this may just be the answer for cultures to understand “all” cultures. The state the world is in now regarding peace does not look like it can be any worse, and so there is so much more room for a positive outlook. This positive outlook that can be achieved has to be looked at upon in a philosophical way. Let me start with this question: Is peace in the Middle East hard to obtain because we westerners or non-Arab non-middle easterners must be destroyed because of our politics? This is the philosophical question we (our world family) must answer so we can come together and mend what has been torn apart for hundreds or even thousands of years. If this philosophical question is answered and worked on, then total world peace is possible if we just look at things a bit differently. We must respect human life, unborn and born. Respecting the unborn is easy hurdle if we truly believe in respect in its moment of conception. Now, the tough part is having respect for the born and its culture that goes along with his or her life. Life is complicated, because we humans are made up of many cultures. The problem is not just one-sided culture not respecting a culture, no; the problem is cultures’ not respecting each culture. And, so the philosophical question exists, and one may ask: Can one live in a global society with each culture “West & “East” and thrive. Can cooperation for peace be possible, without intrusion on each other’s religious traditions or democratic traditions? It is time to let go of the xenophobe that the West & East all have ingrained in their minds of each other.

Maybe this question can be best answered by taking a simple Leucaena (Lukana) TREE as an example. Both the East and West can agree that God has made nature and so the TREE. The Leucaena Tree is known as the Miracle tree because every part of the tree can be used.

The tree states many facts about God and we all are believers be it from the East &/or West, that God’s existence is real and we are at a point we all must recognize one another for who we are and what we can offer this planet and this race the human race. We must consider the West a part of the whole, e.g., in Catholic Faith Tradition we are told we have many parts but make up the body of Christ, we as His People. We can assume then that the Leucaena tree has its roots from the East and West, both created by God, as the roots take form to start the stalk we both flourish in God’s design, as the stalk takes on branches we include Democracy, Prayer, Science, and as the branches take to producing leaves it then becomes a gift for the good of everyone, so the tree becomes sort of a symbol of life that produces good fruit for everyone. We are only at this point because God perceives it, we are all his beings and how we treat each other is the food/nourishment we put into this tree. If the tree dies so does all of humanity in shame. Let’s all live and by doing so acknowledge each other’s faith tradition with respect by focusing on the good and build on that, while rejecting the old ways that does not bring happiness but only torment which is not of God’s Nature for He is All Good.

In Conclusion, if we do this with innovation of peace either it be peaceful protests, soccer for peace programs, culture learning, and spreading ideas, we can accomplish it. We actually can have peace in the Middle-East and we must have all countries to look for peaceful solutions in their own domestic problems, in order to be an example to the world. And once that has been done we just may become a globalized world where one from the West feels comfortable to visit for example Iraq and see its country side and its wonders, and someone from Iraq that has never thought they would visit the US see’s all the states and its wonders. And in turn it creates an economic cooperation between both cultures. We are not far from that if we the human race truly want it. There are many doubts of it ever happening, but I say if we can imagine it to be possible, then it is possible.

(Work Cited)

Boyer, Global politics, Engaging a Complex World, 2013

Economy Watch, Lebanon Economic Structure, Economy Watch, 3.29.2010

http://www.economywatch.com/wo...

The Daily Star , World Bank Lowers Lebanon growth forecast to 2.5 percent, The Daily Star , TDS, 6.27.09

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Bu...

Notes:

The second half of this essay was a draft of my own diary that I was inspired to write due to my philosophical way of thinking I have towards the Middle –East. This philosophical way of thinking came about after my philosophy class. I think it has a spot in this paper because, I believe economic cooperation and peace go hand and hand.