Video Blogging: Lebanon's Mock Election

Beirut's tent-city activists are doing everything they can to nurture a democratic culture while the Lebanese government shows as much interest in the project as its Baathist police state patron in Syria. They decided to hold their own mock election across the country by cleverly asking people to vote on whether or not they want to vote. They made their own ballots, their own ballot boxes, and they're carrying them to every city and town in the country.

Yesterday I traveled north with three of them to a handful of small-town universities in the hills above the Mediterranean. I got the whole thing on video and packaged together some excerpts.

Click here to watch a high-bandwidth video using Windows Media Player. Click here to watch a low-bandwidth video using Windows Media Player.

What's amazing is that Lebanon has more universities than the entire rest of the Middle East combined. And the Lebanese universities are better recognized globally (AUB, USJ, LAU, Notre Dame University - where US Representative Ray Lahood gave the graduation speech last year.

Demonstrators reject donations by U.S. fundraiser No oppositions leaders are familiar with project despite claims by NGO of extensive contacts

By Rym Ghazal Special to The Daily Star Thursday, April 21, 2005

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_ID=1&article_ID=14436&categ_id=2

-- Copied article removed as it constitutes a copyright violation. Please follow the link above to read the article. --

FYI, SoA's support has not been rejected. We've been told the support we've provided is "invaluable" and "very, very important."

The situation in Lebanon is very touchy. As you know if you've been reading, this blog.

We have no need or desire to quote people directly, etc. and we (Spirit of America) do not need to get credit for work being done. But help is being provided to those who value it very highly