What could be said today, in light of the way in which the officials are dealing with the food file, is that an authority which almost lacks the validity to take responsibility, is addressing an issue related to the loss of validity of the Lebanese people’s intake of food and water.
What could be said also is that the preservation of what enters the Lebanese people’s body is at the mercy of politicians, and that is being confirmed today, after it was revealed through the distribution of the “cheese” of the treatment of solid wastes, that the political quota system will control the wastes that result from the citizens.
The Cabinet, which “embraces” the balance of the dominant forces in the country, has reached what pleases it through the “project of the integrated proposals regarding the overall plan for solid wastes,” Should the Lebanese await a similar deal in addressing the food and water issue?
The Extended Board of Deputies’ “initiative” to hold a joint session for the committees, on Wednesday, had on its agenda the draft of the food safety law, which sounded as if it was an improvement in the quality of the Deputies’ responsibility towards the health of the citizens. But the result which was expressed by the deportation of the file to a sub-committee to re-study it, has soon uncovered that the session was just another chapter of the comedy called policy in Lebanon.
The file was pawned, which is entirely technical, for political bickering, and the “debate” around it ended by deporting it for months and probably additional years of delay, as if the past twelve in which the draft “slept” in the drawers of the Parliament, are not enough for it to stay dependent on political disputes hidden behind the conflicting powers between the concerned ministries.
The same thing happened with the draft of the safety of the bottled water law, which was also deported into a “sub-committee”.
All of this is taking place, as if nothing has happened over the past few days, in which everyone buzzed with the echoes of the campaign that was unveiled by the Health Minister Wael Abu Faour, which revealed spectacular facts about the reality of the food situation in the country, and unfolded an unmatched lawlessness, which is shown through the absence of supervision and the minimal safety requirements and the standards which are abided by even in the countries that are described as “underdeveloped”.
Perhaps the Lebanese will have to bear the concern about their health and the health of their children for a long time … but while they wait, they may also have to fear that a “will” extends, and turns the campaign that was initiated by Abu Faour to a much ado about nothing!
