December 06, 2008

Economic Euphoria

It seems the economic crisis has not reached Lebanon. Or so they say.
BBC News
The Independent

Well, aren’t we the lucky ones!

No massive lay-offs, no foreclosure on houses, no pension plans that go up in smoke and no recession. This may be of course because we have been in a recession since 1996, and we got used to an economic crisis. We’ve been in a crisis forever.
People don’t really get a substantial pension in this place anyway, so whether it goes up in smoke or not is not that much of a deal, it is not something they rely on anyway.
Foreclosures? I haven’t heard of any, and with most young people out of the country because there are no proper jobs to be had here to start with, what jobs are they talking about? What you don’t have, you cannot lose either.

But today I heard from two friends – separately – that the companies they work for, both Arab-based companies (one in Dubai and the other in Saudi Arabia), have frozen all spending, trips, conferences, workshops, bonuses and the likes. It won’t be long before the lay-offs will start in the Gulf, and then these Lebanese will be heading home.
I guess our crunch time is coming pretty soon too.

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