Editorial

  Issue No 20, Feb 2004

A Word From Us

Capital punishment and mathematics

The capital punishment law will be discontinued, and very soon. This eventuality will not occur, however, as a result of the current debate between the law’s supporters and opponents. It will not stem from any philosophical, religious or other awakening by the country’s legislators, nor will it be a consequence of pressure from the European Union or human rights activists. Rather, the death penalty will be removed because it will threaten the survival of Lebanon’s confessional system.

It is both interesting–yet sickening–that the first question asked by many is not the usual why, what, when, where and how, but what sect does the condemned belong to? In order for the death penalty to continue, murder in Lebanon will have to be committed proportionately by people belonging to all its sects and the sentences passed must be equally meted out ‘at par’ with the number of people belonging to each sect. With a total of 18 sects in Lebanon (six of them ‘main sects’), mathematics and the laws of probability render the continuous implementation of the death penalty impossible.

Once again, as in other fundamental matters–such as the causes of the civil war, the electoral law, the Lebanese University or corruption–the Lebanese will be spared the agonizing soul-searching debate about the death penalty and its legitimacy. The sects of Lebanon will take care of that job. So, the Lebanese are left with two choices: either change the confessional system or the laws of mathematics. “And that’s the way it is folks.”

Jawad Adra
Managing Partner

  

  Current Statistics

Ministry of Finance

• LL 1 billion ($663,570) has been allotted to study whether a building affiliated to the Ministry of Finance (on plot no. 833 in Baabda) should be restored or torn down and rebuilt .

Telecommunications

• LL 1 trillion ($663.57 million) was transferred to the Lebanese Treasury by the Ministry of Telecommunications in 2003. This income is the third most important source of funds for the Treasury, after the VAT and customs revenues.

Lotto

• LL 27 billion ($17.9 million) in revenues is expected to be generated for the Treasury by the Lebanese lotto in 2004.

Retirees

• LL 700 billion ($464.5 million) will be the cost of salaries and end-of-service indemnities for military retirees (in the army, internal security forces, public security and parliamentary police) in 2004.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

• LL 600 million ($398,140) was transferred from the reserve budget to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs budget in December 2003 to cover the cost of official visits and conferences overseas.

 

 

Corrections and clarifications

  

 

Correction from the CDR
In Issue 19 of Ii Monthly’s Current Statistics, the cost of furniture and office supplies for the new Palace of Justice in Saida were stated at LL 450 million ($298,000), while the cost of the building itself was estimated at LL 3 billion ($1.9 million).

The Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR), the party that executed the project, clarified the following points in these words:

• The cost of equipment, furniture, and office supplies reached LL 474 million ($314,530).
• The total cost of the project was LL 8.57 billion ($5.68 million), distributed as follows:

  • Cost of executing the first two stages of the project by the responsible council: LL 1.92 billion ($1.27 million) plus LL 1.25 billion ($829,460).

  • Cost of continuing construction by the CDR: LL5.4 billion ($3.58 million).

Clarification from Ii Monthly
Ii Monthly would like to thank the CDR for its clarification. The figures cited were obtained from the official Decree No. 11345, issued on 17 November 2003. This decree permitted the transfer of LL 450 million from the reserve budget to the Ministry of Justice budget and the CDR. As for the construction cost, it represented the difference between the budgeted and actual costs.
 

 

 

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