The Lebanese parliamentary electoral system is the worst in the world. The necessary remedy is to introduce proportional representation, either through the mixed system proposed by the National Electoral Law Commission headed by Fouad Boutros in 2006, or through other variations proposed by a number of groups since then. The oligarchy will resist this threat to its dominance, but there is no political path forward without this reform.
The rise of Lebanese cinema came to a premature halt with the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War. Now, the country's first production house seeks to influence the local and regional film scene.
In part due to a broader move from an emergency to development-based approach and due to pressure from central Lebanese government authorities, the humanitarian effort has now been coupled, since mid-2014, with one that takes into greater account the needs of local host communities alongside those of refugees. This traces the way in which tensions between hosts and refugees have become increasingly central to the development and execution of aid projects aimed at community-level support. The author argues that this has important consequences that may actually incentivize the tensions it aims to alleviate.