Tariq Mitri. Our Lebanese Minister of Culture (?) is a nice guy. He has been a secular progressive in his life; in 1975-76 he joined a progressive group aligned with the Lebanese National Movement called Tajammu` Al-Masihiyyin Ad-Dimuqratiyyin. He also has a decent book in Arabic on the Christian Right and Zionism. I don't know him but know of him, and people tell me that he is a nice guy at the personal level. He was sent to the UN to represent the Lebanese position because our foreign minister, well, is asleep. Emile Lahhud brought him to the cabinet, but like many he has been lured by Hariri Inc. But I watched him today at the session of the Security Council. He did not do a good job at all. The Qatari foreign minister was much better, in terms of effectiveness, and no I am not a supporter of Qatari foreign policy, but I enjoy the Saudi-Qatari feud. Mitri reminded me of past PLO speakers in the US: he thinks that if you show emotion, you win the audience. Not true. And his sequence of "it pains me" was most ineffective and outright silly. Hope he gets this.