Blogging…and a Pivot

It took a while to admit it, but now I guess the denial is over: I am no longer someone who blogs often about Lebanese politics. This post is about why it happened and what happens next.

I first want to say that Beirut Spring is not dead. This will always be the place where I sound off and think about issues I feel strongly about. But lately I’ve noticed that the things I get worked out about, the things that I usually write posts about, are becoming less and less about Lebanese politics. This blog was born out of anger and passion in February 2005, but it grew and thrived because I found the sports of Lebanese politics intellectually stimulating. The crazy mix of Machiavellian cynicism, treachery and tribal alliances caused some people to despair, but for me it was the source of profound fascination. No longer. It’s still fascinating. I still am interested in Lebanese politics, but I am no longer interested in writing about it.

But this is the best time to start blogging about Lebanese politics

Indeed it is. We are on a cusp of major regional realignments and major changes are upon us. As a matter of fact, more blogs on Lebanese politics are being born everyday (examples here, here and here). But I have to be honest with myself. I am more interested in other things these days, notably Tech news and its own fascinating game of thrones. I knew something was wrong when I realized that I spend more of my leisure time reading Techmeme than Naharnet

What now?

If you’re a person who has the habit of browsing to beirutspring.com every day (and I still see hundreds of you despite the low frequency of posts), may I suggest that you switch instead to Lebanese Blogs (lebaneseblogs.com) as a habit. It is a small website I put together for browsing the latest posts from my blog and from blogs I have chosen myself. It is mobile friendly and easy to browse, bookmark it now!

The reason I put this together is that I realized that many bloggers don’t write very often, but when they do, they usually have great things to say. Another option for you to try is The Beirut Dashboard (beirutspring.info), also something I wrote in my diminishing spare time:

I’m happy to get feedback about these project anytime

Crickets?

As I said, this blog is not dead, and it will remain my main vehicle for expression. But the pace of posts will be more relaxed, the topics will be more personal and more about Lebanon in general than Lebanese politics, and perhaps I’ll yap a bit more about Tech. As always, thanks for reading.