Wednesday, 18 April 2012
A group calling itself "Raise Your Voice" hacked into 15 Lebanese government websites on Tuesday, demanding an improvement in living standards and an end to widespread electricity and water shortages. Lebanon's economy has grown strongly in recent years but that growth has failed to translate into improvements in basic public services and infrastructure. he text was accompanied by a cartoon of an obese man in a suit, symbolizing the government, being fed with a spoon by an emaciated man wearing only a white loincloth, representing the Lebanese people.
"We will not stop until this government's self-made problems are solved, like the power shortage, water shortage, rise in gas prices and rise in food product prices," the text said. After resetting his website, Energy and Water Minister Gebran Bassil posted a reply to the hackers, blaming his predecessor, a member of the Hezbollah party who Bassil took over from in 2009, for the daily power and water cuts. He said that when he took over, his ministry was like a hot potato: "(My predecessor) thought that it would burn us," he wrote.
Ruling over a country of only 4 million, Lebanon's government has often been paralyzed by squabbling amongst its religiously and politically opposed members, many of them in parties that were formed during the 15-year civil war. "Raise Your Voice" described itself on the hacked websites as "simply a group of people who could not bear sitting in silence, watching all the crimes and injustice going on in Lebanon".
