Educated Lebanese are emigrating en masse, fleeing both economic decay and political alienation.
Brains are Lebanon's most valuable export.
The government estimates that 277,000 people left for good in 1999 alone - a dizzying statistic in a country of just 3.5 million. The same number fled in peacetime between 1995 and 1999. Disheartening it is. And to add insult to injury, while the ruling class has had more than a decade since the end of the war to set things straight, it has failed dismally. In fact, many of the damaging habits that led to the bloody conflict and crippled the national economy have actually gotten worse.