Talk:Lebanon/Archive 4

message: Why is the comment about the British English term "The Lebanon" in the Etymology section? Etymology is the story of the origin of words. The British English term for "The Lebanon" seems more like a piece of trivia. Thoughts? George Saliba 18:39, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Agreed...--Xtcrider 16:29, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: According to the Encarta Dictionary (2006): "An etymology often shows the different forms the word has taken in passing from one language to another, and sometimes shows related words in other languages." Microsoft® Encarta® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. According to this definition it would not be wrong to include the different forms of the word Lebanon. LestatdeLioncourt talk 17:34, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The Encarta definition seems more like an example of the use of etymology than a definition.  According to The Consise Oxford Dictinoary, 8th Edition (1990), etymology is "the historically verifiable sources of the formation of a word and the development of its meaning".  Using the Oxford definition would support George's point.  For example, the etymology of the word "Canada" would not take into account, or acknowledge, how it is prounounced or used in arabic.  Personally, I think it should be moved, but in the grand scheme of the article itself, it's a minor detail...--Xtcrider 18:01, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: In general it just seems to be out of place to me. For instance, I don't speak Arabic (sadly), but I would suspect that Arabic-speaking nations may refer to Lebanon as al-Libnan, or something similar, but I don't think that that falls under Etymology either. Furthermore, is there evidence that this is true? I'm a native American English speaker, so I can't speak for British English, but I've never heard or seen this before. I have seen some of the other countries listed used with the definitive article before however, such as the Ukraine, the Netherlands, and the Congo, so I can't say for sure. I'll leave it alone for now, but if someone can do some independent research on both the appropriateness and the factual accuracy of this I think it would be helpful. If it's still in use, does it belong in the first paragraph instead of having a paragraph to itself in Etymology? Something like: Lebanon (sometimes referred to as the Lebanon), officially the Lebanese Republic... George Saliba 21:24, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  In Arabic you don't add the "al" even though it's done for many other countries. I say remove the information if you want to. Adding it as a footnote or between parenthesis is a good idea. LestatdeLioncourt talk 13:11, 16 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  British English in Etymology 

message: There are two piece of information I left in a particular paragraph in the History section that I'm not able to verify.
# That Lebanon entered into the 1948 Arab-Israeli War only after taking logistical support of the Arab Liberation Army, versus entering the war earlier, then taking over logisitical support as a party already in said war.
# That Lebanon accepted an armistice agreement with Israel "immediately" after (or as a result of) the defeat of the Arab Liberation Army in the Battle of Sasa.
I'm unable to readily verify these two points here or elsewhere (Google seems to just return other websites which index older versions of the article itself), so if anyone can find factual sources of these points it would be much appreciated. George Saliba 18:47, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Requesting two citations for the History section 

message: It says on the to-do list that you need photos for Lebanon. I actually live there. What kind of photos do you need? I'l try to get some... If you want. 195.69.210.3 16:52, 18 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Any photos relating to Lebanon's culture (traditional clothes, wedding, etc...) would be helpful. Be creative. Please list the images you upload here so they can be included in the expanded section later on. Thanks. LestatdeLioncourt talk 11:39, 19 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Photos 

message: I'm going to provide reasoning for each of my deletions here:
* Following Israel's failed aggression against Lebanon to cripple Hezballah in July 2006, the Lebanese population are now left with legitimate fears that Christian militias and other supportive forces opposed to Hezballah may now be forced to arm themselves and defend their country vis-à-vis a possible coup by Hizballah.  This may be further escalated by regional and international conflicts and may lead the country to an elongated and bloody civil war.
The repeated use of "may" alone tells you that this paragraph doesn't belong in an encycolpedia. It is nothing but speculation. See What Wikipedia is not for more information on publishing opinions on current affairs.
* Ten days ago, Al-Qaida threatened to topple Premier Fouad Saniora's government. 
The same cited source says: "...it was impossible to verify the authenticity of the message... Information Minister Ghazi Aridi cast doubt on its veracity Monday." The Al-Qaeda threat's authenticity is largely debatable, and the article should reflect that debate. However, using an entire paragraph (in order to present all opinions on the issue) to document an event which is most probably is fake (and insignifcant) seems to be completely unjustified when a section like the Ancient History section (documenting 4000 years of history) spans just one paragraph.
* "[...]after pro-Syrian Hezballah threatened to overthrow the government and  after anti-Syrian politician Samir Geagea predicted, a week ago, that the pro-Syrian camp would resort to assassinations in order to bring down the government. "
The first point (that Hezbollah is trying to overthrow the government) has already been mentioned (the coup d'état). The sentence, and their positioning right after the assassination news, seems to be solely intended to highlight the theory that Syria is responsible for what happened. In Simple English, this translates to "Gemayel was killed just as Geagea predicted that Syria would starting killing people." 
Everyone please try to add only events documents in the coldest way possible. Use simple informative sentences and try not to make speculative connections (especially those held by one party against another). Lebanon is going through a tough period right now and I believe it is always the media that start wars. We will have enough time later to argue a better presentation. LestatdeLioncourt talk 07:12, 24 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Agreed--Xtcrider 00:28, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  POV in Current Situation