"In China, there are no layers": the "sanitary" words of the new Minister Hector Hajjar shot

The new Lebanese Minister of Social Affairs, HectorHajjar, has not yet taken up his duties that he has caused a storm on social networks with controversial remarks on the need to renounce the use of babies orBottle water consumption.

Lebanon is going through "a difficult period, we must face" the crisis by renouncing certain secondary products, said the minister during an interview."Today we consider that layers (for babies) are an essential product.I come back from China, until today the Chinese do not use diapers, the Chinese economic empire does not use layers.They use as we do in the past towels they wash and clean, "he added.The Minister did not specify if he was in one of the great Chinese metropolises, true giants of the world economy, or in a village on the borders of the Middle Empire."There is an economic war against Lebanon (..), the layers, the Kleenex are not priority, "added M.Hajjar.

The Minister's comments caused a real storm on social networks, the comments mocked his statements, and the hashtag "The Minister of Culottes Drats" ran out on Twitter on Sunday morning."After listening to the words of the Minister of Couches, I made sure that this man leads us even further than hell.Is it possible, such a minister !!! ", wondered on his Twitter account the Lebanese forces Wehbé Katicha.

Titulaire d'un doctorat en chirurgie dentaire de l'Université libanaise et d'une licence en activisme social de l'Université Saint-Joseph, HectorHajjar, 65 ans, fait partie des ministres relevant du camp du président Michel Aoun.

Cordahi attacks the '' analysts and geniuses '' of the media

For his part, in a first declaration little leads to the media, the new Minister of Information, Georges Cordahi, called them on Sunday to no longer give the "geniuses and analysts" which criticize the Mikati government.

The new Minister of Information, Georges Cordahi, at Beirut International Airport on September 12, 2021.Ani photo

Welcomed by journalists when he arrived at Beirut Airport from the United Arab Emirates, M.Cordahi, who had publicly displayed his support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar el-Assadau at the start of the war in Syria in 2011, said: '' As Prime Minister Mikati said, we are on a plane that is landingurgently, and we must all cooperate to give people a puff of hope ''.

He criticized, in this context, "certain geniuses and analysts" who appeared in the media in the past few days '' to deliver pessimistic comments "on the new government, and called journalists to" no longerwelcome''."Let those who want to take us to hell calm down," added the minister in a reference to the term "hell" used during the current crisis by Lebanese president Michel Aoun.

Reacting to these declarations, the alternative union of journalists, close to the protest, denounced in a press release the words of Georges Cordahi."In his first statement, the Minister of Information allowed himself to play the role of tutor of the media and to specify what must be said and what must be withdrawn," said this group in a press release."We warn power against the attempt to play such a role, and we call to respect media freedoms," he added.He assured that journalists would oppose "attempts to transform Lebanon into a police state" and claimed the abolition of the Ministry of Information, like democratic countries.

Figure of the small Lebanese and Arabic screen for having hosted, among others, a game show "which wants to win millions" in its Arabic version on the Saudi channel MBC between 2004 and 2010, Georges Cordahi is part of the lot of ministers close to Marada, the party of the leader Maronite of Lebanon-Nord Sleiman Frangié.In 2011, he had been landed from the MBC for publicly displayed his support for M.Assad, who was the bane of Saudi Arabia.