Four Girls For Every Boy

Yesterday, the Professor wondered at the ubiquity of females in the pro-democracy protests in Lebanon in contrast to the male-dominated (at least as indicated by photos) gatherings of pro-Syrian crowds. An article in Slate today may indicate at least one cause:

The war and the Syrian occupation continue to take a toll on Lebanese women in particular. Beirut nightlife is famous largely thanks to them, but this is a hard town on women. Because the economy is so bad, and so many younger people, mostly men, are forced to emigrate to find work, the ratio of marriageable women to men, my friend Rouba explains, is something like 4-to-1. "That must make the women totally crazy!" I venture. "Of course," she says. "And it must make the men act like total jerks," I add. "Oh, do you think so?" Rouba asks—sarcastically, I think.

Believe me, women don't need that to make them totally crazy, but the point is taken.