HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

17 April 1946

Labels: Social issues

More from Ciezadlo.

But despite [the Shias'] numerical superiority (which some of their adversaries dispute to this day)--and perhaps also because of it--the Shiites were always perceived as an inconvenience, Persianized outsiders, intruders in their own country.

...

With Iranian funding, [Hizbollah] set up a parallel state that relieved the Lebanese government of much of its responsibility--military, financial and psychological--for its largest sect. They had their own clinics, their own schools and their own mosques, all in "their" neighborhoods. This autonomy came at a price: No matter how much power the Shiites attained, they were still unwanted, still the "grungy" peasants who belonged in the south or in "their" neighborhoods.

Labels: Gisele Khoury, Hizbollah, Lebanon, Social issues

One of the most important articles I have ever read about Lebanon.

Sect Symbols
Annia Ciezadlo
The Nation

For most Westerners, the words "downtown Beirut" conjure up two distinct images: a farrago of bullet-scarred buildings, car bombs and machine-gun-toting militiamen, and a glitzy, picturesque pedestrian mall. Nobody remembers Wadi Abu Jamil, the old Jewish quarter of downtown Beirut, a warren of winding alleys, antique Ottoman and French Mandate houses, and a lonely crumbling synagogue. By the mid-1990s, it was home to everything the Lebanese government would rather forget. Most of those who lived there were Shiites from the south of Lebanon, routed from their homes by the Israeli occupation and shunted into the neglected neighborhood by a city that didn't want them.

But somebody wanted Wadi Abu Jamil. Solidere, the private company that had the contract to rebuild the city center, was determined to raze the old downtown by any means necessary. So when the Ayad family refused to leave their home in February 1996, Solidere dispatched a crew of Syrian and Egyptian guest workers to begin tearing down the four-story building--with the family still inside. As the laborers began to dismantle the building, not surprisingly it collapsed. Seven workmen and six of the Ayads, including a 2-year-old boy and a 3-month-old baby, were crushed to death by the march of reconstruction.

Rafik Hariri, the billionaire prime minister who founded Solidere, expressed his "sorrow" while attending a banquet at a five-star Beirut hotel.

...

Instead of letting the rebuilding founder amid the factional infighting and corruption that curse the Lebanese state to this day, Hariri proposed an alternative: A private company, not subject to civil-service hiring requirements, would use the authority of the state to seize several hundred acres of privately owned land. Freed from the shackles of bureaucracy, this new company would revitalize the shellshocked old city center. And if the 20,000 or so souls who lived or owned land downtown were upset at being forced to render it up, the company had a plan for them: The value of their claims would be determined by special committees--paid for, indirectly, by Solidere--that would award them compensation in the form of Solidere stock. If Kenneth Lay had been governor of Texas and granted Enron sweeping powers to seize Texans' homes and land, giving the homeowners nothing but Enron stock in return, it would have been something like Solidere.

...

The deal was negotiated between Hariri's company, Hariri's government and one of Hariri's former employees, who was head of Lebanon's reconstruction authority.

Labels: Beirut, Hariri Militia, Social issues, Solidere

I like this post. Old and young.

It says so much. How mobiles are taking over e v e r y o n e ' s lives, making even the grandparents look like teenagers again. And how the little people become less little everyday.

Maybe it wasn't that profound. I just like it.

Labels: Mobile phones, Pictures, Social issues

More from ABC News's Diane Sawyer, this time on Bashar's wife Asma. A quote:
"The couple famously lives in a modest home with three children that they drive to school themselves. They still protect family dinners and even bike through villages. She has already begun programs to excite Syria's children about business and challenge them to compete in a global world."

Before we get started, this is a must see - oh my god, her accent is SO English. (The video content is different to the article below).

Syria's First Lady Wants New Conversation With West
ABC News, New York

Feb. 6, 2007 — Her husband, the president of Syria, is crazy about her. Asma Akhras Al-Assad is the first lady of Syria.

Her Syrian title is "al akilatu al rais" — simply translated to "the president's wife." But make no mistake, this beautiful, athletic woman is a force for her country's future.

"Good Morning America" anchor Diane Sawyer first saw her at one of her charity projects called Basma, which means "smile" in Arabic. The charity supports a cancer center.

She sent word she was not ready to give on-camera interviews, but greeted the crew warmly and in her perfect British English ventured a statement about the cause.

"A real example of the way that Syrians from all walks of life have come together and taken responsibility and making a real difference in their communities," Assad said.

Later, Sawyer met her at one of her private offices overlooking Damascus at sunset, where the pair sat for two hours, talking about Assad's country in the new century and her life.

She grew up very much part of two worlds. Born in Britain, she is the daughter of a Syrian cardiologist and speaks perfect Arabic, French and Spanish.

After college she says she loved working on Wall Street in New York and in Paris and London as a banker with J.P. Morgan. She was contemplating an MBA at Harvard.

In 2000, she decided to marry a family acquaintance — a tall quiet man who happened to be Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

After the private wedding, she spent three months out of view, traveling quietly, sometimes anonymously in jeans and a T-shirt, to meet the people of her country, take note of hopes and needs, sit among the farmers to ask about their crops and devise plans for microloans she passionately tries to promote today.

Her official introduction to the world came when she and her husband returned to England to meet the queen.

The couple famously lives in a modest home with three children that they drive to school themselves. They still protect family dinners and even bike through villages. She has already begun programs to excite Syria's children about business and challenge them to compete in a global world.

"She's an amazing woman. Ever since she got here she got deep into things in every single sector," said Thala Khair, founder of a Syrian private school. "As much as she's working for women's rights, she's working on children's rights and culture."

The cancer center where we first met her is breaking ground in Syria — the private and public sector working together. The children show her pictures they drew in therapy — drawings with names like "magic."

So while the world debates the intentions of her husband on the world's stage, the two of them remain symbols of a new generation in the Middle East. The former doctor and the former banker were schooled in England, are steeped in Syria and, she might say, are asking the West for a new conversation about a new day.

Labels: Asma Al-Assad, Bashar Al-Assad, Peace talks, Social issues, Video

Syrian schoolchildren are taught the language of war. Palestinian text books deny the existence of Israel. Iranian classroom maps say 'Occupied Palestine'. Common accusations from the enlightened West.

Arabs are often portrayed as forcing war down the throats of our children. But who is exposing youngsters to this tragedy? Arab parents and teachers, or the American soldiers and Israeli settlers illegally occupying Arab land?

It is often said that we shouldn't forget our history, so that we don't make the same mistakes again. It is even more difficult to ignore our present. If we do, nothing will change. Maybe that's what our enlightened friends want.

Labels: America, Social issues

Prostitution in Syria
Sami Moubayed
Washington Post

Prostitution was legalized and professionalized under the Ottoman Empire. Back then there was fear in Damascus that the wandering soldiers would attack or rape young Syrians. That is why affordable prostitution centers were created for them in the Syrian capital, as a form of maintaining public security. This system was maintained when the Ottoman Empire collapsed in 1918. The destruction of World War I, along with the poverty imposed on the Syrians, however, made many young women turn to prostitution for a living and the years 1914-1918 are considered the worst in the past 100-years of Syrian history.

When the French came to Syria in 1920, they professionalized prostitution in major urban cities of Syria. Prostitution centers were registered in government records, and guarded by armed men from the colonial troops of France, mostly, from the Senegal. Any woman found to be engaged in illegal sexual conduct for more than three times would be arrested and sent to the prostitution center. There she would become an “official” employee. She would pay taxes to the central government, and receive check-ups twice a week at the Ministry of Health.

As early as 1922, there were 271 prostitutes registered officially in Syria. The Syrians knew that frequenting these places was wrong, both morally and socially, and during the early years of the Mandate, the regular customers were often foreigners and Frenchmen. By the 1930s, the practice had become common to Syrian men as well.

In 1953, the first serious attempt at combating the trend was undertaken by President Adib al-Shishakli, who passed strict laws to prevent prostitutes from entering Syria. In 1957, a group of religious men approached President Shukri al-Quwatli and Nazim al-Qudsi, the speaker of Parliament, asking them to close down cabarets, nightclubs, and all illegal venues for prostitutes. Both men were religious but the Syrian President replied: “If I create heaven for you on earth, what do we leave for the God Almighty?” The government’s job was not to interfere in the daily life of Syrian citizens, he added, but rather, try to keep a watchful eye on it. The government’s job, he added, was to collect taxes and in turn, use them to provide a safer and better living for average Syrians. Punishment for immoral action—and reward for piousness—would be given by God in Heaven.

As a result, the trend continued to flourish in Syria and was outlawed—among other things—by President Gamal Abdul-Nasser of Egypt in 1959 during the years of the United Arab Republic (UAR). The law outlawing prostitution was decree # 10.

Labels: Social issues