Friday, October 30, 2009

The Black Plague

Once upon a time in a land far, far away (from Lebanon), a putrid stench polluted the air. The residents of the land found nothing odd about the willful blackening of the lungs in which so many of them partook. They smoked in offices. They smoked in cars. They smoked in houses. They smoked in bars. They smoked in courtrooms, hospitals, and planes without a bad thought in their little brains. They smoked in buildings far and wide unconcerned by their suicide.

One cold January day in 1964, the land's wizard produced a report that woke the sleeping citizens up from their toxic naps. Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General held cigarette smoking responsible for a 70 percent increase in the mortality rate of smokers over non-smokers. The report was front page news. Some say many of the citizens stopped their filthy habit overnight as a result of this report.

Warning labels were placed on packages of the cancer sticks to inform citizens of the plague they could bring upon themselves were they to continue to blacken their lungs. As it became evident that one did not have to actually suck on the sticks to get the plague, buildings began to designate areas where smoking was allowed. As time went on, even these areas were eliminated. Then, whole realms within the land passed laws forbidding smoking in restaurants, bars, and public places.

Finally, the citizens could breathe. Sure, there were some who complained, and it took a little bit of adjustment for others, but in the end, it really didn't matter all that much to the smokers that they had to go outside to smoke. Now, people are pretty happy with their clean air. They can come home after a night out and not have their clothes reek of smoke.

Across the ocean in an ancient land, an attempt was made to replicate what the others had learned years ago. It seems most cooperated, but some, apparently, thought by sticking the polluters on one side of a restaurant, that some magical barrier would prevent the toxic air from floating to those who wished for clean lungs.

A civil society organization wants permanent change. Stop Smoking Lebanon is an initiative of Rotary Club of Lebanon. They've created an online petition to make restaurants, bars, cafes, and other public places have non-smoking sections.

Here's the Baldati page.
Here's the Facebook page.

Online petitions aren't enough. If you really want to breathe clean air, you have to get involved. You have to knock on doors. You have to call politicians. You have make people aware of the dangers of what they are doing. It is the essence of a democratic society.

I hear Lebanese say it all the time - they'll never get rid of the smoking because it's part of the culture. Well, it was part of American culture, too. Back in 1964 when the report came out, 42% of all Americans smoked. Today, it is less than 25% and we don't have to suffer through the disgusting smell and lung blackening smoke of others in many states, including here in DC.

Keep up the good fight, Lebanon!

Check out the Economist's report on smoking in the Middle East.

Independence 05 writes about why no smoking day failed.

The Cedar Tree's take.

Ain't No Smoking page.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Leb links

A few interesting articles from around the interwebs...

Can Beirut's last synagogue be saved?

Some guy thinks more war in the Middle East is inevitable.

Speaking of that, J Street had a big conference this week. For those who don't know, J Street is the emerging alternative to AIPAC in Washington.

Oh look, another Lebanon government is near article.

Learning to abandon extremism.

Vali Nasr argues that free markets will give rise to a new middle class in the Middle East. Well, we've passed that argument long ago and people now realize that can't happen without political reform.

Lebanon's professional mothers.

Maya Zankoul's rise to fame. I've never seen one of her cartoons that didn't make me LOL.

Conspiracy theories - all part of the culture?

Lebanon and US relations - a brief brief

Yesterday the House Foreign Affairs Middle East and South Asia Subcommittee held a hearing with Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman.

Here is a short recap of the Lebanon focused parts:

• In Feltman’s opening statement he asserted United States commitment to Lebanese sovereignty.

• Chairman Gary Ackerman (a Democrat from New York) asked the following three questions: 1) In the two areas we are trying to improve relations with Syria mainly bilateral relations and Middle East peace, are we going to be willing to pay in Lebanese coins? 2) Is the Administration still committed to UNSCR 1701? And 3) Are we still supporting the tribunal?

• Feltman responded by saying the Administration is unequivocally not going to do anything at Lebanon’s expense. He said that UNSCR 1701 remains to be the foundation and basis of US policy to Lebanon and that yesterday’s incidents (rockets fired between Lebanon and Israel) show the need to reinvigorate implementation of this resolution. Regarding the tribunal, Feltman said that the US will support the work of the tribunal until their work is finished. He said that his tribunal is not a political one but to bring justice to those responsible.

• Feltman also said in the Q & A session that the United States needs to take Lebanese sensitivities into consideration when dealing with Palestinian refugees.

• Congressman Gerry Connolly (a Democrat from Virginia) asked Feltman about the situation in Lebanon and the cabinet formation process. Feltman responded by saying it is natural to be concerned that no government has been formed. There is a formula. We have seen this in the past where there is no government or no President. The unifying factor in these situations has been the Hizballah and Aoun alliance. The Lebanese need to come together to solve these problems as quickly as possible. Lebanon needs to be left to their own devices to do just that.

Full testimony can be found here.

Thanks to Qifa Nabki for the link.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Leb links

Sometimes it feels like I've opened the Daily Star archives when I go to the site. The headlines have been the same for months now (no fault of Daily Star's!) Cabinet formation awaits further Hariri-Aoun talks. What's the over-under on DS using that exact headline a month or two ago? Deja vu! Or what about Cabinet formation remains in deadlock following fruitless negotiations? Been there, done that.

The opposition is restless in Beirut
? Just the opposition?

Snorkels are our future. No, not these Snorkels.

Oktoberfest in Zouk with no German beer. Lebanese really should fight to overturn the beer monopoly Heineken has in the country. Almaza's ok but where's the choice? Where's the stout? The porter? The weissbier? The ale? The giant liter of Hoffbrau for Oktoberfest?

Famed Belgian comic speaks in Beirut.

A rare victory for Lebanon's Palestinians
. Interesting read from the Director of the Sabra Shatila Foundation.

The world's first live YouTube concert - and it was my favorite band ever.

New post by Cafe Thawra.

Archewallogoy. Very cool.

H20, Lebanese style? "...how awesome would it be to have luxury ski slopes made from frozen Bling water - and we could call it H2Cold™. I can't possibly ski on regular rain water, my Gucci skis are not fit for that."

Beirut 39 final selection. With weird photo grid of all the authors.

More links.

Hezbollah promoting Western values? Perhaps that's why they have that capitalist souvenir stand at the entrance to the Baalbek ruins?

The motorcycle ban is a bloody crime. Don't get me wrong - I'm a fan of like twenty Ziad Baroud Facebook pages. But...

"Freeze! I will shoot you!" Awesome photo.

I ask why? Because Lebanon has solved all of its problems? Oh, I get it - it's a peacebuilding/unity exercise, right? Right? Oh, wait, no - it's one-up manship on the Israelis. OMGLOL. Well, hey, it's better than bombs.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Only you can prevent climate change



Fire is one of the four elements of being, according to ancient classical elemental systems used by the Greeks, Hindis, and Japanese thinkers, among others. You know, they weren't far off, especially when it comes to forest fires.

Forest fires are raging across Lebanon right now as a heat wave inundates the country. The fires have become quite common in a country historically famed for its trees, as Lebanon loses an average of 1,200 hectares of forest land annually to forest fires. Most people these days probably know that there is a connection between the increasing numbers of forest fires across the globe and climate change that affects our planet, but do you know why?

Researchers have determined that increases in the frequency of forest fires are strongly linked to annual spring and summer temperatures and to the timing of spring snowmelt. Less snowmelt means longer, drier summers, creating conditions ripe for wildfires, which are more often than not caused by human carelessness or even deliberate destruction. The fires have no rain water to stop them, only air to spread them and let them breathe, feeding them, fueling them, swallowing whole the famed Cedars of Lebanon and anything else which dares stand in their paths.

The Association for Forests, Development and Conservation is a leading civil society organization in Lebanon on the cause of fighting forest fires and preserving the nation's forests. Please take some time to visit their website and see what you can do to prevent forest fires in Lebanon!

On a directly related note, on Saturday, October 24th, please join 170 countries in what may be the largest issue-oriented gathering the planet has ever seen. People all over the globe will be gathering to take a stand for our future. Visit 350.org to find a gathering near you. Or use this handy convenient cool little map they provided!


View Actions at 350.org

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

What have you learned today?

I remember it well, that smell of a classroom. They smell like chalk and new notebooks and hastily poured cleaning agents after sitting empty for a summer. Every year from age five on I'd don my new school clothes and take lessons from teachers who were "old" because they were in their late twenties and early thirties. They taught us all sorts of wild and wonderful things and we soon learned that this thing called knowledge was something with endless possibilities. First it was 2+2 then it was 2X2 then it was 2a+2b and soon we got into all sorts of complicated equations with funny symbols and more letters than numbers. I remember The Letter People, Oregon Trail, and a mock election in sixth grade in which I voted in a real voting booth. Each of these learning exercises were not rote memorization but creative ways to teach children how to think critically.

I was fortunate to grow up in a country with universal access to education and find it difficult to imagine a place where this is not so. Yet there are so many children across the world who don't have access to education, and even in those countries (like Lebanon) where most children go to school, various problems plague the curricula. For example, in Lebanon the different confessional groups often teach their children their own versions of historical events, so children from one part of the country learn different "facts" than those from another part. (Indeed, some Lebanon schools tear out the pages of history books when they find something they don't like.)

There is little "social cohesion" involved in Lebanese education, according to the Center for Lebanese Studies and the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at AUB, which held a conference last week entitled Education for Social Cohesion in Lebanon. The conference discussed the need for hands on civic education and critical thinking in Lebanon's education curricula.

Recommendations from the conference include:

- Lift restrictions currently imposed on student councils in public schools and provide support and training for students on running student councils

- Emphasize critical and analytical history education, which is as important if not more important and persistent than developing a unified history text book which might take a long time to be developed. Hence there is an urgent need to run teacher training workshops for teaching history through active and analytical pedagogies

- Provide financial incentives to schools to recruit a more diverse student body

- Teach about the Palestinian refugees in the national history textbook

- Emphasize the role of the school as a community of learners, support and inclusion, rather than a technical institution primarily concerned with official exams

- Encourage parental engagement

- Switch from knowledge-based civic education, which is ineffective in promoting social cohesion, to a more hands-on approach

- Support the National Educational Scouting Group

- Train teachers to learn to interweave social cohesion in their classroom
The beauty of universal public education is exactly that - it creates a social cohesion among a nation. It would be wise to consider adopting the recommendations of the Center for Lebanese Studies and the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at AUB.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Today is blog about climate change day

Science has yet to find a way to physically transport humans back in time, but that doesn't mean there aren't scientific ways to learn about the past. Indeed, what we are learning from the past will directly affect our future. Ice core samples in Antarctica allow us to see hundreds of thousands of years into the past and may be the key to our survival as a species.

Scientists have analyzed these ice core samples and concluded that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has never been as high as it has been since we began the Industrial Revolution. 100% of peer reviewed articles by climate scientists show us the Earth's atmosphere is heating up. Given that, it's tough to believe there are people out there fighting against efforts to combat climate change.

But there are.

That's why it is up to those of us who don't "believe in" science but understand it to be reality must do all we can to teach the world the facts about climate change. This Blog Action Day is one small thing each of us can do to promote awareness. Individual blogs all over the world may be quiet voices, but taken together they are a loud shout telling global citizens that it is up to all of us to take action against this threat to our species.

Read what Lebanese bloggers are saying about climate change. The list is quite impressive:

Let's talk about the weather: Maya's Amalgam

Are you doing something about climate change: Independence 05

Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change: + 961

Climate change: more than a weather issue: Cafe Thawra

جمهورية الحمّص خضراء في الـ 2010: Jumhiriyyat al Hummus

Change or mourn! (a poster): Ninar

Climate Change positive effects (lebanese version): Shizolax 10mg

Blog Action Day 2009: Chanty

Are you doing something about climate change: Lilo

How can you fight climate change: Krikor

Food for thought on climate change!: Indentity Chef

Global warming and the Lebanese: Beirut Spring

Climate Change and Resources - Populations-Relocations
: SamerSays

Supporting Blog Action Day: Listen Arabic

Lebanon: Nature in the city: Witnessing Life

Baking the Earth: A Wanderer's Thoughts

Red Alarm On: A Life's March

Are you scared yet?: The Modern Dictator

Climate Change and Lebanon: Letting Loose

Climate change and the cedar trees: The Cedar Tree

Blog Action Day - Yeah!: Bazella w Riz

Blogging climate change: iloubnan.info

And of course, don't forget to support IndyAct, the leader in fighting climate change in Lebanon.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Tripoli Jazzes Up



Join the Lebanese-German Association for the Promotion of Culture for an evening of Jazz in Tripoli tomorrow evening.

(Hat tip: Identity Chef)

Monday, October 12, 2009

You have the power



William Kamkwamba from Malawi couldn't afford school fees and had to drop out at age 14. That didn't stop him from learning. He checked out a book on windmills from the local library and decided to build one himself. Watch his aspiring story.

The whole world could learn a lesson from William. While Lebanon has its rationed electricity and its frequent blackouts, William's family has electricity in a small African village using nothing but wind. Are there innovators out there in Lebanon who could replicate William's success?

Friday, October 9, 2009

Friday Roundup



Plenty of comments going around the old interwebs today about President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize, some of them good, some of them venomous. Obama is not the first person to be awarded the prize for his aspirations, but I dare say he must be the most criticized.

Congratulations, President Obama. Now, onward to peace!


Friday Twitter Roundup:

# RT: @funkyozzi: RT @blogactionday 5094 (&counting) blogs registered to confront climate change on 10/15 for Blog Action Day

# RT: @nmoawad: RT: @marcynewman: Solidarity w/ Al Bared http://bit.ly/FjT1D #beirut protest monday oct. 12th @ 11 am http://bit.ly/FjT1D

# CEIP: The Arab Charter on Human Rights: http://bit.ly/9ooQM

# RT: @NaLoves Are Arab countries doing their part in climate negotiations? http://www.cantdrinkoil.org... #ClimateChange

# RT: @ONECampaign: Access to anti-malarial medication through text messages? “SMS for life” from @RollBackMalaria: http://bit.ly/7iwUu

# RT: @shoofs: #IndyACT Screening Age of Stupid - Green Carpet - October 24 @UNESCO palace, Beirut, Lebanonabout

# RT: @Oxfam: Rich countries set to condemn billions to grim future. We need a fair, binding deal in Copenhagen http://bit.ly/LUPOh

# Random Lebanese NGO of the day: Amel Association http://www.amel.org.lb/

# Don't miss The Age of Stupid, a film about climate change. http://bit.ly/15oY4q

# RT: @CafeThawra: For more info on ending #HIVpositivepeoplestigmaanddiscrimination go to www.worldaidscampaign.org

# RT: @hibz: arabs are more than oil www.cantdrinkoil.org

# Don't be stupid! Join IndyAct for the film about climate change "The Age of Stupid."... http://bit.ly/nCAxx

# Don't be stupid! http://bit.ly/15oY4q

# RT: @Beirutspring: If it weren't for the Safadi Foundation, Tripoli would be living in a cultural bubble..

# Women's week in Lebanon? http://bit.ly/105Qwk

# "Why do we need so many men in politics when they have failed?” - Ziyad Baroud, speaking about the need for more women in politics

# Arab Group for Muslim-Christian Dialogue forum urges greater female participation: http://tinyurl.com/y9686tl

# RT: @alexzawya: Corporate Social Responsibility in the Middle East Site http://bit.ly/3DCYpj

# Lebanon's brain drain: http://bit.ly/4rky0E

# RT: @MXML: The Middle East, Modern Slavery Hub http://bit.ly/fD07O (via @CafeThawra)

# RT: @tomorrowsyouth: "My son taught his siblings how to make homemade flowers." & results of TYO's summer program http://twurl.nl/t0paw7

# Lebanese Association of Women Researchers and others hold conference on feminism in the Arab world: http://tinyurl.com/y8kuv9d

# RT: @Plus961: RT @funkyozzi: don't forget to blog about Climate Change /blog action day 15 oct http://bit.ly/1aw6Xz

# SMEX currently making the most of the internet: http://www.socialmediaexchange.org

# RT: @Helem_Lebanon: #Helem_Lebanon إطلاق كتيّب "احبهم...و لكن"http://helem.net/node/206

# Social Care Needs and Service Provisions in Arab States: Bringing Care Work into Focus in Lebanon: http://tinyurl.com/ybbcn5h

# EU final report on June 7 Leb elections: http://bit.ly/INdkS

# RT: @hibz: Arab Feminism Conf. http://bit.ly/1jPsNe

# RT: @NISD_Lebanon: garbage from Ras #Beirut dive sites was composed of 50% cans, 45% Plastic bottles & cups and bags and 5% Rubber tires.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Don't be stupid!



Join IndyAct on the 25th and 26th of October in Cinema Metropolis Empire Sofil at 6 pm for a public viewing of the climate change film "The Age of Stupid."

The Age of Stupid is a 90-minute film about climate change, set in the future. Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the Father, Brassed Off) stars as a man living alone in the devastated world of 2055, looking back at footage from 2007 and asking: why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?

Confirm your attendance on Facebook here, or just show up to the theater. And don't forget to visit IndyAct.org to see all of the great things they are doing to combat climate change.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Women's Week in Lebanon?

"Why do we need so many men in politics when they have failed?...Women are the first to work toward dialogue...and to build bridges while men build walls.” - Ziyad Baroud

Lots of women's projects going on this week in Lebanon. Yesterday, the Arab Group for Muslim-Christian Dialogue sponsored a forum to encourage greater participation of women in political and religious dialogue. Lebanese Minister of Interior Ziyad Baroud was there along with Ursula Plassnik, Austria’s special representative for women’s affairs and former foreign minister.

The forum comes as the Lebanese Association for Women Researchers (Bahithat) and American University Beirut are holding a conference entitled "Arab Feminisms: A Critical Perspective." Dozens of academics are attending the three-day conference to discuss contemporary schools of feminism in the region.

One perspective on the conference.

The Sanayeh Lebanese Women’s Council also met this week to discuss greater participation by women in government decision-making.

So many great civil society organizations in Lebanon doing great work on women's issues. Don't forget to support their work!