My London- Shoreditch Walkabout- http://www.bbc.co.uk/arabic/tvandradio/2012/08/120810_heshamshoreditchmylondon.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arabic/tvandradio/2012/08/120810_heshamshoreditchmylondon.shtml

Campaign to tackle torture in Lebanese prisons

A series of television commercials and billboards have sprung up across Lebanon focusing on the issue of torture in prisons and detention centres in the country. At first glance the posters scattered across Lebanon’s clogged up highways drew questions from confused motorists as the message coming from them was an intriguing yet engaging way to raise awareness about the issue.

In them, a person stands with their back exposed as if cowering from their tormentor, with the

poster’s main title etched across the poster. It reads “their  suffering isn’t a pleasure” switching around a common Arabic phrase a person replies when someone has completed a favour for another, i.e if a favour has been done for someone that person will usually say to the other  “I’ve troubled you” which literally translates from Arabic as I’ve tortured or tormented you!

The important message within the campaign is to address the many cases of alleged torture

within prisons and detention centres in Lebanon. I spoke to Darine Al-Haj, the director of ‘Alef’, the NGO that launched the campaign with the funding coming completely from the Dutch Embassy in Beirut. She told me:

“Our aim is to try and create debate amongst Lebanese society and the authorities about the cases of torture that have been happening in Lebanese prisons, and it has worked.” The NGO and civil society organisation which     works with advocacy groups and government departments such as the Ministry of Interior and Internal Security has been getting positive responses from people and media outlets approaching and enquiring more about the current situation and wanting to know what is being done and how the authorities have been cooperating with them.

Darine tells me that their requests for action on the matter from authorities have often been met with contradictory approaches when she tells me “there have been times when some departments within the government have accepted there have been cases of torture within the prison system, and then there have been outright rejections from other sections.”

However, what she is clear on is that through the numerous closed discussions between NGO’s, human rights and civil society groups, the army and Internal Security Forces (ISF) and numerous high ranking MPs in the ministries of interior and defense, is that there are indeed cases and that these are being addressed. In addition to this, it seems that the authorities are taking the matter seriously with human rights committees focused on the prevention of torture in both the ISF and army.

Darine El-Hage argues that although there have been isolated cases of recognition within the authorities of torture taking place in state prisons, there has to be a more comprehensive government approach to the problem.

One prominent MP in the Lebanese Parliament and law maker that I spoke to is Ghassan Moukheiber, who told me that the government is working towards uncovering incidences of torture in Lebanese prisons and stamping the practice out. Moukheiber is a delegate in the Parliamentary Human Rights Committee, showing how high up this portfolio has gone up within the government’s agenda.

He tells me that this committee is doing things like stepping up visits to prisons and liaising with prison authorities and making the current government provisions that are working to stamp out prison torture more effective and robust in their tackling of the issue, whilst adhering to Lebanon’s international obligations and an Optional Protocol on torture convention that Lebanon signed and ratified back in 2008 as well as in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The committee has also taken up the initiative of training officers in new techniques in investigations and investigating other ways in stamping out torture in prisons once and for all.

(Ghassan Moukheiber is the Greek-Orthodox elected MP for the Metn district in Mount Lebanon.)

Hesham Shawish

Lebanon’s efforts to protect its official language

‘You speak to him from the east, and he replies to you from the west’.

The Lebanese Association ‘Fi’il Ammr’ or (Act Now) headed by Ms. Suzanne Talhouk has launched a campaign aimed it says at preserving the Arabic language in the multi-lingual country. The name of the campaign in association with the ministry of culture is ‘You speak to him from the east, and he replies to you from the west’. Arabic is the official language, however with French also widely spoken by most Lebanese as a result of its French colonial days and English also now widely spoken by the younger generation, this has led to a generation of young people who have often neglected the mother tongue and instead focused all their efforts on either French or English.

Many factors have contributed to this, from parents sending their children to French lycees or British and American curriculum schools, thinking that this would be better for the future when they grow up to look for work, to parents even extending this to speaking with their children in French or English in the home. Coupled with the fact that so many young people can often feel disillusioned with the huge gap between the classical Arabic and colloquial spoken Lebanese dialect, this has unfortunately led to huge neglect in young people’s Arabic reading and writing skills, with students as old as sixteen and seventeen unable to read, write or even express themselves in a coherent and articulate manner, speaking broken Arabic in a Middle Eastern country they have lived in their whole lives.

What is apparent is that this cocktail of circumstances can be seen in many other countries in the Arab world, such as in the UAE, Jordan, Egypt as well as most of the North African states where foreign schools are common, but this is the first time a campaign such as this has been launched by an association in the Arab world with the sponsorship of a ministry of culture, showing a degree of worry that the Lebanese government has begun to feel. The initiative organizes talks in schools raising awareness among pupils about the importance of protecting their mother tongue and taking pride in it, as well as festivals and activities for children such as the one seen in Hamra on 26^th June in which educational games took place with a ‘Kotobus’ or mobile library in the form of a small bus also in attendance.

It has been welcomed nationwide by teachers and professors in schools and universities as well as by the pupils and parents themselves.

"Our objective is to link the Arabic language to modern art and culture... to end the perception among young people that the formal language is outdated and dull," says Suzanne Talhouk, the president of Fi’il Ammr.

Ms Talhouk says the Lebanese will always embrace several languages, but she hopes to encourage the production of novels, theatre and other artistic works in formal Arabic.

"We're not fighting other languages as much as promoting the use of Arabic to go with all the changes in the world."

Lara Traad, a sixteen year old student at one of Lebanon’s many French curriculum schools, Notre Dame de Jamhour in Beirut, told us “it is sad, no one in our generation is speaking Arabic properly anymore, I really regret that my parents did not concentrate more on developing my Arabic, it’s too late now but maybe for the younger students in the country something can be done.”

Randa Makhoul, an Art teacher at Notre Dame de Jamhour school told the BBC: “I support these campaigns as it’s often frustrating to see young people who want speak their mother tongue in an articulate manner, but cannot string a sentence together properly.” She explained her frustration about asking her fifteen and sixteen year old pupils questions in Arabic on many occasions only to answered back in French or English.

What is interesting is that the Egyptian philosopher, Mustapha Safwaan once wrote in one his writings; ‘Why Arabs are not free- the politics of writing’ that the Arabic language is theoretically a dead language like Latin or ancient Greek, as a result of the wide gap between classical Arabic and its huge colloquial forms within the Arab world, something that Professor Mohamed Said, s senior Arabic language lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London completely contests.

 He says that, “on the contrary, there is huge proof in the Arab world of the classical Arabic form and its freedom of expression- it is the language of  communication, literature, science, philosophy, the arts and something that unites the Arab world. Professor Said adds that “colloquial dialects in the Arab world are not  separate linguistic entities in themselves, instead they are a continuance of the classical Arabic form.”

What is noticeable from this campaign is that it has drawn the attention of schools, parents and students alike, and raised awareness of the government’s urge to protect Lebanon’s official language. But it has also been seen as a first-time exercise in confirming Lebanese identity through its linguistic expression. Whether this will be enough to change the ways of Lebanon’s young generation in how they express themselves amongst friends and family will be something else.

Hesham Shawish

National Airlines vs. National Identity

خطوط الطيران و الهوية الوطنية

تواجه الخطوط الجوية البريطانية في الوقت الحالي مشاكل عدة مع اعلان موظفيها عن سلسلة اضرابات بسبب اعتراضهم على مرتباتهم وغيرها من تقديمات الشركة لهم. وال BA هي شركة اجنبية اي غير مملوكة للحكومة البريطانية بل خصخصت ضمن ما خصخص في بريطانيا الثمانينيات.

الكثيرون يرون ان خصخصة شركة الطيران افقدها الكثير من هويتها الوطنية كرمز من رموز اي بلد. فما الذي تخسره تلك الشركات اذا ما خصخصت وهل بالضرورة هي رمز وطني كالعلم والنشيد الوطني؟ وبالنسبة لكم ما الذي يحكم اختياركم لشركة الطيران؟

تقرير هشام شاويش

حملة لـ"إنقاذ" اللغة العربية في لبنان

هشام شاويش

بي بي سي- بيروت

من منشورات الحملة

عندما تطرح رندة مخول مدرسة الفن في بيروت على تلاميذها سؤالاً بالعربية، غالباً ما تلقى إجابات بالانكليزية.
وقالت المعلمة في مدرسة "سيدة الجمهور" في العاصمة اللبنانية بيروت: "من المحبط رؤية هؤلاء الشباب الذين يريدون أن يتحدثوا بلغتهم الأم، عاجزين عن تركيب جملة بشكل سليم".

ومخول هي واحدة من مدرسين لبنانيين عدة يبدون قلقاً من زيادة عدد الشباب الذين لا يجيدون العربية، على رغم أنهم ولدوا ونشأوا في بلد شرق أوسطي.

وترحب مخول بحملة جمعية "فعل امر" في لبنان لإنقاذ اللغة العربية، بعنوان "بتحكيه من الشرق، بردلك من الغرب" و الفكرة كانت لرئيسة الجمعية السيدة سوزان تلحوك وبرعاية وزارة الثقافة اللبنانية.

وعلى رغم أن اللغة العربية هي اللغة الرسمية للبنان، لكن اللغتين الانجليزية والفرنسية تستخدمان على نطاق واسع.
وتتحدث غالبية اللبنانيين الفرنسية، نظراً إلى أن البلد كان مستعمرة فرنسية، فيما تحوّل الجيل الجديد باتجاه الإنجليزية.
ويرسل عدد متزايد من الاهالي أولادهم إلى الارساليات الفرنسية والبريطانية والأمريكية، على أمل أن يساعدهم ذلك على ضمان مستقبلهم. حتى أن بعضهم يتحدث الفرنسية أو الانجليزية مع أولاده في المنزل.

تقول لارا طراد (16 عاماً)، وهي تلميذة في مدرسة "سيدة الجمهور"، إحدى الارساليات الفرنسية: "إنه محزن جداً، لم يعد هناك أحد من أبناء جيلنا يتحدث العربية بشكل سليم". وأضافت: "إنني فعلاً نادمة لأن أهلي لم يركزوا على تطوير (قدراتي) العربية. فات الأوان الآن، ربما يمكن فعل ذلك للطلبة الأصغر سناً".

وثمة فرق كبير بين العربية النحوية (الكلاسيكية)، المكتوبة والعامية. ونادراً ما تستخدم الكلاسيكية في الأحاديث، وهي لا تسمع إلا في نشرات الأخبار وفي بعض البرامج التلفزيونية.

ونتيجة لذلك، يكافح عدد كبير من الشباب اللبناني مع اساسيات القراءة، وليس غريباً لأبناء الـ16 أو 17 عاماً التكلم بعربية ركيكة.
وفي اشارة إلى الفجوة بين اللغة الرسمية وبين اللهجات العامية المختلفة في العالم العربي، كتب الفيلسوف المصري مصطفى صفوان ذات مرة يقول، ان اللغة العربية الكلاسيكية هي من حيث المبدأ لغة ميتة، تماماً كاللاتينية أو اليونانية القديمة.

لكن خبير الألسن، البروفسور محمد سعيد، يقول إن اللغة العربية الكلاسيكية هي قوة موحِدة في العالم العربي.
ويقول سعيد، المحاضر في اللغة العربية بمعهد اللغات الشرقية والأفريقية في لندن: "العربية الكلاسيكية هي لغة التواصل والأدب والعلوم والفلسفة والفنون – انها ما يوحد العالم العربي". ويرفض سعيد فصل اللهجات العامية السائدة في العالم العربي عن الكيانات الألسنية، باعتبارها امتداداً للعربية الكلاسيكية.

وتنظم جمعية “فعل أمر" مهرجانات للاطفال و لقاءات في المدارس لزيادة وعي الطلبة الى اهمية حماية اللغة الأم، ولتشجيعهم على الاعتزاز بها. اما مدى كفاية المبادرة لتغيير طريقة تعبير الشباب في لبنان عن أنفسهم، فمسألة أخرى.

Hi...Kifak...Ca Va?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arabic/tvandradio/2010/05/100511_language.shtml

هاي كيفك سافا؟ جملة تقال على سبيل الدعابة لوصف طريقة حكي الشباب في لبنان الذين يخلطون اللغات الثلاث في جملة واحدة من ثلاث كلمات والحال هذا لا يقتصر على الشباب اللبناني بل معظم البلدان العربية يعاني طلاب مدارسها وجامعاتها من قصور في اللغة العربية والكلام ليس لي بل لدرسات تحدثت عن الموضوع حتى ذهب البعض للقول إن المشكلة في اللغة العربية الفصحى تحديدا التي لا يشعرون انه تشبه كلامهم اليومي.

هذا الامر دفع بجمعية "فعل امر" في لبنان مثلا الى اطلاق حملة للحفاظ على اللغة العربية في البلاد. وتحت اسم "بتحكيه من الشرق بردلك من الغرب" تحث الحملة المدارس والجامعات للحفاظ على لغة الام لجيل يتأرجح بين لغات عدة وعربية مكسرة لنبدأ النقاش بعد الاستماع الى تقرير هشام شاويش تقرأه كريمة كواح.

Mondiale 2010

The World Cup’s Unifying Effect in Lebanon

Far from the chaotic local politics of the country, the world cup or ‘Mondiale’ as it is locally coined has been a breath of fresh air for Lebanon’s football fans. The often fractious nature of domestic Lebanese football with different political parties supporting various local teams often means that most matches are played with empty stadiums, a move the government says to prevent rival sectarian and political rivalries from spilling out on and off the field.

This year’s World Cup however has offered some respite for the country. The South African President before the start of the games described the World Cup as a “unifying force” for South African blacks and whites that would remain for years after the tournament. This ‘unifying force’ could also be seen within Lebanese society where although some sectarian affiliations could be detected as a result of certain political figures supporting various countries or even merely because of the similarity in official political party colours and the playing countries’ colours, it was clear that this rule was inconsistent and that the overall picture was that the World Cup had brought people together with a wave of excitement spilling into the streets with horn-tooting car convoys, flags waving, faces-painted, vuvuzelas galore and even fireworks at the end of matches. The many streets and buildings with huge flags still draped above or on their facades around the country is quite an impressive sight to see.

Cafes and restaurants had erected huge outdoor screens with families and friends brought together and engaged between enjoying dinner and blowing horns at theirs tables. The world cup fever was in full spirit in many restaurants with waiters dressed in Brazilian, German, Italian and Argentinean team shirts, a reflection of the country’s mainly supported countries.

By far the most supported team in this and previous tournaments was Brazil, probably owing to the country hosting the largest expatriate Lebanese community in the world. “There are eight million Lebanese living in Brazil and only four million in Lebanon” said Brazil fan Mirna Ghawi, not surprised at the country’s popularity amongst many Lebanese football fans.

Another spectator of this year’s tournament although with no fixed supporting team, shopkeeper Yasser Shibly had noticed this year that Brazil had a huge array of fans, from those who had family abroad there, to many Shia fans who simply supported the country due the yellow team stripe, the exact same bright hue as the Hezbollah party flag. This however was not the only team supported by the country’s Shia population. The large numbers of this community in West Africa meant that support for countries such as Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon was also high. One Cote d’Ivoire fan I met, Khalil Zein defiantly said during their match against Brazil “I was brought up my whole life in Abidjan so I am definitely voting for Cote d’Ivoire!” He looked no less than devastated when Cote d’Ivoire were forced out by Brazil after that match.

The second most supported team in the country can be seen to clearly be Germany where their win against England brought out a carnival-like atmosphere after the match again with the obligatory car horn-tooting and flag waving convoys in the middle of the capital, Beirut, as well as Chinese bangers and fireworks going off managing to fully shock elderly residents all over the city!

World Cup enthusiasm has been big business for Lebanese businesses and shopkeepers who have devised all sorts of accessories to cash-in on the World Cup fever, from factories churning out thousands of flags daily to the sale of vuvuzelas, key-chains, balloons, hats, mascots and flag-emblazoned mobile phone covers.

It seemed that the bitter rivalries of Lebanon’s oft-bickering politicians was a world away during this year’s tournament. Many hope that the celebratory atmosphere around the country and the tournament’s “unifying force” as President Zuma put it will carry on far after last Sunday’s final match.

Hesham Shawish