Source: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
STUCK OUTSIDE OF LEBANON!
Salut à tous et toutes.
Nous sommes venus à Budapest mon mari Nicolas et moi pour participer à une conférence sur la guerre et la sécurité, j'y ai présenté une communication hier mercredi le 7 mai 2008 (ci-dessous le texte-résumé de la communication). Nous devions rentrer au Liban hier soir. Comme l'aéroport de Beyrouth fut fermé pour cause de conflit entre le gouvernement et l'opposition, nous avions dû rester à Budapest pour une journee supplémentaire. Aujourd'hui le jeudi nous allons quitter pour Prague dans la nuit. On nous dit qu'il est possible de retourner à Beyrouth via cette ville, ou alors à Damas. Le problème est que l'aéroport de Beyrouth est encore fermé. Et les routes menant de Damas a Beyrouth sont egalement fermées. Il va falloir voir si nous pouvons franchir la frontière au nord du Liban. Bref, la situation locale est chaotique. Notre fille Jana est avec mes parents à Beyrouth et nous tenons absolument à y retourner. Cette situation me rappelle la période des combats de l'été 2006 avec Israël lorsque ma soeur Michèle a dû prendre un énorme risque en franchissant la frontière syro-libanaise pour pouvoir rentrer au bercail, alors que l'aviation israélienne bombardait les routes. Cette fois, ce sont les émeutes, les agressions armees, les barricades... J'avais d'ailleurs le pressentiment qu'il allait se passer quelque chose, soit au niveau interne, soit une nouvelle invasion israélienne. J'en avais parlé lors de la conférence de Budapest. Quelques heures plus tard, Nicolas m'annonçait la fâcheuse nouvelle.
Je vous laisse pour le moment. Nous devons nous apprêter pour débuter notre périple.
A suivre...
Et bon courage aux compatriotes qui tentent et tenteront également l'aventure de la rentrée coûte que coûte.
Pamela Chrabieh Badine
Budapest
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Voices – Paths of Peace in Lebanon: Contributions of the 25-40 Age Group
in the 'War, Virtual War and Human Security' Colloquium, Budapest
By Pamela Chrabieh Badine, 07-05-2008 (a day before the beginning of the conflict between the government and the opposition in Lebanon):
For the last decades, Lebanon has witnessed several combats and periods of status quos. The majority of researches and analyses explains this reality as the product of interreligious or sectarian conflicts, or the product of foreign invasions and interferences in local affairs. In both cases, the focus is on issues of violence. Discourses and spaces of peace are diregarded. This vision conceals the complex reality of the Lebanese history and society. Despite the multilayered social and political crises and the conflictual identities, we notice, since the nineties, but even before, the emergence of discourses and practices within the civil society and the diaspora that reveals the existence of new political forces (alternative forces to the traditional ones) and an enriching diversity in the production of knowledge concerning war and peace issues - a diversity that is not confined to religious and political leaders and elites.
Having conducted field researches to study these forces and this diversity in the last decade, I discovered that young Lebanese aged between 25 and 40 years old constitute the largest and most effective age group engaged on an individual or a collective level in rethinking these issues, after surviving the 1975-1990 period as children and-or teenagers, so after witnessing a period of bloody civil combats and foreign invasions.
(...)
A first result was the discovery of an alternative vision-interpretation of the war in Lebanon. Usual visions, whether in the academic or the popular and media fields, identify the war (referring to the 1975-1990 period) as a civil war (an islamic-christian war) or a war of the others on the Lebanese soil or a war for the others. These visions talk about a 'post-war' period since the nineties. So the summer 2006 combats with Israel were called 'new war'. 90% of my interviewees identified the war as continuous and plural. In other terms, the war in Lebanon has no precise beginning, no ending until now and has multiple forms. Also, it is a blend of an invisible war (symbolic, psychological, a war of visions) and its counterpart, the visible war (physical, combats-negociations-treaties). Therefore, ending the war necessitates to work on all levels and to break the vicious circle of the invisible-visible. It necessitates to work on Peacekeeping and Peacemaking processes, but also on Peacebuilding processes. It is not sufficient to silence the weapons. Building local and transnational conviviality between the diverse identities is of utmost importance.
(...)
Despite all the obstacles, the peacebuilders (individuals and collectivities in Lebanon and abroad) are somehow filling a part of the gap that the government, leaders and parents could not have done so by disturbing the ambient amnesia, by fighting against the Historical Mythology and by standing against the war mentality that is fueled by the current political parties rivalries. Their undervalued initiatives act as catalysts of a new Nahda or Renaissance. Only time will tell how this Nahda will evolve.
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The Demise or Rebirth of our Phoenix?
By Michele Chrabieh
Mansourieh on Saturday May 10, 2008
We have been confined in our homes for the past two days… waiting for the end of a military confrontation that has started in the streets of Beirut and degenerated to other Lebanese cities and villages…waiting for a political and peaceful solution to materialize between the opposition and loyalists to the government.
Amid the shootings and RPGs, our politicians multiply their speeches revealing as such their respective and same old pro-Iranian/Syrian and pro-American positions, and thus disregarding Lebanon’s survival as a secure, free and independent nation.
Our future in our own homeland is threatened because of the discourses and interests of our politicians and because of their barbaric adherence to militia tactics of civil disobedience. Certainly one camp, i.e. the opposition and mainly “Hezbollah” (the party of god), appears to be more barbaric than the other- at least to the international public- due to their renowned and proven military force, their non-western attire, godly beliefs and menacing speeches; while the other, i.e. “Loyalists” to the government, hides behind well ironed suits, a “victimized” attitude, and democratic speeches. Haven’t they just asked the army, who so far has reasonably taken over the streets of Beirut one after the other without incidents, to “interfere even more and do a better job”? Have they just asked the army to shoot and kill Lebanese because they have different political ideologies, beliefs and stands?
Clashes and killings continue at this very moment and we wait for a peaceful solution among all Lebanese factions hopefully without any Machiavellian foreign interference which could only do harm because their regional interests pay no heed to our LEBANON.
