Go skate is an image I took during an event hosted by the Lebanese Skating Association. Someone shared it on Tumblr and it has been re-shared and liked 1,208 times!
Many thanks to @iJoeation for the notification!
More skating photos can be found here.
Check Lebanese Skateboarding Association:
Lebanon has institutionalized racism in a such a way that people no longer realize the impact of certain actions and words on others. Some just pepper their racism in such a humiliating way and consider it something normal.
Racism is the “belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination.” Tourists from Asia/Africa, Lebanese mixed with other nationalities, Arabs etc… and migrant workers.
Migrant workers are part of our society. We live together and we work together. Work against salary. Nothing new under the sun.
Some of them has been living in Lebanon for more than 10 years. Naturally, they get married and/or have kids. Some of them are single moms; in some cultures, being a single mom is not the end of the world; it is what it is, and the child gets registered under his mother’s name.
Kids grow fast. Parent(s) will want to register their kids in school; give them an education; something many of them were denied access to in their home countries for various reasons (poverty, living in a remote area etc…).
I was playing with Jalal* a few days ago; he is bright, smart and speaks better Lebanese than I do! Jalal stopped playing for a second. His face became very sad and serious. When I asked him what was wrong, he looked at me and said: “Today, my friends in school came to tell me not to play with Kasun* because he is black and his parents are Sri Lakan… My mom is from Africa, my dad is Egyptian but I’m Lebanese!” He then went running to his mother and asked her: “Why is your skin color darker than mine?”
Jalal’s mother is concerned. What will happen to her son and his friends at the public school when they realize he’s not Lebanese? Will they stop talking to him and marginalize him?
I hear this “children are our future” line during almost any occasion… looks like our future is bleak… What exactly are we teaching our kids?
Note: Names* have been changed to protect the kids’ identities.
Who are Jalal* and Kasun*?
Jalal* is a 4-year-old boy Born in Lebanon to an Ethiopian mother and an Egyptian father. The couple was in love. When the mother broke the news of the pregnancy to the father, he beat her up, ordered her to have an abortion and left her. The mother decided to have the baby no matter what. She registered him and raised him alone. She enrolled him in a Lebanese public school. Growing up, the boy started inquiring about his father. His mother explained in words he could understand and took him to meet his father. Jalal’s father decided to move back with his family.
Kasun* is a 4-year-old boy. Born in Lebanon to Sri Lankan parents who came to this part of the world with hope to get a better a life for them and the families they send money to every month.
Sources:
When I wrote about rape a few months ago, a myriad of mixed reactions and even all sorts of threats fell upon me.
Some guys accused me of lies and “black marketing”; saying that I was scaring tourists off Lebanon (R.I.P. freedom of speech) and that people who wrote like this deserved raping.
They showed exactly what I was talking about. These guys are the same one who embrace violence and pretend they care… schizophrenia at its best! This is a personal non-political blog. Thank you.
Rape, domestic violence, verbal and sexual harassment are still considered as “sensitive” subjects. Parents throw the responsibility for sexual education on schools…some schools either don’t have enough budget or the right personnel to do something about it. So what happens is that students only get 2-3 hours of sexual education during 12-15 years of schooling. Some parents even raise their girls in the “Whatever happens to you is your mistake.”, “If you get raped, I will kill you.” and “It’s your husband; deal with it.”
When a rape happens, a heavy weighted silence is imposed on the girl because the family has a reputation to maintain and can’t “deal with the shame”. The girl is either given away for a quick marriage or taken to “reconstructive surgery”. In the event where a girl does report the rape to the police it is treated in an ill manner: They make her repeat the story a million times, tell her things like “you must have wanted/looked for this to happen”, give her personal contact to the family’s rapist, attempt to make her give up the case in exchange of money, leave her with no assistance nor protection etc..
In the workplace, it is sometimes worse: Some managers in some companies should be placed in mental institutions. Their criteria for hiring women are questionable, they give less to a woman than a man doing the same job, verbally and sexually harass women employees who have no one to turn to and family to support… Some sick managers even base their promotions on sexual favors.
We consider ourselves a “modern” society? Reminder: Women are HUMAN BEINGS and an INTEGRAL part of the Lebanese society. It took a man AND a WOMAN to make you.
Abuse happens when there are no CLEAR laws and penalties that are written to protect citizens. This has to STOP!
Everyone needs to be aware and trained on how to tackle these issues including company staff, police etc…
On Saturday, 14 January 2012, at 12 pm, Nasawiya is calling for a march from the Ministry of Interior in Sanayeh to the Parliament in Downtown Beirut.
“We, the women who reside in Lebanon, excuse ourselves from playing the decorative role that has been imposed on us.
We take to the streets today to say that we are aware and knowledgeable about the methodical war that state and society have waged on our bodies and our safety through their political parties and leaders.
From now on, we will not accept empty promises that are heaped upon us every time we call for our rights.
We will not give in to patience. We will not bite our wounds and postpone the battles of today to tomorrow.
Our voices will be louder than the bickering between your parties and your sporadic yet connected wars.
We call on Parliament to:
We extend this invitation to all women and girls who have been exposed to rape or attempted rape or harassment in all its forms, to all so-called “housewives” that have been subjected to beating and verbal abuse, to all those employees, teachers, activists, workers and union leaders who experience sexual abuse time and time again, and to all those who feel the injustice and lack of equality. [...]
We women no longer possess anything but solidarity with one another. We must stand shoulder to shoulder and unite. What lies before us is the last of our battles: the defense of our rights, bodies and security.
We have nothing to lose but our chains. The time is now.”
More about this event on Facebook.
Some problems linger for years: I wrote about Gemmayzeh: One street with a lot of problems in 2010.
But then again, this year, the happiness of finding a parking spot on the streets in the Gemmayzeh area in Lebanon flies away in a flash when one needs to go back home. 90% of the chances are that the car is boxed and you have to go hunt for the concerned valet company.
Those valet-parked cars are one big problem for both valet and the car owners. Valet are suffering from the lack of parking spaces; thus finding themselves obliged to park them in every law-breaking fashion whereas car owners find themselves paying LBP5000 + the surprise parking fine… That’s because Police walks around and penalizes every car found on a second or third lane boxing other cars and those not in a parking permitted space… and the valet guys just throw away the ticket to save face… leaving you to discover an unexpected number of tickets when the official car revision (“mecanique”) time comes.
How many years do we have to wait before finding a permanent solution to this problem?
It’s Blog Action Day time of the year. This year the subject is about Food.
There is a lot to talk about when it comes to what/when/why/when/why etc.. we eat. There are several ways to choose/prepare/store/deliver/present food as well. We all have some sort of relationship with our food. When I come to think about it, I remember that I went through several phases.
Family reported that during my childhood, food was the least of my worries. My parents would be running after me to feed me to avoid the sense of guilt every parent feels when their children don’t eat. Although some theories say that when kids are hungry, they will eventually let the family know, parents still feel obliged to run after them with a spoon when all they care about is play. I still remember the times I would sit on the table to watch adults mimicking the sound of the airplane and pretending that whatever was on the spoon that day was the plane’s cargo.
Later, during adolescence, the relationship with food totally changed. It became chaotic. I wasn’t aware what I was eating. Food reflected my roller coaster unstable emotions which accompanied all the physical changes I had to go through. Urgh! Something I was totally careless about was quantity. I wouldn’t stop eating unless someone came and took the food away from me! (The memory makes me sick!)
Then now, did it get better? Not really? will it ever get better? I don’t know! I love food! …but only when I’m happy! I would even be peeky when it comes to what to eat and where. (That’s when I started reviewing restaurants from time to time.)
When I’m sad, angry or sick, I can’t eat. Food becomes tasteless… a punishment!
Believe it or not, I’m struggling to reach my optimum weight. I tend to lose weight easily, and anything can become a reason for that: travels, sickness, bad mood etc… It’s a mild “curse” for people with high metabolism because as soon as they drop too much, they become weak… unhealthy as well. While some are fighting to lose weight, others fight to gain it. Both are a pain to go through.
What about you? What is your relationship with food?
