Marginalization and Mobilization of Youth in the Near East

“…More than other groups, [Youth in the Near East] have to face situations in which the cultural scripts, messages and codes of the various agencies of socialization are often inconsistent and irreconcilable. Just witness the disparate and conflicting messages they are being subjected to: religious authority, state, national or secular ideologies, family and kinship groups, peer subculture, popular and cyber culture and, as of late, all the seductive appeals of global commodified consumerism, virtual images and life styles. Arab youth today are consequently caught between a poignant and unsettling predicament: traditional vectors of stability and loyalty (family and state) are being undermined, while the modern alternative sources of education, employment, security, public opinion have proved unable to fill the void. The young are also afflicted by another dissonant reality. They are often conceived and celebrated as the “hopes and builders of the future,” yet stigmatized and feared as disruptive and parasitic forces.”

I’ll be speaking at this two-day conference at the American University of Beirut tomorrow afternoon. Come join us if you have the chance! The program can be found here.

Found and Lost

One of the things I love about Beirut is the insane amount of street cats, especially in and around AUB (American University of Beirut). The open garbage-collecting system ensures a never-ending supply of food, so they roam around the streets of Hamra just like the rest of us. There is also a happy bunch of cats living down at the Corniche, lying on the beach in the sun all day and coming up to the road every once in a while to find something to eat. There is a big red-head with half an ear missing that sits in the middle of the sidewalk and moves for no-one, and there used to be a tiny one that would climb up the side of my leg to get some attention. I resisted the urge to take that home because it seemed to be doing quite well on its own, however cute it was. Not so with the little one we found Saturday night in Qoreitem. Crawling around underneath a parked car, it kept turning in circles and then falling over, rolling around helplessly on its back. It was so tiny it could comfortably lie on the DVD-cover I took it home on.

After a rigorous bath we discovered it could not straighten its neck, and the little bit of water it managed to take in with its head wobbling into the bowl did nothing to strengthen the kitten. The only way to make her stop meowing in pain was to hold her with two hands, pressing her head to one side. Yesterday the people of Animals Lebanon and the vet decided there was nothing that could be done to save her, and she was put to sleep.

(Here she is still alive. I named her Unlucky.) Animals Lebanon is working hard to rescue cats and other animals in need in Lebanon, and to spay/neuter those who are living on the street to control the population of wild cats. If you live in Lebanon and have space in your home, please consider adopting one of the more than 50 cats they rescued that are currently waiting in their shelter (all clean and vaccinated). I mean, I adopted this one last year, but one of these can be all yours!

I hadn't heard that one before

“When there are elections in Holland, who do you vote for? I mean, why?” asked my slightly inebriated friend.“I usually vote for the party with the best program,” I said, “and then I chose the candidate I prefer.” “Ah yes…” he sighed, “that’s probably how it’s supposed to be right? Well, maybe we’ll get there in a hundred years….”

I’m playing a game of trying to find out which candidates people are going to vote for. This is not a neutral question, so most will not volunteer this information, and I have to throw in a bit of the ‘clueless foreigner-thing’ to get my answers. I usually start by asking where they will vote. The country is divided into districts, and you can only vote for the candidates from your district. Then I ask what their options are, and if they have made their choice yet.

Many of my friends vote in the third district of Beirut, which means they have to chose 10 people out of a total of 41: five Sunni seats, one Orthodox, one Druze, one Shia, one Anglican and one Minority. Some will chose one or two candidates they can get behind and leave the rest of the ballot empty, but most of them are utterly disgusted with the choice they have and say they will drop a white ballot in the box, or not vote at all; to them, the difference between candidates from the ‘majority’ and ‘opposition’ is negligible.

There are also many people who have to go to their (grand-)parents’ village because they are registered to vote there, like a friend of mine who is supposed to go to Bint Jbeil to cast her ballot. She will not go, however. Knowing that the ballots in the South often come with even less variation than those in Beirut, I was wondering if the lack of choice was preventing her from voting, but that wasn’t the case. She told me: “We don’t vote unless we know the candidate really, really well. Imagine you vote for someone who is going to stay for four years, and in that time he does something that’s bad for the people – what would you say to God? How would you answer the question why you chose him when you get to heaven?” Now that’s taking voter-responsibility to a whole new level…

Overheard in Beirut

THE WILD WILD NORTH OF LEBANON Guy from Tripoli, smoking a cigarette

Biology student from AUB: Smoking kills

Guy from Tripoli: I’m from Tripoli, you really think that’s what’s going to kill me?

It's a Classic!

Did I get it right? Did I manage to get every single myth and stereotype of Beirut into one picture? I would almost think so:

- A church AND a mosque in one shot? Check - An ugly, modern high-rise juxtaposed with an old crappy building? Check - Some reconstruction going on? Check - A bit of nature and (almost) sunset to add a romantic atmosphere? Check

Seems like I’ve got a classic on my hands here.

And for some more ‘we all know what Beirut is like’, head over to this blog: Jad Aoun is handing out ‘Looks Like Beirut Awards'. Brilliant.