by aawsat.com — President Michel Aoun has reiterated that “Lebanon will never be an aggressive country, but we refuse any aggression on our land.” Aoun made his statement on Friday during talks with United States Central Command head Gen. Joseph Votel, who visited Baabda Palace. Discussions focused on military cooperation with Lebanon as well as regional […]

Khazen.org offers prayers to the family of Hanna Lahoud.  by alaraby.co.uk— A Lebanese aid worker has been shot dead in the war-torn southern Yemeni city of Taiz, the International Committee of the Red Cross announced Saturday. Hanna Lahoud, who was in charge of prisoners’ affairs in Yemen, was gunned down while travelling to a prison […]

Beirut – Youssef Diab  — aawsat.com  — Lebanese expatriates have become a main target in the campaigns for the May 6 parliamentary elections as political parties are eager to lure them to vote for their lists in exchange for covering the cost of flights to Beirut. Although some parties have refused to admit it, others […]

by   Ben Gilbert – business insider – Google is making a major change to the way Android handles text messages, and it’s a direct attempt to stay competitive with Apple’s iMessage dominance. Google’s Messages app — the standard text-messaging app on Android — will become “Chat,” according to The Verge. With that change comes the ability to […]

By Catholic News Service.  BEIRUT — Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Rai appealed to world leaders to stop the war in Syria and to work for comprehensive peace through diplomatic means. “As the great powers are beating the drums of a new war against Syria, we regret the absence of a language of peace from the mouths […]

by Bilal Maleb – trtworld.com —  International donors have pledged $11 billion in financing to Lebanon four weeks before the election. Considering the rampant corruption in the country, it’s worth asking if this gives an edge to Lebanon’s incumbents. While the international community is busy following the Russian interference in the US, elsewhere in the world ‘legitimised’ political […]

by annahar – TK Maloy — BEIRUT: The Byblos Bank Real Estate Index reported a sharp decline for the first quarter of 2018, according to a statement issued by the bank on Wednesday . The Index posted a monthly average of 33.2 points in the first quarter of 2018, constituting a decline of 26.1 percent […]

by middleeasteye.net  – Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir reaffirmed on Tuesday the kingdom’s willingness to deploy troops to Syria as part of US-led efforts to stabilise the conflict-torn country. Speaking at a press conference alongside UN chief Antonio Guterres, Al-Jubeir said that Riyadh had held previous discussions with America to deploy troops in Syria after […]

by Kenneth R. Rosen, Catholic News Service — BEIRUT — A North American delegation negotiated the steep incline to a clinic draped over the roadway, like an olive tree from a limestone bluff. “Yesterday we prayed,” said New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who the day before attended a Mass with refugees. “Now we work.” Dolan, chairman of the […]

by Peter Speetjens —executive-magazine.com The Lebanese parliamentary elections on May 6 are bound to make history, as, for the first time ever, Lebanese residing abroad have been granted the right to vote. Their appetite to do so, however, has so far appeared to be rather humble. In total, 82,900 Lebanese abroad have registered to vote, according to the official Lebanese government website. Numbers quoted in The Monthly, a publication by Information International, a Beirut-based research and consultancy firm, cite 45,827 Christians and 38,329 Muslims registered (the discrepancy in the overall total is likely caused by the difference in those who registered versus those registrations that were accepted). Some 60 percent of registered Lebanese voters abroad live in Australia, Canada, the US, France, and Germany—in that order. Only 2,106 Lebanese, or 2.5 percent, registered in Brazil, which may come as a surprise, given the country’s status as the world’s “second Lebanon.” “Estimates vary slightly, but we reckon there are some 8 million Brazilians of Lebanese descent, about half of whom live in and around São Paulo,” says Sabah Khoury, Lebanon’s consul in São Paulo. “They live in every corner of the country. [Other] major concentrations are in Rio de Janeiro and Foz de Iguaçu in the south, where we plan to open another consulate.” One need not travel far to spot Lebanese and Arab traces in São Paulo. Situated on Paulista Avenue, the city’s most prestigious thoroughfare, the Lebanese consulate sits right across from “Club Homs,” a restaurant and event venue established by Syrian immigrants in 1920. Several skyscrapers along the avenue boast Arabic family names, while eateries on every corner sell kibbeh and sfiha, which have become staple foods in Brazil. Two of the city’s mayors since 1990 were of Lebanese descent, while a third was Syrian, and Hospital Sírio-Libanês is widely regarded as the city’s, if not the nation’s, best.

Historic ties

According to Khoury, the low number of registered voters in Brazil is arguably due to the complex registration procedure. “People could register online or at the consulate,” she says. “However, the Ministry of Interior in Beirut had to approve the application, which could take a month or more, while the registration period closed in November. I think people may have underestimated that. “On the other hand, although 8 million is a fair estimate, we should put the figure in perspective,” she added. “The first Lebanese immigrants arrived in Brazil in the late 19th century following the visit of Brazilian Emperor Pedro II to Lebanon. Their descendants often are only partly Lebanese.” Pedro II had a keen interest in the Orient and visited the region twice in the 1870s. Legend has it that in 1871 he halted his convoy on the way to Baalbek to talk to a group of peasants and encourage them to emigrate to Brazil, where plenty of fertile land and opportunities would await them. True or not, the first Lebanese immigrants arrived in South America’s promised land in 1871. Driven by economic malaise, hunger, or conflict, many more would follow in this first wave of emigration from Lebanon that roughly lasted till the end of the Second World War. Naturally, many of the early pioneers married other immigrants. As a result, there are numerous Brazilians who have a claim to Lebanese roots, but their link to the country of their great-grandmother or great-grandfather is cultural or nostalgic at best. To count potential voters among Brazil’s considerable Lebanese contingent, the focus should be on more recent arrivals.