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Heritage museum celebrates its second year

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August 18, 2005

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KESROUAN: The Lebanese Heritage Museum celebrated its second anniversary on Tuesday. The museum, the first in Lebanon to cover so many different eras and facets of Lebanese heritage, was inaugurated on September 5, 2003, and has since become a compulsory feature of the national history curriculum, as well as an essential site for school visits.

It has also been listed as a "first class museum" by the Culture, Education, and Tourism ministries.

The anniversary celebration consisted of a guided tour of the country's eight historical eras, including Phoenician, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Ottoman and today's 20th century era, displayed across the five halls of the museum.

"The Lebanese Heritage Museum gathers historic, heritage and artistic symbols from Lebanese history," said Michel Meiki, vice president of the museum's founding committee.

"We had things that should have been exposed earlier," said John Raidi, the president of the founding committee, explaining there had been rare documents not on display for the students to see, but that these were now out.

"We want to give Lebanese students an overall view of all the different eras," he said.

Culture Minister Tareq Mitri began his celebratory speech by saluting the efforts that went into establishing the museum.

"What caught my attention was that the exhibition did not bias any period of Lebanese history over another. On the contrary, the museum tried to help visitors get introduced to different stages of our country's history," he said.

Emphasizing the importance of the role memory plays in uniting or dividing a people, Mitiri said: "Invented memories ignited conflicts between groups," insisting that "nations cannot be built unless their citizens agree on what should be remembered together and what should be forgotten together."

Commenting on the importance of the museum, he said "its contents are a renovated reading of our diverse history and its successive stages."

Secretary general of the museum Sheikh Simon Khazen said there are plans to start a Lebanese contemporary art museum, once the museum is included in the Culture Ministry's budget.

Syrian daily criticises Lebanese journalists

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August 17, 2005

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Uncategorised

17 August 2005 DAMASCUS

Syria, Lebanon to implement electricity network sharing

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August 16, 2005

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Uncategorised

Syria and Lebanon discussed Sunday the joint cooperation and implementation of in the electricity network cooperation.

During a meeting with Lebanese Minister of Energy Mohammed Fneish, Electricity Minister Moneib Sa'em al-Dahr described the cooperation between the two states in field of electricity energy as "productive and it brings benefit to both Syrian and Lebanese people." "Syria has been committed to every item in every agreement particularly of this agreement with Lebanon," the minister said.

Lebanese economy recovering after political crisis

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August 16, 2005

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Uncategorised

AFP, August 16, 2005 BEIRUT -- The Lebanese economy is showing signs of recovery six months after the assassination of ex-premier and construction tycoon Rafiq Al Hariri and the ensuing political crisis that shook the country, analysts say. Hariri had spearheaded Lebanon's post-war economic revitalization and his death in a February bomb blast on the Beirut seafront delivered a fresh blow to an economy already battered by a long-running civil war that ended in 1990. "The disappearance of a man whose name had been linked since 1992 to the reconstruction of Lebanon, which was emerging from 15 years of destruction and war, had a negative psychological impact on investment, production and consumption, although that impact only lasted a limited time," said analyst Marwan Barakat of Audi Bank. The five-time prime minister's sudden death led to political upheaval, international pressure for change in Lebanon and the eventual April withdrawal of Syrian troops after a presence of nearly three decades. However analysts say damaging economic consequences of the turmoil have been lessened by a smooth political transition and promises of reform by a newly elected parliament. "Despite negative indicators in the first half of 2005 compared to those of the preceding year, the Lebanese economy has emerged with relatively limited damage in light of the tragedy," Barakat said.