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How Lebanese descendants are shaking Latin America's politics

Paraguay's new President Mario Abdo Benitez and wife Silvana Lopez head to the Cathedral on a 1967 Cadillac convertible after his swearing-in ceremony on August 15, 2018. AFP Photo

by Richard Hall -- TheNational.ae -- When Brazilians vote in presidential elections next month they will face a ballot paper that includes candidates with a distinctly Lebanese feel. Two of the country's main parties are fielding candidates whose forebears came from Lebanon – Fernando Haddad of the leftist Workers' Party is running for vice president and Geraldo Alckmin from the right wing PSDB is going for the top job. Mr Alckmin, seen as a candidate for the business community in a country reeling from a crime epidemic and poverty, may have his work cut out but he is vying to replace Michel Temer, the incumbent and another politician of Lebanese heritage – his parents emigrated from the town of Btaaboura in northern Lebanon in 1925. Should any of them be successful, they would join a long list of other children of Lebanese emigrants who have made their mark on Latin American politics, joining the recently-elected president of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Beníte and Argentina’s First Lady Juliana Awada.

It is perhaps not a surprise that new generations of Lebanese have made their presence felt on the political stage, given that the large numbers that now reside across the continent. While accurate figures are hard to come by, estimates suggest upwards of 15 million people of Lebanese descent live in the region – around half of them in Brazil. Since the late 1800s, Latin America has been a refuge for Lebanese fleeing poverty and upheaval. The collapse of the Lebanese silk trade was the spark for the first wave of emigration – around half of the mostly Christian population of Mount Lebanon fled to Brazil in the 50 years before 1914. Later, violence and instability added to those numbers. A famine during the First World War and Lebanon's own 1975-1990 civil war saw two big surges. Many Lebanese began their new lives doing what their ancestors had done so well, becoming tradespeople and peddlers. From there, the community fought its way to an outsized role in the country’s politics. Today, some eight per cent of Brazil's parliamentarians are of Lebanese descent, despite making up only an estimated four per cent of the population. "It's a long tradition that we have of politicians of Lebanese descent," Thiago Oliveira, head of culture at the Brazilian embassy in Beirut, told The National. "When the Lebanese went to Brazil they didn't go to the countryside like the Germans or the Italians, they stayed in the cities where they had access to schools and urban facilities at the time."

Most of those who made the journey to Brazil "had a culture of trying to have their children well-schooled, which allowed them to go into segments of society like medicine; they became doctors, lawyers, engineers, and they eventually started to reach government too," Mr Oliveira added. t was also good timing, according to Dr Elsa Hachem-Kirby, a lecturer at the Lebanese University, in Beirut. "When Brazil decided to become industrialised, the Lebanese community was in the right place at the right time. They had been there for 40-50 years, they had accumulated enough capital, they were in the right sector of the economy," said Dr Hachem-Kirby, who wrote her PhD about the Lebanese community in Brazil. "They joined and contributed to national syndicates, and national industrial institutions, and used these institutions as trampolines to get into politics." Such a high number of Lebanese in the political top flight has had a discernible impact on the way Brazil and Latin America as a whole interacts with the Arab world. "There's always that sensitivity to the region. Lebanon is seen as a great gate to the Middle East and the Arab markets, through the ports," Dr Hachem-Kirby added. "There's also a lot of political sensitivity to the Middle Eastern conflict, and to Palestine." Mexico and Panama are currently the only Latin American states that do not recognise the Palestinian state.

The success of Lebanese diaspora in Latin American politics is not limited to Brazil. Mexico also counts a number of senators, governors and mayors that trace their roots back to Lebanon. Jose Antonio Meade, a former foreign secretary, came third in presidential elections this year after unsuccessfully running for the Institutional Revolutionary Party. But some are making headlines for the wrong reasons. Tareck El Aissami, Minister of Industries and National Production in Venezuela’s government, is of Syrian-Lebanese descent. The former vice president has been accused by the US authorities of links to money laundering and drug trafficking. And Mr Haddad and Mr Alckmin, the candidates in Brazil's presidential elections, are accused of taking off-the-books campaign donations for their respective campaigns.

Lebanese Literary World Pays Homage to Late Emily Nasrallah

by albawaba.com -- “Al Makan,” the last book by the late Emily Nasrallah will be launched Wednesday, alongside a panel discussion and film projection paying tribute to the famed writer’s life and legacy. Published by Dar Onboz, “Al Makan” recounts Nasrallah’s childhood and early adulthood, set within a history that extends from the late 19th to early 20th century and includes letters, photos and previously untold stories. “It’s an autobiography that we’ve transformed into a triptych,” Dar Onboz director Nadine Touma said. “We added maps, infographics and a pocket dictionary. We wanted to pay homage to an extremely beautiful and grand human and writer. She deserved to have an oeuvre, not just a book. “She talks about ... her life with her matriarchal lineage, before she became the writer everyone knows now,” Touma added. “She grew up with her mother’s side of the family and pays tribute to them in this book.” Born in 1931, Nasrallah was raised in the south Lebanese village of Kfeir, near Jabal al-Shaykh. In 1962, her debut novel “Touyour Ayloul” (Birds of September), was published and went on to win three Arabic literary awards. Completed just before passing away in March, “Al Makan” is Nasrallah’s 32nd published work. Her writings predominantly focus on Lebanese village life, migration, women’s emancipation efforts and identity issues in the country’s Civil War. Dar Onboz’s “triptych,” splits “Al Makan” into three components – the written autobiography, maps showing Lebanon’s internal and external migration, and a pocket dictionary. “The maps [document] movement across time and [space] ... a topic of great importance of Emily,” Touma said. “All the words that are colored in the book are [explained] in the dictionary and there are over 300 words, images, photographs that span this book, like a geographical and linguistic reference. “It helps the reader to visualize her world and what she saw and experienced on a day-to-day basis,” she added, flicking through the book. “For example, this little red flower called ‘Skukaa,’ [Cyclamen] was her favorite flower and with this you can see what it looked like.”

Though migration is central to her work, the book shows that Nasrallah never really left Lebanon. Her birthplace had a big impact on her life and outlook. “She witnessed the migration of almost everyone around her but she never left Lebanon,” Touma said. “All her writings on immigration are more a reflective form of writing and how it affected her family and those she loved, rather than a longing for her home.” Wednesday’s “Al Makan” launch at AUB’s Issam Fares Institute will be a salute to Nasrallah and her work. “We will reveal a postal stamp created for Emily and there will be a talk about the creation of the book’s concept and how inspired we are by her journey,” Touma elaborated. Speakers will include Hartmut Fahndrich, who translated Nasrallah’s work into German, and historian Toufoul Abou-Hodeib, who specializes in the era the book recounts.

“There will also a short film that we will eventually make into a bigger film called ‘Makan Emily,’” Touma continued, “made of bits and pieces of interviews we conducted with her.” This weekend, Nasrallah’s childhood home in Kfeir will be opened to the public. “Beit Touyour Ayloul, her childhood house, is being transformed into a cultural space, public library and artists’ residency centering on the topic of immigration,” Touma said. “On Saturday and Sunday we will have an exhibition on the book and open the space itself.” Several of Nasrallah’s previously unpublished personal stories are included in her final tome. There are anecdotes about when her two uncles – one whom she admired for his intelligence and another who paid for her education – left for the West. “Al Makan” also documents part of her mother’s story. “They never knew why many of the villagers harassed her,” Touma recounted. “What happened was a rich man came to the village and married Emily’s mother and then divorced her a week later, without the bloody sheet being shown. Everyone assumed it was because she wasn’t a virgin. “In truth, he paid the clergymen a lot of money to divorce them. Forty years later, they discovered it was because he was impotent, when his second wife came to the village,” she added. “Emily didn’t understand the villagers’ insults as a child. To find out the real reason after all this time was a poignant, but not sensationalized, moment for her.” Nasrallah remained deeply rooted in her rural upbringing, even after she moved to Beirut to study. Everything – from the image of Jabal al-Shaykh overlooking Kfeir, to the village dialect – was an unshakable facet of her identity.” “She also talks about her time as a journalist and how she used to walk for ages in circles around [Martyrs Square] to try to absorb the vibe of the city,” Touma said. “I asked her, ‘Did you ingest it?’ She said, ‘No I never did. I spoke with a qaf till the last of my days.’” “Al Makan” is launched at AUB’s Issam Fares Institute Sept. 5 at 6 p.m. The opening of Beit Touyour Ayloul in Kfeir will take place Sept. 8-9, 12 p.m. 70 917156 This article has been adapted from its original source. The Daily Star

‘Harshest levels’ of religious repression across 16 nations

by catholicherald.co.uk -- A US-based global report into religious freedom has identified high levels of religious repression in 28 countries. In the report from the US International Commission on Religious Freedom (USCIRF), sixteen countries were designated as Tier 1 – the harshest level of repression: Myanmar, Central African Republic, China, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. A Tier 1 country, the report said, is “any country whose government engages in or tolerates particularly severe religious freedom violations, meaning those that are systematic, ongoing, and egregious. The State Department most recently made CPC (country of particular concern) designations in December 2017”. Another 12 were listed as Tier 2 countries: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia and Turkey. Tier 2 is defined by USCIRF as “nations in which the violations engaged in or tolerated by the government during 2017 are serious and characterised by at least one of the elements of the ‘systematic, ongoing and egregious’ CPC standard”.

These countries, USCIRF said, “represent the most pressing religious freedom concerns worldwide and the most promising avenues for addressing them through US foreign policy”. Among the policy options the report recommended for the US government was to “press the country’s government to bring national laws and regulations, including registration requirements for religious communities, into compliance with international human rights standards” and to “press the country’s government to conduct professional and thorough investigations – and to prosecute perpetrators – of incidents of sectarian violence, terrorism, and other violations of religious freedom”. A third category, Entities of Particular Concern, was reserved for Islamic State, the Taliban in Afghanistan and Al-Shabaab in Somalia as non-state actors. Myanmar, China, Iran and Sudan have been designated as countries of particular concern in every USCIRF report since its first in 1999.

The annual report, issued on August 29, focused on three themes: advocacy for the release of specific prisoners, the use of blasphemy laws in place in at least 69 countries and which “should be repealed”, the report said, and women and religious freedom. It also focused on seven “religious prisoners of conscience” in hopes of reducing the number worldwide of such prisoners and to highlight the conditions in each country that led to their imprisonment. One of the seven was the Rev. Andrew Brunson, who is still under house arrest in Turkey after having been jailed for nearly two years, and which has led to US economic sanctions against Turkey in retaliation for its refusal to free him. “While religious freedom violations in many parts of the world continue to be grave, there are real reasons for optimism 20 years after the US Congress’ landmark passage of IRFA (International Religious Freedom Act),” the report said. The report included seven recommendations for the Trump administration, and eight for Congress, to more fully advocate for religious freedom worldwide. One recommendation for the administration was to “resettle vulnerable refugees, including those fleeing religious persecution, through the US Refugee Admissions Program and address the longstanding flaws in the treatment of asylum-seekers in Expedited Removal that USCIRF has documented since 2005”. USCIRF issued a similar recommendation for Congress: “Exercise oversight of Expedited Removal and press for reforms to address concerns about the treatment of asylum-seekers in that process that USCIRF has identified since 2005.”

Lebanese man starts PayPal petition

by fxcompared.com -- By Daniel Webber -- A netizen claims that millions of people in Lebanon are waiting for PayPal to enter the country · In 2013, an interview with PayPal indicated that the brand would launch its services in Lebanon but this did not materialise · Jason Karim is working hard to get 500 signatures for his PayPal petition A Change.org petition is circulating in Lebanon and it wants international money transfers brand PayPal to expand its payment services in the country. The petition organiser Jason Karim is reportedly asking for 500 signatures before he sends the petition to the fintech giant. In his petition, Karim wrote, “PayPal is one of the essential payment services around the world, and still, it has not been deployed in the Lebanese market.” He adds that the availability of PayPal Lebanon will help businesses provide a secure money transfer platform to their customers. A Misunderstanding

Back in 2013, an executive from the money transfer brand allegedly promised to bring the platform to Lebanon but the plan did not materialise. PayPal addressed the issue by the end of 2013. Laurent Wakim, PayPal’s manager in the MENA region said that the announcement was misconstrued adding that while the country is an important market for PayPal, the brand does not have a timeline as to when it will be available in the Lebanese payments ecosystem.

High Demand

The demand for the service is quite high, according to observers. In fact, in February 2018, Amir H. Nasr of TechGeek365 wrote about an online service that promises to help Lebanese residents open PayPal accounts despite the service being unavailable in the country. Nasr recognises the need for PayPal in the country but warned users that accessing the platform from Lebanon is a breach of their company’s user agreement. While articles like that of Nasr have been written to warn residents about such services, they still proliferate. The demand for the service can also be seen by comments posted by Lebanese netizens on PayPal’s community forum. One comment asked, “May I please know what it is that is stopping PayPal [from] opening in Lebanon [?]”

Lebanese businesses suffer from illegal competition by Syrian companies: minister

BEIRUT, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese legal businesses have suffered from illegal competition by Syrian companies operating in Lebanon, said caretaker Economy Minister Raed Khoury Monday. "These illegal companies do not pay taxes or social security for their employees while selling their products and services at lower prices," he was quoted by Elnashra, an online independent newspaper, as saying. "These practices lead to the bankruptcy of local businesses which, in turn, result in high unemployment among the Lebanese," he added. Khoury said that Lebanon welcomes investors of any nationalities to establish legal businesses in Lebanon. "We encourage foreign investment in Lebanon but in a legal way," he said. Khoury added that Syrian refugees are working in sectors that should be only accessible by Lebanese. "The Lebanese government should take the necessary measures against Syrian refugees who do not abide by the law," he said. More than one million Syrian refugees are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon. The government estimated the true number of Syrians in the country to be 1.5 million. A Lebanese official said last month that 270,000 Lebanese people have lost their jobs after 384,000 Syrian refugees poured into the country's employment market.

In Lebanon, Russia uses softer touch to win influence

jordantimes.com --ALEY, Lebanon — Moscow may have won influence in war-torn Syria through its blistering military intervention, but it is adopting a softer approach in neighbouring Lebanon, where France and the US have held stronger sway. Whether through cultural outreach, planned business deals or traditional diplomacy, Russia appears to be trying to put down deep roots in the tiny Mediterranean country. In her classroom at the Russian-Lebanese Cultural Centre, nestled in the town of Aley, instructor Galina Pavlova says she hopes her native tongue will find more fans among Lebanese. "We don't want France and the United States to be the only ones present in Lebanon," she tells AFP. The Aley centre is one of three new such hubs to have opened in Lebanon this summer alone, backed by Moscow's embassy in Beirut. "This expansion falls within the framework of a strategy aiming to strengthen Moscow's presence in the Middle East," says Imad Rizk, who heads the Isticharia Centre for Strategic and Communication Studies. Ties between Moscow and Beirut intensified in the 1950s with the rise of Lebanon's left, before fading after the collapse of the Soviet Union. "Lebanon, still strongly associated to the West, is one certainly symbolic piece of [Russia's] broader desire to remodel the world governance," says Julien Nocetti, a specialist in Russia's role in the Middle East. The aim, he says, is to hasten "the coming of a post-West world order". As new cultural centres open, Moscow is also boosting the number of university scholarships it gives to Lebanese students this year to 60. It nearly doubled the value of its exports to the tiny country from $423 million in 2012 to $770 million last year, according to Lebanese customs data.

The two countries are in talks over potentially opening a "green corridor" for Lebanese agricultural exports to Russia. And Novatek, one of Russia's largest natural gas producers, is part of a consortium expected to begin exploring for gas off Lebanon's coast next year. Lebanon's top diplomat Gebran Bassil travelled to Moscow recently, encouraging more Russian companies to take part in a new upcoming tender for further exploration. Beirut is relying on external help to revive its struggling economy, and in April a donor conference raised $11 billion in low-interest loans and aid for the state to improve basic public services. "We hope to make the Russians participate in the vast project to modernise Lebanese infrastructure," says Jacques Sarraf, who heads the Lebanese-Russian Business Council. In addition, Sarraf says, "Russian businesses intend to put down roots in Lebanon's north ahead of Syria's reconstruction." But the process is complicated, with both Syrian and Russian firms facing European and American sanctions that have left Lebanese banks "reluctant to deal with their Russian counterparts", he adds. Lebanon's banking sector is already being carefully monitored by the US Treasury, which is seeking to weaken the powerful Iran-backed Hizbollah movement by targeting "suspicious" banking.

Lebanon's growth has slowed to a crawl in recent years as political divisions have paralysed the government and services have been strained by the arrival of 1.5 million Syrian refugees. Moscow is looking to lend a helping hand there too, launching an initiative in July to repatriate refugees from around the region. The proposal has been welcomed by the political class in Lebanon. 900,000 refugees could return to Syria, according to President Michel Aoun, who is close to both Damascus and Hizbollah. Moscow has also proposed a billion-dollar defence contract to arm Lebanese troops, but Beirut pulled out at the "last minute", says Sarraf. Such a deal could have jeopardised the sizeable US support Beirut receives from the US, including the $1.7 billion it has received in military aid since 2006. Aram Nerguizian, co-director of the Carnegie Middle East Centre's department on civil-military relations, says Lebanon's ties to the US were at stake. "If Lebanon accepts or even insinuates an intent to accept, it will have significant — and potentially irreversible — geopolitical consequences on Lebanon's existing bilateral and multilateral commitments and partnerships, especially ties to the US," he tells AFP.

Exclusive: Lebanese PM Hariri addresses resignation, Syria, and relationship with Hezbollah

by euronews.com -- After seven years of ravaging war in Syria, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri told Euronews’ correspondent Anelise Borges in an exclusive interview that he would be dealing more with Russia rather than the Syrian regime. Borges spoke with Hariri about what it’s like to be surrounded by war, his relationship with Russia and Hezbollah, and the challenges he’s facing in Lebanon. Hariri on Syria Borges: "Opposition forces have all but capitulated in Syria. There are plans of a major offensive on the rebels last stronghold of Idlib... and that would spell the end of the war. What would that mean for Lebanon?" Hariri: "Nothing. I think Russia will have made its point — Russia control Syria. So we will deal with the Russians."

Borges: "What is your relationship with Russia?" Hariri: "Very good. Perfect. I have a very good relationship with Russia and I have a good relationship with President Putin that I respect very much. And I believe he is somebody we can work with." Borges: "So you don’t think you will have to deal with Assad?" Hariri: "I would rather deal with President Putin." What Hariri thinks of Trump

Borges: "What do you think about Donald Trump?" Hariri: "I think President Donald Trump is someone who is very clear. He says something, he does it. The issue we had in the past is that we didn’t know what the policy was. At least today I know the policy and I know whether to work around this policy or with this policy and at least there’s someone we can talk to and convince them about our situation." The country held parliamentary elections this year for the first time in nearly a decade but Hariri has yet to form a new government.

Borges: "Why did you decide to resign last year?" Hariri: "I wanted to give a shock to the system. Because I was believing the government was going into a way of governing that people were taking sides and we weren’t able to govern."

Borges: "What is your relationship with Hezbollah?" Hariri: "We have political differences. Hezbollah knows that and I know that. They will never accept my policies vis-a-vis the gulf and I will never accept their policy vis-a-vis Iran. But it does mean we should stop the country from functioning." The prime minister says he will be working hard to form a government so he can implement the reforms Lebanon needs