On a humouristic note:

Open an excel file.

Enter any date.

Right click the cell and choose format cells. Notice the example given: 14^th March J

Union Libanaise Culturelle Mondiale

Objet : Droit de réponse concernant l’article “Liban, Pays des Esclaves…”

 de Dominique Torrès publié dans Le Monde le 11/10/2007

Chers amis,

Chers compatriotes,

Nous vous informons de la lettre que nous avons adressée, dans le cadre du droit de réponse, au journal le Monde et  à l’émission « Envoyé Spécial » sur France 2,  suite à la publication le 11/10/2007 de l’article de  Dominique Torrès sur les employées de maisons au Liban intitulé “Liban, Pays des Esclaves…”, sujet qui a été repris dans un reportage diffusé dans « Envoyé Spécial » le jeudi 18 octobre 2007.

La même lettre a été adressée aussi au quotidien libanais l’Orient le Jour pour informer les libanais de notre réaction.

Nous Signalons que beaucoup de compatriotes ont réagi aussi ce qui a poussé les journaux concernés à ne publier que des extraits.

(ci-joint une copie conforme de la lettre)

ULCM

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A l’attention de Mme Dominique Torrès,

Chère Madame,

Nous avons lu avec la plus grande attention votre  article publié dans le journal Le Monde daté du 11/10  sur les employées de maisons au Liban, sujet  qui a été repris dans un reportage diffusé dans l’émission « Envoyé Spécial » sur France 2,  le jeudi 18 octobre 2007.

Si l’on peut être légitimement choqué par les agissements de certains employeurs de jeunes étrangères au Liban, il est inacceptable d’amalgamer tout le Liban et les libanais à ces agissements scandaleux et de plus réduire le Liban à la seule pratique de l’esclavage contemporain.

L’ULCM déplore l’exagération et l’inexactitude de l’article cité ci-dessus et tient à préciser les points suivants :

-         Si certains faits relatés sont réels, ils ne concernent nullement l’ensemble des 200000 employées de maison travaillant au Liban et plus d’un million d’ouvriers Syriens, égyptiens et iraquiens…Ces quelques cas ne permettent pas de généraliser comme le fait l’auteur contrairement à toute déontologie journalistique.

-         Beaucoup de contrevérités sont évoquées comme le salaire qui, contrairement à ce qui est écrit, atteint 300 dollars ce qui représente un peu plus que la moitié du salaire moyen d’un libanais employé de banque par exemple.

-         Toutes les employées de maisons ont obligatoirement la couverture sociale alors que celle ci n’est pas assurée à tous les libanais eux-mêmes.

-         Le nombre de ces employées augmente de plus en plus ce qui veut dire que la situation de ces gens n’est pas aussi mauvaise comme l’article essaye de montrer.

Ainsi  nous affirmons que ces actes sont loin d’être des habitudes libanaises et que nous sommes sûrs que dès l’installation d’un état de droit, ils disparaitront.

En attendant, nous vous invitons à publier notre réponse selon le droit qui nous est réservé car soyez sure Madame nous luttons comme vous le respect total des Droits de l’Homme au Liban et nous sommes conscients que nous allons y parvenir bientôt.

Veuillez agréer, Madame, l’expression de nos sentiments les plus respectueux.

Roger Hani     Président de      l’ULCM France        

 Nibal Moussa          Président du Comité     de la Communication   

Georges Abi Raad         Secrétaire Général  Mondial de l’ULCM  

 Antoine Menassa   Vice-Président  de l’ULCM

With Dr. Fares S3eid, Dr. Salim el Sayegh and Dr. Nasri Sayegh

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

I was having today a very long and intereting debate, which started of with the assassination of Dany Chamoun and led to other political assassinations throughout our history and the ‘arguments’ that some refer to to justify killing their opponents and whether there are certain circumstances that could justify killing a person ..

It is true that most parties had a bloody history in Lebanon, and all leaders wanted to take control of their people, either by force or by bribbing their opponents .. and by force i mean eliminating ur ennemy physically ..

In the 70s, there was a struggle within the Christian militias, and Bashir Gemayel came out victorious after eliminating all opponents, and many were eliminated physically, starting with Marada and Frangieh followers and then Safra ..

Could this bloodshed be avoided in anyway ? Was Bashir capable of fixing things politically but he decided to take the easier way ??

Frangieh was already harrassing and killing Kataeb supporters in the North, Noumour el a7rar in Safra were causing too much trouble … can one unite armed militias in the middle of Palestinian presence without referring to force ??

I argue that Bashir had a greater goal, but to get there, one had to adapt with the current circumstances, since we were in war … but is that enough to justify the killing ?? I say yes & no ..

Yes because one cannot fight with his pen or his articles in times of war, when Palestinians were there along with Syrians and co, but was it impossible to reach an agreement with Dany the same way it was reached with Amine Gemayel in North Matn ??

No because i strongly believe one can find other ways to marginalize the other without eliminating him physically, and i strongly believe there is always another way to solve things ..

Keep in mind that this thread is in no way attacking Bashir, but is rather tackling the use of force in general ..

The Church defends the use of weapons or any tool to defend your property or when threatened .. but many cases do not apply here ..

If you look all over the worlds, Ataturk managed to create Turkey by force, while Indians did it peacefully, Americans had freedom & democracy ideas imported from the West, so they adapted and formed their country ..

As for us Middle Easterns, we are still on this killing mentality wishing that our political opponent to die and get sick

Dear Aoun and Hassouna, I think its time to confess
How you sank this poor nation in a Divine Fucking Mess

If they had their way, the results would be a pleaser
Hassouna would be Mehdi and Aoun would be Ceasar

On 21 October 1990, Dany Chamoun was assassinated brutally along with his wife Ingrid and his two sons Julian & Tarek.
Only the youngest child Tamara was saved by the maid who hid with her in a closet until the killers left.

Syrians had invaded the Baabda palace a week earlier and kicked Michel Aoun out and were in full control of the region. Later on, Syrians along with their allies tried to accuse Dr.Samir Geagea of this murder in an attempt to jail him and ban the Lebanese Forces party. After long and endless court sessions ( all documented in a 900 pages book that can be found in most libraries), no clue was found against Dr.Geagea, yet he was jailed for mainly political purposes and false accusations.

Dory Chamoun, the brother of Martyr Dany, clearly stated on many occasions that Dr.Geagea is in no way responsible for his brother’s death and asked for a fair retrial.

A mass is organized every year to commemorate the assassination of Dany & his family..

May they rest in peace.

Oh well .. Nabih Berri delays elections again and i am quite confident he will continue on doing so ..

Everyone seems to be waiting for something, for some ‘divine’ act to get us a president ..
Meanwhile, the drums of war are beating, drums of another ugly and destructive war …

Let us keep hope that inner-Christian talks this week will get us somewhere .

I was discussing politics with a friend and was about to say to a friend of mine found of mine :
” Let them get us any president bass nokhlass ba2a” ..

Then i realized this is exactly how they want us to be, in despair and willing to accept any president but avoid chaos. This is Syria’s plan, this is Hezbollah’s plan, refusing all initiatives and wasting time while putting Nabih Berri as the moderator and the one willing to compromise and hold dialogues …

Christians will be the ones losing in either scenarios :

- Whether no president is elected, both Sunnites & Shiites wont be as affected as Christians.
- Or a weak president if weakened, we will get more divided and 6 extra years of weak presidency.

Europeans came here and united Christian leaders and asked them clearly to avoid a chaotic situation, and meetings are being held ( Amine-Aoun yesterday) and hopefully Aoun-Geagea next week, but i truly dont see any positive outcome.

Only History will judge us for this big mistake we are about to make, and only the people will suffer from it while our leaders are enjoying life in their fortresses and villas.

Sad … so sad.

استغرب المنسّق العام لـ«جبهة الحرية» فؤاد أبو ناضر، «تطاول» البعض على المقامات الروحية المسيحية «من دون رقيب ولا حسيب»، معتبراً في بيان أصدرته الجبهة، أمس، أن مسيحيي لبنان «ليسوا مكسر عصا، ولن يكونوا كذلك على الإطلاق». وإذ دعا المسيحيين الى «التوحّد ونبذ الاقتتال والفتنة»، استنكر الاعتداء الذي طاول نسوة في حي الميناء ـــــ طرابلس، وعدم قيام السلطات الأمنية بتحريك ساكن.

This is a statement by Fouad Abu Nader asking what happened to few Christian women in Mina-Tripoli, without any intervention from the ISF ..

If someone has any info, please post them.

Suggested by Mikel.

Inspired from the following thread:

On the 19th of October 1976, Palestinians along with Shiites committed a massacre in the village of Aychiyye, situated South East of Jezzine, killing more than 50 men & women. They did not only massacre innocent people but also robbed the village church and destroyed houses. Most of them were Shiites who are now in the ranks of Amal & Hezbollah and were allied to the Palestinians back then.

Here is a temptative complete list of the martyrs:

Youssef Elias Abou Kheir
Jean Khalil Aoun
Mountaha Rizk Najm
Nemr Rachid Abou Samra
Gerges Maroun Aoun
Najat Fayez Najm
Tannous Youssef Abi Eid
Raymond Ibrahim Aoun
Ibrahim Salim Nasr
Youssef Tannous Abi Eid
Sleiman Ajjaj Aoun
Alfred Youssef Nasr
Pierre Namtallah Jabbour
Melhem Mansour Aoun
Gerges Ibrahim Nasr
Melhem Chekri Hanina
Boutros Fares Fares
Jamil Elias Nasr
Philippe Semaan Chdid
Elias Assaad El Kisirwani
Joseph Farid Nasr
Joseph Latfallah El Chaar
Youssef Assaad El Kisirwani
Khalil Gergé Nasr

Atallah Youssef El Chaar
Salwa Youssef Mezher
Khalil Sleiman Nasr
Latfallah Youssef El Chaar
Albert Chahine Milan
Simon Youssef Nasr
Philippe Toufic Afif
Elias Fouad Najm
Toni Ibrahim Nasr
Majid Elias Afif
Amal Fouad Najm
Francis Alfred Nasr
Assaad Melhem Anid
Therese Fouad Najm
Fouad Youssef Nasr
Elias Youssef Anid
George Fouad Najm
Nassim Jamil Nasr
Aziz Youssef Anid
Georgette Fouad Najm
Youssef Jamil Nasr
Ibrahim Elias Aoun
Fouad Gerges Najm
Youssef Nasr Nasr
Tamam Abou Kheir Aoun
Karim Salim Najm
Youssef Elias Noura

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

21:00 21/10/2007 Sheikh Amine Gemayel is currently meeting with Michel Aoun at his residence in Rabieh.

Amine already screwed us up with Aoun back in 1989 and heard a big word from Samir Geagea.

Lets hope history doesnt repeat iself, for that would be a total disaster ..

Since we are talking about road deaths lately, i believe there is another issue one should tackle, the bikes and scooters in Lebanon.

Only lately scooters were banned from driving on the highways ( even though you still find some), but i believe all sort of bikes should be banned at night at least, or maybe put tougher conditions for one to a acquire a bike.

Why so ?
Since most bikers you see on the roads feel this urge to speeding like crazy and most importantly to lift their bikes in the middle of the road between the cars and feeling proud of doing so.

What is that urge to perform a stunt on the highway without even wearing a helmet ?? What exactly does one feel when he lifts his motorcycle or stands on it on a busy highway ??

And the worst of all is when a group of motorcycles are doing that, since it is guaranteed you ll find the next day Lan Nanssaka posters and white ribbons for one of those bikers ..

Life has becoming so cheap in Lebanon, not worthy anything and no one is protesting about it.

I hope those reading this post start by controlling themselves and their friends and spread the message, and yell at relatives or friends risking their lives and others’ lives by reckless driving ..

The St.Georges hotel issue has been ongoing for years now, but lately a huge sign saying “stop solidere” was hung on the Hotel building, so i thought of bringing that issue back.

Most of the people blame Hariri for the 40 billion dollars debt, while they disregard or dont know about the real harm i blame him for.

First of all, to set things clear, most of the debt is due to Syrians & Shiites ( HA & Amal ) and not Hariri as most claim.

Solidere was founded and supported by a law voted in the parliament that allowed it to purchase any land in Beirut Downtown ( which was destroyed back then), and indeed, land owners were forced to sell their lands for its actual price ( its lowest since Beirut was destroyed) in return of shares that they were unable of selling except for Solidere owners.

Solidere borders were @ Starco Bab Idriss almost and so St.George was too far and they have no rights whatsoever to acquire it ..

Years after Solidere was founded, land owners who now had shares were screwed again, when Solidere decided to enlarge its capital, to sell more shares, yet kept the same number of shares for those poor land owners who barely benefited from anything now ..

The problem with St.Georges is that it has a seaside and the right for a seaport, which is a huge one and that Solidere wants to acquire, but they have no right to do so, and have been annoying since then the owner of the St.Georges.

This story is one of many, it just happened that this man has enough money and can handle Solidere .. i was discussing this issue with friends today and one told me that a relative of his as well was being pressured to sell his building ( he was also wealthy), and he refused but was annoyed a lot.

I dont quite understand this attitude, thats what i blame Hariri most on, this monopoly he was after, not theft or corruption, but a monopoly over everything in Beirut by any means necessary.

The man is dead now, may he rest in peace, and i doubt anyone will be accounted for those actions, but at least let us stop them once and for all.

The Hariri memorial is being built on the St.Georges side while there is an empty spot on the right ..

You can find more info on this issue on Bloggingbeirut ( from which i took the picture as well)

Here are few extracts :

Aggressions
All summer Solidere has purposefully installed ropes along our border to stop people from arriving to the St George Beach
Attack Guards by nightA few days ago Solidere attacked our guard during the night
Why would they come like thieves in the night if they were doing something legal?

We would like today to build the St George Hotel to be a candle of remembrance for Mr Hariri too, and for my friends who have died, five of them, whom I have spent a life time with.
I call upon those who care to stand with us and unite for justice to prevail and not allow an employee from some company to take us both for a ride.

The road was closed for 2and a half years in front of the St George Hotel there was nothing we could do to open it and it only did harm to the St George Hotel no one else.
I said once: Is it acceptable to have the road closed for ever?
Someone answered: Mr Hariri was an extraordinary man!
But he was a man! And we are all men!

Solidere has lost money for many years and now that it has began to make some it is taking it away from the country and the shareholders and the Lebaneese people.
Is this not a crime?
But
La hayata liman tounadi

I was watching today a report on Euronews on a major project the EU countries are up to to lower the number of road deaths to 25 000 by 2010. Studies & researches were made to examine the main causes of deaths and ways to reduce them.

I was reading the article as well and it is quite impressive how those countries are doing their best to preserve their people’s lives while we are so reckless in Lebanon, even though it is very easy to lower the rate of accidents and deaths ..

I honestly do not think we even need to do a research in Lebanon, i will assume the government is not capable of fixing all roads right now nor of priving electricity to all highways ( i think god we have ads on Dora-Jal el Dib highway to see anything).

What i propose is very simple:

- The main reason for accidents in Lebanon is reckless driving by drunk or tipsy people, and the only way to stop those is setting up checkpoints at the exit of every clubbing region, for ex set up checkpoints on all gemmaye exits, on all monot exits, on kaslik exits etc etc ..

Dont let anyone drive if he cant do it, throw him in jail for one day.

- The other alternative is to simply ask the pub owners to report any drunk person or not let him drive his car.. also pure and simple.

Now i dont get it what is so hard about doing that ? its not even costly …

On a short trip down memory lane, I came across those two videos, each from an era but both revolving around the same subject: aoun’s false propaganda…I must admit the man has evolved in his techniques but nevertheless, still uses the cheap style of attacking blindly whoever does not agree with him…

The first one was shot in 1990, and allegedly depicts Hamid Keyrouz Casern and drugs said to have been seized in there by the army…reviewing this today shows the sheer childish nature of whoever made this up as the fakery is obvious and the directing of the entire movie is not even worthy of a B series film… the kid they interview is obviously terrified and has been beaten…the “interrogator” is putting words in the “suspects” mouth…no positive ID is made of the “suspect”…pfffffffffffffff….typical syrian style arrest…

The second movie is more recent and takes apart a lie aoun invented to divert the attention from his massive flop during the infamous January 23^rd black Tuesday… 

Till when will this man keep lying to the people and when will he stop to realize that each one of his lies adds another nail to the Lebanese coffin… 

Movie 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0T7xiqTvHo  

Movie 2:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj8QnnxNz-0

Un reportage de Dominique Torrès & Olivier Robert. (Video)

Au Liban aujourd’hui, des domestiques sont traitées comme des esclaves : 200 000 bonnes, provenant de 30 pays, se voient confisquer leur passeport dès l’arrivée par la sûreté nationale. La grande majorité d’entre elles n’aura plus le droit de sortir de la maison seule…Pas de sortie et pas de congé. Salaires de misère, coups, brimades viols : le taux de suicide des domestiques étrangères est alarmant. 105 éthiopiennes se sont données la mort en quatre ans. Dominique Torrès a enquêté auprès des agences de placements, en interrogeant victimes et employeurs. Une enquête sans concessions sur des pratiques d’un autre âge, commises semble-t-il en toute impunité.

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• Le Comité contre l’esclavage moderne, fondé en 1994 par Dominique TORRES, a pour objectif de lutter contre toute forme de servitude et d’assister les victimes de l’esclavage moderne, en France et dans leur pays d’origine.
http://www.esclavagemoderne.org/

• Créée il y a plus de deux cents ans, l’association « Antislavery » est la plus ancienne organisation internationale de défense des Droits de l’Homme. Son site Internet est très riche en documentation concernant l’histoire de l’esclavage et l’esclavage moderne.
http://www.antislavery.org/