I don’t know whether you are familiar with the streets in Lebanon. But the following scene is one I often see at Dora (Beirut):

A man of an advanced age still working, trying to earn his living. An elderly woman trying to sell chewing gum in Hamra…

or senior citizens simply begging:

These are pictures I took myself, (3 with my mobile and therefore they’re not very good) But what triggers me here is the fact that those senior citizens still need to be working in order to earn their living. So no work means no food?!

Let us just think about this all. Where are the children of those persons? Don’t they have any children? Is there nobody to take care of them? What are the possibilities of shelters of old folks’ homes? I know that many elderly do not have the possibilities to eat properly, and thank God initiatives such as “Resto du coeur”, and “the Assembly of the sons of the Church” and others such as ourselves are there to work and relieve but, to what extent? Where is the dignity they are entitled to? After having worked a whole life long they deserve to rest and relax! Seeing such pictures really upsets me, I sense all the misery and suffering behind it, the untold stories of loneliness and conflict.

Older people are entitled to benefit from international commitments to end poverty and to the full realisation of their rights. But millions of older people across the world live in fear and isolation, facing chronic poverty, untreated illness, violence and abuse, and limited access to education and the law.

Poverty and social exclusion remain the main stumbling blocks to the realisation of the human rights of older people worldwide. Gender, ethnicity, disability and age can create a cocktail of discrimination, leading to the marginalisation of older women and men from their families, communities and society.

Barriers that prevent older people claiming their rights include:

• negative social attitudes
• a lack of awareness among older people themselves and society
• poverty
• a lack of national policies on ageing
• wars and conflict
• discriminatory laws and policies.

Those responsible for violations of older people’s rights can be:

• relatives and immediate family members, through abandonment and abuse
• governments, through the lack of policies to protect older people
• healthcare and social workers, through negative attitudes and poor treatment of older people
• economic policies that cap social spending
• education systems, through the exclusion of adult and lifelong learning, and the negative portrayal of ageing
• community-based and non-governmental organisations, through age-biased programming and not seeking to involve older people
• the media, through negative reporting and reinforcement of negative social attitudes.

 A big man has left us…I’ve always admired his courageous actions.

Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday paid tribute to the late Abbe Pierre, the French priest who toiled for the poor for decades.

After learning of Abbe Pierre’s death in Paris on Monday, at the age of 94, Benedict “gives thanks for his action on behalf of the poorest, through which he gave testimony to the charity which comes to us from Christ,” according to the text of a condolence telegram sent to the head of the French bishops’ conference.

Benedict prayed that “the Lord welcome this priest who battled all his life against poverty into the peace of His realm.”

The pontiff offered heartfelt wishes for comfort and hope as well as his apostolic blessing to Abbe Pierre’s relatives and to the members of Emmaus Community, an organization the Frenchman founded and which now helps the poor in 39 countries on five continents.

The priest, one of France’s most beloved figures, was sometimes referred to as the “ragpickers’ saint.” He had served as an advocate for the homeless since the 1950s, when he persuaded parliament to pass a law forbidding landlords to evict tenants during winter months.

So, I don’t know whether you watched TV and saw the horrible scenes from yesterday’s Beirut! I did. I went home around 1 30, walking of course because there was no public transportation and riots were continuing near my house. Both sides now had shown up and then finally the army intervened. I kept watching TV the whole day. Imagine! It just reminded me of the July war when watching TV after the long hard working days  with the IDP’s was simply a must.

I do not understand - as I said yesterday - why people are harshly prevented from going to work.

So, I do not understand why doctors and nurses are prohibited from going to their hospitals? Isn’t this outrageous? We all need medical staff, if not now, we will definitely need them one day. Imagine that you are this person at the hospital waiting for the surgeon to show up? But he never comes!

I just feel bad about the whole situation. Demonstrations are the citizens’ rights, that is: peaceful demonstrations. But definitely not those we saw yesterday.

We then heard that further demonstrations are suspended. Thank God. Let us live and let people earn their money. Wasn’t the war enough? When so many lost their jobs? Isn’t it enough that after the war, even more people lost their jobs, then downtown that closed down because of sit-ins, and this since Dec 1? Other families that acted as host-families during the war and welcomed thousands of relatives and neighbors are now broke. Till when shall we continue living like this?

This morning when I left my house to go to work, I had to pass through burning tires and people obviously agitated throwing stones to passing cars. I had to walk because there was no public transportation. Since I work in a NGO, we can not have the senior citizens and children waiting without being welcomed and served.

Finally I arrived at work, where I still am.

I don’t think many companies are functioning, neither schools or shops opened. This is a day of demonstrations. So some parties called their people to stay home, others encouraged them to continue their daily lives. But apparently, this demonstration is not so peaceful as the national TV: LBC points out. There is violence from both sides, injuries and of course “loads” of pollution from the burning fuel and tires.

Mind you all, I do not talk politics because I am not interested at all in politics. What interests me is “Human Rights”, in all its aspects. People have the right to demonstrate, every person has the right to express his/her ideas. This is quite normal.

But I keep wondering…WHY do people oblige others to join them in what they call “their cause”? Why is there no freedom and are people prohibiting others from going to work? It is fine that some try to obtain certain goals, but why dragging others with them who prefer to abstain from any political act?

Can we then not co-exist? It is a pity!!!

The bible verse of today is from Proverbs 3,3-4: Do not let mercy and truth leave you…. Then you will find favor and much success in the sight of God and humanity.

We have gone astray!

I am talking here about the “Week of prayer for Christian unity”.
This year the theme is:
He even makes the deaf to hear
and the mute to speak
(Mk 7:37)

Those dates were proposed in 1908 by Paul Wattson to cover the days between the feast of St Peter and the feast of St Paul, and therefore have a symbolic meaning.
In the southern hemisphere where January is a vacation time churches often find other days to celebrate the week of prayer, for example around Pentecost, which is also a symbolic date for the unity of the church. This year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity brings together two themes, two invitations extended to Christian churches and people: to pray and strive together for Christian unity, and to join together in responding to human suffering. These two responsibilities are deeply
intertwined. Both relate to healing the body of Christ, hence the principal text chosen for this year’s week of prayer is a story of healing.

If this interests you, then read Mk 7 ,31-37. A story of healing. How many times are we deaf and mute? You will answer me: I’m not deaf or mute! But we might be physically ok, but be spiritually deaf or mute…

Many prayer services are organized and people do pray for this -fragile- unity. I encourage this and pray along with all those people of “goodwill” no in order to obtain a “fusion” but a sound unity, meaning that Christians know they not just belong to this church or that group, but that they are first of all Christians and not Roman Catholic or Room-Orthodoxe or Syriacs.

If you want to read more then go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/prayer/christianunity.shtml

This morning my sister mailed me the following story and I like to share it with you! Enjoy!

There once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head.
Well,” she said, “I think I’ll braid my hair today.”
So she did And She Had A Wonderful Day.
The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and saw that she had only two hairs on her head.
“H-M-M,” she said,
“I think I’ll part my hair down the middle today.”
So she did And She Had A Grand Day.
The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that she had only one hair on her head.
“Well,” she said, “today I’m going to wear my hair in a pony tail.”
So she did And She Had A Fun, Fun Day.
The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn’t a single hair on her head.
“YEA!” she exclaimed,
“I don’t have to fix my hair today!”
Attitude is everything.

Be kinder than necessary,
For everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.
Live simply,
Love generously,
Care deeply,
Speak kindly…….
Leave the rest to God

This month America celebrates the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., the courageous and charismatic leader who did more to lift the burdens of racism from African Americans than any other person of the 20th Century. The outlines of his story are by now well-known to any informed American but they will always bear repeating. I say: America celebrates, but don’t we all do? I mean to me he is an example of what people can obtain if they persevere and believe in their cause.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was the son of a pastor father and a schoolteacher mother. He grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. As a child, his friendship with two white children was cut off by their prejudiced parents. At eleven, a white woman used the N-word on the young lad. When the boy and his father, “Daddy King,” went to a shoe store, the clerk tried to shoo them to the back of the shop, telling Daddy King that “We don’t serve colored in the front of the store.” The elder King replied, “If you don’t serve colored in the front of the store, then you don’t serve these colored at all!” Father and son immediately left the place. When Martin was fourteen years old, a teacher of his took him to a speech competition where he won first prize. When the teenager and his teacher boarded the bus back to Atlanta, the bus driver made them give up their seats to white passengers. Later Martin recalled his feelings about this incident: “That night will never leave my memory. It was the angriest I have ever been in my life.”

Although he didn’t yet know how or when he would do it, the young King made up his mind to fight racism.

He also decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a minister. King was of unusually high intelligence so he was admitted to Morehouse College before even graduating from high school. While there, he learned about Mahatma Gandhi, the man whose peaceful protests won freedom for India; King decided that this was a good model for African Americans to follow. He also met Coretta Scott, the woman who would become his wife and stand by his side through both persecution and glory.

In 1954, King and his new bride went to Montgomery, Alabama where Rev. King became the minister of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. That same year, the Supreme Court ruled in the landmark Brown v. The Board of Education case that racial segregation in the public schools was unconstitutional.

On December 1, 1955, a seemingly minor incident occurred that would propel the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to fame and permanently change American society for the better. An African American woman named Rosa Parks was sitting at the front of a Montgomery bus. She was very tired after a long day at work. A white man came on board the bus and the bus driver told her to give up her seat to him.

Rosa Parks refused.

Read more and watch the video on:

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1d0f7beff4defeb716b60b23e2a32263.1248462

Mankousheh or the plural manakish, are very well known in Lebanon and other Arab  countries. It’s dough and on it thyme (za3tar) or cheese or kishek and then baked sometimes in the oven sometimes on “Saj” like you see on the picture below. Manakish belong to the patrimonium of the country and all over Lebanon you can find small bakeries making them. Our senior citizens love to make their own mankouseh, and that’s what they did today in a very enjoyable atmosphere.

click to view full page

So the 2 other men were hung today at dawn!!! I guess we are powerless, we just cannot do anything about this cruelty. But I don’t want to give up, I want to continue fighting for abolition of death penalty. It is too early for Amnesty to having written something, so I will wait and see if there are any petitions…

On the fifth anniversary of the Guantánamo Bay detention centre, millions of Amnesty International members and supporters are mobilizing around the world in a series of demonstrations and activities calling for the US authorities to close the prison camp once and for all. As detentions at the US Naval Base move into their sixth year, the organization also called for all detainees to be given a fair trial without further delay or to be released. Demonstrations and other events are being held in cities across the world in more than 20 countries from Washington DC to Tokyo and from Tel Aviv to London, Tunis, Madrid and Asunción. “No individual can be placed outside the protection of the rule of law, and no government can hold itself above the rule of law. The US government must end this travesty of justice,” said Amnesty International’s Secretary General Irene Khan. “Equally, it is not enough for world leaders to express concern about Guantánamo and carry on business as usual with the USA. The international community must actively press the USA to close Guantánamo and restore respect for international law.” “With every passing day, the cruelty of this indefinite detention regime ratchets up another notch,” said Ms. Khan. “Guantánamo has come to symbolize the hollowness of the US government’s promise that respect for human dignity and the rule of law would lie at the heart of its response to the attacks of 11 September 2001. Torture, humiliation, discrimination, bypassing of the courts and disregard for treaty obligations, with almost total impunity, are all now among the entries in the Guantánamo logbook.” The first of more than 750 detainees of some 45 nationalities who have been taken to the base arrived on 11 January 2002. Detainees have included children as young as 13, people who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, and scores of individuals handed over to the USA from Pakistan or Afghanistan in return for bounties of thousands of dollars. Five years on, nearly 400 people are held in Guantánamo. None has been tried. None has appeared in court and all are unlawfully held. None of them know for how long they will be there, itself a form of psychological abuse in addition to the physical abuse detainees have been subjected to. By association, their families too are subjected to the cruelty of this virtually incommunicado island incarceration. The US authorities have branded the detainees as “enemy combatants” in a global conflict. That the world is seen as the “battlefield” is illustrated by the fact that those held in Guantánamo have included individuals picked up in Gambia, Bosnia, Mauritania, Egypt, Indonesia, and Thailand as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan. The CIA is known to have operated an interrogation facility at Guantánamo, although the agency’s activities remain shrouded in secrecy. Amnesty International has raised allegations with the US authorities that agents of other countries, including China and Libya, have been in the base and participated in ill-treatment.

Read more on: http://www.amnesty.org/index1.html

Yesterday and the day before 2 friends of mine gave birth to a baby girl: Hélène and a baby boy: Axel. I surely wish they may grow up surrounded by love and in a peaceful atmosphere! Congratulations!

Something totally different now that appals me.

As we all know that the July War had many consequences. With some of those Lebanon seems to cope pretty well thanks to the effort of many (I)NGO’s and local organizations, but we do have a situation concerning the stock of medicine supplies. The pharmacies in Lebanon usually receive their stock of PANADOL (=Paracetamol) during the summer months. Since then Lebanon was attacked and no boats or planes could enter, the pharmacies used what they had in order to supply their customers. Unfortunately they now ran out of stock and according to the syndicate of the pharmacies it may take till the end of April 2007 till everything will be back to normal. This means in the mean time that many medicines are not available. This year winter is hard and many suffer from common colds and flu, but if even the simplest medicine such as paracetamol is not here, what shall we do?

In supermarkets certain brands are out of stock too….What else do we have to expect?

Apocalypto,  the newest creation of Mel Gibson, stands as an impressive achievement. As an adventure movie, it’s never boring, and as the temporary revival of an exotic world namely the ancient Mayan civilization, it’s a dizzying success. More importantly, no one but Gibson would have attempted it. Unknown actors, talking in their Yucatec dialect, a story of cruelty and difficult living, struggle for life… a real moving story. It remains a violent film though, and people being too sensitive will not appreciate certain scenes.

I watched it last Saturday at the Geant cinecity. I loved it very much, it made me think about life and its cruelty (killing) and its beauty (the woman giving birth). But to my utmost disgust I remarked that several families were present with their young children. I do not understand why parents could even think of bringing their small kids with them? Do they not inquire about the film before watching it? Do they think it’s ok for their kids to watch extremely violent scenes? Perhaps they will be surprised afterwards when their children keep having nightmares!

Life is already hard enough in itself, I mean children watch “natural” scenes in their daily lives, relatives die, there is criminality, scolding, abuse, domestic violence…So many times parents can not protect their children from all this. But, do we have to add onto it on purpose?

Apparently 2 oher people will be executed tomorrow.

Regardless of who they are or what they did, here I am again to protest. Definitely in many other countries there is still application of death penance. Now it is happening in Iraq. What can we do?

Again I express my desire and invite Muslim believers to send me some Coranic verses (in Arabic or in another language) in order to enrich me with their knowledge.

Will we just stand and watch? We can subscribe to Amnesty International, which I did,  in order to do something actively.

Does anyone have some ideas? Please feel free to share them with me.

This is the 21st Century; there is progress in technology, in so many other fields, but do we make any progress in “humanity”? I do wonder, when I reconsider the hanging of Saddam Hussein at the dawn of the Islamic Adha feast.

Understand me well, I do not discuss the decision of the court condemning him. But I do want to protest against his execution.

• Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of human Rights (194 states that

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

• Amnesty International (http://web.amnesty.org/pages/aboutai-index-eng) writes:

Execution in Iran © WCADP

The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. It violates the right to life. It is irrevocable and can be inflicted on the innocent. It has never been shown to deter crime more effectively than other punishments.

Amnesty International works for an end to executions and the abolition of the death penalty everywhere.

Progress has been dramatic. In 1977 only 16 countries had abolished the death penalty for all crimes. Today the figure stands at 88.

• Amnesty deplores death sentences in Saddam Hussein trial
  

• Being a christian, the Bible is my book of reference. I find in it many sentences regarding the value of life.

• The Vatican released the following statement after the hanging …

  “An execution is always tragic news, reason for sadness, even in the case of a person who is guilty of grave crimes. The position of the Catholic Church - against the death penalty - has been reiterated many times. Killing the guilty is not the only way to rebuild justice and reconcile society. On the contrary, there is risk that the spirit of revenge is is fueled and that the seeds of new violence is sown.” (excerpts)

  Poupard, the Vatican spokesman, added “We are always sad when men take lives which belong to the Lord.”

• Do we have the right to take the life of another person? Even if this person is a so-called criminal? Do we not have many other means in order to keep the person incarcerated and preserve society from his harm?
• Do we take the education of our children so lightely in showing the video on TV at only 8 30 PM, a time where a child nowadays still watches TV? Is then everything permitted?
• I hereby invite muslims to share with me some Coranic verses talking about the same issue.