Environment for Kolonialism

"The aforementioned Yattir forest is the largest forest planted by the JNF. One of the interests in planting it has been to create a mechanism through which Palestinians are prohibited from use of their lands. Therefore, while forestation can be seen as a positive act, the cynical use of forestation to eradicate any possibility of returning the land to its original Palestinian owners is an act of political violence, using brute force to squelch the Palestinians’ rights. Over the past few years the practice of planting forests in the Naqab in order to create a fait accompli regarding land ownership claims has intensified. The three (unrecognized) Palestinian-Bedouin villages most affected by this are Twail Abu Jarwal, Al-Araqib, and Karkur." (Thanks Marcy)

http://www.badil.org/en/al-majdal/item/1406-raanan-jnf-naqab

 

Environment for Kollaborators

An Arab person I know came back recently from a fellowship on conservation and environment organized by the Middle East Program of the Quebec-Labrador Foundation (QLF). The person (who does not want his/her name mentioned for reasons that will soon become clear) found himself/herself in a small group with Israeli interns without having been forewarned. He/she quickly understood that the main purpose of the training on nature conservation was to bring together Arab and Israeli youth for "peace building". This effectively means breaking the Israeli boycott, turning the oppressed into collaborators and (slyly) imposing a de-facto recognition of the Zionist entity by Arab individuals and civil society organizations. Here's what the QLF site says (my emphasis):

The Middle East Program aims to contribute to bioregional, natural resource conservation, cultural heritage preservation, and peace-building efforts in the Middle East. We accomplish this by fostering environmental leadership and mutual understanding among conservation leaders.

The program has developed an integrated program of mutually reinforcing methods for training, technical assistance, professional exchange and community-based planning projects.  Over the years, the program has built a cadre of more than 120 conservation professionals from Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza, and North America, who are working across geo-political borders with environmental solutions for the long term in natural resource stewardship.  We hope to nurture reconciliation across a long-standing conflict and create partnerships with organizations, individuals, and governmental agencies in the region. 

I have two things to say to the QLF:

1. You must know that you endanger the people from Lebanon who join your program without knowing where they are going or without fully measuring the consequences of what they are doing: Lebanon is AT WAR with Israel. Any contact with the enemy is legally punishable and considered as treason. Some of the people who collaborate with you from Lebanon have their photos on your website, although it is unclear whether they are or were part of any Israeli-Lebanese collaboration.

2. Your attempt at creating equivalence between oppressor and oppressed and at building consensus (as you say in your publication "Consensus Building and Collaborative Conservation", filled with photos of collaborators having fun-fun-fun together) is risible and denotes (at best) of a shallow understanding of the politics of liberation and oppression. Consensus on what? On the fact that Israel is a colonial, usurping entity that practices a rule of terror and ethnic cleansing in Palestine and in the surrounding Arab countries? There is already a consensus on that: ask any of the 300 million Arabs (except the handful of carefully selected collaborators) and they will say it to you, loud and clear. Better still, I shall borrow the voice of the Palestinian youth (the hundreds of thousands who are not corruptible) who spoke today  in commemoration of the nakba (you probably don't know what it is so go look it up):

(We) Reject the efforts of Israel and its apologists around the world, who aim to direct our efforts at convincing Israel of our inalienable rights rather than resisting its oppression through legitimate and legal means to obtain them; especially organizations that aim to convince us that that conflict is but a symptom of psychological barriers that can disappear through dialogue with the other. Such organizations they completely ignore the reality which is Israel’s oppression and systematic discrimination against the Palestinian people. Organizations like Seeds of Peace, One Voice, NIR School, IPCRI, Panorama, and others specifically target Palestinian youth to engage them in dialog with Israelis without recognizing the inalienable rights of Palestinians, or aiming to end Israel’s occupation, colonization, and apartheid. (my emphasis).

They should add QLF to this list. But QLF is much more pernicious: it seeks to engage Lebanese people in clear breach of the country's law. But then again, the colonials never acknowledged any law but their own.

صوتنا المرتفع ضد المدينة ليس بقصد الانتماء إليه

ليس في حكاية «الثائرين» جديد على أهل التعب، كما على أهل الظلم. آباء وأمهات نزحوا قبل عقود هرباً من جوع وقهر في جرود بعلبك. ليست أحزمة البؤس مفتوحة لكل الفقراء. والمكان الضيّق الذي استضافهم في الرويسات على حافة قرى السياحة في المتن، لم يكن يتّسع لهم كفاية. كان عليهم رسم خريطة توصل البيوت بعضها ببعض. كان لجعفر أن يخرج من غرفة نومه إلى مطبخ ناصر الدين من دون الحاجة إلى باب المنزل. وفي دقائق قليلة، يمكنه عبور المخيّم إلى خارجه سيراً على الأسطح المتراصة بعضها على أكتاف بعض. وكل الحكايات مسموعة من أُذن إلى أُذن. والقهر رافقهم بكل طقوسه. الجرائم والقهر والتعب نفسه. حتى الحظ السيّئ يتدافع للجلوس بينهم. شقيق جعفر يصغره سنةً. الباص لم يوصله إلى المدرسة. دهسه وقتله على باب المنزل. بعدها حمل الأهل حزنهم وابنهم القتيل إلى الجرد نفسه. فالحرب الطبقية ترافق الموت أيضاً: «مين قال كل اللي بيموت بيندفن ببيروت». لكن الهروب كان له سببه الإضافي كي لا تكرّ سبحة الموت على أهل القتيل. والعودة لاحقاً إلى المدينة تصبح مثل قصاص مفروض على الأولاد، كما على الأهل، لأن العمل ممكن بحدّه الأدنى في هذا المخيّم التعيس. والعودة إلى المدرسة ومن ثم إلى الجامعة تفرض الابتعاد عن الجرد، والعودة إلى المدينة

  ابراهيم الأمين

عن فرقة طفار
في الأخبار

http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/node/187498

Silicone valley

"He is also convinced that: “Lebanese wine can be marketed as the sexiest wine in the world.”"

Four telling lines

"We are not arriving here in Africa to take resources from the African countries. We are coming here in order to give know-how and abilities to these countries to develop," Simhon told Reuters in Senegal over the weekend. 

"Israel is the only country in the world that has been able to conquer the desert. More than 50 percent of our exports are coming from semi-arid areas. This is our strength - this we would like to bring here." (Thanks Marcy)

I REALLY must put more time into debunking the Israeli agriculture "miracle": Ingredients are of course simple: stolen land and water, stolen technology from US and Europe, unlimited subsidies due to the political nature of farming (note the use of the word "conquer", in all its meanings), and of course highly favorable terms of trade from Europe and the US: et voila, messieurs dames, le tour est joué!

But of course, farming is not Israel's strength; violent repression is. This is what Simhon is pitching to the African regimes: military and security systems to keep their people in check.

The best part of these four lines is of course the preemptive rejection of accusations of neo-colonialism. Quite clever...

Going Med

I am highly suspicious of the political concept of "Mediterranean" which I see as an attempt to dislocate Arab countries, to create a colonial captive market of culture and commodities, and of course to impose a de facto recognition of Israel -geographically, economically and culturally- within a framework in which Arab countries are in an effective minority, right at their doorsteps.  In this report of the failed Mediterranean water conference in Barcelone, Iman Abdel `Aal suggests that the Israeli want to be recognized as part of the Mediterranean, but only if they are not asked to return the lands and waters they have stolen. Understandably: what would Israel be without what it has stolen?

http://www.assafir.com/WeeklyArticle.aspx?EditionId=1522&WeeklyArticleId=67329&ChannelId=8868&Author=ايمان-عبد+العال

Syrian workers in Lebanon: from both sides.

.http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/node/187317

وبالرغم من أن المنطقة محسوبة في معظمها على حلفاء سوريا، إلا أن ذلك لم يق العمال شر الاعتداءات العنصرية ضدهم. فالمخيم تعرّض للحرق مرتين بفعل فاعل مجهول حتى الساعة. كما أن العشرات الذين تعرّضوا للضرب والاعتداءات في الشارع لم يستطيعوا تحصيل حقهم القانوني باللجوء إلى مخفر الدرك المجاور. فيما تعرّض صديق لهم كان يعمل فراناً في صيدا للضرب وشرم أذنه في اليوم التالي لاغتيال الحريري، فذهب إلى سوريا ولم يعد.

Total Kontrol

"Unilever made its debut entry into the Egyptian food and beverage industry in 1991 as part of an ambition focused on capturing the commanding heights of the entire market capitalization of Egypt and by extension the entire Middle East. The first few years witnessed a series of mergers with various companies that were already active in the domestic industry, this was part of the transition processes that has made it what it is today1. Among the reasons for its success in the region, though not in direct terms lies in the discerning ability of the corporation to recognize and understand the needs of its consuming clientele and therefore responding accordingly.

Technically speaking the underlining factor that should be credited for catapulting Unilever Egypt to its current position of prominence is anchored in the inside-out approach to Total Productive Maintenance.

    Unilever Egypt operates a unified Leadership Team that works to coordinate and oversee its business operations across Maghreb, Mashreq, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf states2.
Unilever Operational Framework

    With a current workforce in the Middle East reaching a high figure of forty eight thousand, it has become the top cash generating business organization that understands the terrain in the Middle East. Statistically, Unilever Egypt boasts of over four hundred products spanning fourteen categories of home, personal care and food products. Among the most renowned products include the Lipton tea family, Knorr, Omo and Dove."

http://www.exba.net/Art/48672/265/Unilever.html

Iraq 2003, Lebanon 2006, Palestine everyday

"Abu Ghayeb impersonates the role of a farmer. He wears a yashmak and has his photograph taken in order to obtain a farmer's identity card. He tells his wife, "The damages that have resulted from the blockade are estimated at billions of dollars. We've returned to the pre-industrial age, so the government is encouraging farmers to support the economy."

"What I can't understand is why they bombed the mosques, the schools, the homes for the disabled and the civilian shelters. What have they got to do with military targets?"

He replies with a shrug, "Who can afford to buy food from the markets at the present prices?"

He then adds, "We used to import seventy percent of our food requirements. Now they have deprived us of the seeds. The stranglehold on the animal products became complete when they bombed the only lab that produced vaccines against animal diseases. That came after they ruined the irrigation canals, and we can't obtain fertilizers or pesticides.""

From Betool Khedeiri's novel "Absent", set in Bagdad (thanks dear Marcy).

The Towers of Babel أبراج بابل

Quick translation of my editorial in al akhbar

Many areas of South Lebanon are witnessing a major construction boom. The aim is not this time to rebuild houses and villages destroyed by the enemy, but to dig and dredge the hills and the meadows in order to turn them into artificial terraces that look more like the towers of Babel than like its hanging gardens. 

The purpose of this skinning of the plant cover is to create large modern farms. These landscape transformations elicit a number of questions, especially in view of the flagrant contradictions between what we hear and read daily about the death of agriculture and the low returns from investments in this ailing sector; and between the millions of US dollars being buried in the thousands of dunums owned by a handful of urban investors. These new lands are covered with fruit tree seedlings, irrigation pipes and asphalted roads and are irrigated from deep wells. All this constitutes huge investments that cannot be justified by the farming returns, especially as most of these trees will not become productive before a few years.

On the other hand, we must realize that these transformations usher the disappearance of the traditional food system. The new farms aim to produce varieties of fruits destined for export or for luxury consumption, on the same lands where wheat, lentils and chickpea were once produced, and where the goats grazed freely. These lands are also where people picked the wild edible plants that constituted an essential part of their once healthy, nutritious and varied diet.

These changes in landscape and in diet effectively turn the rural areas into an extension of the cities. They are controlled by capitalist investors and inhabited by families that wait, at the end of each month, for the money transfer from Africa or the Gulf to purchase imported food. The truth is that these transformations do not forewarn us of the disappearance of an economic sector known as “agriculture”, but of the disappearance of a whole social group we once called “the peasants”. 

أبراج بابل

رامي زريق

تشهد بعض المناطق في جنوب لبنان نهضة عمرانية واسعة، لا تهدف لإعادة إعمار منازل وقرى دمّرها العدو، بل لجرف الهضاب والبراري وتحويلها إلى مدرّجات مصطنعة هي أقرب إلى أبراج بابل مما هي لحدائقها المعلقة. والهدف من هذا السّلخ الوحشي للغطاء النباتي الأصلي هو إنشاء مزارع واسعة وحديثة. تدعو هذه التحولات إلى طرح أسئلة عديدة، منها ما يتعلق بالتناقض الفاضح بين ما نسمعه ونقرأه يومياً في رثاء القطاع الزراعي وعدم جدوى الاستثمار فيه، وبين ملايين الدولارات المدفونة في آلاف الدونمات المستصلحة حديثاً التي تملكها حفنة من المستثمرين المدنيّين. تكسو هذه الدونمات شتول الأشجار المثمرة وأنابيب الري وتشقّها طرق معبدة وترويها آبار عميقة تمثّل جميعها استثمارات ضخمة قد لا يبرّرها المردود الزراعي، نظراً إلى أن معظم هذه الأشجار لن يدخل في مرحلة الإنتاج قبل سنوات. في هذا السياق، لا بد من الالتفات إلى أن هذه التحولات تبشرنا بانتهاء النمط الغذائي التقليدي. فهذه المزارع التي تنتج أصنافاً معدة للتصدير أو للاستهلاك المرفّه، قد احتلت الأراضي التي كانت تزرع بالعدس والقمح والحمص والتي كانت ترعاها قطعان الماعز ويحصل منها أهل القرى على السليقة، أي النباتات البرية، التي تمثّل جزءاً أساسياً من الغذاء المحلي السليم والمتنوع. ومع هذه التغيرات الغذائية والاستثمارات والعمران الزراعي، تكون أريافنا قد أصبحت امتداداً للمدينة، يتحكّم بها المستثمر الرأسمالي وتسكنها عائلات تنتظر في كل آخر شهر التحويل المالي من أفريقيا أو الخليج لشراء ما يلزمها من غذاء مستورد. في الواقع، فإن هذه التحولات لا تنذر باختفاء القطاع الاقتصادي المعروف باسم «الزراعة»، بل باختفاء فئة اجتماعية بكاملها يطلق عليها اسم «الفلاحين».

http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/node/186738

Trash-food lobby: winning the fat war

"But it is still a chaotic patchwork thrown at a sweeping epidemic and against a marketing assault on children by fast-food and soda companies that amounted to $1.6 billion in 2006, according to a 2008 Federal Trade Commission report. Our efforts remain well short of France’s laws and initiatives that included banning vending machines from schools and replacing them with water tanks, putting warning labels on unhealthy foods, and requiring food companies to run warnings on television, radio, and billboard advertisements.

The warnings tell consumers to avoid snacks, excess sugar, fats, and salt and urge people to exercise. Companies that do not run warnings must pay the government a 1.5 percent tax on the cost of their ads. Because of the tax, few companies refuse to run the warnings, Czernichow said. That strategy should be considered in the US, where the trash-food lobby has thus far warded off national point-of-sale “fat taxes.’’"

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/04/17/frances_food_fight/

...and the situation in Lebanon where trash food is confused with "development" is of course far more dramatic...

Green Zionism: lies and fabrications

"In these lands reside some of the most vulnerable Palestinian communities including large numbers of small scale herding farming communities. As well as severely impacting upon the livelihoods of these communities it is also forcing them to overgraze on their diminished territories leading to desertification of the terrain. According to recent research by OCHA the expansion of existing military zones or the creation of new ones continues. In May 2009 over 300 people, including 170 children, were issued with evacuation and demolition orders because of the expansion of the Israeli military zones in the West Bank." (Thanks Tamara)

Download the full extensive report

http://www.israeli-occupation.org/2010-04-22/the-environmental-impact-of-israeli-military-activities-in-the-occupied-palestinian-territory/

Badael-Alternatives بدائل

This week in Badael, I wrote my editorial on the Towers of Babel, as I call the hills of south Lebanon that are being terraced with huge mechanical machinery in order to make way for modern plantations (I will post separately). Rameh Hamiyyeh wrote about the impact of the weather fluctuation of cereal farming in the Bekaa, and on a great winter dish that uses dried summer vegetables: moqaddad. Am linking to the pdf copy because there is something wrong with the html links

http://www.al-akhbar.com/files/pdfs/20100423/p14_20100423.pdf

Consumerism in Lebanon إنه مجتمع الاستهلاك اللبناني

وهناك أرقام استهلاكيّة غريبة أكثر من ذلك. فمجموع استهلاك الأسر المذكور آنفاً، وصل إلى 37842 مليار ليرة (25.2 مليار دولار) أي ما يمثّل 92% من الناتج المحلّي.

وتجدر الإشارة إلى أنّ النشاط الاقتصادي في الولايات المتّحدة، التي تعدّ البلد المستهلك الأوّل في العالم، مكوّن بثلثيه فقط (66.66%) من الطلب الاستهلاكي الداخلي.

وهذا يعني أن ثقافة الاستهلاك (في مواجهة ثقافة الادخار والاستثمار)، القائمة بمعظمها على القروض (لتمويل شراء السلع المعمّرة) مزدهرة في لبنان أكثر منها في الأخ الأكبر العالمي

http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/node/186541

Hasan Chaqrani wrote a long article in al akhbar yesterday on the state of the Lebanese economy basing himself on the latest (2008) figures just published by the Government. Many interesting things, but I like this bit most: "Consumption in Lebanon is 92% of GDP. For comparison, it is only 66.66% in the US, one of the most consumer-driven economies. This means that the culture of consumerism (as opposed to the culture of investments and savings), based mostly on bank loans, is stronger in Lebanon than in the global Big Brother."

Waterfalling

"In the early years of this century, abundant signs have already emerged that the policies of the 1970s intended to create food security have in fact created societal vulnerability. Wells must be dug constantly deeper, and well-water is becoming less pure. Geologists worry that a hard landing is ahead. Yemen's capital, Sana'a, may run out of water in five years; Jordan's capital, Amman, may have only 15 more years of water."

This is not true: the main problem is "the comparative advantage" approach to food production and the integration of countries in the global food system where most of the staples they could acquire cheaply originate(d) from subsidized grain and milk and meat mountains. The dry, but warm countries of the Arab world started producing export-oriented specialty off-season horticultural crops like flowers, oranges, strawberries or non-foods consumer products like qat. Here the comparative advantage was climate, and the lack of water was offset with imported well drilling and water pumping technologies. It is not food security that drove the shrinking of the water table, but capitalist, export driven agriculture.

Keep going till the world catches up

Mc Donalds: "Revenue at the fast food company rose 10% in the first quarter to $5.6 billion. ...Global comparable sales increased 4.2%, with the U.S. up 1.5%, Europe up 5.2% and Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa up 5.7%.  The number of obese people in America must have hit a saturation point."

لماذا تركتم الغابة فارغة؟

أحلام شبلي في مشروعها الفوتوغرافي «لماذا تركتم الغابة فارغة؟» المعروض في دارة الفنون – مؤسسة خالد شومان، في العاصمة الأردنية عمّان

Will Margaret Atwood accept prize from racist usurping entity?

Atwood was a warded a prize by Tel Aviv University. Will she accept? Will she stand and deliver? Let's see if some progressive writers are just people using their skills to sell books or if they are able to live their words.

In Arabic here

http://international.daralhayat.com/internationalarticle/131515

And English

http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Action.php/2010/04/09/call-for-margaret-atwood-to-join-cultura

Rumble on the Nile مصر ودول النيل... مواجهة من نوع جديد

This don't look too good: the non-Arab countries of the Nile basin and getting ready to take decisions without Sudan's and Egypt's approval regarding the reallocation of the Nile water rights.

http://international.daralhayat.com/internationalarticle/131578

Badael-Alternatives بدائل

Today is Badael day: I wrote my editorial on "Deadly Banality"; how did the pesticide residues crisis start and how did it end. I have translated it below. Alam Khalil wrote about flower production in Addousiyyeh, South Lebanon and on Rose, a great women who produces...flowers.

http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/taxonomy/term/16833,18692


Deadly banality

The sudden disappearance from the media of the issue of pesticide residues in food does not mean that the problem has been solved. Agrochemical companies are still promoting the intensive use of pesticides, governmental farm extension is still absent, as are the commandos of the Consumer Protection Directorate. All there is to the matter is that the issue of pesticide contamination has lost its attractiveness to the media and has been replaced by more important news such as sectarian football. It is now time for a calm assessment of the situation.

Intensive use of pesticides is associated with the replacement of the traditional systems of food production by capitalist agriculture, which considers natural resources as well as humans as free means of production that can be consumed and replaced in order to enhance «the productivity of modern agriculture». The use of pesticides is the cornerstone of this approach because its negative impacts on environment and health are not visible. Contaminated produce does not show signs of pollution and may even be more attractive to consumers as it looks “perfect”. This pushes farmers to use pesticides to improve the appearance of the product and «capture the market». On the other hand, attention must be paid to the radical differences the geographic and class distribution of the threat posed by pesticide residues, which we only started hearing about when it threatened the health of the urban rich who are able to raise their voices and protest. The core of the problem lies in rural areas, where farm workers are exposed daily to levels of pesticides that are several folds those that are found in food. Those same workers lack all forms of health insurance or other social coverage, because their employers must «reduce the cost of production». We should be fully aware that the adoption of apparently banal neoliberal slogans such as «raising productivity» and «capturing the market» and «reducing the cost of production», without laying the foundations for social justice, will not solve the problem of pesticides but will only lead to more social and environmental injustice. 

Racist usurpers

Am reading through a book called "The Changing Landscape of the Central Jordan Valley" by Y. Ben-Arieh which retraces the colonization of Palestine and the founding of the first farms by the colonizers. Aside from the spurious scholarship common to zionist researchers in recounting the history of Palestine, there are a few gems. Here 's a couple:

"On June 8th, 1908, work began at the farm of Kinneret. Eight boys and one girl, known as the "working group of Ben-Shemen", arrived, and under the direction of the agronomist Berman established the first national farm for agricultural training. at first this activity was not approved by the workers Asocition of Galilee which objected strongly to the appointment of a manager on a national farm, as especially to Berman, who was known as a former employer of Arab workers. A partial ban was imposed on his farm, but after the latter's significance an importance was proved, the ban was lifted in July 1908."

and

"The accusations reached reached their peaks in an open quarrel that broke out between the workers and the manager in October 1909, triggered off by the farm manager's attempt to bring a group of Arab workers from `Ubeidiya to work on the farm when the grain was ready for threshing and the rains were due, and there was danger that the crop might rot. Because of this act several workers announced that they would leave the farm, while others organized a strike." 

Israel: a temporary racist entity...

Excluded in their land

"Western media coverage of the structural discrimination and discriminatory land and housing policies experienced by Palestinian Bedouins has generally been poor.

In a discourse shaped by Zionist and Orientalist tropes, the Negev is a vast, wild, desert; a frontier to be civilised. The 'Bedouin', meanwhile, are either invisible or exotic savages, objects of benevolent philanthropy.

Furthermore, the international 'peace process' has meant that the question of Palestine has become the story of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Palestinian citizens of Israel have been left out, a situation exacerbated by the media mentality of 'if it bleeds it leads'. Core issues facing Palestinian Bedouins - land control, zoning, bureaucratic and physical boundaries of exclusion - are not considered suitable fare.

This nonexistent or weak coverage is regrettable, particularly as Israel's policies in the Negev towards the Palestinian Bedouin minority are highly illuminating for understanding the state's position vis-à-vis the Palestinians in a more general sense.

Moreover, tension is building in the Negev over Israel's continued apartheid-like policies. Palestinian Bedouins continue to resist the strategies of the Israeli state and Zionist agencies, through legal battles, and grassroots organisation, like the Regional Council for the Unrecognised Villages.

Perhaps one of the main kinds of resistance being offered by the Palestinians in the Negev is their determination to stay. This steadfastness is a direct refusal of a strategy of home demolitions, dispossession and Judaisation."

Ben White on the Bedouins of the Naqab

Powerlessness

"Powerlessness breeds," Biko said, "a race of beggars who smile at the enemy and swear at him in the sanctity of his toilet; who shout 'Baas' willingly during the day and call the white man a dog in their buses as they go home."

Badael-Alternatives بدائل

In Badael today: my editorial: "Trees before people?" when will ecotourists and hikers start complaining about poverty in the areas they visit with the same passion as they complain about deforestation? Robert Abdallah writes from Akkar about Abu Rabi`, one of the first organic farmers in Lebanon.

http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/taxonomy/term/16833,18665

No fair trade without farmers' unions

Zurayk criticized the absence of farmers' unions in Lebanon. "Fair trade has very strict requirements for laborers. Under fair trade, farm labor has to be unionized and should present demands as a union to gain strength by unity. However... labor unions [in Lebanon] have been unfortunately dismantled by generations of sectarian politics," he said. Zurayk praised the role of FTL but said that fair trade in itself cannot remain in the realm of NGO's. "We strive to make changes toward global justice, and this cannot come from only 50 farmers out of 200, 000," he said. Instead, he argued, fair trade can only become powerful when it becomes the dominant form of trade, and everyone should work to achieve that. http://www.aub.edu.lb/news/archive/preview.php?id=105621

Palestinian Youth Conference in Lebanon

For more info, check the website: http://pylconf.ourproject.org/

Badael-Alternatives بدائل

I have been neglecting this blog. Too much work, and I took a few days off. Meanwhile here is the link to Badael, in al akhbar: my editorial, "Land Day". Amal Khalil from the south on the ailing animal production and dairy sector...

http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/taxonomy/term/16833,18650