My ‘Go Home!’ Movie Review

‘Go Home’ by Lebanese director Jihane Chouaib is a powerful statement about the difficulty that many members of the Lebanese diaspora face when they go back to their homeland, with a particular focus on war memory, post-traumatic syndrome disorders and identity crisis. I watched the movie two days ago at the Dubai Film Festival and […]

Lebanese have to become Good Ancestors

Lebanon has witnessed several conflicts in the last decades, caught in a never-ending cycle of wars, both physical and psychological. One of the dramatic consequences was the proliferation of disparate scattered cities and neighborhoods run by warlords, mafia leaders and tribes, manipulated proxies who mastered the art of utilizing their people, and unconventional participants in […]

Our history is not drawn linearly, it is a braid of stories!

I started to be interested in the war and peace issues in Lebanon when I left my home country to pursue my studies at the University of Montreal (QC, Canada). While living abroad, I learned that once the war grabs hold of you, it never loses its grip; it shapes one’s emotions, thoughts, attitudes and […]

It is about time to start working for Peace

Shocking as it was and is these news of explosions by suicide bombers in Lebanon, fear creeps into the hearts even of those who live way far outside this country.  The possibility of dying at any minute, in any place, with no possibility of sheltering oneself goes beyond imagination. During war times, with its own […]

Suicide Bombings in Lebanon: My opinion

Few hours before a suicide bomber blew himself up in a minibus in Southern Beirut yesterday afternoon, I was thinking of Marcus Aurelius famous quote “Do every act of your life as if it were your last” while drawing a ‘local dehumanized human bomb’, as the images of previous blasts were shown on TV. We […]

We cannot give up!

In the last decades, religious fundamentalism was on the move in several countries, but so were mainstream interfaith dialogue, dynamic encounters among ethnic origins, sexual identities and social classes, and secular ideas/practices/movements. In counterpoint to tidal waves of authoritarianism, terrorism, extremism, exclusivism and absolutism, there were (and still are) individuals and groups of people breaking […]

In the Land of Martyrdom?

Following the latest blasts in Beirut-Lebanon – just before New Year’s celebration, and this afternoon -, and every explosion since 2005, one can easily notice the use (and misuse) of the word ‘martyr’. According to many journalists, political sciences experts and clergymen, victims of such attacks are labeled ‘martyrs’ (shuhada’), and Lebanon ‘the Land of […]

Pity our Nation ? (II)

I published ‘Pity our Nation?’ in August 2013 and this is the second part… Yesterday’s suicide bombings resulted in one of the many massacres occurring in the land of what was once called ‘The Switzerland of the East’. Another physical and psychological wound… Another brick in the wall of hatred – the Lebanese Wall of Shame… Another […]

La jeunesse libanaise, entre cultures de la guerre et de la paix

Alain Moussallem, Graffiti en direct, USEK – Liban, 12-09-2013 (‘Anti-mentalité de guerre’) Y aurait-il UNE jeunesse libanaise? UNE culture que celle-ci véhiculerait? Les recherches quantitatives et qualitatives que j’entreprends auprès de jeunes universitaires et d’activistes en ligne et-ou dans des ONGs, notamment depuis 2004, révèlent une diversité d’identités, de conceptions et de pratiques. Parmi les […]

Calling out the Trivialization of Death before it’s too late!

Explosions, massacres, sectarian and political conflicts, WAR … Men, women and children, being mowed down without a thought of remorse… Counting dead and wounded people on a daily basis… No stories, no names, just numbers… Forgotten… Do we (most of us living in Southern Western Asia i.e. the Middle East) have a dysfunctional view of […]