News

L’Orient le Jour published an article yesterday on the global patterns of natural products consumption and highlighted a new concept introduced in the 2007 edition of US Oxford Dictionary namely that of “locavore” and which refers to an increasingly popular pattern in the West which encourages the consumption of products planted within 100 kilometers from one’s residence. This concept also emphasizes the direct relation between producers and consumers. According to the newspaper, consumption of natural products in Lebanon is on the rise especially following the nutrition scandal unmasked recently by the Ministry of health and which led to the current food safety campaign. According to the director of IMC, consumption of natural products has increased by 20% in Lebanon. The newspaper refers to a number of merchants offering natural products namely ‘Souk al Tayeb’ and the Organic Food Baskets. Reference is also made to the ‘Potager Bio’ label which was created in 2011 and operated by Rudy and Zeina Daood who market natural produces originating from their farm located in Western Beqaa. Their shop has 5 employees and distributes hundreds of organic baskets weekly. These include naturally planted and harvested legumes such as for instance spinach, lettuce, parsley, onions, potatoes and other at a cost of USD 20 per basket. The newspaper notes that this is a reasonable price compared to that of other natural products. The newspaper also refers to the Bioland shop founded by Henry Obeid in 2013 to market the products of his farm in Ashrafieh. The shop offers a variety of legumes, fruits and greens via an outlet on Ashrafieh which also markets other organic products, comprises a restaurant and provides a delivery service. (L’Orient Le Jour, 21 April 2015)

The 22nd edition of the annual Horeca forum kicked off yesterday at the Biel compound under the auspices of the Minister of Tourism Michel Pharaon.  The Director General of Hospitality Services, Jumana Dammoos Salameh noted that the focus this year will be on rewarding young skills and creativity and highlighting Lebanese chefs through various competitions. In his opening address, Minister Pharaon reminded the audience of the events in 2014 when the situation of the tourism sector was bleak with a drop of 40%. He added that initiatives such as Horeca succeeded in stimulating the sector which grew by 23% last summer, 25% in the last three month of 2014 and 28% in the first trimester of 2015. This year, Horeca will include three exhibitions namely the international hospitality and food services forum, the food processing exhibition and the Beirut international wine and spirits exhibition. The event involves 350 exhibitors, 25 international experts and 500 participants in 20 competitions and daily workshops. (Al Diyar, 20 April 2015)

As Safir newspaper published an article about a new environmental project which seeks to transform plastic bags into handbags. The idea was launched by Noor Qays as part of her graduation project.  She opened last Saturday her first exhibition at the “Tawla” restaurant in Mar Mkhael. The project consists of harvesting and cleaning plastic bags, treating them and then sewing them into handbags. The final color of each handbag cannot be predicted as the combination of various plastic bags is likely to produce different colors. The initiative aims to mitigate environmental damages caused by plastic bags on soil, marine and other forms of life as well as raise awareness on the need to limit the use of plastic bags. (As Safir, 21 April 2015)

The Individual Initiative association launched yesterday a new campaign for the creation of a special national identity card for children of Lebanese women married to foreigners. This special ID will assist children in obtaining various medical, social and educational services. The initiative was launched during a press conference organized with the participation of NGO representatives as well as women married to foreigners and lawyers. The legal responsible at the organization, Zeina al Masri noted that the current nationality law dates back to 1920 whereas the Constitution states that international conventions take primacy over local laws. She also added that Lebanese mothers cannot be bound by political and confessional dissentions. The president of the organization, Mustapha Shaar called for adopting this card which would allow children of Lebanese mothers to travel freely from and to Lebanon and work in all sectors. He also noted that the amendment of the nationality law was put forward during the Mikati mandate and was supported by all the parliamentary blocks except the Free Patriotic Movement. He also added that there are some 100000 stateless in Lebanon whose conditions have not been resolved to date. (National News Agency, 20 April 2015)

A new agricultural disaster was recorded this time in northern town of Bazoun, in Bsharri. Over 1500 cherry, apple and pear trees and a number of old forest trees were completely uprooted by the winter storms in addition to damages caused by rockslides, which resulted in the destruction of reinforcement walls and of irrigation networks. Farmers complained to the town municipality which appealed to MPs Sitrida Geagea and Elie Kayrooz for help in containing the emerging crisis. Mayor Hanna Faddoul explained that every year farmers have to endure the effects of winter storms and bad harvests while falling into financial debts as a result of high costs of production and insufficient sales. Faddoul urged the Higher Relief Committee to visit the town and assess the damages. (Al Mustaqbal, 20 April 2015)

The border village of Ain Arab, which lies in the Beqaa some 120 km from the capital Beirut, suffers from harsh economic and living conditions as a result of Israeli past occupation and decades of neglect. The majority of the reaming 400 residents of Ain Arab rely on agriculture and animal-raising for their livelihoods. It is to be noted that in the past the population of the village was 1300 inhabitants most of home moved out as a result of occupation and neglect by government which failed to provide inhabitants with the needed support particularly in agriculture in order that they steadfast on their land. Speaking to Al Diyar daily, one resident indicated that the marketing of local agriculture produces is the main priority followed by addressing environment related problems, particularly the settling up of a sewage system. He cited other problems like rare job prospects and the extensive presence in cultivated fields of mines and cluster bombs left by Israeli forces after the liberation of the South. The people of the town called on government to support agriculture and to provide them with much needed health and social services. (Al Diyar, 20 April 2015)

A report published last Thursday by the Lebanese Center for Human Rights under the title “Women behind bars- arbitrary detention and torture of women in Lebanon” indicated that almost 52% of women detainees in Lebanon in the years 2013 and 2014 were subjected to severe torture by security forces during their interrogation. According to CLDH, the main methods of torture and mistreatment used by male security guards or investigators against women who were interviewed varied between beating, deprivation, humiliation, threats, insults and infringement on privacy. In this respect, the Director General of CLDH, Wadih Al Asmar expressed disappointment in the findings of the report, which revealed that the level of arrested persons in the Lebanese prisons who were tortured did not change (60%) since 2009. Asmar noted that the provisions of Article 47 of the Code of Criminal Procedure are not adequate to protect individuals against torture during arrest, stating that women defendants have no right to talk to their lawyers in private and therefore cannot report ill-treatment. “During the period under study, Lebanese judges have continued to rely on confessions of suspects reached under torture and have failed to order further investigations in these cases. As a result, women continue to be victims of illegal detention and torture by security forces in a clear breach of the Lebanese Law and the Lebanon’s international obligations,” Al Asmar concluded. (L’Orient Le Jour, 17 April 2015)

After the closure of ‘Nasib’ crossing at the Jordanian-Syrian borders, farmers and exporters were left with the expensive sea route which is twice the current transportation cost. Moreover, the new solution is resulting in delays ranging from 10 days to one month for goods to arrive at destination. One merchant and exporter, Riad Al Samad complained that one cooler vessel is costing between USD 5 and 6 thousand compared to a USD 2500 - 3000 overland. Describing the present situation as disastrous, Samad reminded that recently total exports were falling every year as a result of high freight costs and mounting danger on land routes. Costs of shipping, he maintained, have risen from USD 2000 to nearly USD 4000. “But now, shipment by sea is expected to cost as much as USD 7000, which will undoubtedly result in additional costs and losses for Lebanese traders,” Samad added. He explained that exporters have reduced their exports to the maximum, noting that while they used to export 35 cold storage trucks every month, they do so now in 4 month period. Likewise, Muhammad Mubayed, a farmer and exporter, lamenting the current situation, said that the citrus fruits sector has received a severe blow and demanded exceptional governmental efforts to save the industry. He added that farmers’ losses in the last 10 days reached some USD 150 thousand and that only 20% of total citrus production was sold this year. On a similar note, potato cultivators in Akkar, appealed to the Lebanese authorities, namely the Ministry of Agriculture, to find a sustainable solution to the emerging crisis of agriculture exports. Speaking on their behalf, Omar Hayek, chief of the agriculture cooperative for potato growers in Akkar, pointed out that some 80-100 thousand of tons of potato are threatened, while noting that the Akkar farmers rely mainly on potato seasons for their livelihoods. Similarly, Beqaa farmers complained about shortages in seasonal agricultural workforce, primarily from Syria which dropped by 50%, as a result of recently imposed restrictions. The head of the Department for Agriculture Services and Development at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Zahle and Beqaa, Engineer Saeed Jadoun, indicated that Syrian seasonal workers who normally commute to work in Lebanon, did not show up this year. Moreover, farmers complained about the additional costs incurred as a result of this new shortage. As a result of shortage, farmers are forced to pay workers LBP 40 thousand a day against LBP 10 and 20 thousand in the past years. To this should be added the payment for the residency fee amounting to LBB 400 thousand, and LBP 120 thousand for the work permit. (As Safir, L’Orient Le Jour, 17 April 2015)

My Nationality is a Right for Me and My Family Campaign announced in a press conference held yesterday at the Bar Association premises in Beirut its rejection of a draft law petition that will grant the nationality to descendants of Lebanese origin. The Campaign noted that this law petition which comes as a result of an agreement between Lebanese Forces head Samir Geagea and Tayyar representative Gebran Bassil is both discriminatory and sectarian. Panelists warned that the said law will once again deprive women of their rights to full citizenship. The panelists went on to say that the proposed law is only recognizing male blood lineage and is thus depriving both resident and immigrant women from their rights. In countering the argument based demographic imbalances; the Campaign rejected that argument noting that such an argument applies equally to both women and men marriages. Furthermore, the campaign called for a new social contract that will guarantee equality to all citizens. Finally, it appealed to officials to amend the projected nationality law to ensure gender equality. On the same subject, the Campaign recently produced a report in partnership with the Equality without Reservation Campaign and the Women’s Learning Partnership for Rights, Development and Peace in which it condemned the ministerial committee’s rejection two years ago to amend the nationality law based on unjustified grounds and in clear breach of international conventions and agreements. Furthermore, the report which was submitted to the Universal Periodical Review for Human Rights, noted, that the statistics presented at the time did not truly demonstrate the deepening of demographic confessional imbalances, adding that the demands of women’s associations for right to citizenship and equality was distorted then replaced by demands for social services. To recall, since Lebanon’s submission to the Universal Periodical Review March 2011 at the sixteenth session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva to date, there has been no progress as per achieving equality in the nationality law, at the time the HRC recommendation on this matter was turned down. (An Nahar, As Safir, Al Diyar and Al Akhbar April 17, 2015)

Students of universities from across Lebanon visited the thirteenth Vocations’ Exhibition organized by the Sagesse University. The event was held at Sagesse campus in Furn al Chebak, Beirut under the patronage of Labor Minister Sajaan Azzi in the presence of the President, deans of colleges, administrative staff and students. Some 100 financial, banking, insurance, health, commercial and industrial establishments took part in the exhibition, along with security and military institutions. In his opening speech, Monsignor Kamil Mubarak, the President of the University, called on students of Sagesse and other universities to seize the opportunity and look for jobs that allow them to serve their country. He announced that the University plans to create new schools to complement the seven already established schools. For his part, Azzi urged students visiting the exhibition to join the domestic labor market which he said is “in need of their potentials.” He pointed out that the “use of foreign expertise is mainly due to insufficient qualified domestic skills and because young people from both sexes refuse to work in certain sectors.” (An Nahar, Al Diyar, 17 April 2015)