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  • A strong state can help our refugees

    The Daily Star (Lebanon)
    June 24, 2010 Thursday


    A strong state can help our refugees

    by Daily Star Staff


    The United Nations marked its world refugee day this week, while the
    issue of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon has been generating political
    attention and media coverage. But for every reference to the Ain
    al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp bordering Sidon, we should remember
    that there's a place called Bab al-Tabbaneh in Tripoli, our own,

    Editorial

    The United Nations marked its world refugee day this week, while the
    issue of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon has been generating political
    attention and media coverage.

    But for every reference to the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp
    bordering Sidon, we should remember that there's a place called Bab
    al-Tabbaneh in Tripoli, our own, Lebanese version of squalid
    conditions and despair. And there's the Lebanese state's treatment of
    refugees from Sudan, an issue that has entered the media spotlight,
    and rankled bilateral relations with a fellow member of the Arab
    League.

    In this sense, there are "refugees" are everywhere in Lebanon; they
    don't have to be officially registered on United Nations rolls to
    qualify.

    Our political class is now tackling the humanitarian issue of the
    treatment of Palestinian refugees, and how to change the law so that
    they can lead a dignified and prosperous life, as they await a
    solution to their decades-old problem. Whether our politicians back
    Prime Minister Saad Hariri, or the team that exists in the Cabinet to
    function as a kind of "opposition," they should realize that the
    public isn't fooled. Politicians might be able to line up the biggest
    rhetorical guns as they face off against each other, but few of them,
    if any, have taken practical steps to treat the fundamental problem:
    creating a state that's strong enough to intervene when it should.

    In doing so, our politicians do a disservice to Lebanese, and to
    non-Lebanese in this country. They've failed to act on the issue now
    on the table, the list of regulations that block the Palestinians'
    ability to function normally in their host society. They fail to
    ensure that foreign domestic workers aren't exploited, and that legal,
    non-Lebanese residents aren't treated like second-class, or worse,
    human beings.

    The common thread is the weak state, with its powerful individuals.
    They might donate millions of dollars to cause like education, by
    creating an endowment at a private school or university. But this is
    in their private capacity. They need to take the same pride creating
    an "endowment" in the public space, to ensure that the state performs
    its ideal role: empowering society to better itself.

    An older community of refugees, the Armenians, comes to mind. The lack
    of state concern with the Armenian-dominated Beirut suburb of Bourj
    Hammoud was why it took so long for a refugee camp to turn into a
    thriving town - but don't forget the fact that thousands of Armenians
    have emigrated, due to the state's failure to provide stability or
    economic opportunity.

    We need less hot air about protecting the country from Washington, or
    Tehran, and more work on governance. We can start with our guest
    refugees, or with our own, local ones, namely the average citizen.




    From: A. Papazian
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