From: ziad@eng.umd.edu (Ziad K. Cheiban)
Subject: A Call to Political Action(was the Syrian record)
Date: Sat, 07 Nov 92 17:57:29 GMT
Organization: Project GLUE, University of Maryland, College Park



In article <1992Nov4.143900.1@cubldr.colorado.edu> fardoun_a@cubldr.colorado.edu writes:
[  Quote from report on Syrian abuses of human rights deleted.]
>I have no problem with the above information; the only question is
>why CLAO only report about the (syrian) prisoners in syria. How about the
>lebanese prisoners in Isreal how about thiusands of lebanese prisoners in the
>KHYAM prison!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! unless.................
>
>A. Fardoun
>
I can understand the frustration and anger that Mr. Fardoun feels, however
I would like to point out the following:

Lebanon as a whole is neglected in the world media, this is mainly due 
to two reasons:
1-News has become "Infotainment" and in the view of the world press
Lebanon is not interesting anymore it doesn't have enough shock value to sell.
2-Foreign journalists do not venture into Lebanon anymore, because of the 
foreign hostage crisis. As a result they get their news  on Lebanon from
Israel and what they get is necessarily biased.
In addition, to the lack of interest mentioned above the issue that Mr. Fardoun
raises, goes against the interests of Israel and as such the world media
would rather sweep it under the rug. Not to say that all newspeople are
biased against the Arabs, but you should see the kind of answers that the
newspapers get for printing something that even remotely questions the
Israeli version of the events and the Israeli worldview. Supporters of Israel
are highly mobilized and organized. As a result they manage to intimidate the
media. It's simple if you print anything where the Israelis are treated as
something other than saints and the Arabs as something other than violent
warmongers you are accused of antisemitism.
If you happen to be Jewish you're touted as a "self-hating Jew(tm)" and
believe it or not it works, especially that the Arabs are passive
and won't do the least effort to help whoever is sympathetic to their cause.

We all know what CLAO stands for, namely they support Aoun and oppose Syrian
intervention in Lebanon. Anything and everything they do stems from that.
They have mobilized to fight the neglect in the media and to further their
political agenda. Whether one agrees with them or not it is their right
to do so. They are not a neutral unbiased news agency and hence cannot
be expected to report on everything that happens relating to Lebanon.

The solution, Mr. Fardoun --and anybody else that feels that they are
being shut out, and that the issue(s) that matter(s) to them is(are) being
swept under the rug-- is to imitate CLAO.
You don't have to start big, you have a golden opportunity right here on the
net to publish whatever you want. This is not yet another far-fetched
unrealizable plan. All you have to do is to get access to the newsletters
of Middle-East Watch, Helsinki Watch, Amnesty, etc... and post an article
whenever there is information on Israeli wrongdoings. Organizations that will be
even more helpful to you are human rights groups inside of Israel itself
(because they only report on Israel)I have no information on how to contact
any of the above groups right now but I will try to find out and either post
or e-mail it. In the meantime if anybody has any of that info please post it.

My last point is that most of the Lebanese on this newsgroup grew up during
the war and hence grew isolated of each others' sects and communities.
(This was probably true even before the war.)
Most of us got their news from our very biased and militant political parties.
That's why we're so divided, harbor so many sterotypes etc...
I don't think any of us would be insensitive to the suffering of fellow
Lebanese of other regions and other sects if they were just informed from
a reliable source about that suffering. There was a post a while back 
from Youssef Fawaz that talked about how our political elites kept (and still
keep ) us divided, and isolated  to rule. In view of all that you would be
doing both us, and the people you care about a big favor by keeping us
informed. Political awareness has to precede any sensible political action.
Peace!



"They're pointing out the enemmy
To keep you deaf and blind
They wanna sap your energy
Incarcerate your mind"
			Dire Straits (Industrial Disease)