From: sylvie@ncrcol.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM (Sylvie Feghali Ext. 6525)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.lebanon
Subject: Re: Arab Identity
Date: 16 Apr 92 17:20:22 GMT
Article-I.D.: ncrcae.1992Apr16.172022.19588
Organization: NCR E&M Columbia SC.
Originator: sylvie@ncrcol.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM


    Ok, this is an answer to Hani.  I first want to note that this is going to be
    my last posting on this subject because some people feel we should move on
    to different topics and I respect that.
    Hani, if you are interested in further discussions we certainly can do it via
    email.

    When I said in either case I am lebanese, it was not a choice; it is
    simply a wonderful reality.  I was born in Lebanon to Lebanese parents and grew up
    there until I was eighteen.  I am an american citizen now, but that does not 
    mean I lost my heritage or my background or my sense of belonging.
    I too am very proud of my heritage.  The way I look at it, it is a condensation
    of various cultures that came through lebanon since at least 2000 years before 
    Christ.  Each left a mark.
    It is great to recognize the dominant effect that the arabic 
    culture has in Lebanon, but we should not deny the effect the Phoeniciens.
    romans, ottomans, french ...etc have had only because some other countries 
    may choose to do it.
    I guess it is somewhat like genetics, just because most genes are dominant,
    that does not mean the recessive genes don't exist.

    Now, we may not speak Turkish, but we certainly use a lot of turkish words in our
    daily vocabulary ( I am sure Elie W can give plenty of examples, I "gently"
    destroyed my notes after I passed the Baccalaureat :) ).
    No one can deny the good and bad consequences of the 20 years of french dominance.
    After all we modeled our educational system after theirs, we owe them our
    incredibly controversial political power distribution structure ...

>> (...) the colonized (...) adopted the ARABIC culture, (that included education, politics,
>>military, customes etc...) 

Please allow me to disagree on this one, we do learn about the arab culture/history/science ...
in schools in Lebanon, but we certainly did not adopt an "arabic education" (May be we
have another semantic problem here)
My education was mostly done in french.  Let's see I studied Math, Calculus, Geometry, Chemistry, Biology,
Physics, French litterature and Catechism in FRENCH, I also had some english (we spoke french in english
class too :) so you can imagine how strong my english was when I first moved to the US)
This french dominated education does NOT make me french, 
I also studied history, geography and arabic and lebanese litterature in arabic.     
Others may have had everything I had in french in english, instead of french but the
conclusion is that we have been affected by many cultures to one extent or another.

>>But that should not overshadow my global sense of belonging. I, as a
>>Lebanese, belong to the Arab world and relate to it linguistically,
>> ethnically, geographically, demographically, culturaly, and share
>>the same history...How can I ignore all that and squeeze myself
>>into this shell of being Lebanese whereby suffer isolation, suffocation
>>and closemindedness.     

I am NOT denying our belonging to the arab world, but just as you don't want to "squeeze yourself
into this shell of being Lebanese whereby suffer isolation, suffocation
and closemindedness ", I don't want to squeeze myself into this shell of being an arab 
whereby suffer isolation, suffocation and closemindedness of belonging to a diverse
array of wonderful and once glorious nations, who had great cultures (including the arabs) that
left us with a rich and diverse heritage.  
May be that's why we are or have been the most cosmopolitan arabic country, may be that's why
our capital was described as the paris of the middle east ...  We have a culture that was very much
affected by our belonging to the arab world but it is unique amongst all arab countries. 
I remember an egyptian moovie I watched a number of years ago.  The star had to go on business
to Beirut and to everyone in the plant it was the dream vacation destination, I mean -to my surprise-
it was better that winning a trip to the Cote d'Azur or Hawaii or ...
Our country is special because of its diversity.  Let's not describe it as Phoenicien and stop short,
let's not say we are arabs and stop short. 
The only good description that I can come up with is that we are  LEBANESE.  
I don't view this description as "suffocating", on the contrary I think it is global enough to include 
a phoenicien, arabic, roman, ottoman, french  ... heritage .
You requested it so there is my view.  If I can locate Prof. Harb's book at my parents' house
I'll email you some quotes.  Until then, 
                                           Regards,
                                                        Sylvie







    


    


    
 
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Sylvie Feghali                  |  GO AS FAR AS YOU CAN SEE; 
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