Habib El Khoury is a body language expert and the owner of  Ocean Events, a Lebanese company that specializes in  training and development of individuals in body languages. This is essentially a way of helping people with their personal and business goals. The Department of English Language Instruction organized this lecture by Habib El khoury.  Titled “Nonverbal Communication: How to Detect a Liar,” the event was held on the 26th of April at the Lebanese American University in Sage G01.

“Just like your verbal language, your body language is a language on its own.” says Habib ElKhoury. “Dr. Paul Ekman is the person behind this science.”

Paul Ekman is a psychologist who pioneered the study of emotions and facial expressions. Charles Darwin theorized that emotions were both biological and universal in his book titled The Expressions of the Emotions in Man and Animals, published in 1872.  Anthropologists increasingly believe that facial expressions and their meanings are culturally determined and not universal. Through a series of studies, Ekman found that there are six universal facial expressions – Anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise. The first four were first recognized by Darwin.

These expressions are universally recognized no matter which culture one is from. In the 1990’s Ekman expanded the list of basic human emotions and split them into two categories – positive and negative. These emotions include amusement, contempt, contentment, embarrassment, excitement, guilt, pride, relief, satisfaction, sensory pleasure and shame. However, these emotions are not encoded in the facial muscles. Ekman also contributed  to the study of why human beings lie and how one can detect a liar using solely what he refers to as the study of Micro expressions.

“Every human being speaks three different languages. We speak with our heads, hands and body. 5% of what you say consists of words, and 20% is your tone of voice.” There are three types of body language. Positive body language creates a non threatening relationship with people. The negative body language intensifies the present relationship with a person and the Neutral body language has little to no effect on either party.” explains Mr. Habib El Khoury.

“There are two types of observable eye gestures, the dilated pupils and undilated pupils. The pupil becomes dilated when a person experiences intense emotions such as excitement or arousal. The pupil also becomes dilated when a person lies because that person experiences intense emotions similar to excitement.”

“The pulse detector is no longer used in detecting lies instead, instead they are using the eye detector because it detects pupil dilation and the eyes never lie no matter how good of a liar one is.”

The lecture had to be cut short due to the little amount of time left. Habib El Khoury wrapped up  by talking about the three types of lies.

“There is the White lie which consists of micro expressions that are very subtle and cannot be seen unless one is a lying expert. The grey lie is not entirely a lie, it has some truth in it. In such a case, the facial expression is a half expression that reveals your lie. As for the black lie, it reveals the full facial expressions.”

Khoury ended the lecture by providing tips on how one can detect a liar. For instance, he gave us an example of Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal when he states that “I did not have sex with that woman, Mrs. Lewinsky.” When he said that, his finger was pointed towards people and his eyes were averted meaning, he does not believe a word he is saying because his eyes did not match his words nor his pointed finger. Clinton also uses distance language and refers to Monica Lewinsky as “That woman” and “Mrs. Lewinsky” to create a distance between them as if the affair never happened.

Some effective ways to detect a lie is to notice if a person itches his nose, eyes or neck. This mainly happens due to a rush of adrenaline to the capillaries in the nose, causing the nose to itch. Note that these things don’t always indicate that a person is lying simply because have to take into consideration one’s habits.  Sometimes, people scratch their nose, ears or neck because they are simply used to doing this, not because they’re lying. Another way to tell if a person is lying  is to look at their mouth. A person who is lying is more likely to cover his or her mouth with a hand or to place their finger near the mouth like they are “hushing” themselves to prevent the truth from coming out.

By Christine Saifi
LAU Tribune staff

“When you learn that the difference between releasing the secret, and keeping the secret, is the difference between life and death, then you will surely keep it, even as a kid,” says May Shigenobu.

Born on March 1, 1973 at Fouad Khoury Hospital in Beirut, May lived a total of only 4-5 years with her mother Fusako Shigenobu, founder of the Japanese Red Army (JRA) – an unusual childhood to put it mildly. But, the number of years did not matter to May.  “The care and love you feel in that short time is enough to maintain a good psychological balance and feeling to move on,”  the striking 40-year-old explains.

Despite her mother’s consistent absence and lack of a fatherly figure, whom she chooses not to talk about for security reasons, May did not feel deprived of love, care, happiness, and attention. She was constantly prioritized and cared for by the ‘comrades’ whom she called family.

From the day she was born, secrecy was an intrinsic part of her daily existence. May Shigenobu lived the first 28 years of her life with forged identities, secrecy, fear, instability and at times confusion. It was only in 2001 that she was granted  the Japanese citizenship after her mother’s arrest near Osaka in Eastern Japan. That arrest changed May’s life drastically and with permanent consequences.

This 40-year-old story has been the center piece of a two month long exhibition at the Beirut Art Center, titled “Now Here Then Elsewhere” by French artist and filmmaker Eric Baudelaire. His film, “The Anabasis of May and Fusako Shigenobu, Masao Adachi and 27 Years without images,” is a narrative based on May and Masao’s experiences.

“Contrary to what is thought of and said, the JRA was founded in 1974,” and until then it was Japanese comrades volunteering for the Palestinian cause, like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), explained May in a one-on-one interview for the LAU Tribune.

From Lebanon, the JRA organized and engaged in a number of attacks, most famously were the Lod Airport attack in 1972 and The Hague attack of 1974.

As she recalled her memories, May lowered her head, closed her eyes and smiled delicately saying, “I lived a normal childhood however, there is one thing that I missed, and that’s not having cousins.”

She went on to explain that she felt deprived on occasions, largely because of the importance given to large, extended families in the Arab world where cousins often become best friends. But, May never knew her blood related family members before she moved to Japan at the age of 28.

She was raised as a single child and the kids she played with, were children of other ‘comrades,’ whom she called her brothers and sisters.

Courtesy of Eric Baudelaire at the Beirut Art Center

To avoid every possible threat, May and her family had to regularly relocate their ‘home’ almost every month. This meant leaving behind yet another place she has called home for that period of time. The most difficult part was leaving behind her friends, her school, and her memories.

For each new place she lived in, May needed to have a different name and identity, an original birth certificate, and an entire new family history.

As a child, May strived to maintain secrecy, not an easy feat for a child. However, May knew better than to ask twice about anything. If her question was not answered the first time, she immediately understood that it was for her own safety. To May, “not knowing was sometimes a bliss.”

“Seeing the other kids being targeted by the Mossad, made me more aware of the dangers,” she elaborates.

As time passed, May viewed her mother with increasing fondness and admiration. “I look up to her as a mentor not just as my mother. She is tough, loving, caring and patient,” she says.

“From her, I learnt that whatever hardship you go through, you should not change what you believe in and that all people should be equal regardless of their color, religious and ethnic backgrounds, or financial capabilities,” adds May.

Despite her respect for her mother, May holds her responsible for not effectively explaining the Lod airport attack that took place on May 30, 1972. She believes that “more effort was needed to strongly have the JRA’s side of the story survive history and time,” so that people today would have known both sides of the story.

The importance of this explanation became clearer to May as she grew older and was constantly faced with criticism for being the daughter of the founder of the JRA.

Her experiences starting at a tender age gave May the ability to think critically and never accept anything at face value. Having lived in continuous danger and in the Palestinian camps made her realize the importance of a life that is filled with hope.

She says with utmost confidence, “I am glad I had this life because I learned important things.”

To this day, May continues to fight for the Palestinian cause, using her current profession – journalism.  She believes that knowledge is a weapon and the media has the power of informing people. In her opinion, if people and governments have enough knowledge then they can distinguish between truth and lies. “Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya could have been avoided if people and governments were better informed,” she says.

“State terrorism against Palestine will only end when people use their knowledge to make their governments go the other way and change,” explains May.

Despite seeing and experiencing the bleak realities of Palestinian refugees a majority of her life, she remains optimistic. May views the upgrading of Palestine’s UN status to a non-member observer state in 2012 as “a very symbolic move towards showing the world that it is time for Palestine to have its own state.”

“However, a braver step needs to be taken against the United States and Israel,” she concludes.

LAU Tribune staff

After hearing several people rave about Cro Magnon’s delicious food, I was eager to give it a try. Three family members of mine and I decided to go there for dinner. The fancy restaurant that was creating a big buzz is an American steakhouse located in Zaytunay Bay. As I entered, I realized it was a posh restaurant where smartly dressed waiters accompanied customers to their table and pulled out the chairs for them.

After being greeted politely, seated immediately and given the menu, I was convinced that I was going to have a wonderful meal. The decor was elegant and modern with dark wood and soft lighting. Table placements were sophisticated with a bright candle as a centerpiece. I skimmed through the menu and couldn’t help but notice all the mouthwatering dishes available. A selection of beef, oysters, lobster, caviar and treats from the sea were present. As I am very fond of steak, I was content to know they had different kinds including fillet mignon, sirloin, rib-eye and small mignon which are flown in weekly from Nova Scotia. A variety of sauces such as béarnaise and peppercorn sauce accompanied the steaks. They also offered poached, mashed, fried and stuffed potatoes along with sautéed mushrooms and crunchy asparagus as condiments for the main courses. Cro Magnon is quite pricy. The price of steaks is hefty, from $40 to $80, depending on the type. However, a cheaper lunch menu is also available. It features three courses for $45 per person.

They also had a variety of wines which are carefully crafted by their master sommelier and they include European and new world vintages. They also offer an extensive selection of premium single malts and Cuban cigars. Other types of alcoholic beverages are available like whiskey and champagne and non alcoholic beverages like soft drinks and sparkling water.

My family and I ordered our main courses, side dishes and drinks. As we chatted while waiting for our food, we realized guests who had come after us were being served. We waited for approximately 45 minutes until our orders arrived. This frustrated all of us as we expected better service from such a posh restaurant.

My plate of fillet mignon looked spectacular along with the crispy fried onions and creamy, mashed potatoes. To my disappointment, the first bite was not as good as I expected it to be; the steak was dry and bland. However, everything else was excellent, from the creamed spinach to the dishes of potatoes and caramelized onions. I barely touched my steak though it was what I looked forward to the most.

Immediately after finishing our main dishes, the waiter served us marvelous deserts as an apology for late service. They offered us a chunky strawberry cheesecake, a caramelized crème brulee, a large piece of chocolate cake with hot fudge sauce oozing from it and an ice-cream stuffed profiterole with a chocolate glaze. It was simply heaven on plates. I could not refrain from eating them. The memory of the deserts melting in my mouth still lingers.

On the whole, I was quite disappointed with the service as the food took so long to come. Even though I enjoyed most of the meal, the key element being the steak was far from delicious. I feel as though the restaurant is overrated and pretentious simply because it is luxurious. If one considers going to Cro Magnon, they should take note of the prices because it is heavy on the wallet.

He was sitting there silent, with nothing to do. In one corner of the room, covered with a blanket, he was looking around at the walls and omitting sounds, as if he was enunciating vowels. He has no friends, for he never went to a school or communicated with people.

“Adam” — not his real name — is not mute, neither did he suffer any major accident when he was younger. He was simply unwanted.
When his mother knew she was pregnant, she panicked. She was passing through a difficult stage of her relationship with her husband. She was suffering with deep depression. The first thing she thought when she found out she was pregnant was: “I don’t want this baby”. She didn’t tell her husband, or anyone. She went to a doctor but he refused to help.

“It’s a murder,” he responded. She tried to tell her best friend, “but when I was about to speak, I felt that she won’t cope, so I stepped back,” she says.

“With all do love I say, Adam is one of my sons,” says the mother

She had heard about some private clinics that would help her do the job illegally. So she went about inquiring about the prices and procedure. The cheapest asked for 800$ – an amount she did not have.

“The range of the operations’ cost is between 800 and 5000$, and I could not ask my husband for such an amount without giving a logical reason,” she explained. She decided to do everything by herself. She looked up on the internet the names of anti-progesterone pills and bought some. After using them, she started feeling severe pains and vomiting, and her health drastically deteriorated. She was feeling very sick but relieved, for she thought she got rid of the baby.

But, the pregnancy survived the pills. Her husband took her to the hospital, and was very happy to know she was pregnant and that the baby was saved. But it was not what she wanted. She didn’t want to know the sex of the baby or any details. Her husband was unaware of what she was trying to do. She shuddered to tell him.
“I tried many other ways. Whenever I heard about a procedure that would help me abort I tried it, but Adam refused to let go,” she says, hiding her tears with a smile. She lowers her head as she narrates her painful story, and looks at Adam at every pause, obvious regret flashing across her face.

“The problem is that people have no mercy. I thought of telling my family when I was pregnant, but I was sure they won’t accept it; no one will accept it,” she continues to explain her ordeal.

According to Lebanese law, abortion is forbidden in all cases except when the mother’s life is in danger. Any person who performs an abortion will be subjected to one to three years, and sometimes five.

She knew about this law but hoped that if religious texts allowed abortion then the law could be ignored. She believed that there must be a way out. She went to a Sheikh and begged him to ‘legalize’ her abortion. He simply refused.

“Although my relationship with my husband improved,  I was in a difficult period, psychologically. I cried every night. Everyone was happy with the baby, except me”, she adds.

After a few months, Adam arrived. He was not like most babies. He didn’t respond to any action.

“It was a shock. When I knew that Adam’s nervous system was partially damaged, I went to a number of doctors to ask about the side effects of the pills I took and the actions I did. I had one conclusion. It was all my fault,” she says crying with her hands on her head.

A few days ago, Adam celebrated his sixteenth birthday, but his sweet sixteen wasn’t sweet. We bought a cake and sang to him. His elder brother and sisters gathered around him but he looked at everyone in the same way, someone who is completely oblivious to what is happening around him.

The remorse filled mother recalls her mental state, when she was pregnant.”I was not myself back then. I know that no one will ever forgive me for what I did; especially Adam. I destroyed his life. Look at him. He can’t talk, can’t eat, can’t walk, and can’t do anything by himself. If I was given one wish, I would wish that I appreciated the gift God has given me, and delivered Adam normally with thanks.”

There is plenty of psychological evidence that women in fragile states are better off not going through with pregnancies, or at least provided with professional support, especially if they have a strong will against having the baby. Dr. Fadel Shehimy, a psychiatrist, says that people in a sensitive psychological state, and especially in the case of demanding abortion, should not be judged, but treated properly. If she went to a psychiatrist, he/she would have helped her get over her crisis and gave birth properly. The problem in our society is that people fear social judgment and blame, so they face everything by themselves, of which can worsen the situation.”

“What has been done is done, and I can’t go back in time,” she takes a deep breath, “I can’t leave him alone at home and we’re getting old. Everyone loves him, but he needs a full-time care.” Adam’s case is sort of taboo at home. Nobody talks or asks about it. They simply know it as a fact and accept the reality.

Hana Fadlallah, with a Doctorate in Sociology supports Dr, Shehimy’s point of view and adds that “our society faces a problem of duality: people are accepting relationships of unmarried couples, demanding the rights and freedom of women, and are letting go of a lot of traditional values that have been inherited for so long, but when a serious situation occurs, everyone goes back to his close-minded ideas and judges people without listening to them,”

But with this duality come many double standards.

“Each one should think about a solution before accusing the other; if she knew that people will feel her pain she would’ve felt better about opening up, and they would have had helped her not to harm herself and the baby,” explains Fadlallah.

“With all do love I say, Adam is one of my sons,” says the mother at the end of our conversation. She concludes  with an English phrase: “He is just  special edition.”

LAU Tribune Staff  

After more than ten years of marriage, khalil and his wife could not have a child even though they badly wanted one.

I knew that because he never ceased to tell me how much he loved kids and I used to see how he treated all the children around him, with special patience and care.

My aunt’s husband was a colonel in the army and Khalil used to work with him.

Khalil was giving me a ride home, as he was driving and as his hands were turning on every left or right turn of the road, I couldn’t help but notice remarkable deep scars on the inner part of his arms and his palm, his voice was also weird in a way.

Khalil, a man who served his country in the Lebanese army was taken captive by the Israeli state during the invasion of Israel on Lebanon in 1982.

I couldn’t simply thank Khalil for the ride and ignore these deep scars, so I asked him how he got them. Khalil looked down and exhaled before he told me the story behind his marks: “ They thought they were waking us up by throwing water as cold as ice on us daily, as if I was even able to close my eyes and get any sleep during the endless years of our captivation!” said Khalil.

I never knew water could cause any scars so still I asked him about them and he continued: “Waking us up with freezing water was a blessing compared to..”  the freed captive didn’t finish his sentence, his phone rang and he picked up.

Even though I was eager to hear what he had to say I felt somehow awkward and thought I would better leave the car and wave him ‘thank you’ with my hand.

A month later, our family gets good news “Khalil’s wife is pregnant with twins!” He left us soon after, and even quit the army because of parental duties, his wife needed him beside her, so did the twins-to-be.

Nine months later, we went to congratulate Khalil’s family for receiving new borns who turned out to be only one, for one of the twins died inside his mother.

Khalil and his wife finally are parents, they have a little girl that they named Razane.

Razane’s also the name of one of my sisters. It’s only after I knew the baby’s name that I could get the pieces together.

As a matter of fact, Abbas and his wife had named their daughter ‘Razane’ after my sister, and were planning on naming the twin ‘Tariq” just like my brother-in-law, that was not in any way a coincidence.

Razane and Tariq helped financing an “in-vitro” for Abbas and his wife, it was the couple’s last try after previous numerous tries and it succeeded so to thank them, Abbas named his daughter after one of them, notably ‘Razane’.

The freed father spent 7 years in the Israeli prisons; his fertility was strongly weakened due to the physical traumas he undergone.

Khalil describes his painful experience as captive: “They used to electrify me daily and severely, targeting specifically the area of my genitals, the electricity affected me so badly, it’s actually the tool that affected me most, I dearly regret this confession, but conditions there were too awful to just bare, out of despair I used to try to choke myself with my saliva or by trying to stop breathing, hoping to die and not be killed by them.

Due to the electrifying, my voice changed and became toned down, what bothers me the most is that I felt weak when it came to providing my wife with her rights and needs, for it became almost impossible for me to get her pregnant and we wanted kids more than any couple would want ones!”

Khalil added “The Zionists did not know or more like they didn’t want to know how to deal with us in a ‘grey’ way , it’s either black or white for them, no pity whatsoever, sometimes they woke us up with freezing water but some other times they threw boiling water at us, the water was so hot that my body would stay red with burns all over for days.

Declaring a food strike was not really of great use, because with or without our strike what they fed us is barely what we could call ‘leftovers’, every time I would decide to eat, I threw up because the food that the Israelis used to give us was I assume expired or contained something that was not possibly digestible.

I am just thankful that I could escape the awful experience of rape, for I know so many of my dear friends and men I had met there that were terribly raped by the soldiers, luckily, I wasn’t, and I cherish that because affecting my fertility was tough enough to bare, I could not possibly bare any moral burden like being raped by any man and especially a zionist! Raping the Palestinian Lands, homes and territories doesn’t seem to satisfy them enough, they also want to rape humans!”

Luckily for him, today and with the presence of baby Razane in the couple’s life, scars are the only memory of the “black seven” as Khalil refers to the 7 years he had spent as captive in the Israeli prisons.

 “No way! That is way too unbearable! Since when do they block roads to distribute candy on the streets in the occasion of ‘Al Mawled al Nabawi’? How am I supposed to make it to my dentist’s appointment now? It took me 45 minutes to arrive from Hamra to Verdun, how’s that normal?” These words burst out of a woman expressing her frustration over grid locked traffic in Hamra on a weekeday at noon. She had just entered a nail salon bar in Verdun furious and on an edge. She demanded that three of the girls attend to her needs so that she can be out the door and wrangle with the ‘hideous’ traffic filled streets again.

Most of Beirut’s main streets witness traffic jams particularly during daytime and peak hours. Starting at 7:00 am in the morning when most Lebanese commute or drop off their children to school and extending lunch breaks in the early afternoons and finally between 5 and 7 p.m. when employees return home, the streets are engulfed with traffic, with horns blaring and temperatures of drivers rising with a jam-packed intersection.

The Head of the Traffic Committee for the Municipality of Beirut, Hassan Abbas, explains this daily cycle: “Usually in Hamra and most Beiruti streets, peak time is between 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.  Additionally, Hamra Street gets a little more crowded at night because of the pubs and restaurants. Now this short interval of time between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.   and between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. is called “point mort”( “dead time”), which is a period of rest for most people. Also, during the day Beirutis are in their office thus a lighter presence of cars is seen on the streets.”

However, this is not the case for Hamra Street where endless traffic queues occupy the street until later than midnight.

“In my own experience, traffic jam in Hamra street starts after 10 am, and it extends until night because Hamra street is not just a residential area, it has always been and now became even more a commerce and shopping street, where people come from all different regions of Beirut,”  explains the Head of the Parliamentary Committee for Public Works and Member of Parliament, Mohammad Kabbani.

Do laws in Lebanon tackle traffic issues and are rules pertaining to specific areas being implemented to relieve congestion?

Kabbani explains that domestic Lebanese laws do not address specific areas of traffic and that public law specifies rules and regulations to organize traffic management in all of Lebanon but not individual streets. Abbas corroborates Kabbani’s point concerning the laws: “Traffic law addresses all Lebanese streets, there are no exceptions, it deals with Lebanon as a whole. Therefore we implement the law equally among all Lebanese streets,“ states Abbas.

The two largest universities in Central Beirut,  the American University of Beirut (AUB) and Lebanese American University (LAU) are often held responsible for worsening the traffic situation in Hamra. Lack of allocated parking spaces for students is often cited as one of the reasons for car-filled streets where vehicles are parked in haphazard ways, often reducing and sometimes blocking access to those driving on already narrow roads and alleys.

Kamel Ibrahim, The Secretary General of YASA (Young Association for Social Awareness), points out that during summer months the traffic jams are visibly reduced compared to fall and spring semesters, when universities are in full session.  Kabbani supports  Ibrahim’s claim about the 2 universities and adds to the discussion by providing numbers that prove the correlation.

“If we take AUB as an example, the number of students enrolled in it reaches approximately 7000, and 70 % of them use private cars, thus we have 5000 private car come daily to university. The cars may come at different times normally because the number varies accordingly to the student schedules however let us consider that at a time there is 3000 cars and not 5000, what happens?

What happens, simply put, is that a large number of students with private cars leads to impossible traffic jams.

“These cars come from all different directions around the university whether from the beach side and corniche or towards Bliss street, mounting up to all other streets of Hamra, namely Abdel Aziz, Jean D’Arc, Sadat, Makdessi and all the others,” explains Kabbani.

Local initiatives to combat congestion are being undertaken. Ibrahim details the work of  YASA in ameliorating the traffic jam issue.

“Our organization prepared the draft for traffic law. We are concerned in implementing laws that have to do with accidents, punishments, light signs, the conditions of getting driving licenses, and planning driving safety as first crucial measurements,” Ibrahim adds that traffic jams should be the concern of the driving plan, of which is the responsibility of the Ministry of public work and transport.

Upon interviewing Kabbani, Abbas and Ibrahim, a common consensus on possible solutions becomes apparent. They all point to the improvement of the public transportation sector as the best and possibly only sustainable solution in combating traffic. Additionally, Abbas stresses the importance of banning double parking in Hamra with heavy penalties for violators. Ibrahim emphasizes  reducing the number of cars per family through carpooling between family members. Ibrahim also advocates the idea of allocated parking spaces at the beginning of Hamra Street and making the shopping streets “pedestrians-only areas”, with the exemption of bicycles. This could be an effective solution whereby, patrons and shoppers can enjoy Hamra and benefit from all its services without having to worry about the traffic and getting from one part to another.

But while waiting for these solutions and new regulations to be implemented, individuals effort and consciousness would certainly reduce ‘the domino effect’ that Hamra Street imposes on its surrounding areas.  Using ‘services’ or shared taxis or walking to destinations within proximity once parked, could be simple solutions that have a significant impact when followed collectively

“Traffic jam affects drivers’ nerves and waste their time and money on oil. They also  pollute our environment and it is all interconnected,” said Abbas.

Knock, knock

I opened the window.

There was a green eyed, red lipped, lank haired kid,

so beautiful I couldn’t take my eyes off of her.

“Please give me some money. God protect your loved ones.

Help me. It’s my birthday,” she said.

In my mind, a question I always wanted to ask,

so I did. “Do you enjoy begging on the streets?”

With a very soft voice and heartbreaking looks she answered,

“Yes, I enjoy it,” An answer so obviously brainwashed in her head.

A short silence, and then she spoke up, “I’d rather go to school,”

demonstrating bits of her acquired knowledge by counting to ten

Then the lights turned green and I drove away.

She ran after me yelling, “By the way, my name is Zainab,”

and there I had the answer. It was not money she was seeking;

it was attention – a little bit of my time.

Homelessness is a persistent phenomenon in our country, a glaring indicator of the extreme socioeconomic difference

Children with no childhood young ones in tragic states and situations where they are left with little options but to restore to criminal activity.

between people. Lebanon is a place where many kids – Lebanese and non-Lebanese are on the streets and deprived from childhood, schooling, shelter, basic protection and all the necessities mandated under the International Convention of the Rights of the Child. Many of them are sent to the streets, sometime by their families, out of economic desperation, and in their absence by those under whose wings they are brought up. While being subjected to harsh conditions, these children are under constant pressure to bring home money at a tender age as young a six years.

According the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) more than 76,000 individuals are homeless in Lebanon. The conflict in Syria has meant that the number of homeless people is increasing by the day, with 3,000 new refugees awaiting registration per day over the month of April alone. This is the official provided by UN reports. The unregistered population would put the numbers at twice the rate.

In Lebanon, homelessness is a wide spread phenomenon that has been overlooked and neglected. The government has failed to acknowledge the adverse conditions to which many Lebanese, especially those living in poorer neighborhoods during civil war were subjected, and the long-term effect it has borne on them.

Rasha Hijazi, a social counselor and a psychology graduate from the American University of Beirut (AUB) explains that the possibility of beggars becoming criminals is very high. She adds that young beggars on the streets do not have the opportunity to develop a proper sense of right and wrong.

“The family is not itself able to instill good values in them.”

Lieutenant Ali Akoum, at the Saida Police station says that he is fully aware that beggars could likely develop into criminals because of the situation in which they live. However, he said, there is little the police can do because they are not “financially capable.” Nevertheless he admits that the police, as domestic security, are at least 60-70 % responsible for these kids. Aside from the financial incapability of the police forces, their attempts in helping them is to simply “charge them if they committed any crime,’ per Akoum’s explanation. This simply penalizing minors without resolving the problem.

As for those roaming the streets, which are not Lebanese, and have crossed the borders illegally, nothing can be done to help them, as they are not ‘citizens.’

Apart from what they become in the years to come, the children undergo abuse and live in appalling conditions. According to Lt. Akoum, 90 percent of the kids on the streets are forced to beg against their will. The children, he says, often face physical, sexual, and verbal abuse. He refers to the vans that come in the morning drop kids on the streets in the morning and at the end of a long day, often late into the night, they are picked up a bussed back to their homes. If their earnings for the day do not please those to whom they report, the consequences are often brutal. Sometimes it is the parents themselves subjecting their kids to extreme conditions out of economic desperation, lack of values and dysfunctional family structures. Akoum even mentions that some kids come to the station for safety but there is not enough space in shelters, so they are eventually returned to their abusers and the vicious cycle begins again.

Dr. Hijazi said that these individuals experience trauma on daily basis. “Imagine the fear they develop towards the leader who will beat them if they don’t collect enough money? Think of the anxiety that is created in the heart of a 10-year-old girl who is now forced to sell her body, even if she doesn’t want to do it. This creates a lot of emotional turmoil and disturbed personalities in these children.”

So what is a sustainable, long-term solution to this problem?
Akoum says that the police can only address part of the problem by convicting the parents or individuals responsible for the children by forcing them to pay a penalty for begging- a penalty that, ironically, may force them to beg even more. As for abuse, Akoum said that the treatment of children by their own parents was not the prerogative of the state, much in contrast to Europe and North America, where abusive parents stand to lose custody of their children. In Lebanon, the role of the state in intervening in family lives of their citizens when things go array, has not been dealt with effectively – especially in the post-civil war years, where a majority of the population suffered financial, physical and psychological repercussions.

“It’s a shame really how they (politicians) cant find the minimal amount of time to find a solution for them. Lebanon can never prosper when some people are still not fully sheltered and protected,” Akoum said.
So, is giving them money a way to protect them from the tragedies these children face? Unfortunately not, since children learn to become beggars with time and it perpetuates the cycle. They are being reinforced by each and every one of us when we give them money. It is a simple theory in psychology: every behavior that is being reinforced or rewarded is likely to be repeated.  It is clear that socially minded, government plans should be provided to such marginalized demographics, which includes the implementation of free education.

Children must be sheltered, protected and nurtured to the best of our abilities for they are the generation of tomorrow. Taking care of them is a basic duty. Therefore, according to Dr. Hijazi where family structures and support systems to instill the right values in them do not exist, the solution is to break that cycle that might have continued for generations. Take them off the streets and let the social welfare institutions do their work, of course with the aid of government funds.

“A different version on this article was published through the Gate Student Magazine.”

Nadine Nakad

LAU Tribune Staff

“My teacher just told me to drop the course because I exceeded my absence limit.” claimed Sara, an interior design student. Attendance  has always been a topics of controversy and disagreement between students and staff at LAU. The staff itself is at time divided on the level of priority that the attendance roll should be given. Should excessive absences constitute grounds for students having to ‘drop’ the course altogether?

Do these situations deserve individual judgement or does this introduce favoritism and lack of standards?

Whether or not the attendance sheet should exist is obviously a major debate among students. Some feel that they do not need to attend classes often to understand the material and pass their courses. “My grades are high and I am good studying at home without coming to every class,” Haya Bazzi, a student majoring in Business contended.

In contrast to Bazzis opinion, Emma Moghabghab, instructor at the Department of English language instruction, states that “There should be an attendance sheet because the information given in class is very important, even though they can study on their own, their input they would be missing.”

Excessively missing classes results in complications for students, at least on paper. The university’s attendance regulations state that students are allowed to miss “no more than the equivalent of five weeks of instruction.” While instructors have the right to impose specific attendance regulations in their courses, provided that the above-stated limit of absences is not exceeded, and the minimum number of absences allowed is no fewer than the equivalent of two weeks of classroom instruction, after the Drop and Add period. The rules seem to allow little space for exceptional circumstances.
Despite this ‘stringent’ by law that is re-iterated in the course syllabi, many students feel that they can pass their courses without attending often. Anna Fahr, an instructor at the Communication Arts Department believes that it is important to take attendance, because attending classes is integral to the learning process. The exchanges  that take place in a classroom are pivotal for the learning process.

“My average in class was a 90, but the teacher insisted I drop the course because of two missing attendances,” continued Haya. Such a statement raises an important concern. Is such an action fair? Should a student who has attended all classes but without participation or sufficient ‘out of class’ effort be prioritized over a brighter student who actually puts in the overall needed hours?

A primary goal of attending classes should be to attain exclusive knowledge and resultantly high grades. But if students are already maintaining a high-grade scale on their own without having to attend class, then what exactly is the point of recruiting exceptional instructors based on their expertise? Do students take this into account often enough?

On the other hand should students with high grades be told to drop classes even if their performance is not affected by their attendance?  Is such an action ethical given that the attendance sheet is supposedly there to ensure high grades?

While some argue about the two to three extra absences (which exceeds the permissible absence limit), others contest that ‘emergency’ absences should be treated separately and on a case by case basis.

For instance, Alaa Mohammad Ali faced such a situation when her teacher did not approve an absence although she was required to go to Qatar for her re-entry visa.

“This was not something that could be solved. This was a serious issue for me to go back to my hometown”, Mohammad Ali stated.  These situations raise important questions to many teachers and students.

Ms. Jaboor, an instructor at the Communication Arts Department, addresses this topic by stating that sometimes teachers should be flexible by allowing students minimal absences as long as they fulfil their minimum obligations.
However, there are always two sides to a story. While many students disapprove of the attendance sheet, there are others who not only approve, but also demand it.  Some believe that it is an acceptable tool that encourages students to attend class and is only fair to all. For example Issa Khreis, a Business student claims “Honestly, if it weren’t for the attendance sheet I wouldn’t be attending any of my classes.”

But, such a statement causes many concerns. Do students attend class only to sign the attendance sheet? What about active participation? Is that not even more important? For example, Ms. Hala Daouk, an instructor at the Department of Humanities believes that attendance is mandatory, not as means control students, but to keep track of them, their overall performance and for this reason those who choose to not attend will automatically be penalized.

Students are expected to attend class not only for the attendance grade (which makes up 10% of their average), but more importantly to acquire certain information they cannot gather on their own. For instance, Sara Ossairan another student at the Business School explains, “ There is a teacher that does not take attendance, but I still go to take notes”.

One other reason that attendance is crucial, a reason that students do not pay attention to, is record keeping. Attendance is taken not only for class purposes but also to keep a record of a students existence in the university system. This is a necessary measure taken to ensure security of the student in case of any unforeseen factors, for example an emergency evacuation from campus grounds. Under such circumstances, the administration will want to ensure full precautionary measure to make sure that everyone is evacuated. The attendance sheet would be an invaluable tool.  Another related reason is that when a student misses many classes and lectures, the teacher can raise concerns with the administration and they may decide to contact the student to check on them.

As Dr.Raed Mohsen the Dean of Students, points out, “The attendance is necessary for instructors to keep track of students who were attending a particular day. An instructor can be asked by the administration about the participation and number of absences, thus as part of class management attendance is important.”

It is not just a matter of policy and ethics. It is a matter of protocol.