Une Francophonie politiquement correcte

Published in L'Orient le Jour (French language daily newspaper in Lebanon)

A la veille du sommet officiel de la Francophonie, et en plein programme culturel “franco bis 2002”, il serait courageux de se poser la question suivante: Quelle est la portée des valeurs francophones ?

Force est de constater que la grande majorité des pays francophones souffrent encore de problèmes structurels en terme de pratiques démocratiques et de respect des droits de l’Homme.  Par conséquent, les sociétés civiles de ces pays fonctionnent dans des cadres limités et font état continuellement de leurs capacités restreintes et de contraintes politiques, financières, judiciaires…etc.

A la lumière de ces deux données, comment évaluer le contenu et la portée des valeurs francophones ?

A cet effet, il ne suffit pas d’identifier les valeurs vehiculees par la seule utilisation de la langue française, mais de savoir quelles sont de ces valeurs, celles qui sont retenues et vécues par les sociétés des pays francophones.

Est ce que ces valeurs ne relèvent pas, par hasard, d’une “illusion intellectuelle” établie intentionnellement pour servir les intérêts politiques et économiques d’un groupe de pays peu démocratiques, à quelques exceptions près ?

Sinon, comment expliquer le silence du monde francophone, et des états francophones politiquement développés, face aux violations massives et graves dans les autres pays francophones moins développés politiquement, dont le Liban, hôte du IXe sommet de la Francophonie ?

Youth issues in Lebanon

Published in “Beryte”  (Students magazine of the Saint Joseph University; Beirut- Lebanon)

It is sad to admit that Lebanon does not implement any youth policy on a national level. The search for identity is still a major concern for a Lebanese young person, especially within the rapid changes that our society is witnessing. The role of the Lebanese authorities is rather a confusing one. They are insisting on a unique-thought (cultural and political) policy, preventing the youth from a consistent search and confirmation for their identity.

The trend in Lebanon is to emphasise on a kneading (or blending = insihar in Arabic) policy, thus causing the melting of all the “loyalist” political tendencies into a unique product and simply rejecting the other tendencies. This policy is inevitably creating a basement for a new conflict within the Lebanese society, mainly because of the intolerance and the prejudices that are emerging within the Lebanese youth.

On the other hand, the serious socio-economical crisis is affecting a lot the youth in Lebanon. A young person can hardly become autonomous within this crisis. Moreover, the self-consciousness of the Lebanese youth has been restricted because of the « new  priorities list” of the young Lebanese, who is spending most of his time trying to survive the crisis, having no time for other concerns. Youth autonomy and social responsibilities are as well negatively influenced by the general political context in Lebanon (refer to the Background information)

One of the pillars in any youth policy is education. Formal education is largely repressive (from the methodological point of view) and is much more efficient in private universities compared to the public one, where the local political conflicts and the acute economical conditions are restricting its development and autonomy. Non-formal education is not recognised in Lebanon as an education alternative. This prejudice is a major obstacle against the emergence of a national youth policy. In general, young Lebanese are motivated scholars for informal self-teaching educational methods, but within their sphere of possibilities.

Knowing all the above-mentioned points, one can easily note that youth action in Lebanon remains the product of a personal initiative. This situation cannot generate a national youth policy. The youth organisations in Lebanon are facing the following problems:

1)     Lack of resources: Most NGOs depend on voluntary contributions to finance their activities. Therefore, the youth NGOs operate through a voluntary unpaid network, thus limiting their productivity and efficiency.

2)    Political situation: For obvious political reasons, there were many attempts by « loyalist » political parties to hijack the youth activities. This prevented the rare independent youth initiatives from developing. The political labelling and the persistent human rights violations are the major obstacles in this path.

3)    The absence of a government policy: Although a ministry for youth and sports was created last year, there is still not a clear youth policy in Lebanon. The ministry still reacts on a case-by-case basis. Since March 2001, a group of NGO, headed by Save the Children- Lebanon is trying to advocate for the elaboration of a national youth policy. The role of the Ministry of youth, although not negative, is mainly passive.

4)    The absence of a cross-sectoral interest in youth policy: No supportive measures are taken by any of the non-civil society sectors. Apart from the passive attitude of the government, the private sector in Lebanon is still not really keen to support youth initiatives. With some exceptions, we can barely find a real partnership between the private sector and the civil society on the youth level. This is due to many factors, one of them being the economical crisis, another one is the under-estimation of any youth action or even activity, considered either a « childish » activity with no social influence or multiplication power or on the contrary a “dangerous trend” that may lead to radical social changes thus threatening the traditional leaderships.