من بيروت وجبل لبنان الى ريمس كريك/أشفييل,وجبال الدخان

Quote: Professor Elmoiz Abunura on Racism in Lebanon and Sudanese Migrant Workers published by mo maria on July 15, 2011 - 9:25am Category: Dialogue Article Tags: workers sudanese Lebanon kush Egypt This Thursday at 7 pm, Nasawiya hosted a discussion by Professor Elmoiz Abunura. entitled " Victims of two worlds: Racism in Lebanon and Sudanese Migrant Workers " Professor Elmoiz Abunura, a Sudanese national who resides in the USA* Professor Abunura talks on the discourse of imperialism and its hegemonizing presence in lebanon and the middle east area versus the raise of minorities rights and different ethnicities . Sudanese in Lebanon , he says are facing a huge conflictual issue , starting from the 20s and the 30s when average sudanese were coming to lebanon embracing a 'liberalism' and cultural development , learning in the American University of Beirut mixing with a middle class society . He goes backward in history to the Kush origin of the sudanese and cultural aspect of a lost civilisation that were in competition with egypt at that time . However migrant categories from Sudan has changed since , After the civil war in Southern Sudan, and the Noba Mountains in 1983 , and those migrating were coming from village areas in Northen Sudan , from Nuba mountains ,Southern Sudan, and Darfur region in the 80s, 90s , promoting themselves and accounting the lebanese area in transit fashion for a more established career in west Europe, and America. , but , to face a new mechanism in a lebanese society divided , hatred injected and destruction within its own structures after the Lebanese civil war. Abunura accentuates on the rise of racism since the 70s the hatred and the intersection in ethinicity problematic and class ranking , Criticizing as well the sudanese embassy in lebanon on their lack of concern,efficiency towards sudanese workers in lebanon who are suffering from the inhumane treatment, discrimination, and don't have their basic human rights in Lebanon. He has pointed to several cases of attacks, or racial discrimination of Sudanese workers, and their familes in Lebanon such as Al- Awzai infamous racial attack on the Sudanese who were organizing at that time a charity to support a terminal Sudanese patient.H e raises as well differences between treatment of Sudanese workers and Egyptian workers in Lebanon. As one example, Abunura pointed to fees of the renewal of residency visa, sudanese worker from the 3rd category usually paid about $ 1200 while the Egyptian one paid less than $ 100. This is a major area of the failure of the sudanese embassy in Beirut, and Sudanese diplomacy in negotiating with Lebanon a fair labour agreement to protect the Sudanese workers in Lebanon he said.. As a volunteer and tutor with the Migrants Task Force ( MTF) in Lebanon, he hightly points out the need and utility for the organisation of trade unions and also mentions Amnesty international for a serious documentation in investigative work on human rights . He refered to the support of some circles in the Lebanese society to the Sudanese workers, and their strife for equal treatment, and justice such as Anti Racism Movement, Migrants Task Force, and some political parties like the Communist Party, and the Socialist Progressive Party, etc... Abunura stressed on the importance for a collective intensive work , conducting of seminars , and awareness on issue of race and diversity throught activism and direct action. LHe also emphasizes that Sudanese workers should organize themselves, build an alliance with other migrant workers, and liberal and progressive elements of the Lebanese society to combat racism, and injustice in Lebanon. *Professor Abunura A former prisoner of conscience in Iraq 1975 and active member of Amnesty international , A former director of Africana Studies program at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and professor of Political Science. and Currently , an energy and political consultant on the Middle East and Africa.He resides in Asheville, North Carolina and Beirut, Lebanon