Monday, July 19, 2010

Lubnan El-Akhdar

Lubnan El Akhdar, simply means 'Lebanon the Green'. This is a local proverb among the Levantine Arabs that emphasizes the forests and the lush valleys of this Eastern Mediterranean mountain range. The climate of this region and the streams that emanate from the snow melt of the mountaintops will probably be similar to some parts of Italy and I am curious to find out which ones are. The fact is Italy and Lebanon have shared similar histories from the Greek colonizations of both areas, to the Roman domination and acculturation, to the influence of Italian knights and Christian pilgrims prior to and during the Crusades, as well as the role that Italy played in the trade exchange between the East and the West during the Venetian Empire's heyday. This trade centre has largely shifted East and Lebanon now plays that role between Europe and the Near East. In other words, it can be regarded as the Eastern gateway for the West and as a Western Bridge for the East. As the weeks pass and my travel date comes closer I can't help but draw vague similarities between these two regions who share similar histories. My course deals with the construction of the nation in Italy and the diversity I see in Italian regions and dialects is all too often familiar to the Levantine peoples whose recent histories saw the emergence of separate nation states. I would love to analyze the reasons for these differences between Italy and the Eastern Mediterranean once I get there and I am able to fully emmerse myself in the cultures and the communa that make up Siena, Tuscany, Central Italy and the Italian peninsula. So far, me professor has sent a lot more articles to read up on. I'm starting to get anxious about all the reading material that I already have to research up on, so I'm definitely going to go through them by the end of this week.

On the similar note, I came across this article one day and I was really impressed by the message, so I thought that I'd share it here: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/science-matters/2010/07/protecting-the-planet-is-a-sacred-and-scientific-duty/

Lebanon has for centuries been considered a place where sustainable forestry practices dominated, especially under the rule of local Druze emirs during the 15th to 17th centuries. The fact is most of the trade exchanges of that time was through Italy and the Tuscan city states of the period had a large role to play in the development of clean water infrastructure that didn't destroy sensitive environments. Some of these aqueducts still exist to this day and it would be awesome if we could find a way to reinvest in these local water management systems that take just enough from the environment to fuel our basic needs and reserve the rest for the plants and animals that live there.Unfortunately, rampant development has been occurring in many parts of the world over the last four decades and that has damaged local environments. I long realized that Lebanon is also suffering from deforestation and the effects of rampant ignorance of the environment's health. But a recent trip to the mountaintops of Mount Lebanon gave me some hope. These reserves are micro-managed by local groups who get volunteers from around Lebanon to help them reforest strands and groves of local Cedar, Oak, Cypress, and Pine trees. I hope that some of you would donate some of your time to such groups in other regions of the world so that we can alleviate and reverse a century worth of habitat loss. Some web resources in Lebanon include:
http://greenlebanon.org/
or
http://www.undp.org.lb/ProjectFactSheet/projectDetail.cfm?projectId=134
or
http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/mediterranean/about/forests/forest_fires/help/

Let's save our Earth for the future and invest in our grandchildren's generation and their children's. It only takes a couple of weeks of hard work to replant a grove that will can last for centuries.
Think about it.

Regards,
Hisham J.

P.S. All pictures were taken on my most recent trip to Niha which is located in the upper reaches of the Southwestern flank of Mount Lebanon (i.e. the Shouf mountains).

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