من خلالها هيمنتها
Through the screen of a small TV and a short antenna, carefully installed on the rooftops of our houses, in order not to lose the picture, we were seeing Lebanon, not the one that we know currently, or the one we were pretending to know, but an ideologized Lebanon, produced by media and managed by media production companies, which were keen to present it as a space for freedom and dialogue, and by socio-political shows based on the nature and the demographic structure of the country. The question about the reality of the country was clear at that time. However, the margins and hidden issues behind the contexts of shows, colored pictures and what the media tried to show constantly were very different.
This may appear to be my personal story, but this is the story of all of us; we, the “strangers” in this country, that were pushed by the political and security conditions of Syria to live with the Lebanese cities, areas and neighborhoods. Certainty was not based on the attempts of inclusion as much as on breaking fragilityand marginalization , despite the general context lived in the Lebanese cities and villages that made listening, as an act of building, impossible, in a country built to be poor in public spaces.
Listening re-establishes the fragile answers that we always tried to overcome, especially regarding our questions about the other, and deconstructs stereotyping perceptions that were accumulated through an experience that showed difference in terms of beliefs, society and politics, i.e. an unjustified contradiction that blocks all communication attempts. This is what specifically makes the question of peace building a personalized one before being general , as well as a detailed and analytical question that considers the collective practice as a mean to engage everyone in the public realm .
In Lebanon, public spaces are sometimes managed through a blocking policy, which some municipalities transform it to a top-down decision making tool. Most of the decisions taken by these municipalities are not based on clear constitutional laws and is mostly based on a vague policy and an improvisation that considers the public space as a way to exclude and obliterate the fragile and marginalized groups, and eliminate the refugees, workers and poor Lebanese and Syrians without taking into consideration the need for space by the population of cities and villages. This policy enhanced the racist speech with a clear approach to divide the social groups or classes without confronting the reality questions or trying to manage the public spaces as common spaces that can be reproduced in interactive contexts, in order to understand the most vulnerable . Although some municipalities faced this speech and showed their readiness to open broader spaces, Lebanon is still suffering on the level of public spaces.
Since the beginning of the Syrian asylum up to date, the question of re-establishing public spaces was depending on the relevance prospects, even when the political and social events mainly relied on specifying the area of refugees and not engaging them in the public space. This specification was highly clear through the signs of some municipalities that determined the hours of blocking the Syrian people from accessing public spaces and main streets, imposed fines and threats against the offenders, and limited the refugees, whether men or women, to have specific roles not exceeding the services that they could provide for little money most of the time. That’s why the question of peacemaking in the society needed broader spaces and faced the challenges of real participation of all the socio-political authorities .
Through culture, t he institution “Action for Hope” regained the relevance of art, cinema and performance-related action, as it is a common language in a region that lives its internal revolutions and goes deep into its existential political questions. Since the institution’s movement from Egypt to Lebanon in 2014, and the of many aid and cultural convoys to the camp sof asylum countries in Turkey, Jordan and Gaza, it reached the Lebanese region of Beqaa, where it established a school that included a permanent art, cinema and performance-related action. The institution focused on music that has a big role in it. The school of music in Beqaa was a new space within a small-scale that managed to overcome the margin of systematic incitement by integrating all the groups of society into art scopes that broke down the obstacle of interpretation and rebuilt the core of cultural action and the special social safety of the peace approach by integrating the Syrian refugees in the Lebanese society and with the Palestinian refugees, all together in one space and one group to have training and work on music, since it is a common space that eliminates the fragile disparities made by the racist speeches and the policy of taking action and blocking the other.
In the area of Bar Elias, district of Zahle, affiliated to the governorate of Beqaa, where the refugees represent the highest percentage compared to the other Lebanese governorates, with a rate up to 38%, i.e. around 312 thousand refugees, according to the United Nations Statistics. The presence in Beqaa eased the access to the highest percentage of refugees, despite the centrality of the capital Beirut. However, the availability of an open space for all refugees and the Lebanese people within a district considered to be poor in free spaces and educational institutions provided a broader space to re-establish social ties and join connections through production, education and music. In practice, this matter helped eliminate the class and confessional differences adopted by authorities as a proof to block the other, considered as different, from accessing the public space, even the students from camps outside the Beqaa area, such as Chatila Camp in Beirut, who are transported by the institution to access education through special transportation.
The music school of Beqaa included Lebenese (30%), Palestinians (20%) and Syrian refugees (50%). This diversification in a space fully opened to participate freely, within a cultural and artistic scope, added a real capacity to create tools that brought to maturity the relevance of peacemaking without blocking a social group over another. This diversification was probably behind the success of the school, since it was able to contain diversification. The crisis of financing the project was sometimes an obstacle for sustainability . However, the institution (Action for Hope) represents now a cultural society able to create new concepts on the real relevance of accepting the other. Such acceptance felt nowadays took place through music plays considered as a plus for Beqaa, Beirut and Lebanon, and as a great example of what can be offered by the public spaces that lack fanaticism and racism.
Farah kaddour, the Programs Manager at Action for Hope said: “the process was successful. Musicians are having a musical performance alone on the theater after being trained for 18 months, including three months only to identify and select the instruments, and then to start the teaching process. Following the shows and the end of training starts the phase of learning the techniques, the workshops of music composition, distribution, and the identification of the kinds of folk music, such as the Iraqi and Kurdish music. All of this takes place through guest visitors, such as musicians , who have long experience and their excellent production on the artistic level.
We started from an area far from the centrality of Beirut, considered to be small, and that has many refugee camps. Presenting a music school in a marginalized society is a challenging mission. That’s why we don’t use the term a “Syrian refugee.” We use the term a “marginalized society.” Even the resident of Beqaa who wants to learn music is also marginalized.
The institution (Action for Hope) highlighted that eliminating difference is possible, facing the policies against refugees can be also a plus for the host country, and creating spaces for inclusion is not impossible, as long as they are based on canceling the stereotypes promoted by authorities and adopted by the media. Through music and art, the educational context was able to adopt more systematic tools, in order to increase ties between the group members, share tasks, exchange experiences, and build a real trust that makes the problem of racism very marginal.
Helene (16 years old) said: “I didn’t imagine to like music so much. I came from my big house located in Daraa and suddenly I found myself living in a tent within a big camp managed by sheikhs from Lebanon, who were against playing music, especially by girls. I faced the camp and the ban. Her instrument was stolen, which was broken more than once . I started to smuggle my instrument. Now, I found myself again. I have a real trust in accepting myself here. I will continue. Now, I found myself, my friends and my talent. I have the real communication with this society. I started to feel that I exist and that I have a role.”
Zahraa, the Programs Coordinator at (Action for Hope) noticed this impact with the families of the musicians; when the host community sees the result of this space on their children; what such space can add to the Bar Elias region of Beqaa; how such space can be managed without a discrimination policy; and what are the outcomes that we can reach if we used the public space as a means to accept the other.
Finally, (Action for Hope) was able to graduate 77 professional musicians, provide advanced sessions for many of them to be an example against the racist and authoritarian speech that depends on the principle of elimination, and create an open space for experience that enables to read the reality of the Lebanese villages, and the cities that can benefit from this example, not only for peace, but also as an example to brea k down the stereotypes that enhance the fragile disparities among individuals. Ziad (17 years old), from the Beqaa region, and a musician in the school of (Action for Hope) said: “We created here our common space. We interact, love and create. All the stereotypes accumulated in my head about the refugees through politics ended for me. We are all marginalized. Recovering ourselves and our ability to share is the core of our existence here. That’s why, I consider that this space is important, not because it teaches us music only, but also because it gives us a real hope that all the stereotypes that block the other are fragile and un real at all.”