Interview with Nadim Houry of Human Rights Watch. Broadcasts from Beirut VIII.

In Lebanon, between 150,000 to 300,000 women work as migrant domestic workers, with approximately 100,000 having legal status in the country. In August 2008, Human Rights Watch released a report covering the period of January 1, 2007 to August 15, 2008 revealing migrant domestic workers had extremely high death tolls due to unnatural causes.

Migrant domestic workers experience harsh working conditions and consistent workplace abuse, and currently many migrant domestic workers can be found sleeping under cars or on the ground surrounding their respective countries’ embassies in Lebanon, searching for assistance for their situations. Nadim Houry is the senior researcher at Human Rights Watch covering Lebanon and Lillian Boctor from Tadamon spoke with Houry about the situation.

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BEIRUT: The Israeli military is “making preparations” for a strike against Hizbullah that “appears inevitable” and will be “decisive,” a former top Israeli diplomat has written in a report for a US-based think tank with strong links to America’s Jewish lobby. Oded Eran, Israel’s former ambassador to the European Union and now director of the Institute for Security Studies in Tel Aviv, published a report for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) entitled “UN Resolution 1701: A view from Israel.”

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If you’ve ever been to Lebanon, you know that people don’t read road signs there. Beirut hip hop duo Aks’ser—Arabic for “opposing traffic”—follow that tradition, but refuse to crash anyone else’s party. With Arabic hip hop paving its lane in the international music scene, there’s no denying members Wael Kodeih and Houssam Fathallah (aka Rayess Bek and Eben Foulen), with their former producer Tarek Yamani, their rightful seat among its pioneers. They’re chauffeuring the modern identity crisis to its crossroads at 1,000 miles an hour, hoping to steer the condition of their people in a new direction. The Mirror caught up with Bek in advance of their Festival du Monde Arabe appearance.

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Aks’ser à Montréal avec Nomadic Massive

DIMANCHE 2 NOVEMBRE
20h00. 17$
La Sala Rossa, 4848 St. Laurent
Montreal, Quebec

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For Israel, the aftermath of the 2006 Lebanon war was all about questions. What mistakes were made, and who made them? What could be done to restore the Israeli military’s “deterrence” after a widely perceived defeat? In general, what lessons could be learned from the confrontation with Hizbullah in order that next time, there would be no question of failure?

Unfortunately, it seems that entirely the wrong kinds of conclusions are being reached, at least in the military hierarchy and among the policy shaping thinktanks. On Friday, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper published comments made by Israeli general Gadi Eisenkot, head of the army’s northern command. Eisenkot took the opportunity to share the principles shaping plans for a future war.

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This week marks the 26th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, one of the bloodiest events of the second half of the twentieth century. A Google search for recent news reports on this year’s commemoration of the atrocity, however, brought up very little. Yes, there were some emotional blog posts, as well as a link to the BBC’s “On this Day” page, featuring quick facts and figures about the massacre, alongside an archival, and iconic, photograph of twisted corpses lying in a heap next to a cinder-block wall, the victims of an execution-style killing.

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vendredi 19 septembre à midi
En face de la librairie Indigo
Au coin des rues Sainte Catherine et McGill College
Métro McGill
Montréal, Canada

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Photo: Walking in south Lebanon 2006. Interview by Stefan Christoff for Tadamon!

In recent weeks, major media outlets in Canada have featured numerous news reports on Hezbollah, outlining that the armed Lebanese political party is planning military operations in North America. Media reports have been based on anonymous intelligence sources in the U.S. and Canada.

Major media coverage in Canada was ignited by a T.V. report from the U.S.-based ABC news network claiming that Hezbollah was planning operations in Canada in response to the assassination of Hezbollah’s military commander, Imad Mughniyeh, in Syria this past winter.

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Photo: Dubai skyline. Interview by Stefan Christoff for Tadamon!

Dubai is famed internationally for lifestyles and modern monuments etched by extreme wealth, a city state in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that has become an unlikely hub for international finance. In a region bombarded by the chaos of the U.S.-driven ‘war on terror’, Dubai a small city state located on the edge of Iran and Iraq has become a city of glamor and glitz, a striking paradox that has enchanted many around the world.

Dubai’s shining exterior is quickly becoming world famous, including a series of three-hundred constructed islands mapping out the shape of world, an indoor ski mountain in the boiling temperatures of the Persian Gulf and the soon to be completed Burj Dubai, now the tallest man made structure in the world.

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Beirut: “I was in Cairo for my first Egyptian concert,” Rima Khcheich smiles. “I was preparing an Umm Kalthoum song, a dour [a classical vocal form without improvisation] called ‘Dour Emta al-Hawa.’ Two days before the concert I met [iconic Egyptian composer] Fouad Abdel Majid. The rehearsals were difficult and I was very tired but they asked me to sing his song ‘Foutina al-Lathi.’ They recorded it on a little cassette tape recorder.”

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