تلفزيون الجديد: أنا واللبناني على عاملة المنزل الأجنبية، وأنا وعاملة المنزل الأجنبية على العامل الأجنبي

في تقريره السيئ والمغلوط والذي زيّف وقائع حادثة الإعتداء على العمال الأجانب، قام تلفزيون الجديد باستعمال شهادات لعاملات منزل أجنبيات، إضافة لشهادات اللبنانيين، لاتهام العمال الأجانب من مصريين وسوريين وغيرهم بالقيام باعتداءات على النساء والبنات.

تطبيقا لمبدأ "أنا وأخي على ابن عمي, وأنا وابن عمي على الغريب"، عندما يعتدي اللبناني على عاملة المنزل الأجنبية، يكون اللبناني مظلوما ومتهم زورا. أما عندما يكون الأجنبي متهم، فهو مدان. وعندها تصلح شهادة عاملات المنزل الأجنبيات لإثبات التهمة.

يعطيك العافية منتجة التقرير راشيل كرم.

هذا هو التقرير:

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عنصرية في مطار بيروت

موقع تلفزيون الجديد -  أخر تحديث 08.10.2012 

المنشور الأصلي باللغة الإنجليزية: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/jifguk

إشتكى أحد المسافرين من مطار بيروت الدولي من عنصرية تعامل موظفي المحطة الأرضية لشركة طيران الشرق الأوسط مع المسافرين.

وكتب المسافر تفاصيل الحادثة على مدونته، فقال إنه حين كان في صالة الإنتطار رقم 11 بالمطار مع صديق له ليستقلّا رحلة "العربية للطيران" عند الساعة الثامنة والنصف مساء السبت 6 تشرين الأول الحالي، صودف إنتظار في الصالة عينها مجموعة من العمال الأجانب مع بقية الركاب.

وبحسب المسافر، فإنّ العمال كانوا يتصرفون طبيعياً، أو بالأحرى بالطريقة التي ينبغي من أي مسافر التصرف بها.

إلاّ أنّ المفاجأة كانت حين نادت موظفة في

Tailor Maid

A photo I took today...

Massive uproar against yet another Lebanon MTV (Murr TV) racist show

It was meant to be funny. And I thought that the first reactions against the video I saw on Facebook were activist exaggerations. Because we are supposed to be able to make fun of our human rights challenges and violations. And humor can be a good advocacy tool.

But the Lebanese TV, Murr TV, yet again crossed ethical and moral red lines. Their comedy show, "Ktir Salbe" produced a trashy sexually explicit video in which migrant domestic workers are dehumanized and objectified to the point where the person playing the role of the recruitment agency representative responded to the couple seeking a domestic worker: "Do you think that I am a pimp?". The "husband" at the end of the video suggested that to the recruiter "to shove up his *** the broomstick that their last maid had used before she jumped from the balcony".

Facebook, Twitter and Youtube comments are those disdain and condemnation. This is the post by the Anti-Racism Movement. (18+) on the issue. Some on the Internet called for shutting down MTV again.

This comes after a previous Murr TV report that we reported on previously, on the "invasion of perverted migrants" of Bourj Hammoud (North Beirut Suburb).

In the caption under the video, we read "Ktir Salbe" - Monday 8:30 PM on MTV Lebanon - Written By Jiscar Lahoud & Nabil Assaf Directed by Hani Khashfeh.

Someone needs to tell these persons, as well as Murr TV staff and managers, of the existence of media ethics.

Wissam al-Saliby, Ethiopian Suicides.


The following is the video. In Arabic. Recommended 18 years and up.



And these are some of the social media reactions:

On Youtube:

• we are in 2011 you racist Lebanese!

  najem 13

زوجة هنبعل القذافي اللبنانية، ألين سكاف، عذبت خادمتها في ليبيا (وفي سويسرا أيضا؟)

Lebanese wife of Hannibal Gadhafi tortured Ethiopian domestic worker

Luxury, horror lurk in Gadhafi family compound, by Dan Rivers, CNN Correspondent, Tripoli, Libya

(...)

At first I thought she was wearing a hat and something over her face. Then the awful realization dawned that her entire scalp and face were covered in red wounds and scabs, a mosaic of injuries that rendered her face into a grotesque patchwork.

Even though the burns were inflicted three months ago, she was clearly still in considerable pain. But she told us her story calmly.

She'd been the nanny to Hannibal's little son and daughter.

The 30-year-old came to Libya from her native Ethiopia a year ago. At first things seemed OK, but then six months into her employment she said she was burned by Aline [Skaff*].

Three months later the same thing happened again, this time much more seriously.

In soft tones, she explained how Aline lost her temper when her daughter wouldn't stop crying and Mullah refused to beat the child.

"She took me to a bathroom. She tied my hands behind my back, and tied my feet. She taped my mouth, and she started pouring the boiling water on my head like this," she said, imitating the vessel of scalding hot water being poured over her head.

(...)

* Aline Skaf is a Lebanese actor born in 1980 in Sebaal in Lebanon.

Full article:Luxury, horror lurk in Gadhafi family compound, by Dan Rivers, CNN Correspondent, Tripoli, Libya

Will training maids in Lebanon cut down on abuse?

Now Lebanon Blog - Nicolas Esguerra - Tuesday, July 19. 2011

With some 200,000 domestic migrant workers employed in Lebanon, there’s certainly a market for this new concept, the first of its kind in the country: a training center for maids.

“Most people have some kind of problem with their maid but there is one simple solution to this and that is knowledge,” center founder and director Rachid Beydoun told the Daily Star.

At a starting cost of $180, The House Keeper Training Academy teaches maids how to clean and use proper etiquette. The four-day course also offers basic language instruction and provides information on migrant worker rights.

While the new center could be seen as a welcome move to improve conditions for maids in Lebanon, it’s also stirring some controversy.

"I think the heart is in the right place in terms of trying to work on the issue, but

"Maids for Sale" Screening, Tuesday, May 3rd

At the American University of Beirut, Auditorium B, West Hall. Tuesday, May 3, 7:00pm - 9:30pm
Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=143446852391117

Migrant Worker Task Force in cooperation with Unesco Club AUB and Human Rights and Peace Club invites you to watch the film Maids for Sale by Lebanese film maker Dima Al-Joundi.

The film tells the story of three Sri Lankan housemaids, Sahika, Anne-Ritta and Janika: the reasons for their coming, the reasons for their staying and in one case the return back home.

After the film, Dima Al-Joundi together with Roland Tawk, a lawyer, Father Salim a priest and Dipendra Uprety, the community leader of the Nepalese community in Beirut will talk to us about the issue of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon: Exploitation, Racism and Violence.

Report cites psychological disorder as leading cause of violence against maids (3 articles in English and Arabic)

The following are 3 articles published today on yesterday's report launching on migrant domestic workers.

Domestic worker abuse linked to mental issues
EU-funded report cites psychological disorder as leading cause of violence against maids
By Simona Sikimic, Daily Star staff, Thursday, March 31, 2011

BEIRUT: Psychological problems of employers are a leading cause of violence or abuse perpetrated against domestic workers in Lebanon, according to an European Union-funded report published Wednesday.

While existing social prejudice and legal loopholes allow for such behavior, the personal mental problems of the “madame” are also responsible, said “An Exploratory Study of Psychoanalytic and Social Factors in the Abuse of Migrant Domestic Workers by Female Employers in Lebanon.”

Mistreatment in childhood and childhood trauma, self-loathing, paranoia, gender identity issues and obsessive-compulsive disorders are among the issue

Lebanese society is deeply racist and must tackle discrimination, report says

By Simona Sikimic, Daily Star staff, Tuesday, March 22, 2011

BEIRUT: An EU-funded report released Monday has criticized Lebanese society for rampant racism perpetrated against an estimated 1 million migrant workers in the country and upheld by gaps and loopholes in national law.

“There is an urgent need for developing meaningful strategies to address racist harassment, stereotyping and discrimination,” said the “Culture of Racism in Lebanon” study compiled by Italian Solidarity in the World (COSV) and a collection of leading Lebanese human rights NGOs.

Lebanese authorities must clearly define racism in legislation, identify the number of cases, set out legal consequences and judicial mechanisms to prosecute

Mme Najem advises Lebanese women on the subject of Domestic workers, and she has a lot to say

If you think Mme Najem is over-acting, read this: http://ethiopiansuicides.blogspot.com/2010/08/blog-post_31.html

"Why is your daughter black?"

Our first question when we considered this call to Lebanon was, “Will we be safe?”  The second question was, “How will our African daughter be treated in Lebanon?"

Continue reading here: http://web.me.com/wesleytillett/Site/Blog/Entries/2010/10/17_Ethiopians_in_Lebanon.html

From the Daily Star: Lebanon's dirty laundry

Friday, October 01, 2010, by Diana Nemeh
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=119880

How dirty is your laundry? Maybe I should ask your maid and quite possibly she will air out information dirtier than your clothes. Yes, I am referring to the treatment these workers are subjected to that reminds me of history class in the United States when I used to read about slavery.

Lebanon has justified modern-day slavery with contracts and cultural prejudice. These workers are bought and sold, their passports confiscated, wages withheld, worked from 6 am until midnight, denied food and exploited mentally, physically and sexually. Yet when you have visitors over, you tell them she is like your sister. The mentality in Lebanese society

Minister of Labor to Human Rights Watch: Your report harms Lebanon's image and reputation

In an answer typical of the inferiority complex of many Lebanese towards the "West", the minister of Labor replied to the report on Access to Justice for migrant domestic workers by claiming that it harms the image of Lebanon and disfigures it. The minister added that the Ministry of Labor is committed to protecting the rights of migrant workers in Lebanon.

In Al-Akhbar's coverage of this issue, we also read that the minister declared that 114,000 migrant domestic workers work legally in Lebanon, and 86,000 are without legal residency.

Rights activists replied to the minister saying "the report is on the judiciary and access to justice for migrant domestic workers, not about your ministry." And they asked whether the minister wants to put a cover on the issue of mistreatment of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon.

Full Al-Akhbar article in Arabic available here: http://ethiopiansuicides.blogspot.com/2010/09/blog-post_29.html

Already, the presence of the representative of the minister of labor at the conference launching the report two weeks ago was useless. He went to great length to defend the ministry's work as if they were in the accusation box, instead of exploring ways to strengthen the legal and judicial protection of migrant domestic workers.

Zina comics draws Coussouma, the wonderful housekeeper

Coussouma à la plage / at the beach (2 August 2010)

Coussouma world cup Emergency Room! (11 July 2010)

Lebanese Women, Diet, and housekeepers (01 February 2010)

Lebanese 80s TV series features dark skinned migrant: No racism back then?

Al Mouaallima Wal Oustaz (The teacher and the professor) is a popular Lebanese TV series made during the 80s, Starring Ibrahim Meraachli, Hind Abi-Llama and Layla Karam.
Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Mouaallima_Wal_Oustaz_(The_teacher_and_the_professor)
I was surprise (almost shocked) to see that they had on the front row of the class a dark skinned migrant. Albeit in a silent role. I doubt that, if they were producing this series today, they would they have kept the dark skinned migrant in the series at all. The evolution of the Lebanese mind is really puzzles me.

Servant, Daughter or Employee? A Pilot Study on the Attitudes of Lebanese Employers towards Migrant Domestic Workers

As part of the project: “Stop the Exploitation of Migrant Domestic Workers”, in partnership with the Danish Refugee Council and KVINFO, KAFA (enough) Violence and Exploitation, launched a study entitled “Servant, Daughter or Employee? A Pilot Study on the Attitudes of Lebanese Employers towards Migrant Domestic Workers”  under the patronage of His Excellency Minister of Labor Sheikh Boutros Harb. The event took place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Beirut, on Wednesday, June 23rd of 2010.

The Researcher, Dr. Sawsan Abdulrahim presented the findings of the study which unveiled some of the attitudes and practices of Lebanese employers towards migrant domestic workers thought to be normative but which also constitute violations of their human and labor rights. The study did not focus on the severe forms of physical exploitation and violence that many domestic workers suffer, but on other practices and perceptions that enforce employers’

One more Lebanese beach story

The following is a text published by Khouloud Na. on the wall of the Facebook Group Support Rights of Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon yesterday. I'm reproducing it as is.

I was trying to comment this on the video on ethiopian suicide blog but i couldn't cause i don't have an account:

Once we were in Saint George beach club and there was a family sitting near us with their teen-age handicapped brother. They came to lebanon to spend the summer vacation. An African nurse accompanied him from their home residence abroad to here cause he needs 24/24 hour assistance. Soon as he wanted to swim she went with him in the water to help him out. She's the only one who knows how to hold him and to make him swim.

But before her neck reached the surface of the water, the life guard blew his whistle hard. I thought someone is drowning but i was shocked to see him telling her that she can't get into the pool. The guy's young sister went to him and asked him why is that, but he said she's not allowed to get in the pool. She then went to the main office to ask ... See Moreabout that, she thought it's because she was wearing shorts and a t-shirt rather than swimming suits, but they told her it's because her colour is black and the Lebanese people "would get disgusted". She couldn't swim, neither he could. They stayed under the hot sun... (pools pools everywhere and not one to drop in!) This mentallity is the handicapped mentallity of the lebanese society and we do need assistance!

Wear your “Yes Madam” t-shirt today!

As part of their anti-racism movement campaign, IndyACT has produced a line of t-shirts entitled “End Modern Day Slavery” with front images and text including:

• Migrant Domestic Workers are dying at a rate of ONE per week
• “Yes Madame” employment agency. Sri Lankan, Ethiopian, Nepalese, Filipina.
• My Sri Lankan is Ethiopian, your Sri Lankan is from where?

The “Yes Madame” employment agency is a REAL agency located at Hamra. The “My Sri Lankan is…” is a pejorative expression often repeated by some Lebanese whereby they refer to any migrant worker as an automatic “Sri Lankan”, regardless of nationality. The word is used as a noun depicting “maids” instead of an adjective depicting nationality.

T-shirts available in 3 sizes, and cost 10 USD as a contribution to IndyACT’s campaign in support of migrant domestic workers. To order the t-shirts, email Comms at indyact dot org
IndyACT offices located in Gemayzeh, Beirut.

Asharq Al Awsat: "Lebanon: Nobody's There…Don't Call"

Lebanon: Nobody's There…Don't Call, 28/06/2010,  by Hussein Shobokshi
Full article: http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=21451

Quote:

Lebanon is indeed a country of wonders! However complains of migrant workers being mistreated is not something limited to the Lebanese, but also Ethiopians, other African countries, Sri Lankans, Egyptians, and Syrians, have also faced similar accusations. So of course the Lebanese are not the only ones who have contrived to treat others badly, this is a defect that different Middle Eastern countries share, and is something that reflects an imbalance between regimes and laws that need to be activated and applied on the ground. However the Lebanese case remains interesting due to the fragility and vulnerability of Lebanese society. I do not know the future of the Lebanese service and tourist industries (which the Lebanese are extremely proud of today) if the third world migrant workers abandon it! These workers are employed in offices, kitchens, gas stations, storehouses, warehouses, garages, and other fields that the Lebanese no longer consent to work in. This is something that would result in these industries declining, or perhaps even being destroyed

The Sudanese workers crisis, and the Lebanese government's mishandling of this, is unacceptable for a country that has always boasted of its liberties and civil rights. I wonder if these migrant workers would have received the same treatment if they were from France, Canada, or Italy? Therefore, this is my advice to the Sudanese brothers; change your nationality in Lebanon to Ukrainian, and you will see the difference.