Archive for July 19th, 2016
Lebanon theatre director Mounir Abou Debs passed away at 88.
Il a régné en monarque héraldique sur l’âge d’or du théâtre libanais, et ce n’est guère par hasard qu’on l’a surnommé, en 1960, le père du théâtre libanais.
Une époque qui connaissait alors le répit, la paix, l’opulence et était propice à l’éclosion de nouveaux talents et à la création.
Après des études de beaux-arts à Paris et la fréquentation des cercles d’acteurs autour de la Sorbonne, Beyrouth, vivier de découvertes et société cosmopolite aux personnages interlopes, est une étape d’expérimentation et de succès.
Pour un théâtre certes avant-gardiste mais bien perçu jusqu’alors par un public bien pensant. Et c’est la fructueuse collaboration avec le Festival de Baalbeck dans les années 70.
De cette union heureuse naîtront des spectacles au grand air qui marqueront les esprits. Dont un chapelet de titres restés dans la mémoire de ceux qui ont connu le temps des pétrodollars : Œdipe, Les rois de Thèbes, Le roi se meurt, Faust…
Innovations audacieuses et mysticisme
Et puis, sans crier gare, virage imprévu chez le metteur en scène et le dramaturge.
Rupture, sans éclat précis, avec Baalbeck, pour une route solitaire et inédite. Mounir Abou Debs, au faîte de sa gloire, vire du côté du yoga, de Stanislavski, et harponne le théâtre dit de divertissement ou consumériste.
Il s’oppose farouchement aux vaudevilles triomphants et aux tartes à la crème insipides. Et il s’érige en défenseur d’un théâtre singulièrement grave, pointant le doigt sur une spiritualité éthérée, solennel et grandiloquent dans sa simplicité dépouillée.
Comme celui de l’Antiquité avec un rôle plus que prépondérant pour l’acteur, pivot et âme de ce qui vibre et vibrionne sous les spots. D’ailleurs, on retient cette formule lapidaire qu’il avait un jour lancée à l’auditoire : « Pas de sens au texte dans le théâtre. L’acteur c’est le théâtre. »
Nadine Feghaly shared this link. Barcelona, Spain ·
Rest in peace Mounir Abour Debs, “Legendary Lebanese writer/director and theater pioneer”.
you taught me how to breathe properly and profoundly, how to be present, how to connect with my inner voice and make it travel around and touch others, how to hear and touch others’ energy…
I am very grateful to have known you! Theater classes with you were life changing experiences… i will never forget the gathering around the fire outside, under the tree, the candle lights and… smell as we sing inside the old silk factory/theatre and your beautiful smile, eyes, and all the gifts you offered to our souls…
i’m sure you will always be around somewhere between the tree and that theater…
Thank you! i wish you a beautiful flight! Mounir Abou Debs Mounir Abou Debs
Et c’est la brèche, superbe magie et torrent d’innovations audacieuses, pour une expression nouvelle habitée de mysticisme, de silence, de déclamation, d’emphase à la ponctuation scandée ou psalmodiée, de gestes étudiés et parcimonieux, de chœur, de teintes soufies, de poésie impalpable, chuchotée ou éructée en trombes de lamentations.
C’est la période faste d’al-Tawafan (Le déluge) où se marient en grande pompe le Cantique des Cantiques, les psaumes, le sermont sur le mont des Oliviers, le rituel, le cérémonial…
Et le public, envoûté, a largement mordu à cet univers se déployant telle une vision et une fresque, soyeuse et apocalyptique. Grâce surtout au talent d’une kyrielle d’acteurs qui ont trouvé inspiration et puissance créatrice dans le giron du maître de la magnanerie de Freykeh, vaste espace sans décor aucun, balayé par une pénombre éclairée aux chandelles et aux photophores…
Une magie et une féerie nouvelles, au-delà du visible, sont nées du talent de l’acteur libéré d’un texte qui le conditionnait et le muselait.
Et on cite, dans ce sillage scintillant, Reda Khoury, Mireille Maalouf (à l’époque on courait pour l’applaudir dans sa lévitation et ses murmures scéniques !), Antoine Kerbage qui ne haussait pas encore le ton jusqu’à écorcher les oreilles comme si le public était atteint de surdité, Joseph Bou Nassar qui ne faisait pas ses minauderies sur petit et grand écran…
Dans la même veine, viennent allonger la liste l’œuvre frémissante sur Gebran, l’éblouissant mystère de Jésus, L’heure du loup, Babel…
Quand la guerre a tout éclaboussé et fracassé au sein des frontières libanaises, Mounir Abou Debs, en 1976, s’en est allé à La Rochelle. Et là le travail a pris de la maturité car la navette avec le pays d’origine ne s’est jamais arrêtée.
Et le bâton de pèlerin du dramaturge, barbe blanche, regard pétillant, mot juste et béret vissé sur la tête, a agrandi le cercle des amateurs d’un théâtre qui se déploie, incantatoire, grandiose dans sa modestie (on serait presque tenté de dire sa pauvreté !), d’une lenteur de fleuve profond et imposant, tel un retentissant poème gravé sur le mur du vent…
Toutefois, par-delà cette école à la pédagogie particulière fondée pour gainer la pulsion des jeunes acteurs émergents, avec le temps, tout se démode. Ce théâtre reste un beau souvenir dans la mémoire des mordus des planches, même si aujourd’hui, en cette période de tornade et de rapidité hystérisée, il n’a plus les faveurs d’antan. C’est, malgré tout, un moment de grâce intouchable, rédempteur.
En toute abnégation, détermination, ténacité et tout courage, Mounir Abou Debs aura servi le théâtre, pour plus d’un demi-siècle, avec zèle et passion. Il lui a donné le meilleur de lui-meme.
Adonis Bouhatab shared Maya Sebaaly‘s post.
“الشراشف السود خبّت الحيط النيلي،اليوم عيد ما حدا بيحكي حدا, يلا خلينا نجمد، نبتسم، بعد هالصّورة قبل ما تعتّم الدني ”
“الموت, متل كل انسان بفتّش عليه, متل كل ان…سان بيسحرني …” (اشارات في الليل لمنير ابو دبس 2000 (
هودي بعض من الصّور يلّي كنا ناخدن ايام العيد يعني بعد كل عرض مسرحي بالفريكة وغيرها, كنا نجمد, نبتسم وناخد بعد صورة قبل ما تعتّم الدني.
ضلينا نجمد, نبتسم وناخد صور سنة ورا سنة عمل بعد عمل لحد ما “سحرك الموت”
وعتّم المسرح و”عتّمت الدني”
منير ابو دبس, استاذ منير, استاذي ما رح ودّعك لأنك رح تكون معي كل مرّة رح اطلع على خشبة المسرح
Rossana Bou Absi Sabine Ojeil Tarek Kannish Lucien Bourjeily Lucien Bourjeily Soraya Malaeb Chantal Al Akkary Nizar Ghanem Natalie Akkary Nadim Aridi Joumana Salem Mounir Abou Debs Celine Abi Nader Daisy Lattouf Fady Mansour
Comparing Terrorism in West with the rest of the word?
Thursday’s attack on Bastille Day celebrations in Nice is the third mass-casualty assault to hit France in 18 months, and the largest single attack on a Western country since November of last year, when gunmen rampaged through Paris, killing 130.
More than a month ago, a gunman stormed into a gay nightclub in Orlando and killed 49 people. The gunman, Omar Mateen, spoke with a 911 operator on the phone and pledged his loyalty to the Islamic State. The event was both a terrorist attack and the largest mass shooting in U.S. history.
The death tolls of attacks in Western countries pale in comparison to daily attacks in other parts of the world.
In a few frenzied days in late June and early July, three Islamic-State-linked attacks killed over 350 people.
On June 28, three attackers detonated their suicide vests at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport and killed 45 people. On July 1, Bangladesh suffered its worst terrorist attack in history when gunmen killed 20 hostages at a Dhaka restaurant.
On July 3, nearly 300 died in a busy Baghdad shopping district, the Karrada.
(Click to check the graphs By Lazaro Gamio and Tim Meko)
Marj Henningsen shared this link
Thanks for posting John Bernson. It’s good to be reminded of the tragedies happening outside the US and Europe that go largely unnoticed by most Americans. Also the vast majority of victims of groups like ISIS are Muslims.
In northeastern Nigeria, Islamic-State-affiliated Boko Haram has been forced out of much of the territory it once controlled, but it continues to carry out suicide bombings in the region. The group has carried out increasingly deadly campaigns in recent years, with 2015 being the deadliest.
(The news obscured the deadly massacre of the Nigerian forces against 1,000 Chiaa Nigerians)
[The brutal toll of Boko Haram’s attacks on civilians]
In Syria and Iraq, the local populace bears the brunt of the Islamic State’s brutality, with suicide bombings and armed assaults a common occurrence. The group has stepped up attacks in recent months, as its territory in northern and western Iraq has diminished.
[Inside ISIS: Quietly preparing for the loss of the ‘caliphate’]
In Afghanistan, an increasingly fragmented Taliban is stepping up its operations. On June 30, two suicide bombers attacked a convoy entering Kabul and killed 30 police cadets, one of many attacks against security force convoys. Just over a week prior, a suicide bomber killed 14 Nepali and Indian security guards; both the Taliban and the Islamic State took credit for the bombing.
[The fight against the Taliban is going better than expected]
Outside large attacks in France and Belgium, attacks in eastern Ukraine account for most terrorism casualties in Europe, according to Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center.
In the Americas, recent Islamic-State-inspired mass shootings make up the lion’s share of the terrorism-related deaths. Aside from that, a few scattered attacks from guerrilla groups in Colombia and Peru and some scattered violence in the Caribbean caused a handful of deaths.
Notable attacks
April 2, 2015
Garissa, Kenya – Al-Shabab militants stormed dormitories at a university in eastern Kenya, killing at least 147 people. It was the worst terror attack on Kenyan soil in nearly two decades.
June 25, 2015
Kobane, Syria – Militants stormed into this Syrian Kurdish town, killing scores of people five months after the extremists were pushed out of the area with the help of U.S.-led airstrikes.
June 26, 2015
Sousse, Tunisia – A gunman killed 39 people – largely British tourists – at a beach resort north of the city of Sousse. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, the worst of its kind in Tunisian history.
July 17, 2015
Diyala, Iraq – A suicide bomber drove a truck bomb into a market in Iraq’s eastern province of Diyala as it was packed with families making preparations for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. At least 130 were killed in what was at that point the Islamic State’s worst single bomb attack in the country.
Aug. 6, 2015
Abha, Saudi Arabia – An affiliate of the Islamic State asserted responsibility for a suicide bombing at a mosque in the southern Saudi city of Abha that killed 15 people. Most of the dead were members of a local SWAT force who were praying when the attack happened.
Oct. 10, 2015
Ankara, Turkey – Twin bombs ripped through a peace rally in the Turkish capital, Ankara, killing about 100 people, largely Kurdish and Turkish leftist activists. Turkey blamed the Islamic State for the attack, though the group did not assert responsibility.
Nov. 12, 2015
Beirut, Lebanon – Two Islamic State suicide bombers blew themselves up at a crowded area in a southern suburb of Beirut, killing as many as 43 people. It was the worst terrorist attack in Lebanon since the country’s 15-year civil war, which ended in 1990.
Nov. 20, 2015
Bamako, Mali – Gunmen seized a luxury hotel, killing at least 20 people in an attack claimed by an al-Qaeda affiliate.
March 27, 2016
Lahore, Pakistan – A suicide bomber killed more than 70 people, including many children, on Easter in an amusement park in Lahore.
May 11, 2016
Baghdad – Nearly 100 people were killed in three bombings in the Iraqi capital claimed by Islamic State. The worst struck a market in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, which was followed by attacks on checkpoints a few hours later.
June 28, 2016
Istanbul, Turkey – A brazen assault by three suicide bombers at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport killed more than 40 people. Turkish officials blamed Sunni extremists for the attack.
July 1, 2016
Dhaka, Bangladesh – A siege at a cafe in Dhaka leaves 23 people dead. Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority country, has dealt with Islamist extremist attacks since its independence in 1971.
July 3, 2016
Baghdad, Iraq – More than 250 people were killed in a suicide bombing at a busy Baghdad shopping street in the Islamic State’s deadliest-ever bomb attack on civilians. It was one of the worst bombings Iraq has seen since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
July 4, 2016
Saudi Arabia – Suicide bombers with suspected links to the Islamic State attacked three locations as part of a coordinated campaign of worldwide bombings coinciding with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Four security guards died in one of the attacks, the Interior Ministry said.
Sources: IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center, Staff Reports. Additional research by Loveday Morris, Hugh Naylor and Tiffany Harness. Note: As of July 14, there were 94 attack fatalities in the West andd 663 elsewhere. In a previous version of this article, the top-level totals excluded the partial July data.
Lessons on success from an Arab businesswoman: Leila Hoteit
Professional Arab women juggle more responsibilities than their male counterparts, and they face more cultural rigidity than Western women.
What can their success teach us about tenacity, competition, priorities and progress?
Tracing her career as an engineer, advocate and mother in Abu Dhabi, Leila Hoteit shares three lessons for thriving in the modern world.
Leila Hoteit. Women’s advocate
“Mom, who are these people?” It was an innocent question from my young daughter Alia around the time when she was three.
We were walking along with my husband in one of Abu Dhabi’s big fancy malls. Alia was peering at a huge poster standing tall in the middle of the mall. It featured the three rulers of the United Arab Emirates. As she tucked in my side, I bent down and explained that these were the rulers of the UAE who had worked hard to develop their nation and preserve its unity.
She asked, “Mom, why is it that here where we live, and back in Lebanon, where grandma and grandpa live, we never see the pictures of powerful women on the walls? Is it because women are not important?”
0:55 This is probably the hardest question I’ve had to answer in my years as a parent and in my 16-plus years of professional life, for that matter.
I had grown up in my hometown in Lebanon, the younger of two daughters to a very hard-working pilot and director of operations for the Lebanese Airlines and a super-supportive stay-at-home mom and grandma.
My father had encouraged my sister and I to pursue our education even though our culture emphasized at the time that it was sons and not daughters who should be professionally motivated.
I was one of very few girls of my generation who left home at 18 to study abroad. My father didn’t have a son, and so I, in a sense, became his.
Reine Azzi shared this link
Love her no-nonsense attitude when discussing this. This talk goes out to every woman I know, all over the world, battling society’s ‘expectations’.
1:41 Fast-forward a couple of decades, and I hope I didn’t do too badly in making my father proud of his would-be son. As I got my Bachelor’s and PhD in electrical engineering, did R&D in the UK, then consulting in the Middle East, I have always been in male-dominated environments.
Truth be told, I have never found a role model I could truly identify with. My mother’s generation wasn’t into professional leadership. There were some encouraging men along the way, but none knew the demands and pressures I was facing, pressures that got particularly acute when I had my own two beautiful children.
And although Western women love to give us poor, oppressed Arab women advice, they live different lives with different constraints.
Arab women of my generation have had to become our own role models. We have had to juggle more than Arab men, and we have had to face more cultural rigidity than Western women.
As a result, I would like to think that we poor, oppressed women actually have some useful, certainly hard-earned lessons to share, lessons that might turn out useful for anyone wishing to thrive in the modern world. Here are three of mine.
2:55 [“Convert their sh*t into your fuel.”]
There is this word that everybody is touting as the key to success: resilience. Well, what exactly is resilience, and how do you develop it? I believe resilience is simply the ability to transform shit into fuel.
In my previous job, well before my current firm, I was working with a man we will call John. I had teamed up with John and was working hard, hoping he would notice how great I was and that he would come to support my case to make partner at the firm.
I was, in addition to delivering on my consulting projects, writing passionately on the topic of women economic empowerment.
One day, I got to present my research to a roomful of MBA students. John was part of the audience listening for the first time to the details of my study. As I proceeded with my presentation, I could see John in the corner of my eye. He had turned a dark shade of pink and had slid under his chair in apparent shame.
I finished my presentation to an applauding audience and we rushed out and jumped into the car. There he exploded. “What you did up there was unacceptable! You are a consultant, not an activist!”
I said, “John, I don’t understand. I presented a couple of gender parity indices, and some conclusions about the Arab world. Yes, we do happen to be today at the bottom of the index, but what is it that I said or presented that was not factual?”
To which he replied, “The whole premise of your study is wrong. What you are doing is dangerous and will break the social fabric of our society.” He paused, then added, “When women have children, their place is in the home.”
Time stood still for a long while, and all I could think and repeat in the chaos of my brain was: “You can forget about that partnership, Leila. It’s just never going to happen.”
It took me a couple of days to fully absorb this incident and its implications, but once I did, I reached three conclusions.
One, that these were his issues, his complexes. There may be many like him in our society, but I would never let their issues become mine.
Two, that I needed another sponsor, and fast. I got one, by the way, and boy, was he great.
And three, that I would get to show John what women with children can do.
I apply this lesson equally well to my personal life. As I have progressed in my career, I have received many words of encouragement, but I have also often been met by women, men and couples who have clearly had an issue with my husband and I having chosen the path of a dual-career couple.
you get this well-meaning couple who tells you straight out at a family gathering or at a friends gathering, that, come on, you must know you’re not a great mom, given how much you’re investing in your career, right?
I would lie if I said these words didn’t hurt. My children are the most precious thing to me, and the thought that I could be failing them in any way is intolerable.
But just like I did with John, I quickly reminded myself that these were their issues, their complexes. So instead of replying, I gave back one of my largest smiles as I saw, in flashing light, the following sign in my mind’s eye.
6:26 [Be happy, it drives people crazy.]
You see, as a young woman in these situations, you have two options.
You can either decide to internalize these negative messages that are being thrown at you, to let them make you feel like a failure, like success is way too hard to ever achieve, or you can choose to see that others’ negativity is their own issue, and instead transform it into your own personal fuel.
I have learned to always go for option two, and I have found that it has taken me from strength to strength. And it’s true what they say: success is the best revenge.
Some women in the Middle East are lucky enough to be married to someone supportive of their career. Correction: I should say “smart enough,” because who you marry is your own choice, and you’d better marry someone supportive if you plan to have a long career.
Still today, the Arab man is not an equal contributor in the home. It’s simply not expected by our society, and even frowned upon as not very manly.
As for the Arab woman, our society still assumes that her primary source of happiness should be the happiness and prosperity of her children and husband. She mostly exists for her family. Things are changing, but it will take time.
For now, it means that the professional Arab woman has to somehow maintain the perfect home, make sure that her children’s every need is being taken care of and manage her demanding career.
To achieve this, I have found the hard way that you need to apply your hard-earned professional skills to your personal life. You need to work your life.
Here is how I do this in my personal life.
One thing to know about the Middle East is that nearly every family has access to affordable domestic help. The challenge therefore becomes how to recruit effectively.
Just like I would in my business life, I have based the selection of who would support me with my children while I’m at work on a strong referral.
Cristina had worked for four years with my sister and the quality of her work was well-established. She is now an integral member of our family, having been with us since Alia was six months old. She makes sure that the house is running smoothly while I’m at work, and I make sure to empower her in the most optimal conditions for her and my children, just like I would my best talent at work.
This lesson applies whatever your childcare situation, whether an au pair, nursery, part-time nanny that you share with someone else. Choose very carefully, and empower.
If you look at my calendar, you will see every working day one and a half hours from 7pm to 8:30pm UAE time blocked and called “family time.” This is sacred time.
I have done this ever since Alia was a baby. I do everything in my power to protect this time so that I can be home by then to spend quality time with my children, asking them about their day, checking up on homework, reading them a bedtime story and giving them lots of kisses and cuddles.
If I’m traveling, in whatever the time zone, I use Skype to connect with my children even if I am miles away. Our son Burhan is five years old, and he’s learning to read and do basic maths.
Here’s another confession: I have found that our daughter is actually more successful at teaching him these skills than I am.
It started as a game, but Alia loves playing teacher to her little brother, and I have found that these sessions actually improve Burhan’s literacy, increase Alia’s sense of responsibility, and strengthen the bonding between them, a win-win all around.
The successful Arab women I know have each found their unique approach to working their life as they continue to shoulder the lion’s share of responsibility in the home.
But this is not just about surviving in your dual role as a career woman and mother.
This is also about being in the present. When I am with my children, I try to leave work out of our lives. Instead of worrying about how many minutes I can spend with them every day, I focus on turning these minutes into memorable moments, moments where I’m seeing my kids, hearing them, connecting with them.
10:48 [“Join forces, don’t compete.”]
Arab women of my generation have not been very visible in the public eye as they grew up.
This explains, I think, to some extent, why you find so few women in politics in the Arab world. The upside of this, however, is that we have spent a lot of time developing a social skill behind the scenes, in coffee shops, in living rooms, on the phone, a social skill that is very important to success: networking.
I would say the average Arab woman has a large network of friends and acquaintances. The majority of those are also women.
In the West, it seems like ambitious women often compare themselves to other women hoping to be noticed as the most successful woman in the room. This leads to the much-spoken-about competitive behavior between professional women. If there’s only room for one woman at the top, then you can’t make room for others, much less lift them up.
Arab women, generally speaking, have not fallen for this psychological trap. Faced with a patriarchal society, they have found that by helping each other out, all benefit.
In my previous job, I was the most senior woman in the Middle East, so one could think that investing in my network of female colleagues couldn’t bring many benefits and that I should instead invest my time developing my relationships with male seniors and peers.
Yet two of my biggest breaks came through the support of other women.
It was the head of marketing who initially suggested I be considered as a young global leader to the World Economic Forum. She was familiar with my media engagements and my publications, and when she was asked to voice her opinion, she highlighted my name.
It was a young consultant, a Saudi lady and friend, who helped me sell my first project in Saudi Arabia, a market I was finding hard to gain traction in as a woman. She introduced me to a client, and that introduction led to the first of very many projects for me in Saudi.
Today, I have two senior women on my team, and I see making them successful as key to my own success. Women continue to advance in the world, not fast enough, but we’re moving.
The Arab world, too, is making progress, despite many recent setbacks.
Just this year, the UAE appointed five new female ministers to its cabinet, for a total of eight female ministers. That’s nearly 28 percent of the cabinet, and more than many developed countries can claim.
This is today my daughter Alia’s favorite picture. This is the result, no doubt, of great leadership, but it is also the result of strong Arab women not giving up and continuously pushing the boundaries.
It is the result of Arab women deciding every day like me to convert shit into fuel, to work their life to keep work out of their life, and to join forces and not compete.
As I look to the future, my hopes for my daughter when she stands on this stage some 20, 30 years from now are that she be as proud to call herself her mother’s daughter as her father’s daughter.
13:45 My hopes for my son are that by then, the expression “her mother’s son” or “mama’s boy” would have taken on a completely different meaning.
Adonis Diaries 