UPDATE (1/31/10): Comments are closed on this post, due to general commenter insanity.
Emotions have run hot in the aftermath of the Ethiopian Airlines crash, and this has resulted in some visceral exchanges between Ethiopians and Lebanese. If it wasn’t already evident, this episode has made clear that there is a great deal of anger on both sides, but especially on behalf of Ethiopians, who feel deeply mistreated and abused by the Lebanese. Rather than opine more on this, I thought I’d just pull a few of the more evocative comments I received from my earlier blog post (in which I challenged the easy assessment of all Lebanese as racist).
Firstly, daCaptain provides links to the Ethiopian Facebook memorials: two of them.
D. Asad wrote:
Racism has always been an issue in Lebanon; in particular the abuse of its domestic workers. What would not be ethical reporting would be for this discrimination to be covered up yet again. Remember, it was not just Lebanese nationals on the plane. For non-Lebanese to not only have lost their loved ones, but to also be denied the same access to information and compassion that is being showed to the Lebanese victims makes the tragedy even worse.
All effected families and friends are watching the news and reading the papers for information on this tragedy; not just the Lebanese. If coverage, support, and compassion are not shown equally to all then racism is obvious, and it is the duty of any honest and ethical reporter to share this information.
Ras Mitat counters the notion that the treatment of Ethiopians in Lebanon has any parallel in Western countries:
Are you kidding?
Ethiopian Airlines was at one point flying out of Beirut with 2 bodies each week of young Ethiopian housemaids. Lebanese authorities do nothing. Walk to the Ethiopian Consulate in Beirut and you’ll see escaped housemaids looking for shelter, after years of physical and sexual abuse. Check women’s prison and see how many housemaids were picked up homeless after running away from abuse.
Dr. Nayla Moukarbel offers an academic perspective:
You are right, it is not merely a question of racism; things are indeed more complex (and grey)than commonly portrayed. The ‘dehumanization’ as you mention of these women renders them invisible (and this, paradoxically, despite their high visibility since they are for most women of colour). The domestic worker is limited to her ‘serving position’, her personality, identity and even being are erased.
I talk about the complex dynamics involved in the Madame/housemaid relationship and the rules that govern it in my book: ‘Sri Lankan Housemaids in Lebanon: A Case of ‘Symbolic Violence’ and ‘Everyday Forms of Resistance’.
And the feeling of mistreatment runs deep — irredeemably, it would seem — for Ethiopian Girl:
I would not be surprised if the plane was rocketed, the Arab people have no mercy when it comes to human life they think every one has an Arab life (cheap human life).low life bastards hope they rot in hell R.I.P to the Ethiopian brother and sisters.
It’s clear this is not an issue that can be ignored, or go away easily. The sense of righteous outrage is powerful.
Joshua Hersh
Joshua Hersh is a writer who lives in Beirut. He was previously a fact-checker at the New Yorker, and his work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New Republic, the National (Abu Dhabi), and the New York Times. You can see ...
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Lebnene says:
It is sad but it is true. Lebanese are very racist and think that they are the best. I am 100% Lebanese, grew up there but I have been living in the US for over 10 years. I admit that I was a racist too. I mean a Chinese, Scandinavian or even any foreign national that does not look like us is starred on while walking the streets of Beirut, not to mention that automaticaly everyone thinks he is stupid - even if it was Bill Gates himself! Now who to blame? In my opinion ignorance and lack of education is one of the main reasons for this abnormal social behaviour and misconception. Racisim is nor only towarda housekeepers. There is also a deep seeded anger in every Lebanese, and house keepers are an easy way to air it out since no one will do a thing about it. RIP all the victims. It is said but it is true.
Mirella Abdel Sater McCracken says:
Very nice article. As a Domestic Worker's Right activist myself, I really appreciate when foreigners show interest in the subject, thank you Joshua.
I like Dr. Moukarbel's opinion very much as well.
By the way I joined you on twitter. You can join me too, if you would like, or read my blog http://mirellamccracken.wordpress.com/ might be interesting for you. Good luck!
Nejat says:
Until now the main issue was ignored. The only thing this plane accident done is killing 90 people out of which 52 are Lebanese. But for Ethiopian it is nothing but is has brought in to world attention is what happening everyday in each house in Lebanon behind the screen. Every day Ethiopians have been harassed, jailed, boiled with boiling water, killed and imprisoned when they try to escape. It is the Lebanese who commit all this atrocities of course with the knowledge of the government. The same thing is happening now on the conspiracy.
It is know that the Air Traffic Controller let the plane into the very fierce thunder and lightning storm. Many suggest that the plane is already in the strong storm while receiving the message from the ATC.
The AT controller is too late to tell to the pilot of the ascending plane to change its direction. So, what can the pilot do with guidance out of time?
Was it better to tell the pilot to change its direction away after letting him into a heavy tender storm or was it good to delay the takeoff for some times until the heave the heavy storm passes by? But it is also not clear whether the ATC told the pilot to change its direction ways from the storm or to the opposite.
Based on action we have seen it until now, it seems that the Lebanon officials are redirecting the causes and effects of the accident and blame the dead pilots of that poor country starting from the second day. In the first day, they told us the cause was a bad weather condition. So, we did not expect a fair and different result from examination of data recorder, different from what the officials had been telling us so far. This is mainly because the Lebanese officials, who are the main examiners of the data are already concluded the causes of the accident. The Ethiopians dose not have the technical capability, the situational accesses, the instrument, the know how to interpret the data into meaningful information…etc in the process of conducting the examination. So, what the poor Christian Ethiopians has to do is wait truth from their Christian God. According to their Christian faith, always GOD see in everywhere, what had already happened, has happened and will happen.
fu fa says:
First of all, the ignorance, racism and cruelity of Arabs and Lebanese in particular is not a breaking news. This is a well known fact almost more than three decades by Ethiopians. Under normal course of deplomacy, the Ethiopian government is the one who was supposed to protect its nationals. Though daily (frequent) slaughter of its nationals, the Ethiopian officials are not interested to place travel ban to Lebanon even for a week. Why?
According to close observers, there is a wide range of corruption involved in such human trafficking from which the Ethiopian officials also benefit.
What a shame!!!
Bou Le Fou says:
I cannot believe my eyes reading the comments from the bloggers. why not leave all the hatred that everyone is portraying to each other's race, religion and nationality and pray for those who died?
Racism in Lebanon is pure ignorance.. personally I have not met any Chinese person in my entire life until i reached 23 of age. Lebanon is a small, closed community that is slowly opening its doors to different cultures and nationalities, even religions.
Look into the history of the US, UK, France and so many other countries. Discrimination and racism is still found nowadays in all of those countries and it is healthy to talk about it. No need to get angry at each other and hate each other.
LOVE TO ALL! RIP TO ALL VICTIMS OF THE CRASH!
UN says:
I will conduct several dialogues with the Ethiopian Community. Awareness through many social media outlets and a documentary. Be prepared Lebanon no Ethics that is a problem.
Joshua Hersh says:
I have deleted comments that I consider inappropriate and counterproductive -- mainly, that is, the ones that called for the extermination of one culture or another. This is not that place for that kind crap.