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Friday, 8 December 2006

Pitch black. A moment before, I was in a room with 25 people, and now I am nowhere. I didn't finish my sentence, but I was acutely aware that I was the only one interrupted by the darkness. This had happened every

half-hour since I got here. The power had only been on for a total of 5 minutes since I had arrived, and so I wondered why it still surprised me. It took a few moments more before I started to see the world around me. These faces are my aunts and their children - my family.

Nahr El-bared (The cold river) is a refugee camp of Palestinians from the north of Palestine, located beside Tripoli in Lebanon. My village, Saa'Saa, is represented here by the descendants of the several families that fled the Israeli attacks on their region in 1948. It is a time Palestinians collectively remember as the Nakbah - the Catastrophe. Dispossessed of their land and dignity, my grandmother and grandfather settled here in a tent, which eventually became a hut, which eventually became a shanty. Half a century after their dispossession, their children - my aunts - still live here.

The Lebanese government gives no support to Palestinian refugees. They forbid Palestinians from working in any but a handful of occupations that amount to low-wage labour jobs, despite the Palestinians having a relatively high level of education. One cousin is trained as a nurse working as a cashier. Another in mechanical engineering working as a taxi driver. It's a wonder any student will complete a degree.

As a backup fluorescent bulb turns on, I looked around the room and realized that all of those around me had lives that represented the dreams deferred that Langston Hughes toyed with. Today, my aunts and my cousins remain dispossessed of the land and opportunities that lay before my grandmother and grandfather. But the dignity that was taken from them at the point of the bayonet half a century ago has been reclaimed. I wonder if they don't have more of it than I.

tarek : )

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Photos:
Nahr El Bared, 1951Nahr El Bared, 1951

Saturday, 9 December 2006: Nahr El Bared refugee camp, Lebanon