Dancing to the rhythm of Lebanon’s Cedars

The "3,000 Years" track

Long ago, the French poet and historian Alphonse de Lamartine wrote, “The Cedars know the history of the earth better than history itself.”

This might well be true. The Cedars, it turns out, are into music too!

“3,000 Years” is the first track in history created using a rhythm extracted from inside a Lebanese Cedar tree in the Barouk Forest and is now the focal point of the “Save the Music” campaign for Cedar conservation in Lebanon.

Although a few weeks old, I was blown away by the sounds and had to share this.

The initiative to give the Cedar a voice for conservation was launched by the Lebanese Ministry of Environment, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education.

The Cedar tree's rhythm was extracted by Derek Shirley, a Canadian bioacoustics engineer based in Germany He extracted the audio data from the Cedar by hooking a synthesizer reading mechanism sensitive to electric movement in living organisms to the ancient tree.

“We've recently discovered that each tree species creates its own rhythm,” Shirley said in a YouTube video entitled “Save the Music -- Save the Cedars.” “As it turns out, the Lebanese Cedars are especially rhythmic,” he added.

After Shirley extracted the raw, rhythmic beat, Beirut-based DJ ESC (Ribal Rayess), in collaboration with Jad Jazzy Jay (Jade Hazim), used the raw sounds to compose a House track.

"At the beginning of the [original] track you can hear about 20 seconds of raw footage that make base sounds," Rayess told Beirut’s The Daily Star. "It blew my mind."

Rayess said the lyrics, sang by Marlene Jaber, were "simple" with the intent to unite Lebanese, regardless of sect, under the symbolic Cedar tree. "The words reminisce 3,000 years of the Cedars," he said. By downloading the track and sharing the video, you're not only acting to save Lebanon’s Cedars, you're buying a song that's been playing for 3,000 years.

The Barouk Forest Cedars

CEDAR PRIDE

This reminded me of a post I wrote in September 2012 about Lebanon’s Cedars fighting for their life. You can read the full post, Lebanon Cedars fight a “winter revolution,” but it said in part:

…Throughout antiquity, the Cedars of Lebanon were prized above all other trees. Their fine wood is strong, straight and wonderfully scented. Cedar wood was the first choice for any temple or palace.

These magnificent trees helped give the Phoenicians a high place among other nations, and became the symbol by which they and their descendants were known. Revered and admired, they stand for prosperity and national pride.

But the cherished Cedar Tree (Cedrus libani) is not well. It is fighting its own revolution against time. It is feeling the strains of centuries and is at risk from global warming and insects. It has now been added to the list of threatened species, although at the lowest level of threat, by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world’s oldest and largest global environmental organization.

In the past, Lebanese mountains were covered with Cedars. Sadly, all that is left today is 18 scattered patches of protected Cedar land. In total, protected forests (both Cedar and other) make up approximately four to eight percent of the Lebanese territory.

Alphonse de Lamartine visited the “Cedars of the Lord,” or Arz al-Rab near Bcharre, back in 1832. Putting a memorabilia on the trunk of a very old Cedar tree commemorated his visit.

Rudy Rahme's "Lamartine Cedar"

When it died, Lebanese Bcharre-born painter, sculptor and poet Rudy Rahme created the “Lamartine Cedar,” one of the most remarkable wooden and largest vegetal sculptures in the world. It stands 39 meters high and contains 70 human figures representing the relationship between time and place. Among the figures are the birth, life and death of Jesus.

Arz al-Rab are the oldest Cedars in Lebanon and give an accurate idea of the stature and splendor these trees attained in antiquity. About 375 Cedars of great age stand in a sheltered glacial pocket of Mount Makmel. Four of them, many hundreds of years old, have reached a height of 35 meters and their trunks are between 12 and 14 meters around. They have straight trunks and strong branches that spread their regular horizontal boughs like fans.

Also among the inhabitants of the forests are some thousand young trees. Concern for this modern remnant of historic Cedars goes back to 1876, when the 102-hectare grove was surrounded by a high stone wall. Financed by Queen Victoria, the wall protects against one of the Cedar's natural enemies -- the goats who enjoy feasting on young saplings.

Over the centuries, Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians made expeditions to Mount Lebanon for timber or extracted tributes of wood from the coastal cities of Canaan-Phoenicia.

The Phoenicians themselves made use of the Cedar, especially for their merchant fleets. Solomon requested large supplies of Cedar wood, along with architects and builders from King Hiram of Tyre to build his temple. Nebuchadnezzar boasted on a cuneiform inscription: "I brought for building, mighty Cedars, which I cut down with my pure hands on Mount Lebanon."

Its fragrance and durability, as well as the length of the great logs, made Cedar wood especially desirable.

The Egyptians used Cedar resin for mummification, and pitch was extracted from these trees for waterproofing and caulking.

Luckily, there is now an active program to conserve and regenerate the forests. The Lebanese approach has emphasized natural regeneration rather than planting, and this by creating the right conditions. Cedar and Nature Reserves created by the Lebanese state that contain Cedars include the Chouf Cedar Reserves, the Jaj Cedar Reserve, the Tannourine Reserve, the Ammouaa and Karm Shbat Reserves in the Akkar district, and Arz al-Rab forest.

In 1998, the Cedars of God were added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

Much more needs to be done to restore and preserve these proud, tall, strong symbols of Lebanon and its people. Lebanon’s Cedar needs all the help it can get. One step is to download the “Save the Music” track to donate:  http://vlrecords.bandcamp.com/releases

Related post:

Lebanon Cedar fights a “winter revolution” – September 12, 2012

“Safe to Speak?” Not yet…

The UN General Assembly declared May 3 to be World Press Freedom Day in 1993. I marked its 20^th anniversary this year as every year – recalling that 17 years earlier I was pining for such a marker after my soulmate and colleague was assassinated on 16 January 1976 during the Lebanon Civil War.

Yesterday, May 6, Lebanon also marked its Press Martyrs' Day.

The campaign against the Lebanese press throughout the civil war – the Internet didn’t exist – was relentless and cruel.

For emphasis, the cutting of victims’ fingers or hands often marked the killings. These were mostly executed by none other than the Syrian regime of Assad the father, whose son now carries on with the “craft” of killing journalists!

The gagging and atrocities against the media are something I lived with first hand. The fear was always there.

This is why, at Mich Café, I write about journalists, citizen journalists, bloggers and prisoners of conscience gone missing, jailed, tortured, raped and killed in Syria today.

“Safe to Speak: Securing Freedom of Expression in All Media?” is this year’s WPFD theme.

Not a chance!

Wth Najib Azzam and Koko Ohannes

The assassination in 1976 of Najib Azzam, who I thought I would spend the rest of my life with, was alas not the only one to affect me deeply.

Krikor Ohannes, who I worked closely with for 15 years at Monday Morning magazine, was another.

He was killed in 1986. Koko was our photographer and we went everywhere together, including to Amman for the wedding of Jordan’s King Hussein to Queen Noor in June 1978.

Most recently, and again at the hands of the Syrian regime, we lost Marie Colvin. We used to meet often on assignments in Tunisia and at various conferences. On our last meeting, we cooked spaghetti together. It remains one of the best.

The late Riad Taha, Salim al-Lawzi, Janet Stevens and Kamel Mroue

These assassinations are well documented in a series in my friend’s blog, ArabSaga.

He wrote a six-part series last year on “The cost of gagging Beirut”:

• The cost of gagging Beirut (1) -- 2 January 2012 – Kamel Mroue: He spoke his mind and went his way
• The cost of gagging Beirut (2) -- 6 January 2012 – Najib Azzam: A rendezvous with death
• The cost of gagging Beirut (3) -- 13 January 2012 – Salim al-Lawzi:  His dying thoughts
• The cost of gagging Beirut (4) -- 20 January 2012 – Riad Taha: A posthumous message
• The cost of gagging Beirut (5) -- 27 January 2012 – Janet Lee Stevens: American Arabist in “Slaughterhouse Lebanon”
• The cost of gagging Beirut (6) -- 28 February 2012 – Krikor Ohannes: The baby panda shot in the face

“Safe to Speak?” No.

There is no free press. It is difficult to get objective opinion and analysis. Maybe this is where blogs take over from traditional media in that you can read native writers on the ground, who understand a region, a culture, the language and can report on it.

World Press Freedom Day on May 3 celebrates the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who lost their lives in the exercise of their profession.

May 3 was proclaimed World Press Freedom Day at the UN General Assembly in 1993 following a Recommendation by African journalists in Namibia and adopted, as the Windhoek Declaration, at the 26th session of UNESCO's General Conference in 1991.

WPFD informs of violations of press freedom -- a reminder that in dozens of countries around the world, publications are censored, fined, suspended and closed down, while journalists, editors and publishers are harassed, attacked, detained and even murdered, UNESCO writes.

WPFD is also a day of remembrance for those journalists who lost their lives in the exercise of their profession.

The Windhoek perspective applies equally today to broadcasting and digital media platforms as mobile phones, the Internet and satellites are becoming more central to all communications.

In 2012 alone, UNESCO condemned the killings of 121 journalists -- almost double the annual figures of 2011 and 2010.

In addition, it says, there continues to be widespread harassment, intimidation, arbitrary arrest and online attacks on journalists in many parts of the world.

To compound the problem, the rate of impunity for crimes against journalists, media workers and social media producers remains extremely high.

World Press Freedom? Not yet, but we keep fighting for it.

We keep fighting for it to honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice and have lost their lives to relay the message.

Thank you, your words will stay alive.

Related posts:

Ambassador Tom Fletcher and Minister Alistair Burt marked World Press Freedom Day in a video message from Beirut

The Power of We… for education

It's Blog Action Day, the annual event when bloggers worldwide unite to write about one important global topic on the same day.

The theme for 2012 is, “The Power of We.”

Topics since the Day’s foundation in 2007 covered the environment, poverty, climate change, water and food. In 2010 and 2011, Mich Café participated in the latter two  (see links below).

Blog Action Day chose The Power of We because of the popularity of such subjects as community, equality, transparency, anti-corruption and freedom in a theme poll they ran via Facebook and Twitter. It also reflects the ever-growing movements of people working together for positive social change in the world.

The Power of We, or the lack thereof in many cases, keyed me up. I dragged my feet over the past few weeks in picking the angle to cover. But because I can only relate to equality and freedom of thought and expression through the power of education, that had to be my focus.

This choice was confirmed by two events over the past week: the dramatic shooting on October 9 of 14-year-old Pakistani student Malala Yousafzai for going to school and advocating for girls’ education; and the first International Day of the Girl Child on October 11.

Both events, through their reach and ripple, confirm that empowering girls means empowering societies as a whole. I would add that through proper education, boys would grow up to be equal partners on that journey.

Under Article 1 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

Furthermore, Article 26 proclaims:

(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Education is the only way we might see a fall in the number of child brides, the eventual abolition of Female Genital Mutilation, gender equality in the workplace and at home and hopefully racial and religious tolerance.

Malala Yousafzai

On October 9, a Taliban gunman shot Malala Yousafzai in the head and neck while she was returning home on a school bus. She remains unconscious and in critical condition.

I first heard about the attempted assassination, and indeed about Malala, from our Pakistani driver at work, who comes from that region. He rushed in to ask me to check on the Internet about the teenager’s condition. All of the community in Dubai was outraged and saddened by the attempt on the young girl’s life. And although a conservative, the Pakistani driver was full of admiration for what Malala stands for and what she is trying to achieve.

The Taliban gunman shot Malala as she heading home on the school bus after taking an exam in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. The masked gunman shouted, "Which one of you is Malala? Speak up, otherwise I will shoot you all." On her being identified, the gunman shot her twice, once in the head and once in the neck. Two other girls, Kainat Riaz and Shazia Ramzan, were also wounded. They are both stable and were able to provide details of the outrage.

Malala being airlifted to a military hospital after the shooting

Malala was airlifted to a military hospital in Peshawar where she was operated on after swelling developed in the left portion of her brain damaged by the bullet. After a three-hour operation, doctors successfully removed the bullet that had lodged in her shoulder near her spinal cord.

Today, Monday, Malala was airlifted with the help of the UAE to the UK, for further treatment.

Ehsanullah Ehsan, chief spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the teenager "is the symbol of the infidels and obscenity," adding that if she survived, they would target her again.

Malala Yousafzai is a pupil from the town of Mingora in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. She is known for her education and women’s rights activism in the Valley, where the Taliban have banned girls from attending school.

Her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, a poet, school owner and an educational activist himself, encouraged Malala in her education and pursuits. He runs a chain of schools known as the Khushal Public School, also named after a famous Pashtun poet, Khushal Khan Khattak.

In January 2009, she posted her first anonymous entry to the BBC Urdu blog that would later make her famous. She used the pseudonym "Gul Makai" -- meaning "corn flower" in Urdu -- so as not to be targeted by the Taliban.

The idea for the blog came from her father. She wrote about her life under the Taliban regime, their attempts to take control of the valley and her views on promoting education for girls. Later that year, the Pakistani military intervened, culminating in the expulsion of the Taliban from the Swat Valley.

In 2009, Malala began to appear on television and publicly encourage female education. After her BBC blogging identity was revealed, she was recognized by several organizations for her courage.

In December 2011, she was awarded Pakistan's National Youth Peace Prize. This January, the Government Girls Secondary School on Mission Road in Swat was renamed Malala Yousafzai Government Girls Secondary School in her honor.

Responding to concerns about his and his family’s safety, Malala's father, Ziauddin, said, "We wouldn't leave our country if my daughter survives or not. We have an ideology that advocates peace. The Taliban cannot stop all independent voices through the force of bullets."

Girl Child

As Malala Yousafzai fights for her life because of her strong belief in education, the world honored the “girl child” through an international day to raise awareness about enduring discrimination and to mobilize stronger action for human rights.

Education, particularly that of girls and women, aids progress and promotes development.

Worldwide, more people than ever before are benefiting from an education, according to UNESCO. It says over 1.5 billion children and youths are enrolled in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools and universities. From 1999 to 2008, an additional 52 million children enrolled in primary school. The number of children out of school was more than halved in South and West Asia. Enrolment ratios rose by almost one-third in sub-Saharan Africa.

Access to education is steadily expanding. Enrolment in higher education has risen sharply across developing countries, and innovative literacy and adult education programs are transforming the lives of the disadvantaged.

But, UNESCO notes, a number of obstacles, including poverty, still keep 67 million children of primary-school age out of school, 53 percent of whom are girls and almost 43 percent of whom are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Enrolment rates are slowing and being eroded by dropout, particularly in countries affected by armed conflict where over 40 percent of out-of-school children live.

Gender disparities continue to hamper progress in education. Around 17 percent of the world’s adults -- 793 million people, of whom two-thirds are women -- still lack basic literacy skills.

Millions struggle to learn in overcrowded classrooms, without textbooks or qualified teachers. An additional two million teachers will need to be recruited by 2015 to achieve universal primary education, more than half of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

Across the world, girls carry the heaviest burden of poverty, marginalization and violence. “Their rights are violated through early marriages, active discrimination and lack of opportunity. For far too many, being born a girl remains a lifelong sentence to inequality and injustice. This violates basic rights and holds back communities and societies from sustainable development.”

In her message on the occasion of International Day of the Girl Child, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said, “Education is the most powerful way to break this vicious circle. Education gives girls tools to shape the world according to their aspirations. It can delay early marriages and help with family planning. It provides strong medicine against disease and ill health. There is simply no better investment a society can make than in the rights of girls. The impact ripples far beyond individuals to take in the health and wellbeing of societies well into the future.”

UNESCO estimates that 32 million girls who should be are not attending primary school today. This must change. It is committed to ensuring every girl has access to quality education. “We must get girls into school and make sure they stay the course, from primary through secondary and onto higher education.”

Bokova adds: “The rights of girls are a key issue for social justice. Governments everywhere must do far more to protect them, to bolster girls’ capacities and to create conditions for the fulfillment of their aspirations. This requires stronger legalization and policies of protection and inclusion. It calls for targeted work to break stereotypes and promote new models.”

“The Power of We” is thus dedicated to promoting education.

“The Power of We” is dedicated to building for the future.

“The Power of We” is dedicated to Malala Yousafzai with my prayers for her recovery, so that she might continue her courageous battle for education and carry on being an example to her peers.

“The Power of We” is dedicated to the Girl Child to fulfill her potential, enrich her society and the economic growth of her nation.

“The Power of We” is also dedicated to the boys who will grow up to be men and walk hand in hand with their women partners.

Related posts:

Food for thought -- October 16, 2011

A bucket of water -- October 15, 2010