Social Responsibility in the Lebanon
| Autor: | Irene C. Soltau |
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| Rok vydání: | 1949 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | International Affairs. 25:307-317 |
| ISSN: | 1468-2346 0020-5850 |
| DOI: | 10.2307/3016669 |
| Popis: | N i r EWCOMERS to the Middle East are apt to stress both the poverty of the people and the apparently slow rate of social evolution, but anyone able to look back over the last quarter of a century realizes, on the contrary, how widespread and deep is the change in outlook, and, to some extent also, in institutions. It is as if stages in the evolution of the social and economic history of Great Britain were being re-enacted there on a smaller scale. The whole of the Lebanon, but more particularly Beirut, has been exposed to powerful foreign influences; but some at least of the features described are reproduced in other parts of the Middle East as well; they are, in fact, characteristic of any country which, after centuries of static existence, is hurriedly brought into the swift tempo of the modern world. Life in the nineteen-thirties was pleasant and cheap for the Lebanese bourgeois and for foreigners, so that it was easy to forget that a large proportion of the city population was living in extreme poverty. Wages were so low that it seemed impossible that workers could exist on them. Families were in a perpetual state of insolvency and unemployment was chronic. A survey made in I937-8, by a friend and myself, into the working conditions and family budgets of 300 working girls, showed that only one-third of their fathers were regularly employed. A frequent answer to inquiries was 'He's too old; he can't work'. In half the cases, indeed, it was a matter of late marriage, or re-marriage with a second or third family; but often conditions of under-nourishment and worry had prematurely aged the father-a fact which organizers of relief often overlook. The plea that women and children must be helped first leads to neglect of the adult man. What was the attitude of the Lebanese towards this poverty? On the part of the rich, pity, ignorance, alms-giving. On the part of the poor, depressed fatalism, and the attempt to get help some way or another. There was no State or municipal relief, so that many would literally have starved if they had not turned to somebody for help. A man tried his relations first, for in the East family solidarity in financial matters was, and still is, strong. If one member prospers, all expect help from him. Another approach was to some rich patron: a successful man from the same village, an ex-employer, or a rich, charitable man of the same community. There was a quasi-feudal relationship between the rich and poor. Patrons gave old clothes, money, introductions, medicine or a letter to the hospital in the case of illness. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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