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Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Green politics the answer to all of the woes in Lebanon


Interview with Nada Ghorayeb Zaarour by Zara Majidpour


The Green party of Lebanon (GPL) is a political party which was founded by Philip Skaf in 2008. Nada Ghorayeb Zaarour was a vice president of the Green party 2008-2011. She was elected as the first female president of a Lebanese political party in September 2011

Q: You are the first female president of a Lebanese political party. What is the public opinion of you as a female politician to enter a traditional male domain?

Nada Zaarour: Women in politics is not a very unfamiliar facet of Lebanese Politics however, it is not very common. Unlike many of our neighboring countries, Lebanese women are well integrated in the social and economic sector, however in their presence in the political work is still shy. As a female president of Lebanon's green party, my election as a party leader sent a lot of positive vibes, that everyone embraced happily among men and women.

Q: As a co-founder of the Green Party of Lebanon, what motivated you to get involved with the Green Party?

Nada: As a Lebanese citizen I was always concerned about our environmental problems falling unnoticed among all the political and economic instability our country has faced through the past two decades. As time passed by and I became more involved in the environmental field, my attraction to green politics and green values started to grow, and with that I started noticing the gaps in our system as a whole and our political system in specific .To me the answer to all the woes in Lebanon clearly seemed to be Green Politics, and every day I got more convinced in the idea.

Q: The Green Party is one of the newest Lebanese political parties. What is the public opinion of this party?

Nada: True, our party is one of the newest parties and political movements in Lebanon. Unfortunately, it is not very common for a group of people or a civil network, sharing common values and believes, to form a serious political movement. In my opinion, that's a shame, because we really need to pump new blood and innovation into our system, we really need to create more space for participation and offer more options to our people. The green party as a political movement is still mistaken sometimes with a tree-hugging NGO, but at many other points we are understood as a political party.

What our party is engaged in right now in its media outreach, is to get to the people, show them our interest, offer them our agenda, and explain to them that our party is a full-fledged political movement that is concerned to address their political, economic and social worries as much as it is concerned in preserving the environment. So far we have been successful. People are being very receptive.

Q: Your party is a political party and will run in the 2013 parliamentary elections. What does the Green Party stand for?

Nada: There are four pillars that define green politics which constitute the backbone of our party values are namely economic wisdom, sustainable development, justice, democracy, and non violence.

As citizens of Lebanon we have big responsibilities upon our shoulders, the Responsibility of simply being Lebanese. We should think of Lebanon as a blessing not as a place where education is too expensive, where economic distribution is unfair, where electricity is not continuous, where infrastructure is poor, where the rich are monopolizing the markets, where opportunity is not equal. We should think of Lebanon where living conditions are fair, where human rights are respected and Women's Rights are not a document awaiting parliamentary ratification as part of a package deal shared by sectarian greed.

To be able to think of our nation as such we should be able to dream. And to this dream is called the Green Party. Our party is a party that cares for public education, for health care, for public transportation, for the economy, for independent minds.

As a green political movement we are a true alternative, because we offer the answer, because we are determined to give back to the environment we come from.
2013 will be our first step towards approaching tangible solutions, to many natural rights for every Lebanese citizen. 2013 will be Lebanon's first encounter with the free choice of voting for an agenda that carries the people's concerns to the decision making institution, to the parliament, to the people's power.

Q: In your opinion, why aren't Green parties popular in Middle Eastern Countries?

Nada: The Middle Eastern States are states still bound to a lot of social traditions, norms and values. This is a beautiful thing that gives us our identity and preserves our history and this is what makes us today. But from my point of view, norms and traditions should only be key players on the social and cultural levels. Politics and progression are at a different angle of the spectrum. Politics in our region is still a tradition and more specifically political figures and institutions are still traditional in their symbolism and function. All of this is not offering a new political thought and a new insight for the people's choice and that's the main reason behind the shy presence of Green Parties in the Middle East. But I am very positive and I believe in the young people in this part of the world and I see there's a big future for these parties coming ahead.



This interview was translated into Persian (Farsi) and published in Shahrzadnews
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