Effects of Civil War on Childhood/ Histiography and Memory in Lebanon
The Lebanese Civil War began in 1975 and ended abruptly in November 1989 with the so called Taif Agreement, also National Reconciliation Accord or Document of National Accord. A full reconciliation though never took place in the small country with a population under 3 million by 1990. Rather many Lebanese state that the war did not yet end. It seems more like living in a cease fire than in a state of peace. Therefore also the wounds could not yet heal.
Bassem Fayads personal and highly political movie is confronting and exploring the socio-psychological damage caused by the war, using the example of himself and his family.
Here you find further information about the effects of the civil war on childhood as well as about histiography and memory in Lebanon.
Effects of civil war on childhood
Lebanon's Long Civil War Has Robbed Beirut's Children of Their Youth - by Nick B. Williams Jr. for Los Angeles Times on October 1989
BEIRUT — Rima Torbay is 24. She never was a teen-ager. "I was 11 years old when the war began," Torbay explained, recalling the fighting that severed Beirut at the outset of the Lebanese conflict in 1975-76. "We lived on the demarcation line. There the shooting never stopped, never in all these years."
Life on the Green Line, as the informal boundary between the predominantly Muslim west side of the city and the Christian east is known, spared no time for the awakenings of adolescence among Torbay and her Christian companions. more
No place for children during the war. Lebanon case - King Hussien Center for research and information and Kudos University, in collaboration of Child Watch International, Amman 2008
Lebanon is considered as a symbol of a country devastated by the war that started on 12 April 1975 and ended on 1989 by the Taef agreement. The number of deaths reached 150 thousand and 200 thousand others were wounded, mostly children and women. This war had definitely left behind a devastated and torn up society humanitarian-wise, and caused in diminishing living levels , resources and destroyed infrastructures. As it increased the level of disassociation in the society and in the state as well, weakened the connections in between the community, and encouraged people to retreat under the cover of non-governmental parties and associations. more (pdf)
Mental health consequences of war: a brief review of research findings - by R. Srinivasa Murthy and Rashmi Lakshminarayana for World Psychiatry, 2006 Feb; 5(1): 25–30
Among the consequences of war, the impact on the mental health of the civilian population is one of the most significant. Studies of the general population show a definite increase in the incidence and prevalence of mental disorders. Women are more affected than men. Other vulnerable groups are children, the elderly and the disabled. Prevalence rates are associated with the degree of trauma, and the availability of physical and emotional support. The use of cultural and religious coping strategies is frequent in developing countries. more
Histiography and memory in Lebanon
The historiography and the memory of the Lebanese civil war - by Haugbolle Sune for SciencesPo on 25 October, 2011
A) Introduction
The Lebanese Civil War was both an internal Lebanese affair and a regional conflict involving a host of regional and international actors. It revolved around some of the issues that dominated regional politics in the Middle East in the latter part of the 20th century, including the Palestine-Israel conflict, Cold War competition, Arab nationalism and political Islam. Conflicts over these issues intersected with longstanding disagreements in the Lebanese political elite, and in parts of the population, over the sectarian division of power, national identity, social justice and Lebanon’s strategic alliances. During 15 years of fighting, around 90,000 people lost their lives, according to the most reliable statisticians, Labaki and Abou Rjeily (1994). The much higher numbers of up to 150,000 that are often given appear to have been based on international press reports from the early 1990s and subsequently repeated uncritically (Hanf 1993: 339). By contrast, more
Never ending war. The Lebanese civil war is far from over - by Ziad Naboulsi for Your Middle East April 29, 2013
The memory of the civil war remains alive, with no agreement ever reached on Lebanon’s identity, foreign policy, internal politics and national unity. As a result, the country finds itself in a state of cold war, writes Ziad Naboulsi.
Lebanon signed the Taef accord in 1990, ending a bloody civil war that lasted 15 years. This war took more than 170,000 lives, caused one million injuries (a quarter of the total population), 17,000 missing and more than 76,000 displaced people within the country. These are just the direct casualties; the country also suffers from an alarming youth migration rate (40,000 per year), and a devastated economy of over 65 billion dollars in debt.
The political-social status quo in Lebanon today is deeply polarized, between the March 14 and March 8 movements. This polarization paralyzes all sectors of the wounded country: more