Charbel R Barakat

Madameek Courses: a Struggle for Peace in a Zone of War Charbel R Barakat

Publisher Marketing: This is an English translation of a book which was written in Arabic and published in Lebanon in 1999. It is about the struggles, sufferings and hopes of the people of South Lebanon during the period 1976 to 1986. The author outlines the troubles the people of this area lived through. He discusses causes and effects of cooperation between Lebanese and their Israeli neighbours. He takes us on a journey from East Beirut to the Jezzin area of Mount Lebanon as it would have been undertaken during the years 1984 to 1990. The narrative starts at the Port of Beirut and follows the sea route to Nakoura in South Lebanon. It then proceeds across the mainland through various villages and towns, covering the geographic and historic diversity of the population and the problems they faced. This is a story of a society living in a part of the Holy Land, the land of the "Good News." It outlines a continuous struggle to survive, a search for a long-lasting peace and a background worth considering in a Middle East filled with hatred. We can, by reading between the lines, understand how terrorism developed in this area and later expanded to the whole world. Some of the questions and concerns the author raised in 1999 were answered at the Twin Towers, the chaos in Paris, the attacks in the U. K. and Spain and, unfortunately, on and on.