The Journey of a Thousand (and one) Steps
The Origins of the Baradei Family
“Lebanon was at one time known as a nation that rose above sectarian hatred; Beirut was known as the Paris of the Middle East. All of that was blown apart by senseless religious wars, financed and exploited in part by those who sought power and wealth. If women had been in charge, would they have been more sensible? It’s a theory.” — Robert Ebert
The country we know today as Lebanon appeared in recorded history around 4000 BC, when it was inhabited by a group known as the Phoenicians. They referred to themselves as the “men of Sidon”, according their city of origin, and named the country “Lebanon”. Due to Lebanon’s geographic location, the Phoenicians tended to turn to the sea for their trade and navigation.
Eventually, the Phoenicians were invaded by the Assyrians in 875 BC, and who thus assumed control over Lebanon. Unfortunately, the Assyrians deprived Phoenician cities of independence and prosperity, and eventually fell to the Median Empire after weakened from successive results. After a few centuries, the Persian Empire came to prominence in the Middle East, and successfully overthrew the Assyrians and the Babylonians. The next successor, the Macedonians, arrived alongside the fall of the Persian Empire with the help of Alexander the Great. After the death of Alexander the Great several years later, the Persian Empire was succeeded in Lebanon by the Seleucid Dynasty.
The last century of the Seleucid Empire were marked by disorder and dynastic struggles. Soon thereafter, the Roman Empire seized control of Lebanon, which resulted in the flourish of economic and intellectual activities during the Pax Romana. This period of prosperity led to a revival of reconstruction and urban development. Finally, with the fall of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire was the next successor of Lebanon, and continued the flourish of activities in Beirut for over a century. The Byzantines were weakened by religious disagreements during the 5th and 6th centuries, which led to an overtake by the newly converted Muslim Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula.
Before the civil war, Lebanon was the “jewel of the Middle East”, comparable to Switzerland. It was a country full of energy, nightlife, and very gracious, hospitable people. People from neighboring countries come over just to visit Lebanon. Education is top notch, tourism is very popular, weather is nothing short of the best, and the healthcare is quite excellent. To put it simply, there was no other place like it in all the Middle East. Then, in the year 1975, war broke out.
The fire sparked when a group of Phalangist militants opened fire on a PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) bus carrying Palestinian refugees, killing 27 and wounding 19. The bloody incident thus became known as the “Bus Massacre”. Afterwards, the Muslims retaliated, and the war began to spread out to more and more cities, until eventually the conflict was out of control. This eventually led to widespread sectarian hate and mistrust, and started mass conflict between different groups such as the Kataeb Regulatory Forces militiamen, the Palestinian Fedayyn, and the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) alliance, resulting in over 300 dead in less than three days after the Bus Massacre. In Beirut, there was a divide between Muslims on the west side and Christians on the east side. Anyone on the opposite side then had to migrate to their side, which caused even more problems. This went on for about a couple years, until the United Nations, with the help of the U.S., decided to ask the Syrian government to send their army to help stop the war. In a way, they did assist in doing that, but instead of being the peacekeepers, they became the occupiers.
My mother was about thirteen years old when the war began in capital city of Beirut. Our family is Muslim, despite half of my mother’s side of the family being Christian. Because of the war, the schools opened and closed periodically depending on the situation of the war. My mother’s family struggled to find food and feed her and the other 5 children. There was a program established by the U.N. that would bring food to families in need during the war, such as water, flour, sugar, rice, and cooking oil. They would bake their own bread, and boil their water to drink it since the water was contaminated. To sum it up, there was almost no food, no electricity (only candles), no clean water, and life was tough. This went on for years, until my mom had met my dad in Beirut through an arranged marriage and they both left to live a new life in the U.S. in 1994.
After coming to the U.S., my mother went to school and learned English so she could start working and making money. She gained her citizenship, learned how to drive, made new friends, and integrated herself into a new culture. Step by step, my mother started establishing a new life for herself in the U.S. This is a classic example of leaving a country full of violence and distraught to come to the Americas in hopes of living a brand new life, known as the “American dream”.
Fast-forwarding to the year 2015, she now has a loving husband married for twenty years, a son going to college at the University of Georgia, a great job as an aesthetician, and has served the U.S. as a linguist and culture advisor in Iraq for 2 years. Not only has she made a better life for herself, but also made a better life for me. Had I grew up in Lebanon, I would not have been nearly as successful as I am now. By coming to the U.S., she has planted the roots for success for our family’s future and kept our family history alive and well for generations to come. On top of all that, Lebanon has started to recover from the war, which opens up the opportunity to visit her home country more often. In this project, I plan to interview my mom and learn more about her past and has made her into the person she is today. In order to understand where I am headed in the future, I need to understand where I come from and why I am fortunate enough to be where I am today.
Questions for Interview:
1. Tell me more about your family. What was living with your family like back in Lebanon?
2. How are your brothers and sisters now, and how have they changed since you moved to the U.S.?
3. How would you compare living in the city of Beirut and living here in Kennesaw?
4. Can you recount one of your stories while living in Lebanon during the civil war?
5. How was it like having to leave your family and travel halfway across the world to a new country?
6. Was living in a country with a completely different culture a culture shock to you?
7. How did you meet my father?
8. How has the American culture impacted your Lebanese culture?
9. How do you think Lebanon has changed from before and after the civil war?
10. Describe your mother and father. How did they raise you and what do you remember about them?
11. How was it like going to school in Lebanon compared to going to school here in the U.S.?
12. Do you ever plan to move back to Lebanon in the future?
13. Did you ever feel disconnected from your roots while living in the U.S.?
14. What were your greatest challenges while living in Lebanon during the civil war?
15. What family traditions do you still carry, and which ones do you wish for me to pass down?
16. Describe the typical day in pre- civil war Lebanon; what sort of things did you do on an average day?
17. How did you spend time with your family in Lebanon compared to here in the U.S.?
18. Describe the typical meals that were prepared in your household in Lebanon. How does it compare to mock restaurants in the U.S.?
19. Now that you have lived in the U.S. for many years, do you wish you stayed in Lebanon, or do you prefer to live here now?
Working Bibliography:
Lebanese Civil War and History
Harris, William W. Lebanon: A History, 600–2011. New York: Oxford UP, 2012. Print.
Lebanese minority conflicts
McDowall, David. Lebanon, a Conflict of Minorities. London: Minority Rights Group, 1983. Print.
