The Woman's Voice Asks Our Leaders of Thought

Q. 1 — Do you believe that the abundance of daily newspapers in a small country like Lebanon multiplies the benefit, or diminishes the importance of the reputable newspapers among them?

Q. 2 — What is your view of the fate of education in Lebanon? Will the foreign and private schools keep their precedence in this field?

Q. 3 — A quick glance at our students' abilities in the Arabic language reveals a painful truth: that these students find the foreign language — English or French — the easier, and throw themselves into studying it and going deeply into it. As for our students who take up the study of Arabic with longing and desire, they are a tiny few, surrounded by special circumstances. What, in your view, are some proposals for making Arabic beloved to its children and strengthening them in it?

Q. 4 — It is observed that sectarianism in Lebanon today is stronger and more active than it used to be, even in the time of the Mandate. What, in your view, are the elements that feed these poisonous currents, and what is the way to do away with them, when we, at the dawn of this era, are in the greatest need of uniting ranks, joining efforts, and striving for a general national interest that stands above every other interest?

Former head of the Department of Arabic at the American University of Beirut. Member of the Arab Academy. Author of a number of literary works, the latest of which is "Literary Trends in the Modern Arab World."

A. 1 — Even if competition is necessary for progress and for the survival of the fittest, the abundance of daily newspapers in a country like Lebanon is no proof that the Lebanese need them. There is no doubt that if they were confined to a small number, so that the number of readers of each was multiplied, that would better guarantee their progress and their influence. But how are we to reduce their number and improve their condition? That is a matter requiring extensive study, for which there is no room now.

A. 2 — It cannot be denied that national education in Lebanon has made notable progress and will progress further in the future; but Lebanon — for traditional and economic reasons — will long remain under the influence of Western culture, and that means the foreign institutions will keep their precedence in the field of education. Lebanon will not be able to win this precedence until its political and economic conditions enable it to impose its curriculum on all the institutions within it (with no distinction between foreign and national), and if it can at the same time agree with the Arab states on accepting the principle of the equivalence of diplomas and the open door for their holders, and on collective solidarity in rejecting the diplomas of states that do not recognize the diplomas of the Arab states.

A. 3 — Our students' finding the foreign languages easier, above all English and French, goes back to several causes, among them:

(1) The foreigners' advance in producing textbooks suited to the mentality of pupils in the elementary schools, and our backwardness in this field.

(2) Our teaching of literature in the secondary schools is still traditional and dry. A single glance at the literature books in the official institutions, for example, shows us the vast difference between what is chosen for our students from the literature of our language and what the foreigners choose for their students from their literature — (there is much to be said on this, more than this occasion allows).

(3) We are still falling short in the methods of teaching, above all the teaching of language; and how our young pupils toil at learning rules or memorizing vocabulary that holds nothing but exhaustion and lost time.

(4) The ascendancy of Western culture and Western civilization has turned all eyes toward the Western languages. If you add to that the foreign institutions' concern with teaching their own languages, even at the expense of the national language, you will see nothing strange in our students' inclination toward a language not their own and their eagerness for a literature not their own.

If we want to make our language beloved to our children, we must attend to sound textbooks for the elementary and secondary institutions, and then to raising the young with a national upbringing that endears to them their history and their literature and fills them with a spirit of respect for themselves and for their patriotism.

A. 4 — In Lebanon this is a problem hard to solve. Its heat during our present century has risen or fallen according to conditions. At the dawn of the century it was intense; then it eased somewhat after the proclamation of the Ottoman Constitution, until the end of the First World War. When the Mandate came, the rules of sectarianism were laid down officially, and it became the basis of government; and because of the Mandate's dominion it did not show its horns openly. At the beginning of the era of independence matters continued to run in their old course. As for today, if we see a certain uneasiness among the communities (I do not call it an increase of fanaticism among the people), it is due to external factors and internal ones. Of the internal, the most important is the feeling of freedom after the passing of the Mandate, and then this collision between Lebanon's traditional position and the attempt to change it. Of the external, some are hidden, which we cannot point to; some are open, and the most evident of these is the recent boycott between Syria and Lebanon and the suspicion and fear it produced in some, and the inclination toward union in others.

If we look at the question from an idealist's viewpoint, we say that the abolition of sectarianism as a basis of government is a duty in Lebanon and elsewhere. But in Lebanon this question calls for a measure of foresight and deliberation, for it cannot be solved at once by mere government legislation. That is because the present sectarian arrangement —

for all its shortcomings — has generated a kind of political stability, and to abolish it suddenly, without preparing the people for it socially, might bring the opposite of what sincere patriots desire. And how is the people to be prepared for it? How is Lebanese patriotism to rise above every sectarian cry? That is a matter requiring deep study. Yet I do not know how it can come about unless there is consolidated in Lebanon a system of national parties embracing the various communities (as is the case in the advanced countries), parties that present their candidates to the Chamber of Deputies and for government posts on the basis of democratic programs whose aim is the service of Lebanon, the preservation of its entity, and the endeavor to develop its economic life and its public works.

When that is accomplished, and the national, non-sectarian bodies work sincerely in the service of Lebanon, it will then be easy for them to take the place of the sectarian system, and for Lebanese patriotism to become the true bond of the sons of this dear country. And that is what every sincere patriot hopes for.

One of the men of the Lebanese and Arab press; he has made felicitous literary excursions marked by sobriety, boldness, and precise, conscious analysis.

A. 1 — Let me first be permitted an observation on the question. The multiplication of benefit is not the opposite of a diminution of the importance of the reputable papers — unless what is meant is that the multitude of newspapers becomes a means of diminishing the standing of the press as a whole. And that is not necessarily the case.

There is no doubt that the multiplication of any thing lowers the value of the single unit of it — what in the field of money is called inflation. Inflation in a country's currency lowers the value of the unit of that currency, but it does not affect the properties of money as an indispensable instrument for obtaining one's needs. The apple season may come round, for example, and apples grow plentiful in the market, so that their prices fall; but that takes nothing away from the pleasure of apples or from their nutritive properties.

And let us take a human example. In a small country like Luxembourg, the deputies are many, which lowers the value of the single deputy and lessens the weight of his vote; but that does not lower the value of the parliament.

The newspapers in Lebanon are many. It would have been better for the journalists had they not been so enormous in number; then their revenues would rise, the position of each of them would grow stronger, and he could introduce material improvements into his paper in size and quality. The existence of only one, two, or three newspapers might make easier the formation of a public opinion. But that must take place within the bounds of absolute freedom — that is, without interference by the state and without pressure from any financial bloc.

Thus I see that the question is a question of freedom, first and last.

Nor does the point lie in the fewness of the papers or their multitude, for multitude too has its benefits. This is what we actually observe in Lebanon, where the multitude of papers has not led to a fall in the value of the press as a democratic institution, which they style the fourth power. The press has been the vanguard of most of the blessed movements, and often — if not always — it is unanimous on a matter when the good of the people lies in it; unanimous despite the difference of its tendencies, its colors, and its values; and its multitude then has a value, for there is no doubt that the championing of a cause by thirty independent papers is better than its championing by two or three. Add to this that subduing two or three papers to an authority, a bloc, or a company is far easier than subduing thirty... and there is no scandal that can be smothered once the papers are many.

The sum of it is that our newspapers, numerous in number, each one weak taken by itself if measured against the great newspapers of the world, are most like handwork set beside machine work: they have in them the superiority of man over the mute machine. Or say they are like the small restaurants, each of which excels in one special dish, beside the great restaurant that serves you every dish by automatic methods...

A. 2 — This depends on the extent of the progress of the government schools, and on the state's will to direct education and unify it. If a prophecy must be made, I reckon that the importance of the foreign and private schools will shrink with time. And I hope this will come to pass at no distant time; for if I am a partisan of absolute freedom in the press, I believe in the virtues of a unified, directed education that fuses the citizens in a single crucible — provided the unification and the direction rest on a progressive basis.

A. 3 — The basis of this painful truth is the teaching curricula; the fault is not in the Arabic language itself. Whatever difficulties Arabic may have, for its own children it is easier than any foreign language. It is enough that we create in our children an inferiority complex toward their language when we place it and the foreign languages on one level in the elementary classes, and then on a lower level in the secondary and higher classes. Here are some proposals apt to correct the situation:

a — Teaching the Arabic language alone up to the elementary certificate, with all the other subjects, such as natural science and arithmetic, taught in it, as is done in all the independent countries of the world.

b — Teaching the sciences and arts in Arabic at the secondary stage, and teaching one of the foreign languages, as a language only, at this stage — with a special branch for the last two years of this stage for those who wish to go deeply into and specialize in one of the living foreign languages, these being singled out to secure our cultural, political, and commercial contact with the outside world. They would enter the foreign universities in our country, or go abroad at their own expense or on missions. From among them we would have our translators in the sciences, letters, and arts, our diplomats, the directors of banks and commercial establishments, and some of our physicians, lawyers, and engineers.

c — Renewing the methods and the books used in teaching the Arabic language, and simplifying it, so that the essential aim becomes teaching the student correct reading and writing, while the philology of the language and its hidden depths are left to students of specialization. This entails, naturally, the preparation of competent teachers.

A. 4 — The question of sectarianism, in my belief, is of such gravity that it is difficult to treat in an answer to a question. It touches on religious beliefs, rites, and laws before it touches on politics. It has historical roots that cannot be denied. Doing away with it will not come by merely denouncing it and attacking it, whether in sincerity or in hypocrisy. Perhaps its dangers grow most acute when two communities are equal in number in a given country, as is the case in Lebanon — two communities that differed in the past over the very existence of this homeland itself.

And I believe that whatever sectarian clamor arises at times is slight in relation to the situation, and is proof of the tolerance with which we are all adorned. If this tolerance is joined to a fair distribution of the posts of the state and of the establishments of public benefit, it will be easy to do away with those who fish in troubled waters, and the ground will be prepared for moving the country, in a calm atmosphere, toward complete secularism.