{"id":330,"date":"2019-09-10T08:01:23","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T07:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/?p=330"},"modified":"2019-09-10T08:01:23","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T07:01:23","slug":"the-distinctive-personality-al-fusul-allubnaniah-1-fall-1979","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/?p=330","title":{"rendered":"The distinctive Personality: Al-fusul allubnaniah 1 \u2013 Fall 1979"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>THE DISTINCTIVE PERSONALITY OF THE LEBANESE NATION<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By Jawad Boulos<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like most of the countries of the word, Lebanon is the product of \nboth geography and history, if is natural geographic individuality, in \nthe midst of which lives and develops since no less than five thousand \nyears a human group (people, nation, etc.) whose basic and distinctive \nnational traits, be they physical or particularly psychological through \nheredity, are relatively permanent. Matters of race, language and \nreligion which united individuals belonging to primitive societies \n(tribal nomads or semi-nomads) are in sedentary and evolved communities \nvery secondary elements, and are unable to modify the essential national\n characteristics which constitute the veritable driving force of human \nundertakings. \u201cForeign races living together on the same land will \nfinally with time be assimilated into one group\u201d. (Schubart).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lebanon is a high mountain open on the Mediterranean and situated at \nthe crossroads of the highways of the old world\u2019s intercontinental \ntraffic. Like all high mountains, those of Lebanon develop in its \ninhabitants a sense of independence and of individual liberty. As to the\n sea, it develops in the peoples living on its shores, a taste for \ntravel and adventure and contact with foreign countries and the exchange\n with them of ides and goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lebanon\u2019s vocation is, therefore, commercial, maritime and cultural: \nthis particular character has constantly impressed the country Lebanon \nall through its long and normal historical evolution, through a \nhistorical process covering several millennia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The French historian R. Grousset notes that: \u2014- \u201cPh\u0153nicia (actual \nLebanon) communicates no doubt with its hinterland Syria; but this does \nnot hinder it from turning entirely towards the Mediterranean, and it \ndoes not live except for and by the Mediterranean. The mountain against \nwhich Ph\u0153nicia leans\u2026 the mountain from which it comes down to the sea, \nwhich, in fact, launches it towards the sea\u2026 The maritime and commercial\n agility of the Ph\u0153nicians manifested itself very early in an acute \nintellectual agility. That is how, whilst the great civilizations of \nneighboring countries had reached a standstill with their cuneiform \nscript (Mesopotamia) and their hieroglyphics (Egupt), the Ph\u0153nician \ngenius in the 15<sup>th<\/sup> century B.C. invented the Alphabet\u201d. (La face de l\u2019Asie, p.23 n25).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The original character of Lebanese psychology is, therefore, the \nproduct of the diverse natural conditions of its environment and of the \ntype of life that these conditions determine. In short, we have a host \nof contradictory factors in play, which pull simultaneously towards \nopposite poles: some oriented towards the continent, others towards the \nsea, some towards the past and others toward the future. Furthermore, \nwhen we talk of the two facets of present Lebanon, is it sufficient to \ninterpret this fact as being the expression of the political union of \nthe two important religious communities of the country: the Christians \nand the Moslems. It is also determined by the double front occasioned by\n the geography of this small country of which one side has its eyes \nturned towards the sea, and the Western world, while the other side \nlooks towards the continent and the Eastern world, with all the complex \nphenomena which such a double orientation may provoke in the country in \nthe economic, psychological, cultural, social and political domains; all\n this independently of the influence of racial factors and religious \nideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In conclusion, \u201cthe physical characteristics of Lebanon are the \nbasics of its human resources. It is geography that permitted its birth \nand that ensures its perennity\u2026 In this unity, be it the mountains or \nthe coast, each has its role. The mountain conveys to the country its \nfundamental trait of individuality; it is the political and military \nrefuge and the driving force of independence\u2026 Economically, it is the \ncoast with its ports and plains which are so essential\u2026 Unity in \ndiversity. The psychic landscape corresponds to the geographic \nlandscape. Be it in economy or in politics, we everywhere come across \nthis double attraction: it was initially inscribed in the geography\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE DISTINCTIVE PERSONALITY OF THE LEBANESE NATION By Jawad Boulos Like most of the countries of the word, Lebanon is the product of both geography and history, if is natural geographic individuality, in the midst of which lives and develops since no less than five thousand years a human group (people, nation, etc.) whose basic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332,"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions\/332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}