Students flocked to an event about current events in the Middle East and northern Africa at the University Student Union on Monday — so many that the conference had to be relocated from Room 205 to outside, in front of the student union.
Faculty from the anthropology, English, history and literature departments, the College of Liberal Arts and others created the conference in an effort to keep Cal State Long Beach students informed.
Three panelists: Nouri Gana, Lisa Hajjar and CSULB student Maryam Mohamed spoke at the event. Gana of UCLA began the discussion by speaking about Tunisia.
“I am proud and humbled that Tunisia is the lead in revolutionizing the Arab world,” he said.
He spoke of the riots, protest and the revolution that has taken place there in order to bring the old repressive regime down and usher in a new form of government.
He also warned that, “members of the old regime couldn’t just disappear,” but that it may take just as long as authoritarian president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali ruled — 23 years — for Tunisia to completely re-construct itself.
Hajjar, a professor at UCSB, spoke next about Egypt, which has experienced massive protest since the beginning of the year. She gave a quick outline of events that were significant in motivating the people of Egypt to push for revolution, including the killings of gay people back in 2001, the April 6, 2008 movements and the recent shutting down of the Internet.
“The war is neither won nor lost,” Hajjar said about Egypt’s current state. “It’s a fascinating time for Egypt.”
Mohamed was the last speaker at the event and mainly spoke about the recent political upstanding of Libya.
“I would like to think that we all live in one world,” she said. “We are all world citizens, I would expect people to react [to these types of humanitarian issues] like we did when disaster hit Japan. It’s not a political issue. There are people dying, people don’t have food. If disaster hit America, we would expect aid.”
One of the main messages of the conference emphasized that the youth of America, especially students, can be a part of the social revolutions going on all over the world.
Freshman marketing business major Natalie Liberman said, “I didn’t know how to help Egypt, Tunisia or Libya, but now I know that we can volunteer or donate money even if we’re not of Arab descent.”
According to the panelists, social media networks like Twitter and Facebook have also been an important tool in getting people all over the world together and organizing protests.
For more information about the crisis in Libya and how to provide support, visit volunteerlibya.org, alive.in/libya or islamic-relief.com.
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