Led by their science professor Manoug Manougian, originally from Jerusalem and educated in the US, Haigazian students experimented with launching rockets as a means of studying physics and mathematics, using the open spaces of rural areas of Lebanon as their test sites.
The instructor and seven undergraduate students managed to put together twelve rockets over the course of six years. The authorities in Beirut got wind of the project — including the president of the country himself — and started backing it, providing some funding and use of military installations as launch pads.
One of the series of rockets, Cedar 4, was even commemorated on a postage stamp; it reached a height of around kilometres 90 miles. Needless to add, members of the Armenian community of Lebanon also displayed enthusiasm when it came to the only such technological initiative in the Middle East and the Arab world.
The programme came to an end in after the launching of Cedar 10, which reached up to kilometres miles. The political situation in the region brought about a great deal of pressure on the country. The scientific and educational drive that was propelling the Lebanese Rocket Society was exhausted by the military dynamics involving the United States, the Soviet Union, and Israel and the neighbourhood.
Fairouz, whose real name is Nohad Haddad, is a well known figure in France. Sections U. Science Technology Business U. Macron starts Lebanon trip by meeting iconic Lebanese diva.
For his first meeting, Macron chose to see Lebanon's No. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. The differences are symbolized by the two extremists who will sit at that table: Pierre Gemayel, who founded his Christian Phalange Party under the influence of the European fascism of Spain's Franco and Italy's Mussolini; and Walid Jumblatt, whose socialism emerged during the golden age of Arab nationalism, guided by the fiery former Egyptian President, Gamal Abdel Nasser.
The Christians, particularly the dominant Maronite sect, generally view Lebanon as being on the edge of the Western world. The Muslims see it as the gateway to the East. The very concept of confessionalism in politics representation based on religious affiliation , formalized in the unwritten National Covenant, also served to institutionalize ancient cleavages.
It made ethnic groups out of religious communities. Ironically, there has never been a problem of freedom of worship.
The current issues are not too different from those that were at the core of the United States Civil War: the extent of liberty and the debate over the issue of minorities vs. It is no coincidence that the most savage monuments to the civil war are in Beirut's business district, nor that the biggest bank heist listed in the ''Guinness Book of World Records'' happened in Beirut.
Most of the men sitting down to undertake reconciliation efforts will be the same men - or their sons - who sat down on the eve of independence from the French mandate to devise a system of government for Lebanon. Determining who was originally responsible for the breakdown of that system is argued differently by each side. But there is little question that each bore some responsibility, exploiting a formula of government that did not work.
The Lebanese system has ensured a freedom unmatched in the Arab world. But there have been few checks on those freedoms, which eventually ran wild. Even before the first strife, many major politicians maintained their own well-armed militias for use as bodyguards or enforcement services, unstopped by the government as long as they did not stray too far into official terrain.
In a country smaller than Connecticut there are now 17 major militias as well as dozens of smaller groups, which range from the so-called ''Pink Panthers'' and ''Green Musketeers'' to the intensely fundamentalist ''Islamic Unity'' gunmen. There is little doubt that if the talks break down, the politicians will revert to guns again. Some Lebanese are already predicting the conflict. They say it will be ''the real war,'' more bitter than any of the many clashes that have already killed an estimated 90, people in eight years.
The general pessimism in Lebanon on the eve of the conference, and the fear of the stark alternatives, was reflected in Ash Sharq daily newspaper: ''We do not share the optimism of those who expect an early resolution of the Lebanese crisis. This is not because we have bad intentions, but because the conditions on the ground do not show the matter is anything more than theatrics and maneuvers to gain time by more parties than one. Unfortunately, Lebanon has never displayed an ability to sort out its own problems.
In , 10, US marines were dispatched after the first Muslim uprising. In , the Syrians came in to keep the peace after the civil war. In , it was the United Nations. In in came the multinational force. This month, a new observer force from Italy and Greece is scheduled to be added to patrol the volatile Shouf. Seventeen foreign armies have come to the rescue over the past seven years, and a flotilla of 28 foreign warships now lie off the coast.
Yet Lebanon has continued to make war with itself, underlining the fact that no external force, however potent or numerous, has been able to deal with Lebanese turmoil or with this strange anomalous state. Lebanese officialdom launched a campaign during the most recent civil strife to try to prove it was all due, once again, to foreign intervention. Government intelligence briefings, unprecedented for the foreign press, outlined detailed plots and ploys by Palestinians, Syrians, Iranians, and Libyans to stir things up, with the Druze militia playing only a minor role.
As Western diplomats do not hesitate to point out, the government led by minority Christians does not like to face up to the fact that there is genuine discontent among the majority Muslims, although it first surfaced some 30 years ago.
Instead they look for excuses to explain away the increasingly violent forms of protest. During the scuffle over venue for the national dialogue, a Shiite Muslim leader suggested, somewhat forlornly, that it should be held not in the majestic Baabda presidential palace but in the pathetically poor Muslim southern suburbs so that ''the government will finally understand what this is all about.
Under the formula of , the Maronite Christians hold many of the top jobs, with Christians generally having a 6 to 5 edge in all government positions over Muslims. Sunni Muslims were No. Shiites were No. It is a system based on the population strengths of Lebanon's religious communities in , when the last census was taken. The lack of a subsequent census update is partly because Christians feared that a new national tally would legitimize Muslim demands for reform.
Diplomatic estimates now reverse the order of the top three religious communities.
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