News

Toward achieving the goal of ‘No Poverty’ Dima El Hassan| The Daily Star During the United Nations Summit on Sept. 25-27, 2015, the U.N. has endorsed 17 Sustainable Development Goals to direct the role of public and private sectors as well as nonprofit and voluntary sectors in global development. While some goals have made remarkable progress […]

The paradoxes of Lebanon’s position on refugees Hiba Huneini| The Daily Star The 72nd regular session of the United Nations General Assembly was convened on Sept. 12, 2017, amid the most drastic violence and destruction in human history. The General Debate was opened Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017, under the theme, “Focusing on People: Striving for Peace […]

Peace Day: A human-focused design Rubina Abu Zeinab-Chahine| The Daily Star The year 2017 has witnessed a growing number of terrorist attacks traumatizing communities around the world. Paris, Brussels, Spain and the most recent attacks in London, in addition to isolated incidents in different areas, have raised the threat level globally to its highest. Looking back […]

Sidon festivals: By Sidonians, for Sidonians The Daily Star An increase in the tourism rate, improved economic status, promotion of the city’s identity and local pride are some of the main payoffs a festival can generate for its hosting city. Lebanon has seen a growing number of festivals in its cities in recent years. Festivals […]

The power of geopolitics in development aid Dima El-Hassan| The Daily Star “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed” – Ghandi. This is exactly what explains the geopolitical drives in shaping the world of development aid. Geopolitics is the “study of the effects of geography (human and physical) on international politics […]

Reviewing the urban transformation paradigm Hiba Huneini| The Daily Star Transformation is a general term that we have frequently been using in development literature without knowing its exact definition, which varies from one field to another. This term is usually used as a broad metaphor for societal change rather than a well-defined term with a conceptual […]

Loubnaniyat 2020: Looking toward our second century Rubina Abu Zeinab-Chahine| The Daily Star There are three years remaining until the Centennial of Greater Lebanon. Are we prepared to head into Lebanon’s second century? Sept. 1, 2017, marked the 97th anniversary of the declaration of the State of Greater Lebanon. In 1920, Gen. Henri Gouraud, the French […]

Children achieving the SDGs Nahla El Zibawi| The Daily Star “The World’s largest lesson 2017” will start during the week of Sept. 18, the week in which the Sustainable Development Goals were adopted in 2015. This year’s plan, which is taking food, sustainability and hunger as its lesson, is part of the initiative entitled “The World […]

Can we reach democracy someday? Dima El Hassan| The Daily Star Democracy is not what we are witnessing today. It is not just a right to be exercised every few years. It is a whole cultural process in which all the people are engaged daily in the building and developing of their whole nation. Going back […]

Ikigai: Destressing, the Japanese way Nahla El-Zibawi| The Daily Star With so many uncertainties, instabilities and surprising changes that have been happening in this world, accumulating with our personal and professional volatility, stress has been surrounding our lives from different corners. But what is stress? And can we avoid it? The word “stress” was first mentioned […]