Daily Archives: May 5, 2008

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Ethiopia Bans Its Citizens From Working In "Abusive" Lebanon

Nothing can beat this story for it’s Im-ashamed-of-being-Lebanese effect.


We’d rather stay here than work in Beirut… (photo source)

Sure they’re starving and living in miserable conditions, but that doesn’t mean that they have to put up with the ultimate abusive environment: The Lebanese household.

On the occasion of Labor Day, Ethiopia has officially banned its citizens from traveling to Beirut in search of jobs, the African country’s Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has disclosed. Ethiopia passed the bill after it probed the human right violations and domestic violence Ethiopian migrants face behind closed doors in Beirut while employed as maids.

“Suspending work travel to Beirut was the only solution to minimizing the human rights abuses and dangers facing our citizens,” said Zenebu Tadesse, deputy minister of state for labor and social affairs.

During the past few years, a number of Ethiopians have died in Lebanon in questionable circumstances.

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Hezbollah Training Iraqi Militants In Iran?

According to a front page piece in today’s New York Times, Hezbollah are training Iraqi militia fighters in Iranian camps.

Four captured Iraqi militia members, in separate confessions, have said that they were trained by Hezbollah.

The captured men described themselves in the accounts as part of a class of 16 militants who crossed into Iran from southern Iraq and were taken to a camp near Tehran, where they studied in a classroom and in the field. Some had been in Iran several times as part of a program that American officials said was aimed at turning them into “master trainers” and which could last several years.

Depending on where you stand, this is either further proof of the disruptiveness of Hezbollah to the peace and security in the region, or just another bit of an orchestrated push by the American conspirators against Hezbollah that started by Mr. Jumblat’s airport allegations and ended in Iraq.