Something strange is cooking in the Caribbean:
The Syrian/Lebanese community in Trinidad will celebrate 100 years of their arrival in Trinidad…
What is Syrian/Lebanese? Is it kind of like bisexual? Not sure which side of the fence you are on?
Albert Hadeed, honorary consul for the community, told the Express that members of the community started their trek to Trinidad around 1909 when the first set of migrants, headed by Joseph “Abdou” Sabga, landed in Trinidad…
…
He said the community regards Sabga as “The Father of the Syrian/Lebanese community in Trinidad”
Come on people, its 1909. Lebanon did not exist. If Sabga originated from a village that is currently in Lebanon, then I can accept the Lebanese community reaching Trinidad in 1909. If his journey originated in Syria, than he’s Syrian. Syrian/Lebanese is just too P.C.
Lebanon did exist in 1909, just not within the confines of the current borders, and the interchangeable use of Lebanese and Syrian adjectives stems partly from the fact that the whole region (including Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and to some extent Jordan as well) used to be known as Bilad el Sham, in the broader geographical region/entity sense rather than a defined border.
True but this Syrian/Lebanese community is represented by ONE honorary consul, Albert Hadeed.
From Wikipedia: “The title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul’s own country“
So Albert Hadeed is a representative of Syria/Lebanon and represents Syrian/Lebanese interests? Out of curiousity, the capital of Syria/Lebanon is what, Beirut/Damascus?
It’s amazing how some expats are still old fashioned… Like in certain areas in Canada I still find people whose minds were frozen since they came here (mostly during the civil war), and haven’t evolved since then.
Technically, in 1909, there was a political entity called Mount Lebanon… But there was no political (or even administrative) entity called Syria.
As for Albert Hadeed’s title, it is undoubtedly an erroneous qualification. There is no such thing as an honorary consul for a community. Only States or entities that are recognised as international entities (ex: the Order of Malta) can have “honorary consuls”.
If you google Albert Hadeed, you will see that he is a prominent figure of Trinidad’s Syrian-Lebanese community (in South America, this title is interchangeable with Turco, and usually means descendants of Middle Eastern Christians. Albert Hadeed is actually honorary council of the Arab Republic of Syria.
WL, thanks for the info. It still raises an issue whether this “title” was (incorrectly) assumed by the author of the article or whether he is peddling himself as an “Honorary Council” of the community.
Hi I’m from Trinidad and I think I would like to shed some light on this subject. I believe when they say Syrian/ Lebanese they are just simply referring to the fact that the group contains members from both Lebanon and Syria. The Arab community was small in Trinidad ( but has grown tremendously since) and I guess they joined forces in this group due to their smaller numbers at the time.
Hi Naz, thanks for the clarification – greatly appreciate it. However, it still does not answer the issue at hand: Is Albert Hadeed the honorary consul for the community? As Worried Lebanese mentions above, can you be an honorary counsul for a community?
Hmm….I guess by ‘Honorary Consul’ they just mean a head of the group or something along those lines…just a title that’s it. The group is more of an informal thing, and it’s understood as an informal group here locally and not the representative of any country or nation. I don’t know if it was ever brought to their attention how strange and confusing the title and name of their organization may sound like ( Syrian/Lebanese…why not hyphenate it like Syrian-Lebanese/ Syrian & Lebanese so it will be more clearly understood that there’s two nationalities represented and not people who don’t know which side of the fence they belong to)
Thought this might be of interest to your post:
http://www2.nalis.gov.tt/Collections/ExhibitionsandPhotoGalleries/SyrianLebanesePresenceExhibition/tabid/285/Default.aspx
http://guardian.co.tt/multimedia/flash/syrian-lebanese-celebrate-100-years
Lebanon mean hart in Assyrian,
Syrian is one of Assyrian,
Iraq Was Assyrian.
now the Arabs came and take it from Assyrian.
so LEBANON is not part of Syrian.
The Arabs they can keep it, I fine a new country call Canada.
Well home is where the heart is.
Okay, I AM A SYRIAN-TRINIDADIAN, and I’m going to explain what our “Syrian/Lebanese” community is about. Our community is 2,000 big, which is not that big of a population at all, as a matter of fact we only comprise 1.2% of the population or smaller. MANY of the SYRIAN men in the community (of the older gap) have LEBANESE wives, hence A LOT of Syrian Lebanese mixed offspring. So because of this and the fact that we DON’T DISCRIMINATE is the reason why we unify. Stop acting like we’re different, we’re not, Egyptian and Iraqi… ok BIG difference, but Syrian and Lebanese have but the most trivial of differences from each other.
Also, Albert Hadeed is the SYRIAN CONSUL. The LEBANESE CONSUL to Trinidad & Tobago is a man called Amer Haidar. So there is for sure a distinction when it comes to dealing with matters of state and travel.
So do your research first before making such an opinion when you only spent time on the matter with ONE news article.
God Bless!
Motayam90, I’ve done my research and nothing came up. One news article that you claim falsely represents your community is enough to give poor misconceptions. Plus, there was no response from your community claiming the article false.
Jad, I NEVER claimed the news article or ANYTHING in it was false. It just didn’t provide enough information on our community to help Syrians and Lebanese outside our region (like yourself) understand WHY we stay together under the banner “Syrian Lebanese Community.”
And one last thing. Our community is also 100% Christian.
Motayam 90 , please call me.
638-4810
Try to research once more
Amer G. Haidar
Dean of The Consular Corps in Trinidad and Tobago
Honorary Consulate for Lebanon
1-868-638-4810
Please call for any information you need about this top , I will be to assist.
Topic / be able to assist
Motayam90, I would like to be in touch with you as a member of a 100+ year old Syrian/Lebanese community in the States. Can the moderator of this website put us in touch? I give you permission to give this user my email address privately.
My only contribution to this discussion is that my grandfather’s travel document issued by the occupying French was stamped by the US consulate with the words “Beirut, Syria” in the year 1920 permitting him to travel to the United States. Sorry to burst anyone’s bubble with this information, but it is historical fact.
Yes Robert, and the American University of Beirut was the Syrian Protestant College and the entire area was Greater Syria and most of the countries that exist in the Middle East today didn’t exist back then. We are all familiar with historical fact but then its just that, HISTORICAL. Today it is not the case, Beirut is not in Syria, its in Lebanon. The Syrian Protestant College does not exist, its the American University of Beirut.
If you want to live likes in 1920 then be my guest. We are in 2011 and moving on.
As for your request to privately provide Motayam90 with your email, I will do so.
Thank you for sharing my email with your other poster. I appreciate the courtesy.
I can assure you that there is no confusion on our part on the history of the region, but I can tell you that with your words you are asking the Diaspora (who no longer lives there) to change the identity that we inherited from our families. Your history has diverged in another direction, our history has been preserved in the Diaspora even with our vintage dialects that pre-date French influences. We have no hangups about referring to ourselves as Syrian/Lebanese since most of our families are now mixed and adding the word Lebanese is our way of recognizing those changes and later waves of immigration who joined us from Lebanon. The institutions that were built back then to organize our communities however were all established as Syrian institutions, and they too added the word Lebanese to accomodate the change. So, we are indeed living in 2011, and it is not us criticizing you, it is you criticizing us for preserving our authentic identity while it is so important for you to erase yours and to do whatever you can to divide the name Syrian from Lebanese. We are the ones who are happy to refer to ourselves as Syrian/Lebanese, it somehow infuriates you to associate yourself with the name Syrian. How sad since it is your own history that you are denying and there is a lot to be proud of. Don’t tell us what our identity is and we won’t tell you yours. You are welcome to join us in our happy Syrian/Lebanese communities, but please don’t drag us into the mess that your hatred has created for you. Happy 2011.
As a person who’s father is Lebanese and mother is Syrian, you comment is pathetic and pointless.
Your so-called “Syrian Institutions” were the ones that imprisoned my Syrian grandfather for standing up for the truth as a journalist and forced his family to flee to Lebanon to be able to freely practice his occupation without worry of arrest for speaking his mind.
Once again:
Lebanon/Syria is not a country.
I agree with u fully since there is no ethnocentrism or xenocentrism between Lebanese and Syrian so why start a divide when cultural diffusion is taking its natural course.
I do not think we are having the same conversation:
Conversation 1: We are people who came from Syria and Lebanon and who proudly speak of our heritage in its singularity, Syrian/Lebanese. If you do not like us, please direct your feelings of hatred elsewhere, we are happy with who we are and proud of our authentic heritage.
Conversation 2: You are a person who comes from Syrian/Lebanese roots but is not proud of being Syrian and thus wants others to feel the same and conform to your world view based on modern political borders drawn in conjunction with the French after many of our ancestors left the region. We as the Diaspora community had nothing to do with the events you are referring to which justify your feelings.
Furthermore, neither the French nor the small-minded Maronites who deliberately excluded 100s of Orthodox Christian villages to create modern Lebanon as a Maronite state will ever determine my ancient heritage or modern identity.
I feel sorry that you carry hatred in your heart and will pray that the love of Christ Jesus fill your heart and surround and protect you and other Lebanese like you always.
So not as to ignore confusion about the Honorary Consul issue, also from Wikipedia:
Honorary consul
Some consuls are not career officials of the represented state at all; some are locally-engaged staff with the nationality of the sending country,[3] and in smaller cities, or in cities that are very distant from full-time diplomatic missions, a foreign government which feels that some form of representation is nevertheless desirable may appoint a person who has not hitherto been part of their diplomatic service to fulfill this role. Such a consul may well combine the job with his or her own (often commercial) private activities, and in some instances may not even be a citizen of the sending country. Such consular appointments are usually given the title of honorary consul.
As an example, I know a person in Aleppo who is the Honorary Consul of an east european country that he has no connection to whatsoever but he acts as their consul. Syria has three honorary consuls in the US who are appointed by the government but are US citizens of Syrian origin with other full time jobs. They handle visa requests in their areas of representation to assist the Embassy in Washington, DC.
Lebanon is an Assyrian name.
Syria also is Assyrian name.
The Arab came there after 600 AC.