{"id":2946,"date":"2006-05-24T19:43:20","date_gmt":"2006-05-24T19:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wlcu.biz\/?p=2946"},"modified":"2006-05-24T19:43:20","modified_gmt":"2006-05-24T19:43:20","slug":"wlcu-delegation-to-southafrica-mr-ken-hannas-report-24-may-2006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wlcu.world\/ng\/2946\/","title":{"rendered":"WLCU delegation to SouthAfrica &#8211; Mr Ken Hanna&#039;s report &#8211; 24 May 2006"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\"><strong>Dear Compatriots,<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\"><strong>Dear WLCU Officers and members,<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\"><strong>After having visited Sydney (Australia) , Argentina (South America), Los Angeles, DC, Boston, New Jersey, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver\u00a0(North America), the World President of the World Lebanese Cultural Union\u00a0Mr Anis Garabet and the\u00a0World Secretary General Mr Georges Abi Raad visited South Africa and Europe between the\u00a024th and the 28th of May.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Boston :<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\"><strong>It started with an economical event in Boston where the WLCU co-sponsored the TechLeb06 conference on the 19th of May. The Conference was organized by the MIT Lebanese students club.\u00a0World President Anise Garabet attended the Conference among other WLCU officials:WSGD Dr Nick Kahwaji, Chairman Khalil Khoury\u00a0 and Executive Director\u00a0\u00a0David Abi Chaker of the Economics\u00a0 and Finance Committee. RSG for Spanish America Alberto Chaker, Ibrahim Dagher, Dr Elie Baghdady, Mara Hanna, Carole Sadaka. Details will follow.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>to see the photos click on the following link, then on the photo in the middle of the page to enter to the album :<br \/>\nhttp:\/\/www.kodakgallery.com\/I.jsp?c=hl9myie.v9tk4vq&#038;x=0&#038;h=1&#038;y=-rldxim<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">South Africa :<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\"><strong>Please find hereby Mr Ken Hanna&#8217;s report describing the minutes of the visit to South Africa. Mr Ken Hanna is the immediate past president of WLCU Johannesburg Chapter.The official Report in 2 languages will be\u00a0distributed soon.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\"><strong>The WP and the WSG attended\u00a0 the Regional\u00a0Council meeting\u00a0for Europe\u00a0on Saturday May 27th. It was\u00a0followed by a dinner\u00a0where\u00a0they met with the lebanese\u00a0community in\u00a0London. Mr Said Yazbeck\u00a0(UK)\u00a0was elected\u00a0President of the Regional Council of Europe.\u00a0More details\u00a0and photos will follow.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\"><strong>The WP\u00a0 Anis Garabet and the WSG\u00a0 Georges Abi Raad ended the first year of their term by visiting all the Continents, reaching out to the lebanese Diaspora and\u00a0 WLCU chapters.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>to see the photos click on the following link, then wait for an automatic slide show :<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/pg.photos.yahoo.com\/ph\/igdleb\/slideshow?.dir=\/3a8cre2&amp;.src=ph\">http:\/\/pg.photos.yahoo.com\/ph\/igdleb\/slideshow?.dir=\/3a8cre2&amp;.src=ph<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\"><strong><em>WLCU World Secretariat General<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\"><strong>A World Lebanese Cultural Union Perspective.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\"><strong>By Ken Hanna<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\"><strong>Johannesburg Chapter<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">In a surprise visit to Africa, the World Lebanese Cultural Union President for 2005\/2006 Mr.Anise Garabet, of Los Angeles, U.S.A. and his Secretary General , Mr.Georges Abi Raad\u00a0 visited Africa\u2019s heartland and the home of the African Parliament, Gauteng South Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">The visit took place from Wednesday 24<sup>th<\/sup> May 2006 to Friday 26<sup>th<\/sup> May 2006.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">His visit was endorsed by the Lebanese South African community and prominent members of the World Lebanese Cultural Union on the Southern tip of the African continent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Garabet captured the minds and the hearts of Africa\u2019s Lebanese World.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Garabet was exposed to every corner of\u00a0 Africa\u2019s heartland.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Here is his program.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Wednesday 25<sup>th<\/sup> May 2006.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Met at Johannesburg International Airport by members of the Lebanese South African Community.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Taken to Benvinuto\u2019s, for a few hours rest,before a very special luncheon with members of the Lebanese South African Community and members of the Lebanese\u00a0 Maronite Missionaries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Lightning tour of the Lebanese Community Centre, embracing, library, Lebanese Hotel, Lebanese sports club, Lebanese Boys club venue, Conferencing center, Lebanese memorial to those Lebanese members who fell in the second world war, Lebanese sports club.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Given twelve different books on the Lebanese African Families who migrated from Lebanon over 100 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Private dinner with members of the World Lebanese Cultural Union and members of the Lebanese community, representing recent Lebanese Immigrants, and older, and more settled members of the community\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Thursday(Ascension Thursday) 25<sup>th<\/sup> May 2006.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Visits Africa\u2019s Largest\u00a0\u00a0 Lebanese community on the Southern tip of the African continent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Climbs the mountain together with Georges Abi Raad and more than 300 members of the Lebanese grass roots community and attends holy mass, and breaks bread and share a meal with his African Lebanese brothers and non Lebanese African brothers and sisters and members of other settled communities including Greek and Portuguese.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Wins the minds and the hearts with his simplicity and humanity and his love and dedication for his homeland Lebanon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Visits places of interest of Africa\u2019s\u00a0 early Lebanese world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Where they lived, settled and struggled.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Visits the mother complex of the early Lebanese in Africa. Shown the site of the Lebanese School in Africa and the old community center.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Visits a site where the early Phoenician\u00a0 may have visited some 2800 years ago. (Not confirmed) : 300km south of the Zimbabwe ruins\u00a0 considered\u00a0 as a Phoenician site by certain world authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Now to business:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">6.00 p.m. : Plenary session with members of the Lebanese South African Community.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Amongst those Present:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Tony Ghossain, a Past President of the World Lebanese Cultural Union , South Africa region.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Jean el Hage, Past President of Johannesburg Chapter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Ken Hanna, Immediate Past President of the World Lebanese Cultural Union Johannesburg\u00a0 Chapter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Joe Manache, current Vice President of the World Lebanese Cultural Union, Johannesburg Chapter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Joe Sham , Current public relations officer of the World Lebanese Cultural Union Greater Johannesburg Chapter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Greg Cahi, current President of the World Lebanese Cultural Union\u00a0 Pretoria, Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">\u201cBob\u201d Gharzo\u00a0 current Vice President of the WLCU Pretoria chapter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Dr.Azar Jammine, representing his late father Dr.Emile J.Jammine, one of the founding fathers of the WLCU on the southern tip of the African Continent. Leader of the 1973 delegation to World Congress, Beirut ,Lebanon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Ralph Shehab, representing his father, Robert Shehab, who is confined to bed and could not attend. Considered to be the father of the WLCU in Africa,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Glen Kairuz, representing his father, Sheikh Youssef Kairuz, a founding father of the WLCU in Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">The Plenary session carried on long after the allotted time of 2 hours, as the guests awaited their presence at a gala Hafli.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Present were members of the community who had traveled more than 200 kms to be with the Unions distinguished guests at short notice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">People came from:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Pretoria, Johannesburg, Krugersdorp, Vereeniging, Klerksdorp and Sandton.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Friday:26<sup>th<\/sup> May 2006.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Prayer breakfast with members of the Lebanese South African community and ladies of the Lebanese South African Community and members of the Maronite Church\u00a0 of Sandton.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Private meeting. Included were members of the WLCU.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Visit to curio shop to view African home art works .<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Private luncheon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Return to Johannesburg international Airport for flight to London and Paris and the regional congress of the WLCU for Europe in London.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Africa is deeply indebted to The World Lebanese Cultural Union\u00a0\u00a0 Presidential visit\u00a0 and his Secretary General\u00a0 to Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">This is the first time in the movements 46 years history that a President has visited Africa\u2019s Lebanese Heartland.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Thank you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">We are going to miss you very much.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\"><strong><em>Ken Hanna.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\"><strong><em>Imm.Past President WLCU<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">Johannesburg Chapter &#8211; South Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small;\">In my private capacity.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Compatriots, Dear WLCU Officers and members, &nbsp; After having visited Sydney (Australia) , Argentina (South America), Los Angeles, DC, Boston, New Jersey, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver\u00a0(North America), the World President of the World Lebanese Cultural Union\u00a0Mr Anis Garabet and the\u00a0World Secretary General Mr Georges Abi Raad visited South Africa and Europe between the\u00a024th and the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wlcu.world\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wlcu.world\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wlcu.world\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wlcu.world\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wlcu.world\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wlcu.world\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wlcu.world\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wlcu.world\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wlcu.world\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}