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Friday, July 13, 2012

Now, THIS is racism ...


no pussyfooting around it.  Lebanese beach clubs are denying maids, who stay at the hotels with the families of their  rich employers, from entry to their pools.  Most of the maids are from the Philippines, Sri Lanka or Africa.   IMO, I think, this is racism + hatred of the poor or for people one thinks are way down on the bottom rungs of the social ladder.  If a rich dark-skinned person was a guest of the club, would the management deny that person access to the pool?  No.  But maids are not only poor but most are colored as well.   Shame on the establishments.


Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud issued another warning over racism at the country’s beach clubs Thursday after a video showing 10 different clubs telling a caller that migrant domestic workers would not be allowed to swim in their pools was uploaded to YouTube by an activist group.

The video was the second in a series made by the Anti-Racism Movement after it filmed the St. George beach club refusing entrance to an Ethiopian woman last month, insisting she needed membership despite giving entrance to a Lebanese man immediately after.

“I will take action against each and every club,” Abboud told The Daily Star. “I will ask [the tourism police] now to check, and if the names of the clubs are there [on the video], tomorrow the tourist police will be there. What they are doing is illegal.

A circular was issued to all beach clubs by the Tourism Ministry in April, informing them that “equal treatment is to be provided to all customers without discrimination based on race, nationality or disability,” and that “suitable legal measures” would be taken against violations.

When asked why such incidents were continuing despite the law, Abboud said the beach clubs felt they operated within a culture of impunity.

“People think that nobody is going to do anything about it,” he said. “They have been doing it for years and getting away with it.

He said that he had issued another letter to beach clubs following the incident at St. George reminding them of the law............



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