Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Meet Elias Ghanem is the director of the Middle East and North Africa division of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Saudi papers provide both sides:  "I need to know what’s going on around my region, so I tend to read the Arabic newspapers. Asharq al-Awsat and Al Hayat deal with the whole region — Arab countries and the Middle East. They provide good analysis. I don’t mean that all the time it’s objective, but at least it’s got the two sides".
It pays off--literally--to work with refugees:  "I never smoked in my life, but in my position in the Middle East when I meet with the leadership and get them together, most of them, they smoke cigars, so I felt I needed to participate. And I got fully engaged in it. Of course, I don’t smoke at work. But in the evening when I’m traveling, I do. Personally, I smoke Romeo y Julieta. When I go out, I smoke Cohiba...the first thing I did was get a boat — a Wellcraft Martinique 2600. It’s docked in Jounieh Bay. There are now restaurants in the Mediterranean that you can access by boat. I enjoy sea cruising when I have the time.
How he first heard of the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon:  "Recently, one of the Arabic newspapers made some reference to the 1982 invasion of Lebanon by Israel. I found a lot on YouTube.""