Point of View: Joulan Abdulkhalek
Joulan Abdulkhalek is our Youth Ambassador from Beirut, Lebanon, where he obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Economics with a minor in Engineering Management from the American University of Beirut (AUB). He interned at Daimler Financial Services Strategy Department during the summer of 2008 and will be studying International Political Economy at the London School of Economics beginning in the fall of 2009. He has participated in numerous training programs and conferences, including the Leadership Training Program at Georgetown University during the summer of 2007, the Learning from the Future conference in Dubai in April 2008, and the Young Arab Leaders regional conference in Beirut in May 2009.
Read the Youth Ambassador Think Tank>>
Response to: "Only the youth can save Lebanon's future"
Jeha’s focus on the need for Lebanon to have a coherent and well defined national identity is indeed a pivotal element in any long term solution for the country. As Lebanese citizens, we lack the idea of a shared identity that can mobilize us around our collective interests. Without such potential for collective mobilization, we witness the decay of Lebanese society: its religious and political polarization that is, in turn, interpreted as a regional and international proxy struggle between foreign countries. Thus, we must understand the importance of identity as a determining factor upon which a nation or state can be built. In turn, we must focus our efforts on creating a sort of “Lebanese Dream” that could feed this unified Lebanese identity and move towards building a government that serves the interests of its people rather than its own..
