[LCM Events] lebanon election efforts, please read

[Ayah Bdeir]

Hello all,

 

Sorry for the mass email, I am writing because this issue needs as many
people as possible to make it a successful effort. 

It is a matter that concerns all Lebanese citizens living abroad and wishing
to participate in the coming elections in Lebanon. 

 

We have been asked by a group of Lebanese expats to join them in an effort
to facilitate and encourage the Lebanese Diaspora to travel to Beirut for
the elections and cast their vote. 

The aim of the group, as you will read in the attached mail and attached
document, is to negotiate with travel agencies the best prices for tickets
on the relevant dates, based on the fact that great amount of Lebanese would
want to go.

As you know, not all Lebanese immigrants can afford an extra trip back home
just in order to vote. The group aims to gather the Lebanese by country, and
from there, through one coordinator per country, negotiate for best prices,
thus allowing a greater number of people to have access to a ticket.  

 

Some people in the group have certain political inclinations, but on the
whole the project is very well intentioned -to make voting possible to all-
and their efforts are directed towards facilitating the trip back home, and
not trying to shape or affect the direction of the vote. 

 

Thus, I ask you to help out by forwarding this message to all Lebanese
people you know abroad. All information regarding this subject are explained
below, and the contacts of the coordinators per country are also included in
the attached file. A website has been created for that purpose.

 

Please circulate this as soon as you receive it, since we have to know in
the name of how many people we are negotiating before May 1st and we stop
analysing data on May 4th. Its all in the mail, please take the time to read
it.

 

Thanks,

 

Ayah

 

the original text:

 

Lebanese living abroad?  You belong to Lebanon, so come and Vote !

Born in Beirut in the 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, you lived abroad, and
you visit home every now and then since the booming 90ies?
On Monday march,14th 2005 you felt frustrated of none being part of those
millions citizens claiming for Freedom?
For 2 month now, you keep wondering and looking for something to do for your
country ?

We have found a way to make you, us all abroad, active actors for our
Independant and Bright Lebanon:  going to Lebanon and exercise your RIGHT TO
VOTE at next elections!  To do so, process is simple and is explained in the
doc attached (sheet #2)

What to do : 
Us, the "Beirut Task Force", civil society individuals, launch a worldwide
initiative for the sake of democracy. 
In the doc attached you'll find major info on how to vote.
Your mission : get your electoral card and get ready to travel
Our mission : centralize trips requirements to negotiate cheaper tickets
from all over the world to LEBANON 

Process and planning :
0/ Ask your Mayor in Lebanon for your "voting card" - ASAP (detailed process
in the doc attached)
1/ You might be keen on confidentiality, so we create a website to
communicate : from Monday 25th April morning, start connecting yourself to
<http://fly.2lebanon.com/> http://fly.2lebanon.com/ and log your info (city
departure, department/caza voting...) - DEAD LINE for you is MAY 1st 
2/ From the info you log, we will know the number of person willing to
travel / country - DATA  ANALYSIS for us ends MAY 4th 
3/ In parallel, we launch negotiations with travel agencies/airlines
/charter (if you can help, do speak up!)
4/ When the law, with election process and dates/caza or department, is
published, we post the dates on the web site (so keep yourself informed) -
no info yet 
5/ Once we get travel offers, we post it on the web site also - depends on
election dates
6/ Than, it is back your turn to get in touch with agencies and book your
ticket! 


Also, for any matter you can get in touch locally with Beirut Task Force
Country Coordinators  (names in the doc attached). 
If you need detailed info, or you have great contact in airlines companies,
or wanna become a country coordinator - speak up !

Please be aware that : 
- The bigger the number of people to go, the better the ticket prices!  So,
do forward that email and  <http://fly.2lebanon.com/>
http://fly.2lebanon.com/ .
- If after negotiating rates for 30 people, we finally are 15 ... rates will
change. So if you tell us you wanna go, and we get a great price, just do it
:)

Below the email that triggered our action.
Faithfully,
Worldwide Beirut Task Force 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/lebanon-events/attachments/20050422/e359d2e1/attachment.htm
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: LebConnection_for_may_election_info.xls
Type: application/vnd.ms-excel
Size: 79872 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/lebanon-events/attachments/20050422/e359d2e1/attachment.xls