REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, Ikhwanul Kiram Mashuri

The world would know a number of the following figure: Steve Jobs, Shakira, Carlos Slim Helu, Carlos Menem, and Sharif Bassouni. Steve Jobs is the founder and CEO of Apple Inc. He died in California, USA, about two years ago.

Shakira is a famous singer from Colombia and now lives in the US. Shakira is increasingly looming as she performed the song 'Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)' at the opening ceremony of the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.

Slim, a Mexican businessman and the world richest man according to Forbes. His fortune compete with two tycoons from the US, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett while Carlos Menem is Argentine President (1989-1999).

While Sharif Basyouni written as Cherif Bassiouni in America known as the Father of the Modern Criminal Law. He is one of the founders who laid the foundations of international law, especially criminal law. He also frequently headed the UN investigation team for war crimes/crimes and human rights violations in various countries. From Bosnia, Iraq, Libya to Bahrain.

The names are not a native of the country concerned. They are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from Arab countries. According to Hussein Shabaqshy, columnist Al Sharq Al Awsat, Arab immigrants who now live abroad are numbering tens of millions.

In general, they fled to avoid war, internal conflict, and repressive regime. In essence, they are no longer comfortable living in their own country and chose to move to a foreign country.

Steve Jobs, for example. His father was Abdul Fattah Al Jandali, 80 years, and now lives in Nevada, USA. Al Jandali was immigrants from Arab. He was born in Homs, Syria. Her parents were landlords. At the age of 18 years, Al Jandali went to Beirut to study at American University. In the Lebanese capital that he become an activist movement of Arab nationalism and led demonstrations against the President of Lebanon, Bechara Al Khoury, who was accused of a colonial stooge.

Although Al Khoury later withdrew from his activitiy, the political situation in Lebanon has pushed Al Jandali fled to America. He then studied at Columbia University and then the University of Wisconsin to obtain a PhD in economics and political science.

In college, he met Joanne Carol Schieble student to have a child who was later known as Steve Jobs. Because Schible's father refused her relationship with the young Arab, Al Jandali then leave Schieble in pregnant condition. Steve Jobs was given the name by his adopted parents, Paul and Clara Jobs.

While Shakira Isabel whose full name is Shakira Ripoll Mubarak is a third-generation Arab immigrant family in Colombia. Her grandparents emigrated from Lebanon to avoid the political situation of uncertainty ahead of the collapse of the Ottoman Caliphate.

Shakira grandparents settled in New York and then moved to Colombia. Shakira was born in the country of parents William and Nidia Ripoll Syadid Mubarak.

Next is Carlos Salim (Slim) Helu, 73. He is a second-generation Lebanese immigrant in Mexico from parent Julian Salim Haddad and Linda Helu. His father, who was born with the name Salim Khalil Haddad, fled to Mexico to escape the violence of Ottoman rule in Lebanon.

Including second generation immigrants from Arab is Carlos Munem. The former Argentine president was born in 1930 in a town in the province of La Rioja, Argentina. Both Munem parents are from Syrian city of Yabrud, southwestern borders with Lebanon. They fled from Syria to avoid political conflict ahead of the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

The other, Mahmud Sharif Basyouni immigrated to the US during the rule of the Egyptian President Jamal Abdul Nasir. He left Egypt for refusing to join the division of intelligence in charge interrogated and tortured political prisoners. For the help of his friends he then managed to sneak by ship from Alexander to Italy and then to New York, USA.

Husein Shabaqshy explained Arab immigration abroad occurred periodically. The first period was before and after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. At that time, the defeated Ottoman Empire in World War I dubbed the sick state. Its vast empire occupied by British, French, Italia, and German. Millions of Arabs, especially from the region of Sham (Syria and Lebanon), who concerned with their lives, chose to move to Europe and America.

The next move is the period when the state of Israel to stand in the Palestinian territories. Fearing for the massacre by Israeli Zionist, millions of Palestinians then left the country.

The wave of Arab immigration continued when Egyptian President Jamal Abdul Nasir, leaning socialist nationalizing private companies. Thousands of Egyptian rich people leave the country and then settled in America and Europe.

Lebanon civil war which lasted about 22 years has also resulted massive emigration wave in Lebanese. Now, the numbers of Lebanese immigrants were even greater than people living in the country. Most of them settled in Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Australia, France, British, Venezuela, and the US. The number of Lebanese descent abroad reached 16 million people, while the population of Lebanon is less than 4 million people.

Iran-Iraq War and later annexation of Iraq (Saddam Hussein) to Kuwait also has led to a number of Arab citizens to leave the country. However, the most horrible wave of Arab immigration is actually happened in recent years; the years of the rise of the so-called Al-Rabi' Al-Araby, or the Arab Spring.

Unfortunately, the expected spring to bring improvement to the lives of the people did not happen. It's far from the truth. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen continue to churn while the conflict in Syria also continues to take its toll, so did in Iraq. The victims were tens of millions of people.

Political infighting and power struggles have made people miserable. As a result, millions of poor people now on the waiting list to leave the country.

However, unlike previous waves of Arab immigration who in general are rich people and political activists, now those who want to leave the country are poor people who are vulnerable to persuasion of international mafia. As a result, many of those people later become victims of sea water and African desert. Many of them later died horribly before reaching the dream state.

Yes, this is the irony of the Arab countries. Countries known for it rich, but its people suffer due to the greed of rulers. The impoverished Arab would not dare to dream to be Steve Jobs, Shakira, Carlos Salim, Carlos Munen or Bassouni Sharif. For them, to survive in the host country is enough profitable.

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