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SOUTH
AMERICA:
Fomenting Greater
Understanding at Summit with
Arab Countries
Mario Osava
BRASILIA, (IPS) - South American
and Arab leaders taking part in
the two-day summit that opened
Tuesday in the Brazilian capital
were facing a serious risk of
not being able to understand
each other - literally.
The problem was the dearth of
experienced Arabic interpreters
in Brazil, one of the most
difficult glitches that the
organisers of the Summit of
South American-Arab countries
had to overcome.
The solution was to "import"
interpreters. In the end, the
coordinator of the simultaneous
interpretation services at the
summit, Simone Troula, found 26
Arabic language interpreters,
only three of whom are from
Brazil.
Through her contacts as a member
of the International Association
of Conference Interpreters,
Troula hired 22 interpreters
from Cairo, one of whom works in
Geneva and another in New York.
The 23rd foreign interpreter is
from Argentina.
The three Brazilians were hired
even though they had no
experience in international
conferences of this magnitude.
"Imagine the disaster that the
summit would have been without
simultaneous interpreting from
Arabic to Portuguese and Spanish
and vice versa," Troula
commented to IPS, blaming the
difficulty in finding
interpreters on the fact that
this is the first-ever summit
between leaders from South
America and the Middle East.
The Egyptian capital saved the
day, as a source of
interpreters, thanks to its
lengthy tradition of hosting
international conferences.
The challenge of finding
interpreters reflects the
distance between two regions
which nevertheless have much in
common, said Argemiro Procopio,
professor of international
relations at the University of
Brasilia.
"The beauty of this summit, an
undertaking that is more than
commendable, is that it is an
important step towards
overcoming a mutual lack of
familiarity," he said.
That distance is surprising
given that between 16 and 17
million people of Arab descent
live in South America, including
around 12 million in Brazil
alone, said Michel Alaby,
secretary-general of the
Arab-Brazilian Chamber of
Commerce.
Procopio pointed out that the
Lebanese community in Brazil is
two to three times the size of
the entire population of Lebanon
itself.
Most South American cultures
have felt a strong Arab
influence, as demonstrated by a
photo exhibit, one of the
activities held parallel to the
summit.
But that is not only a result of
immigration, said Procopio, who
noted the "indirect influence"
from the original colonists from
Spain and Portugal, two
countries that were heavily
influenced by Arab culture in
past centuries.
Many Brazilians are aware that
the remittances sent home by
Brazilian migrants living and
working in countries like Japan
and the United States exceed the
revenues generated by several of
the country's main export
products, but few know that
remittances from Lebanese
immigrants in Brazil are helping
to rebuild Beirut, he added.
The problem is that there are no
reliable figures for the total
amount of remittances sent by
immigrants in Brazil to their
families in Lebanon.
The flow of remittances between
this region and Lebanon is
actually a cause of concern for
the U.S. government, which
suspects that the tri-border
region where Argentina, Brazil
and Paraguay come together, home
to a large Arab community, is a
source of funding for
international terrorist
activities, said Procopio.
Trade between Brazil and the
countries of the Arab world
amounted to 8.19 billion dollars
last year, five percent of
Brazil's total trade revenue.
But while people in Arab
countries drink Brazilian coffee
and consume Brazilian honey,
most of it is imported from
Germany, Italy and other
European countries, where the
products have been processed.
This week's summit provides an
"excellent opportunity" for Arab
countries to begin importing
South American products
"directly from the source," said
Procopio.
Brazil mainly imports oil and
petroleum by-products from the
Middle East, but that is
changing now, since South
America's giant will soon be
self-sufficient in oil and
natural gas itself.
"It isn't oil that has triggered
South America's interest in
stronger ties with the Arab
world," said the professor, who
pointed out that half of the
countries in South America
export oil or natural gas.
"The most important thing is
renewing and strengthening
cultural ties and raising
awareness among people in the
two regions that they have much
in common and a great deal to
gain from increased
cooperation," he said.
For that reason, he argued, the
summit is "decades late in
coming."
"A forging of closer cultural
and spiritual ties" that should
extend to other fields, like
trade, is the aim of this week's
summit, said Brazilian Foreign
Minister Celso Amorim.
According to the minister, the
summit is already a success due
to the simple fact that it is
being held.
He also pointed to the
participation of 1,250
entrepreneurs in the business
seminar and fair held
simultaneously with the summit,
including 250 from the Arab
world, 700 Brazilians and 300
from the rest of South America.
Besides the language and
cultural differences and the
sheer distance that separate
South America and the Middle
East, the members of the
business community expressed
concern over the shortage of
transport between the two
regions.
There are few sea routes and no
direct flights, and
communications and cargo traffic
largely go through Europe.
The Arab countries participating
in the summit organised by the
Brazilian government of
President Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva are Algeria, Bahrein,
Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq,
Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya,
Mauritania, Morocco, Oman,
Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,
Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia,
United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
The South American countries
that have sent delegations,
meanwhile, are Argentina,
Bolivia, Chile, Colombia,
Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru,
Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.
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