News Highlights
Author:
Maha Al-Azar,
Media Relations Officer,
Office of Information and Public Relations,
ma110@aub.edu.lb
 President Waterbury
Nasser Al-Kharafi
Robert Fisk
Zaha Hadid
Said Khoury
Muhammad Yunus
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AUB awards honorary doctoral degree to five men and women who left their mark on the Middle East
 | The colorful procession entering Assembly Hall
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The American University of Beirut awarded five new individuals who, in the words of AUB President John Waterbury "have, in the full sense of the term, made a difference."
This year recipients were: Kuwaiti businessman and chairman of the al-Kharafi group Nasser al-Kharafi; British writer and veteran journalist Robert Fisk; Iraqi-British avant-garde architect Zaha Hadid; Lebanese-Palestinian co-founder of Consolidated Contractors Company Said Khoury; and Bangladeshi founder of the Grameen Bank for micro-credits Muhammad Yunus. |
 | President Waterbury introduces this year's candidates
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Professors in their academic robes followed by this year's recipients filed into Assembly Hall at noon, marking the beginning of the official ceremony.
"Each year in the midst of ongoing uncertainties in this region and in this country, we remind ourselves of the big picture and the long view," said President Waterbury. "Our honorees remind us of lasting values, human will, the rewards of perseverance, and, perhaps above all, the virtue of patience coupled with determination. They teach us how to keep moving when the ground is shaking beneath our feet."
One by one, President Waterbury highlighted each recipient's major accomplishments, and then bestowed upon each an honorary doctorate. Then, the provost helped each honoree wear their doctoral hood, after which each recipient responded with an acceptance speech. |
 | Nasser al-Kharafi
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Businessman Nasser al-Kharafi started out by saying that he realized early on in his career, "that success is neither about getting ahead nor about the profits one achieves. Success is rather about making a difference, knowing your strengths and weaknesses, expanding your capacity to perform and about what you give back to your community, especially in terms of creating opportunities to others to improve their lives."
Nasser, who heads the al-Kharafi international group for construction and engineering, also paid tribute to his father who founded the Kuwaiti conglomerate. |
 | Robert Fisk
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Journalist Robert Fisk chided Westerners for staying silent in the face of crimes against humanity for fear of offending the world's only superpower. He noted that it would be possible for the West to have a mature relationship with the Middle East, as AUB is "proof that it is possible."
But Fisk lashed out at US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for having used the September 11 terror attacks to "persuade a nation that our world had changed forever... And so began the long march down the crumbling staircase of our own post-war morality," he said. "Well as someone who lives among you in the Middle East, among the very Arab populations so patronized and vilified and threatened and occupied, I can only say that I will not let 19 murderers change MY world-and nor should you," he concluded to resounding applause. |
 | Zaha Hadid
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Architect Zaha Hadid spoke about Beirut's architectural progress after the war, noting the latest changes to downtown Beirut. She also acknowledged that her success relied on several people, adding that success is the result of hard work and of enjoying what you do. "It's fantastic to be able to do something on this campus," she said, in reference to the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy for which she had recently submitted the winning design. "This has been a very exciting journey for me," she added.
Engineer Said Khoury spoke of the importance of values in both private and public life, noting that if the world, and in particular the United States, were upholding human values, the Palestinian people would not be left to starve and suffer. "The US must return to the values of the founding fathers," he said. "The US must lead. The U.S must meet its world responsibilities. What we urgently need in Palestine and other parts of the world is a peace process initiated by the U.S. that is real and not fake." |
 | Muhammad Yunus
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In his acceptance speech, business entrepreneur Muhammad Yunus gave an overview of Grameen Bank which he founded in order to lend small amounts of money to poor people, thus helping them set up small businesses which would pull them out of their poverty.
"This recognition from your prestigious institution brings honor and distinction to Grameen Bank and gives a resounding endorsement at the global level that microcredit for the poor can be a powerful tool to help the poorest person discover his or her own potential to overcome poverty with dignity. This honor helps us tremendously in carrying out our mission," he said. He also incited everyone to change their mindsets, arguing that "the world is the way it is because of the mindsets we have inherited. If we train our mind differently we can create another kind of world." |
 | Former PM Najib Mikati seated in the front row
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Yunus added: "If we truly believed that poverty is unacceptable to us, and that it should not belong to a civilized society, we would have created appropriate institutions and policies to create a poverty-free world... If we are not achieving something, my first suspicion will be that perhaps we do not desire it intensively enough."
Yunus highlighted the lessons he learnt from his experience with Grameen, which allowed him to discover the potential of every human being. "Each individual person is very important, and has tremendous potential," he said. "One person alone can influence in a significant way the lives of others within communities, nations, within and beyond his/her own time." Moreover, he discovered that human beings have a lot of creativity which, if put to use, would solve a lot of social problems. "Grameen has given me a faith, an unshakeable faith, in the creativity of human beings. This has led me to believe that human beings are not born to suffer the misery of hunger and poverty. They suffer now as they have done in the past because we turn our head away from this issue," he said. |
 | L to R: BOT Chairman Morris with Hadid, Fisk, Kharafi, President Waterbury, Khoury, Yunus
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AUB has been awarding honorary doctorates since 1890. Among the recipients of these honorary PhDs are: Founder Daniel Bliss, United Nations negotiator Lakhdar al-Ibrahimi, businessman Carlos Ghosn, novelist Amin Maalouf, professor Edward Said, journalists Helen Thomas and Peter Jennings, cellist YoYo Ma, mathematician Michael Atiyah, chemist Ahmed Zewail, journalist Ghassan Tueni, singer Fairuz and the Aga Khan.
The awarding of honorary degrees was interrupted between 1920 and 1966 and 1969 and 2003.
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