S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 On Monday (26) evening, the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce<\/b> honoured the mayor of S\u00e3o Paulo, Gilberto Kassab, and professor Helmi Nasr, International Relations vice president at the organisation and founder of the language and culture department of the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP).<\/p>\n
The organisation granted each of them the 2012 Arab Chamber Personality award, at a dinner at the Syrian Sports Club, in the city of S\u00e3o Paulo, in celebration of the 25th of March, the National Day of the Arab Community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are honouring an Arab and a Brazilian,\u201d said the organisation\u2019s president, Salim Taufic Schahin. Nasr is Egyptian and naturalized Brazilian and Kassab is Brazilian of Lebanese descent. \u201cThey are two examples for our people,\u201d added Schahin.<\/p>\n
In May, Nasr will celebrate his 50th year in Brazil. He came to S\u00e3o Paulo in 1962 with the mission, granted to him by then Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, of starting an Arabic course at USP. \u201cI came to spend a year and this year I am celebrating my 50th in this very dear country,\u201d said the professor.<\/p>\n
At 90 years of age, Nasr has vast academic work, with the highlight in the Arabic-Portuguese dictionary, the translation of New World in the Tropics<\/i>, by Gylberto Freire, into Arabic and the translation of the Koran, the holy book of the Muslims, into Portuguese.<\/p>\n
The Koran was printed at King Fahd Complex, in Medina, Saudi Arabia, approved by the World Muslim League, a religious institution headquartered in Mecca, also in Saudi Arabia, distributed in Brazil by the Arab Brazilian Chamber. \u201cWe distributed over 20,000 copies in Brazil,\u201d said Schahin.<\/p>\n
What the professor recalls with greatest affection, however, is the mission that brought him to Brazil. \u201cBefore, there was no Arabic course here,\u201d he pointed. He had concluded his graduate studies at Sorbonne, in Paris, and was teaching in Cairo when he received the invitation. \u201cThere were professors who spoke all languages but Portuguese. So the department director called me and said: \u2018You are going. You speak French, which is a Latin language, like Portuguese, so you are going to solve the problem,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
Schahin said that the professor started his career at USP with just one student, but, in the 1960s, he managed to establish a department with seven professors. He added that Nasr made a \u201cHerculean\u201d effort in the translation of the Koran. \u201cWe are facing a true wise man,\u201d pointed out the president at the Arab Brazilian Chamber.<\/p>\n
Nasr is retired from the university, but his activities are not solely in the academic area. Schahin pointed out that the professor has been a director at the Arab Brazilian Chamber for 35 years and played a fundamental part in the organisation\u2019s recognition by the General Union of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture for Arab Countries and by the League of Arab States. It is the only Brazilian organisation of the kind that has such approval.<\/p>\n
Articulator<\/b><\/p>\n
Regarding the mayor, the president at the Arab Brazilian Chamber pointed out that Kassab, currently in his last year in office, had a term that \u201chonours us very much\u201d and is \u201cone of the most successful politicians of the new generation\u201d. He pointed out the Clean City Law, which banned open air advertising in the city of S\u00e3o Paulo and \u201cended visual pollution\u201d in the city.<\/p>\n
Schahin praised the politicians articulation capacity, adding that \u201cin less than six months\u201d he organized \u201cone of the largest parties in Brazil\u201d, the PSD. \u201cIt may be a miracle,\u201d he joked, recalling that an ancient Maronite relative of the mayor\u2019s was canonized by the Pope.<\/p>\n
Kassab said that the honour is \u201cgratifying and different\u201d, due to his origins. \u201cReceiving this honour connects me more to my community,\u201d he said, adding that he is almost \u201cthree quarters Arab\u201d, as three of his grandparents were Lebanese. \u201cGenetically [this honour] speaks closely about my personal life,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The dinner had the participation of over 500 guests, including leaders of the community, religious heads, politicians and diplomats. The deputy governor of the state of S\u00e3o Paulo, Guilherme Afif Domingos, said that the state and the city of S\u00e3o Paulo are what they are due to immigrants of different origins who moved here. The dean of the Council of Arab Ambassadors in Brazil, Ramez Goussous, from Jordan, stated that the Arab Brazilian Chamber transmits \u201can honourable image to Arab citizens\u201d in Brazil.<\/p>\n
To mark the ceremony, Nasr received the Arab Brazilian Chamber Golden Key from the chairman of the organisation\u2019s board, Walid Yazigi, and Kassab, the Order of Merit of the Arab Chamber, commander degree, from Schahin.<\/p>\n
*Translated by Mark Ament<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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