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The General Council of the WTO has elected Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, as Chair of the World Trade Organisation’s 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13).
The Ministerial Conference, attended by leading representatives from the 164 countries and customs blocs that make up the WTO, will take place in Abu Dhabi in February 2024.
MC13 comes at a critical time for world trade, and the conference will build on the outcomes of MC12, review the performance of the multilateral trading system, make decisions on the future work of the WTO, and set up the roadmap for MC14.
“This is a pivotal moment for world trade,” commented Al Zeyoudi. “As a Ministerial Conference, we have to tackle pressing issues and challenges, consider all the forces shaping the future of trade and come up with clear solutions, and challenge ourselves to take actionable decisions that move the needle on making trade more efficient, inclusive and sustainable.
“At the heart of all of this is the need to modernise trade and embed technology across supply chains, and we look forward to working closely with all the members of the WTO to make real progress at MC13. Our goal must be driving forward momentum for more change at the conference in Abu Dhabi next year, but also in the years to come, and I have the utmost confidence in our collective ability to make this happen.”
The announcement was made during the WTO General Council in Geneva, Switzerland, where he met with the WTO Director-General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
During their meeting they discussed the preparations for MC13, in addition to the landmark inclusion of trade as a thematic day at COP28, which is set to take place in Dubai later this year.
Dr. Thani delivered his first address as Chair at the General Council, where he stressed the importance of building resilient trade frameworks to tackle today’s challenging landscape.
In his address, he called for focused and decisive deliberations amongst WTO members ahead of MC13, and commented, “Trade policy extends far beyond the scope of trade itself; it is about shaping our common future. It is our collective responsibility to contribute to a predictable, rules-based, and open trade and investment environment that creates prosperity for all – and this is precisely why the success of MC13 is so imperative.”
Fady Dagher is the first minority-background officer to head Canada’s second-largest force.
A map of Lebanon hangs in Chief Fady Dagher’s office in the grey stone headquarters of Montreal’s police force. It is a constant reminder of where he is from and the place he hopes to return to.
“For me, it helps me to stay connected to my roots and not to forget where I come from,” Mr Dagher said.
The 55-year-old Lebanese-Canadian officer, who moved to Canada when he was 17, is the first person from a minority background to lead Montreal police in the force’s nearly 200-year history.
His appointment in January was the culmination of a lifetime of service to his adopted homeland.
“I always felt I had a debt to the Montreal community,” Mr Dagher told The National. “They welcomed me so well and it was a duty for me to serve them.”
Softly spoken with a slightly gravelly voice, Mr Dagher said that when he came to Canada in 1985 his original plan was to go to university and then return to Abidjan in the Ivory Coast, where his father ran a manufacturing company. But a chance encounter with a police officer drew him to a different life, despite strong opposition from his father.
“Oh my God, he lost it,” Mr Dagher recalled with a chuckle.
Not even an unplanned trip from his beloved father could dissuade Mr Dagher from pursuing a career in law enforcement.
“I didn’t see my father from 1985 to 1991 and he came right away to discourage me.”
While policing may not have held the same allure and status in Lebanon and Ivory Coast as it did in Canada, Mr Dagher has brought the values of both places to his role leading Montreal’s nearly 5,000 officers.
“In Lebanon and Africa, we really have the community spirit deep in us and in the police, if you don’t have the community spirit, you cannot be close to the community and you cannot find your resolve to apply the law,” he said.
Mr Dagher has championed a community approach that involves immersing officers in the neighbourhoods they patrol.
The police chief leads by example. Earlier this year, he spent five days living and sleeping at various Montreal homeless shelters to better understand the struggles faced by the city’s homeless population.
“There is no way you can lead without walking the talk,” Mr Dagher said.
At the heart of his approach to policing is a Lebanese ethos.
“I want to be able to be inside those houses, sit with them, cook with them, clean with them, eat with them and see what their stories are,” he said.
He is hoping he can help to transform a police force that is facing a severe shortage of personnel and a city grappling with a sharp rise in gun violence.
Mr Dagher estimated that the force is 20 per cent to 30 per cent short of the officers it needs. A huge part of his first few months on the job has been to go on a charm offensive trying to attract new recruits.
“That’s my first priority,” he said. “To be able to recruit and to keep the recruit is huge.”
He’s looking at immigrant communities and hoping his own career can help new Canadians see a potential future in the ranks of the Service de Police de la Ville de Montreal.
Like many cities across North America, Montreal recorded a sharp increase in violent crime during the pandemic, a trend that continued in 2022.
Mr Dagher said the force was actively looking at ways to reverse that trend and was optimistic it would.
In terms of gun violence, “last year was the worst year that we went through”, he said, but noted that since he took over in January gun violence appears to be down, a trend he hopes will continue through to the end of the year.
Mr Dagher, who signed a seven-year contract, is determined to help recharge the department, but he dreams of having one more professional act after he retires.
“I am hoping that one day I will finish my career as ambassador of Canada in Lebanon, so I can go back to where I come from,” he said.
It would be the cherry on top of an exceptional life and allow Mr Dagher to spend time closer to his ancestral village of Bikfaya in the Mount Lebanon region.
Even while he is busy leading Canada’s second-largest police force, his mind and heart are never far from the small Mediterranean country that generations of Daghers have called home.
Throughout his busy career, he said, Lebanon has always held a restorative power.
“Every time I go back to Lebanon my heart beats better, again and again. My heart is in good health when I go to Lebanon because I feel welcomed,” he said.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman welcomed on Wednesday the heads of delegations participating in a summit of Gulf Cooperation Council and Central Asian countries.
Participants in the Jeddah summit include the presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
From the GCC side, the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the Crown Prince of Kuwait Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the Vice President of the UAE Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid are attending.
Oman and Bahrain’s rulers are being represented by Sayyid Asaad bin Tariq Al-Said and Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad Al-Khalifa respectively.
Sheikh Nasser praised the active role played by the Kingdom in enhancing cooperation and coordination among GCC countries and consolidating friendship and joint cooperation with other countries.
The fifth general session of the Arab Parliament, under Speaker Adel al Asoomi, kicked off on Saturday at the Arab League’s General Secretariat headquarters in Cairo.
The session is set to discuss a number of issues, including political and security developments in the Arab region.
The session will also debate an economic file on a bill to increase renewable and clean energy investments in the Arab world.
The lawmakers are set to discuss preparations for holding the second edition of the Arab forum on strengthening economic integration among Arab countries.
The parliament will consider a report on the social situation in the Arab world and will discuss enacting a law to counter bullying and family violence in the Arab region.
Her Royal Highness (HRH), Princess Lamia Bint Majed Al Saud, the Secretary General of Alwaleed Philanthropies, was reappointed as the UN-Habitat Goodwill Ambassador for the Arab region for a second term during a meeting held at the UN-Habitat premises in Riyadh.
As the first ever UN-Habitat Goodwill Ambassador for the Arab region appointed in 2020, HRH shed the light on key urban issues through her engagement with UN-Habitat activities and events, including the tenth session of the World Urban Forum 2020 and World Habitat Day Global Observance 2020.
HRH further advocated for topics, including Cities free from Violence against Women and Girls and COIVID-19 response in urban areas, as well as supported resource mobilization for a number of projects, targeting housing for the most vulnerable groups, COVID-19 response and climate action, spanning Iraq, Palestine, Sudan, Yemen, and Tunisia.
“I am greatly honoured to have been appointed for the second time as the UN-Habitat Regional Goodwill Ambassador for the Arab world. Our partnership with UN-Habitat will support our efforts to address issues around urbanization and its implications on societies, economies and environments. We promise to continue building bridges for a more compassionate, tolerant and accepting future along with our key partners.”
HRH signed her appointment letter in the presence of Maimunah Mohd Sharif, UN-Habitat Executive Director, Erfan Ali, UN-Habitat Regional Representative for the Arab States and Ayman El-Hefnawi, UN-Habitat Head of Office in Saudi Arabia.
“In the past three years during UN-Habitat’s cooperation with HRH Princess Lamia bint Majid Al Saud as UN-Habitat’s regional Goodwill Ambassador, HRH has shown the utmost commitment to the advocacy for the UN-Habitat mandate to realise more sustainable, resilient and inclusive cities,” Sharif commented.
UN-Habitat is keen on continuing the cooperation with HRH for the years 2022, 2023 and beyond in all relevant areas, including climate action, urban crisis response, housing and advocating the realization of better cities for all.
Mawhiba representatives told the 13th Conference of Arab Ministers of Education in Rabat that its ‘Gifted Arabs’ initiative had identified and was supporting people in 16 Arab countries
Secretary-General Dr. Amal bint Abdullah Al-Hazaa said that the program allows Saudi leadership to share their expertise and discover, nurture, and empower talent around the Arab world
More than 600 ‘gifted’ students have been granted support to realize their academic talents under an initiative launched by a Saudi foundation, an education conference has been told.
Leaders from Mawhiba, or the King Abdulaziz and his Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity, Mawhiba, told the 13th Conference of Arab Ministers of Education in Rabat, Morocco, that its ‘Gifted Arabs’ initiative had identified and was supporting people in 16 Arab countries.
Secretary-General Dr. Amal bint Abdullah Al-Hazaa said that the program allows Saudi leadership to share their expertise and discover, nurture, and empower talent around the Arab world.
Dr. Khaled Al-Sharif, director general of Mawhiba’s Center of Excellence, said that 606 students were identified in the first and second rounds of the ‘Gifted Arabs’ initiative’s recruitment.
The initiative has provided the talented students with qualitative enrichment and academic programs to develop their knowledge and capabilities, he added.
Mawhiba said that its efforts were part of its vision to empower talent and creativity to further prosperity.
The conference, “Future of Education in the Arab World in the Digital Transformation Era,” was held on May 29 and 30.
source/contents: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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Mawhiba has grant aided 606 students under its ‘Gifted Arabs’ initiative. (SPA)
In our continuing series of inspiring life stories across continents, we hear how the British MP is guided by a proud Jerusalem heritage.
Layla Moran’s earliest and fondest memories are of listening to tales of the days when the Ottomans ruled Palestine.
With a child’s fascination for the grisly aspects of life, she absorbed one particular story told of her great-grandfather’s first job accompanying the tax collectors. “They went to a village where someone hadn’t paid their taxes,” Ms Moran relates. “The man was dragged along the ground by his scrotum by a horse because he hadn’t paid his dues. And this was all under the draconian Ottoman rule.”
The first-hand accounts of her great-grandfather, the composer, oud player, poet and chronicler Wasif Jawhariyyeh, were published in his celebrated memoirs that span an extraordinary period for Palestine, from Ottoman rule to the 30-year British mandate and the formation of Israel.
As a young girl, Ms Moran devoured every word, finding a deep connection to her Palestinian heritage.
Those roots have at times come to the fore in her role as the first British-Palestinian Member of Parliament and as the Liberal Democrats’ shadow foreign secretary. Vividly so when she appeared in the House of Commons with a keffiyeh, a Palestinian scarf, wrapped around her neck, the first worn by an MP in the chamber.
Ms Moran explains that she wasn’t striving to make a statement, it was just that she’d had another impassioned discussion the night before about the plight of the Palestinians with her mother, who was born in Jerusalem.
“The next morning, I opened the drawer and saw the scarf. I thought, ‘I’m going to wear it for her and I’m going to wear it for us’ because it’s so much part of our identity,” she tells The National.
It was only afterwards that she realised the full impact of what she had done when friends texted their commendations alongside the inevitable social media storm.
he owes much to her mother’s side of the family, not least her love of Arabic culture and language along with a willingness to be outspoken and what she confesses can be passionate gesticulations.
The influence of her mother, particularly from those youthful days of protest during the 1970 Jordanian unrest, is obvious. Randa Jawhariyyeh was living in Amman and would often slip out to show support for the Palestinian cause, and it was Israel’s proposed annexation of the West Bank that they had been talking about the night before Ms Moran wore the scarf in September last year.
“She’ll talk about it emotionally, but she won’t cry,” she says. “She just passionately insists that Palestine is not about lines on a map, it’s about people.”
Though born in London, Ms Moran is proud of being a “Jerusalemite” of many generations’ heritage. Indeed, the Greek Orthodox family bible, signed in Arabic by every firstborn child of her Palestinian Christian antecedents, is a repository of names going back two centuries.
“It confounds people that I am not Muslim because they associate Palestine with Islam,” she says. “Then I point out that Jesus was born there and they go ‘oh, yes’ … It shows that the basic makeup of who is a Palestinian is very poorly understood internationally.”
The city at the confluence of the three major Abrahamic religions in Jerusalem has generated a rich and deep history; more than half a century of which was captured in the memoirs of Ms Moran’s great-grandfather.
Jawhariyyeh recounted one period of relatively peaceful intermingling of Muslim, Christian and Jew between the two World Wars. He was a Christian but studied the Koran and counted many Muslims — Turks included — as well as the Europeans, as friends. His diaries refer to Jews as “abna’ al-balad”, meaning compatriots.
He was, by all accounts, an engaging and charismatic man who socialised with all, no matter their background.
His many sayings were repeated at home and passed down the generations. “Money doesn’t matter, all that matters is beauty” is one that trips off Ms Moran’s tongue with a smile as she speaks by Zoom from her London apartment. “He was writing those diaries from the perspective of someone intensely proud of his homeland,” she says.
While Jawhariyyeh walked in the steps of many powerful men and worked for the British mandate, he never lost the enjoyment of speaking to ordinary people. There was one occasion when he visited Ms Moran’s grandfather in Libya during which he was “lost” for three hours after becoming engrossed in conversation with a bin-man he’d met on the street.
“People are people, and that’s where the joy in life is”, Jawhariyyeh frequently said, according to Ms Moran. “I think that very much carried through in a lot of the way my family sees the world.”
Perhaps this is why she takes offence that her elevation to becoming an MP might somehow make her superior to others. “It has never been about me, or status or how other people see me,” she says. “And if they see me in a way that is in any way elevated above them, that makes me very uncomfortable. I do everything I do out of a sense of duty to others.”
That sense of public service comes from both sides of the family. Ms Moran’s father, James, is a notable diplomat who served as the European Union’s ambassador to Egypt, among other countries
Hence, the young Layla spent a privileged childhood jumping around various states from Jordan to Ethiopia and Jamaica.
“I am British, I am Palestinian, but actually I spent the whole of my childhood living in other countries than those two,” she reflects. “So I’m very much what they call a third-culture kid, without geographic roots.”
Her upbringing meant that she had many encounters with “these extraordinary people” who came to the house. The then prime minister of Jamaica, she recalls, was among those who felt comfortable enough to take part in a good party.
“I’d meet presidents and ambassadors and see them to be normal people,” Ms Moran says.
Her parents also insisted that the fabulous homes with swimming pools and staff were “borrowed”, so “don’t have airs and graces”.
Having been imbued with Arab and Middle Eastern culture, Ms Moran puts that to good effect in the Commons to inform and educate other MPs on the region. “The best thing I can do is to tell the story of my family and that will inject an element of humanity into the conversation that hopefully will make people stop and listen,” she says.
It is those times, she believes, when she has the greatest effect, even if her mother worries that people will judge her for it. “Don’t say too much that you’re Palestinian,” Randa would chide. “You’re British and you are a British MP, and you just happen to have a Palestinian mother.”
Her mother has long had great concerns for the welfare of Ms Moran. In the Gulf War of 1991, when the family was in Athens, she kept nine-year-old Layla off school out of fears that the conflict would spill over into Greece.
Given how much politics was discussed around the kitchen table and her time in the region, the 38-year-old MP is confident about her understanding of the Middle East’s complexities. “I can speak with real authority about the region,” she says.
Some of that heritage has been digested in more ways than one, with Ms Moran claiming a skilled hand at Middle Eastern cuisine. She says she makes a mean Moulokhia that wards off cold British nights and gives her apartment an Arab-influenced aroma, especially pleasant after a hard day spent toiling over foreign affairs.
“But there’s a difference between being a Palestinian girl who likes to eat Palestinian food and listens to Arabic music, and being a spokesperson about what are very complex issues in the area. And I’m very careful when I tread on to the latter ground,” she says, in reference to the post she’s held since August. “I’m taking it slowly because I want to get it right.”
Her presence in the Commons is a clear reminder to others that Britain has a history, a legacy and responsibility to the Palestinians. She points out that it was the British mandate that governed the area for 30 years after the First World War, giving way to the formation of Israel.
“We can’t just give up on the region,” she says. “Britain is integral to its history. I’m not saying we can solve all of its problems on our own. We absolutely cannot but we certainly can’t throw our hands up and go away.”
Again, the conversation comes back to Jawhariyyeh’s diaries, in which he initially expressed joy at working under the British rule. “There was elation in his words at the arrival of the British because they freed them from the Ottoman Empire, but at the end my great-grandfather felt that the British who he had worked for utterly betrayed the Palestinians, because they promised that they were going to do good by them.”
Despite attending Roedean boarding school in Sussex, mainly because of her father’s transient life as a diplomat, Ms Moran went into politics to address the unfairness she witnessed in the British education system as a secondary school teacher in maths and physics.
She decided to do something about it and read every major party’s manifesto on education, deeming that the Liberal Democrats most closely fitted her own beliefs.
In the 2017 General Election, she took the Oxford West and Abingdon seat from the Conservatives by just 816 votes. Her straightforward and egalitarian views appear to have held sway with her constituents.
In the last election, her majority increased by almost 9,000 votes. Observers of events at the House of Commons, it seems, will have the chance of seeing that Palestinian scarf for some years to come.
‘I do everything I do out of sense of duty to others,’ says Layla Moran of her decision to become a Liberal Democrat politician. She won the seat of Oxford West and Abingdon in 2017. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
The United Nations on Friday commemorated the first-ever International Day to Combat Islamophobia with a special event in the General Assembly Hall, where speakers upheld the need for concrete action in the face of rising hatred, discrimination and violence against Muslims.
The observation follows the unanimous adoption of an Assembly resolution last year that proclaimed 15 March as the International Day, calling for global dialogue that promotes tolerance, peace and respect for human rights and religious diversity.
As the UN Secretary-General stated, the nearly two billion Muslims worldwide – who come from all corners of the planet – “reflect humanity in all its magnificent diversity”. Yet, they often face bigotry and prejudice simply because of their faith.
Furthermore, Muslim women can also suffer “triple discrimination” because of their gender, ethnicity, and faith.
Islamophobia ‘epidemic’
The high-level event was co-convened by Pakistan, whose Foreign Minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, underlined that Islam is a religion of peace, tolerance and pluralism.
Although Islamophobia is not new, he said it is “a sad reality of our times” that is only increasing and spreading.
“Since the tragedy of 9/11, animosity and institutional suspicion of Muslims and Islam across the world have only escalated to epidemic proportions. A narrative has been developed and peddled which associates Muslim communities and their religion with violence and danger,” said Mr. Zardari, who is also Chair of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers.
“This Islamophobic narrative is not just confined to extremist, marginal propaganda, but regrettably has found acceptance by sections of mainstream media, academia, policymakers and state machinery,” he added.
Everyone has a role
The President of the UN General Assembly, Csaba Kőrösi, noted that Islamophobia is rooted in xenophobia, or the fear of strangers, which is reflected in discriminatory practices, travel bans, hate speech, bullying and targeting of other people.
“All of us carry a responsibility to challenge Islamophobia or any similar phenomenon, to call out injustice and condemn discrimination based on religion or belief – or the lack of them,” he added.
Mr. Kőrösi said education is key to learning why these phobias exist, and it can be “transformative” in changing how people understand each another.
“It is an inexorable part of the resurgence of ethno-nationalism, neo-Nazi white supremacist ideologies, and violence targeting vulnerable populations including Muslims, Jews, some minority Christian communities and others,” he said.
“Discrimination diminishes us all. And it is incumbent on all of us to stand up against it. We must never be bystanders to bigotry.”
Stressing that “we must strengthen our defenses”, Mr. Guterres highlighted UN measures such as a Plan of Action to Safeguard Religious Sites. He also called for ramping up political, cultural, and economic investments in social cohesion.
Curb online bigotry
“And we must confront bigotry wherever and whenever it rears its ugly head. This includes working to tackle the hate that spreads like wildfire across the internet,” he added.
To this end, the UN is working with governments, regulators, technology companies and the media “to set up guardrails, and enforce them.”
The Secretary-General also expressed gratitude to religious leaders across the world who have united to promote dialogue and interfaith harmony.
He described the 2019 declaration on ‘Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together’ – co-authored by His Holiness Pope Francis and His Eminence the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed El Tayeb – as “a model for compassion and human solidarity.”
source/content: news.un.org/en/ (headline edited)
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UN Photo/Loey Felipe / Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the UN General Assembly High-Level Event to commemorate the International Day to Combat Islamophobia.
Once a migrant worker in a Midwestern car parts factory, the Yemeni healthcare practitioner is now Hamtramck’s first Muslim mayor. His secret? Never giving up on his goals.
mer Ghalib’s third day in an American high school was very nearly his last when he was given consecutive zero grades for not doing the set homework.
With cheeks burning as the maths teacher berated him in front of the other pupils, a despondent Ghalib, then 18, resolved to quit.
Back home in Yemen, he had been top of the class but 10-hour night shifts on the production line of a Midwestern car parts factory left little enough time for sleep and lessons, never mind extra academic work.
“Everyone was looking at me,” Ghalib, now 43, tells The National. “It was embarrassing. I only went to high school to learn English. That was my goal.
“But the Egyptian maths teacher, Abdul Salam, started focusing on me. He must have thought I didn’t care about school so he picked on me.”
There seemed little point in continuing but then Mr Salam wrote a complicated algebraic problem on the blackboard as a challenge for his cohort.
Ghalib volunteered to have a go, rose from his seat, picked up the chalk and solved the problem without uttering a word.
“After class, the teacher said in Arabic: ‘You’re smart and you know your stuff, why don’t you do your homework?’
“When I told him there was no time because I had to work in a factory for $7 an hour, he said: ‘If you finish college, you can make $70 an hour.’
“That was the moment that changed my life because before that I had decided not to come to school any more.”
The intervention put him back on track to achieve his childhood ambition of holding public office, a dream fulfilled when he last year became the first Muslim mayor of Hamtramck in the Great Lakes region of Michigan.
On reflection, though, Ghalib concedes that the route to get there was circuitous with a lengthy diversion by way of the field of medicine.
Born in Yemen, his was an idyllic childhood in the village of Al Awd in Ibb province in the rugged mountains of the country’s south-west.
He excelled in maths and science at the tiny Al Islah school in the neighbouring village of Nashawan, where Egyptian, Syrian and Iraqi teachers doubled up on subjects for children of every age from elementary to high school in a handful of classrooms.
In his spare time, young Amer played football in local leagues, becoming an Argentina fan after watching Diego Maradona’s record-breaking five goals and five assists in the 1986 World Cup, and wrote poetry.
So it was apt when he was inaugurated as mayor a year ago that he quoted translated lines about determination and persistence by one of his favourite Yemeni poets, Abdulaziz Al Maqaleh.
“The poem was about never giving up,” he says. “Poetry makes me feel great because I can express my feelings about anything.
“Some people think it’s odd for a healthcare practitioner and politician to write poetry but it’s a way of expressing what’s inside. I still write.”
Career inspiration was to come in the form of his great-uncle, Dahan Najar, on whose every word Amer would hang as the family was regaled with tales of his travels to the then Soviet Union and work as a diplomat.
“They would call him doctor,” Ghalib says, “and I wanted to be just like him. He was my role model.
“He had completed a doctorate in political science in Russia and worked in government — so, at that young age of five or six, I decided I wanted to be a politician.”
Fate, however, seemed to have other plans. As the eldest of 10 siblings, Amer was expected to leave his village to work in the US and send money home.
The path was well-trodden by friends, neighbours and Ghalib antecedents, whose earnings were vital to keep the farming community thriving.
His father, Mahmoud, and grandfather, Ali, had by turns lived in Hamtramck for many years, where work was plentiful and migrant labour in demand.
“They needed me to come here and support the family,” he says, of dutifully taking a job in the American car industry. “I was very upset because I thought my future was over.”
And there, on the industrial floor of the MES corporation, he, too, might have toiled for decades before returning to settle in Yemen but for his overriding desire to make something more of himself.
Unlike those who went before him, Ghalib was to become representative of the modern-day immigrants who see their future as proud Yemeni-Americans.
He is quick to point out, though, that their lives nonetheless have a firm footing in tradition, saying they are not so much the “sandwich generation” of their western counterparts but more like the sabayahpastry. “We support multiple layers of relatives and neighbours,” Ghalib says.
Six months into his job on the factory floor, he applied to enrol on an adult evening class to learn English. The cousin with whom he was living at the time was accepted but Ghalib, deemed to be too young, was not.
On the advice of co-workers, who gave the erroneous assurance that homework was not compulsory, he registered to complete his final year of high school, attending classes from 7.30am until 2.30pm, then catching a lift to the factory with a colleague to work until 1am.
Mr Salam soon encouraged Ghalib to scale back his shift so he could spend two hours in the cafe doing his homework but the pupil often put in even more time afterwards to spare himself any further humiliation.
“That teacher was an inspiration. He told me not to waste my talent.”
His graduation on the school’s football pitch in the summer of 2000 was captured in photographs taken by his cousin that were sent to his father in Yemen.
One of the first people to be consulted about Ghalib’s next step was his revered great-uncle Dr Najar but the response was not what the young man had expected.
“He said: ‘Politics is not going to feed you. You are smart, you can do something professional that will help you survive.’
“So I decided to do medicine because my second favourite thing was science.”
With his English language skills still lacking, Ghalib struggled to obtain entry to medical school after completing a degree in biological science at Henry Ford Community College, transferring to Wayne State University in Michigan after two years.
He returned to Yemen in 2005 to marry Iman, now 36, then enrolled at Ross University School of Medicine in the Caribbean and went on to do two years of clinical rotations at Sinai Grace hospital in Detroit.
These days, as he awaits an opportunity for a residency, the father of three daughters – Mayasm, 15, Ansam, 13, and Balsam, three – juggles work as an assisting physician along with a master’s degree in nursing online in the hope of opening a medical practice.
“I’m a multi-tasker,” he says. “I never give up on anything. If I don’t accomplish my goal one way, I try another.”
Which explains why, when conservative community leaders felt aggrieved at the relaxing of marijuana licensing laws in Hamtramck, Ghalib saw not only an important issue to get behind but a political opportunity.
“The people who used to run in local elections were the same every time and never solved any of the city’s problems,” he says.
“They did not represent us well, especially the Muslim immigrants. The leaders did not listen to the people and we were looking for someone to take over. I said I could do it and serve the people.”
He won an astonishing 68 per cent of the vote — more than double that of the long-time incumbent Karen Majewski, bringing an end to the city’s string of Polish mayors for the past century.
“When I registered, some people were sceptical and said: ‘He will lose, no one knows him.’ But there are a lot of Yemenis here in Hamtramck and they knew me very well.
“They knew I would be a strong candidate and that, even though I didn’t have much experience of public office, I had the skills to succeed.”
It hasn’t all been plain sailing since. Ghalib faces a mountain of woes, including ageing infrastructure, a city council budget deficit and replacing poisonous lead pipes in homes.
But one of the biggest challenges has been trying to unite a city long in the media spotlight for its diversity.
A welcome sign at the border sums up its reputation for being the UN in microcosm: “The world in two square miles.”
Polish shopfronts now sit side by side Yemeni restaurants and Bangladeshi shops, flyers are printed in Arabic, and the adhanis heard on street corners as large numbers of Arabs and Asians continue to make Hamtramck their home.
While some have seen his appointment — and that of fellow Arab American mayors Bill Bazzi in nearby Dearborn Heights and Abdullah Hammoud in Dearborn — as a celebration of growing multiculturalism in the US, there has been a backlash from some quarters.
Critics have scoured posts on Ghalib’s social media platforms to accuse him of bigotry but his response has been: “We try to represent everyone and make them feel this is their home, no matter what religion or background they have. I try to serve people equally.”
His inauguration followed Hamtramck becoming the first US city with a Muslim-majority council in 2015. The councillors are now all Muslim, and, for Ghalib, the ceremony held at the school where he set out to alter his own destiny marked just how far both he and his adopted home had come.
As he looked out over the auditorium, he recalled his school careers adviser saying: “I don’t think you’ll have any future in politics in this country. You’ll always speak English with an accent and your background will not be in your favour.”
With a wry smile, he told the audience: “I still do speak with an accent — but I have decided to come back and embrace my first love, politics.”
Almost a year into the part-time municipal role and nine Fifa World Cups after Argentina last lifted the trophy, Ghalib watched the first half of the 2022 final last month with a local Bangladeshi crowd before moving to another lounge to join fellow Yemenis for the rest of the match.
All assembled were agreeably cheering for the mayor’s favourite side — except for three fans belatedly exposed as France supporters when the second equaliser was scored.
On his Facebook feed once the tense penalty shoot-out was over, he wrote that the win for Lionel Messi’s squad, “after a lot of trouble, is what makes the victory more sweet and deserved”.
Having overcome adversity to hit goal after goal, and making countless assists along the way, Ghalib knows exactly how that feels.
Yemeni-American Amer Ghalib made history last year when he was sworn in alongside three new councillors in Hamtramck, now believed to be the first city in the US with an all-Muslim council. Photo: Amer Ghalib
