+961

A Lebanese Blog

Month: April 2008

  • Almaza: keep drinking

    Using the political situation to make an advertisement is one of the things that I would describe as “حربقة” (Clever in english), or shall I call that creativity..? Check their latest advertisement below.

    To those who don’t understand Arabic, the advertisement tells that Lebanese people have been celebrating and drinking Almaza since 1933 and kept on doing that throughout the good and bad times they went through (Independance 1943, Earthquake 1956, Miss Universe (Georgina Rizk) 1971, Beginning of the Lebanese war 1975, End of the war 1990), and at the end they say that in 2008 nothing will keep them from drinking and celebrating (given that the political situation is in deep sh*t).

    **By the way, you can find other Lebanese videos like Almaza’s on Plus961 Videos.**

    And while searching today, I found another photo of a billboard from their campaign last summer on Lebanon-Update.

    The billboard says: “All eyes are on the chair this summer”, knowing that last summer everybody was wondering who’s going to be Emile Lahoud’s successor and become the new president.

    I believe they can still use this billboard yet again this summer! don’t you think so?

  • Catch of the day

    I came across this news article in Annahar newspaper today.

    http://www.plus961.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/annahar04242008.PNG

    The article is about a campaign launched by the municipality of Beirut to exterminate pests (roaches should be afraid now). It’s quite a normal news.

    But notice the attached photo, showing some personnels along with the head of the municipality taking a photo beside the vehicle to be used in that campaign. Isn’t that similar to taking a photo beside a Baygon bottle? I just wonder…

    http://www.plus961.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/baygon.jpg

  • Saida’s Palaces

    Although it is the third largest city in Lebanon, but I’ve never went to Saida and made a tour in the city until a few weeks ago. It might not be the best place in Lebanon but WOW, I was impressed!

    Call me an ignorant, but I really didn’t even know there was a gorgeous old city there with people living in it! The streets are so tight and cozy, at some places they’re barely 2 meters wide.

    http://plus961.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/OldSouk_small.jpg
    Click to enlarge

    I was also surprised to know that the Audi family (yes those of Bank Audi) were involved in manufacturing soap bars in the old city of Saida, and they have actually established a soap museum in what used to be their soap factory.

    http://plus961.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/SoapMuseum_small.jpg
    Click to enlarge

    The museum is maintained by “Fondation Audi“. If you get to visit it, you will be able to also the Audi’s palace since the museum is located on the ground floor of it, and they’re both open to the public.

    Oh and not only the Audi’s are famous there, but also the Debbane family! They have a great palace in Saida, which is nearly 300 years old, and it is also open to the public. Check its entrance in the photo below.

    http://plus961.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/DebbanePalace_small.jpg
    Click to enlarge

    It’s awesome from the inside but unfortunately I was not able to take good photos there. However, you can always refer to the Debbane Foundation’s website and preview the available photos there, although I believe they do NO justice to the palace.

    I do recommend that you visit Saida in case you still have not done it yet, and make sure to go through the old souk. But, if you’re looking for luxurious places to have lunch and stuff, then Saida is SO NOT for you.

    http://plus961.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/Street_small.jpg
    Click to enlarge

  • Traffic lights

    Traffic Light

    Woohoo! Lebanon is getting into the traffic lights era!!

    You’re probably aware (or not) of the new traffic lights at some areas in Beirut, they’ve been installed even at places where you least expect traffic congestions to occur, that’s what I have noticed at some intersection in Sad El Bouchrieh.

    But you can still observe policemen at a lot of intersections giving their instructions to car drivers, that’s a bit weird given that those traffic lights are functioning well. However, the policemen presence is kind of justified (to me at least) since people here are NOT used to stop for a red light and maybe it’s the policemen job right now to force people to obey the traffic lights!

    So far I can tell they’re not doing a good job…
    I was in a Taxi today going from Jdeideh to Sodeco, passing through Sad El Bouchrieh. The driver arrived to an intersection and the light was red, but he surprisingly crossed it and started cursing at people coming from other directions! Ok, I’m not writing about this to tell that I was shocked, because I actually wasn’t, since that’s quite a normal behavior from a typical lebanese driver. But come on, with a large campaign on TV telling people to STOP on RED, such behavior becomes quite disturbing.

    To me, traffic lights are a waste of money. Policemen and their yelling in the streets are way more effective and efficient.

  • Back from my trip to Mars!

    Shame on me for not posting for almost 1 month now… When I registered this domain a while ago, I though I will updating it on a regular basis. Unfortunately I was wrong! (And I hate being wrong)

    So what has been keeping me busy?

    1. Posting at my other blog, Zero Hour Sleep, a tech blog loaded with lot of tips and tricks to maximize your use of computers and internet.
    2. I built a video site that is FULL of Lebanese videos. Check it on videos.plus961.com. I agree it doesn’t have the best theme out there, but it does have good content, and I will be adding more categories to it very soon.
    3. In addition to the .com domain, I also have plus961.net registered to me as well. It currently leads you to this blog, but will soon be hosting a directory for Lebanese blogs (still working on it).
      If you author a blog on Lebanon, you can submit it to “rami [at] plus961 [dot] com”.
    4. Reading F*ck Lebanon. The guy there writes several times a day, and I can’t help but read his posts! It’s kinda addictive.
    5. Taking photos like this one (click to enlarge). That was taken from Harissa.
      http://www.plus961.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/Jounieh_small.jpg
    6. Work..
    7. MBA..
    8. Shall I keep going???

    Despite not posting, I was still noticing some people checking on my RSS feed from time to time! Whoever you are, thanks for showing your interest! Anyway stay tuned, it won’t take another month till you see another post here! 😉