Archive | October, 2012

365 Jours pour rester positif au Liban

I was informed about this new agenda called “365 Jours pour rester positif au Liban” (365 Days to remain positive in Lebanon) when the dear people at Tamyras contacted me a while ago to inform me that +961 blog has been mentioned in it, but I never knew what this agenda was really all about until I read Hay Khabriyeh’s post about it last night.

Can you stay positive for 365 days in Lebanon? Tamyras publishers took on the challenge to offer you exactly what you need to do it – an agenda filled with daily upbeat notes. “365 jours pour rester positif au Liban” includes all the constructive social initiatives happening in Lebanon, from cupcake box charity to save Lebanon heritage to Nasawyia, and also fun initiatives like Tchenchol, Pure nostalgia and Lebanese memes.

The idea of the agenda came to Tamyras publishing director, Tania Hadjithomas Mehanna, to counteract all the negativity that was building up around her, be it on social networks, in the news or in her personal circle of acquaintances: she decided to uncover the positive side of Lebanon. There are countless people, groups, NGO’s who haven’t given up, who still wear rose-colored glasses and still dream of a better Lebanon, doing their part to make it happen. So Tamyras staff did an intensive research, gathered the names of positive initiatives, from the humorous to the serious ones, came up with a funky design, and the new agenda was born! Source

Unfortunately I haven’t got the opportunity to get hold of a copy for myself and have no idea yet which day features +961, but I would appreciate it if anyone can send me a shot showing it! turned out I’m featured on March 18th in the agenda. Thanks to Patricia!

Anyway, The idea sounds fun, and I agree with Sietske that it makes a nice gift idea this Christmas! It will be available for sale at major Lebanese bookstores in addition to the “Salon du Livre Francophone” at BIEL which lasts till November 4th 2012.

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The Nadim Koteich song

The Chi.N.N guys are hilarious sometimes, check them singing for Nadim Koteich to the tune of Ghostbusters song. The video should automatically start at 13:32 where they start singing.

The whole episode was funny by the way, it’s worth watching if you have some time on hands.

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Will Julian Khazzouh play in the Lebanese basketball league?

There are some things in this country that are meant to never be understood. Things like whether sports players who have earlier played in the Israeli leagues are allowed to play in Lebanon or not.

The basketball player you see in the photo above is Julian Khazzouh, a Lebanese who was born in Australia where he played for the Sydney Kings in addition to some other Europan teams and Israel’s Ironi Ramat Gan. He also recently joined the Sagesse squad and is supposed to start playing for them starting the upcoming season.

Now you all know it was made clear last year that foreign players who previously received a work permit in Israel are not allowed to play for the Lebanese sports club.

However, Julian Khazzouh used his Australian passport to play for the Israel team, but started using the Lebanese ID he already has when he came here, and practically the law doesn’t apply to him anymore since it just mentions foreign players!

Moreover, it’s very clear for the Lebanese that traveling to Israel or dealing with Israelis is against the law, yet the Lebanese Basketball Federation is still to this moment going in discussions to decide whether Khazzouh will be given a permit to play or not! How on earth is this a hard case to solve?!

What’s even more shameful than Sagesse signing this guy is reading people like Elie Mechantaf defending him!

“We solved the issue with the Lebanese judiciary, as he [Khazzouh] played in Israel with his Australian passport,” Sagesse’s former captain and current president Elie Mchantaf said.

“[Khazzouh] has now regained Lebanese nationality and the law does not prevent him from playing here.

“We are working lawfully regarding this issue, and I assure everyone that he will be present in Sagesse’s first game of the season,” he added. Source

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Al Jadeed TV fires an employee while on maternity leave

Make sure to check out this video from Now Lebanon featuring an ex-employee called Shirine who used to work with the Chi.N.N team in Al Jadeed TV and went on a maternity leave after having a baby, only to be surprised with a phone call during her leave claiming that the Al Jadeed no longer needs her since the person who replaced her is doing the job well and for less money.

I was quite surprised with the story Shirine was telling since Al Jadeed TV is well known for their news reports focusing on malpractices such as the one they did, in addition to the fact that Chi.N.N is known for harshly criticizing the Lebanese society and political scene, and the least you would expect is for them to commit such mistake.

Still, I believe that the reporter Maha Hoteit, whom I deeply respect and have known during school days, should have also covered the other side of the story by interviewing the people in charge at Al Jadeed TV.

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Is the economic situation really that bad in Lebanon?

Looks like news about businesses closing or facing troubles are on the rise now. People were surprised to read about the closure of Buddha Bar in Downtown Beirut last week due to the economic and security situation in the country, and today, I just came across this article in Al-Akhbar about Khoury Home facing some difficulties even though it controls a major share of the household products market in Lebanon.

Apparently, due to the decrease in sales and increase in payable to large suppliers, the Khoury family has entered in negotiations with one of their partners to sell their share in Khoury Home. You can read more about it here.

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Insane fireworks

Check out how bad fireworks can be in some areas in Lebanon on holidays. The video below was taken in Bchamoun on the first day of Eid El-Adha.

Unfortunately, the ministry of interior issues a reminder every few years that fireworks are strictly banned but never puts an effort to actually apply that ban!

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Al-Qaeda in Lebanon

Would you mind it if all those rumors claiming that Al-Qaeda does exist in Lebanon turned out to be true?

The photo was taken during the funeral of the late general Wissam Al-Hassan.

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