Tag Archives | photo

Is Charles De Gaulle’s Residence In Beirut Set for Demolition?

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During the early days of the French Mandate for Lebanon, Charles De Gualle who was still a commander back then was among the army units that were assigned to Beirut at that time. He used to serve at the Grand Serail and was looking for a place to stay with his family within a close proximity, so he rented the first floor of a house owned by Elias Wehbe in Mar Elias.

Over the years, and despite being owned by people of Al-Hoss family, the house has always been known as Charle De Gaulle’s place because of a marble plaque fixed above the door saying “Here lived commander Charles De Gaulle. November 1929 – January 1932”. I even sometimes refer to it the same way when providing directions for someone to a nearby place.

The house has been vacant for many years now and is poorly maintained, but I was quite surprised yesterday to come across a photo by Khaled Hamadeh on twitter showing that the plaque has been removed, which could possibly mean that there might be plans to demolish it and I really hope it isn’t the case.

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With the current property prices in Beirut nowadays, I totally understand it might be unfair for the owners to be forbidden from bringing down the house to make way for a new building to earn some really good money, that’s why there should be a plan by the government or municipality to buy these old houses/building to either just preserve them or turn them into small museums. But then again, in a failed state it’s much easier said than done, so I really don’t want to be in the shoes of the current owners!

The second photo is taken by Ginane Bacho

Update:

The governor of Beirut Ziad Chbib posted on Facebook that the house owner removed the plaque because he was afraid that George Abdallah supporters might vandalize it. It is currently in the hands of the ISF and will be restored to its place, which simply means that the house is safe!

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This Sums Up The Hypocrisy in Our Society

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Every now and then photos like the one above surface on the internet and people start showering the Lebanese police and governmental employees in general with criticism.

No one is sure yet how authentic this photo is since the ISF hinted on twitter that the policeman might have done this stunt on a closed highway as part of some training. It would be really ugly if it turns out to be true, I mean this is the kind of stuff you expect zouzou ebba guys to be pulling on the highway, so having this officer acting the same way is just plain unacceptable…!

But thinking about the photo and the reactions it got for a moment make you realize it actually sums up the hypocrisy in our society…

The man is basically in charge of fining those who violate the law by performing such stunts, yet he enjoys doing them himself! Likewise, we tweet myriads of photos showing ISF officers texting on duty, while we fail to drop our phone when driving. We even argue that the new traffic law should allow us to check our phone on red lights!

We report tens of ISF officers on motorcycles without helmets, yet we also hate to wear them because it’s too hot and they mess our hair! We also break twitter writing about people bruning red lights around the city, but we are of course allowed to do it after 10PM because we know better. Oh and the best of all we also hate when people take advantage on us through “wasta”, but we absolutely have no problem using the same “wasta” to break the rules too!

So yeah, the photo is still ugly, and the officer still deserves to be punished for it, but next time you see something similar, don’t react as if it’s something out of this world, because what you will be seeing is just a reflection of this hypocrite society we live in.

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The new Unica Dark

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Gandour’s Unica is among my favorite chocolate wafer bars, so I was curious to try the new dark version ever since I started spotting billboards of it last week.

I picked it from a nearby mini market today and I found it to taste really good, in fact I now prefer it over the original Unica as I generally prefer dark chocolate over milk chocolate anytime.

Best of all, Unica Dark’s price is exactly as the regular Unica, 500L.L for the big size, which keeps it among the cheapest snacks!

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Yeah right!

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The ISF can forever claim that they have their “own ways” to stop these stupid motorbikers. But in fact nothing is being done that even 12 years old kids now do wheelies on the streets!

photo via YASA

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Shark hunted off Chekka coast today

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Around a month ago, a fisherman caught an 800Kg shark off the Mina coast of Tripoli, and just today another one was hunted near Chekka.

I’m not sure if these sharks are dangerous or not, but I don’t think fisherman should go after them especially if they find them away of the spots where people swim.

Update:
This seems to be an old photo. I should have verified before publishing the post.

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Meet Kiki C – A supposedly Lebanese rapper

Kiki C labels herself on Facebook as a Lebanese rapper but she seems more like an exotic model to me!

So far, we know almost nothing about her except that she has has released one song called “The Mediterranean” and claims to have been on tour with Snoop Dogg.

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I guess she will soon make it to Lebanese TV shows the same way Myriam Klink and Lara Kay did, and we will eventually learn what is she up to!

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Rima Najdi roams Beirut with a mock TNT bomb

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Inspired by how our society is getting used to bombs going off and taking the lives of dozens of innocent people every now and then, a Lebanese performance artist called Rima Najdi decided to roam the streets of Beirut with a mock TNT bomb on her.

It may sound silly to some, but if you think about it, suicide bombers and booby trapped cars have passed by the streets just like Rima did, and could have taken anyone’s life with them. It’s like we’re literally living by chance these days!

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Alexa as viewed from space

The Washington Post posted some photos that were taken yesterday by NASA of the snowstorm Alexa that hit the region last week.

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The white areas on the land are all snow, another wider photo shows that even a northern area of Saudi Arabia got a little bit of snow.

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On a side note, the author of the article might have to consider educating himself a bit more about the middle east as he thinks “it is quite something” to see snow around here and our neighbors!

 NASA’s Earth Observatory has posted a photo of the storm taken from space. It was taken Dec. 15, after the storm had passed and the skies had cleared; the white areas on the land are snow, not clouds. It’s quite something to see the snow across Lebanon, Syria and Israel.

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A new 5,000 L.L bill

I just spotted this new 5,000 pound note which seems to have been recently released.

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If only Central Bank of Lebanon would consider making all bills the same (reasonable) size!

photo via @Joanna_Azar

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