I just stumbled upon this cool offer by The Hangout restaurant on Facebook. They’re challenging people to come on February 12th and 13th with an authentic Lebanese Lira which can buy them a platter of their choice on these two days!
I’m sure many people still have authentic liras in their drawers, and I hope there’s no trick behind The Hangout’s offer. Anyway, for more about The Hangout, you can check out their Facebook page here.
So talks about legalizing civil marriage in Lebanon have been ongoing for like a month now since several news outlets reported on the couple, Nidal Darwish and Khouloud Succariyeh, who practiced civil marriage in Lebanon after striking out the mention of their sects from their IDs and getting the necessary paperwork done.
But are we ever going to witness civil marriage being legalized in Lebanon? Or are our politicians just trying to make electoral gains in the upcoming elections by showing support to it? Michael Sleiman, Saad Hariri and many others have made it clear that they do support passing a law for optional civil marriage. But it takes a real politician to walk the talk.
I mean does it take politicians who lead significant parliamentary blocks and are for legalizing the civil marriage too much to put their words to actions? If I were Hariri for example, I would have led a movement to legalize the practice and take all the credits for it! Unless our politicians are just bluffing, and in that case maybe we should just tell them khlosna ba2a!
Lebanese escort agencies that are operating on the web got the attention they have never dreamt of on Lebanese TVs during the past week!
Both of MTV’s Enta Horr and OTV’s Haida El We2e3 decided to tell the government and people about these websites as if no one knew they existed for several years now, and even showed how the whole thing works by setting up a hidden cam inside a hotel room and calling these agencies to get one of their girls. Joe Maalouf went a bit further towards the end of his report and listed all the agencies numbers! You know, just in case someone doesn’t have internet access to get them.
I really felt sad when I learned this old house in Ain El Mraisseh is being demolished as I know some of its previous owner (The Nsouli’s), and I know how beautiful it was from the inside.
But then again, at a time when the government has no plans to acquire these old houses and protect them, you just can’t expect people to keep preserving heritage buildings while the real estate market in the country is booming.
With “Jeye” and “MissCall me”, that’s one typically Lebanese sign! Photo credits go to Pascale Sfeir.
via Beirut
The Wall Street Journal compiled this list of five fun things to do around Lebanon in an article published yesterday.
It’s good the articles mentions nothing about the nightlife in Beirut for a change! Anyway, I’m familiar with 4 out of the 5 things the author listed, but it’s the first time for me to hear about this couple in Beirut (Sylvia Khoury & Charles Ghorayeb) who welcomes visitors in their own apartment in Beirut and offer them home cooked dishes for the price of $20 per person, and $30 including wine. Has anyone heard about them before? I tried to look them up online but found nothing except what the article mentions that they previously used to organize tours around Lebanon for tourists.
2. Sit down at a Beirut couple’s table for a home-cooked meal
Sylvia Khoury and Charles Ghorayeb welcome visitors into their Beirut apartment for an evening of Lebanese food, wine and conversation. The couple, who formerly offered tailor-made tours of Lebanon to tourists, now focus on their home-kitchen venture. They serve dishes such as malfouf (stuffed cabbage leaves), shankleesh (ripened cheese) and makanek (little sausages). The food relies on seasonal staples that are grown in the couple’s garden in Damour, just outside the city. $20 per person, $30 with wine; to make a reservation, email Ms. Khoury at skhoury131@hotmail.com
Would you give them a try?
I’m a Muslim myself but never knew civil marriage is regarded that bad until I heard what Mufti Rashid Kabbani had to say about it today.
“Every Muslim official, whether a deputy or a minister, who supports the legalization of civil marriage, even if it is optional, is an apostate and outside the Islamic religion,” Qabbani said in a religious edict, or fatwa.
“[Such officials] would not be washed, would not be wrapped in a [burial] shroud, would not have prayers for their soul in line with Islamic rules, and would not be buried in a Muslim cemetery,” Qabbani added. Source
Why the hell can’t religious figures accept that civil marriage becomes optional in Lebanon just like alcohol is?!
Ossit Sawani or Blind Intersections is a new Lebanese movie directed by Lara Saba about three people who come from different backgrounds and have never met, yet their lives will be seriously affected after one incident occurs.
Three protagonists, one city… Coming from different backgrounds, they pass each other but they never meet, though, the effect of one incident will drastically alter the lives of the three of them!
Nour loses her parents in a car accident. All her life collapses…
India has everything a woman can dream of except for a baby…
Marwan is 12 year old, he lives with a violent and alcoholic mother.Three characters, caught at a moment when their lives fell over, in just a matter of seconds… knocked down by a chain of others’ actions/reactions…
The movie is set to be released in less than a month on February 21st, and I really hope it delivers what the trailer promises. For more information, you can visit the movie’s official Facebook page here.
Looks like the easiest publicity stunt to pull nowadays is to announce you’re running for the upcoming Lebanese parliamentary elections. That’s what Myriam Klink did last night following Nathalie Fadlallah’s similar announcement last week.
If these two ladies ever made it, then our MPs will definitely have problems focusing on their job since they couldn’t take their eyes off Strida Geagea when she was elected back in 2005.
