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A Lebanese Blog

Category: Lebanon

  • Beirut ranked 170th in quality of living

    The annual survey on the quality of living in 221 cities around the world by global consultants Mercer Human Resource Consulting ranked Beirut as the 170th most desirable city for overall living standards and 16th among 25 cities surveyed in the Middle East and North Africa region in 2011, as reported by Lebanon This Week, the economic publication of the Byblos Bank Group. Source

    Pretty normal if up till now in 2011 we still have to worry about the basics like water and electricity.

    According to the report also, European cities dominated the ranking with Vienna in the first place, while Baghdad (221) was the lowest ranking city in the world. And among the Arab country, Dubai (74) had the highest ranking.

  • Lebanese police running a red light

    The below photos were taken in Tallet El-Khayyat showing a police car running a red light. Definitely not a shocking scene as we’re all used to the reckless driving by the police in Beirut, but it’s cool to have their actions documented by Cheyef 7alak now!

    And I know, they can always justify that by saying it was an emergency!

  • Beirut Theater will be demolished

    I heard about the demolishing of Beirut Theater located in Ain El-Mrayseh earlier in November but coudn’t find any piece of news online to support the story until today morning.

    I found this post by Marie-Josée Rizkallah over at “L’espace lunaire” blog about the matter, and a petition is now online calling for a sit-in in front of the Lebanese ministry of culture to save the theater by labeling it as a cultural heritage. Being real, I guess we all know these stuff never worked and the theater will eventually be demolished.

    Anyway, a friend of mine told me that Beirut Theater is now open free for people who want to exhibit their work or performance until it completely closes down anytime soon.

  • Snoop Dogg being sued by a Lebanese concert promoter

    Lebanese police are reported to have started an investigation after a footage of Snoop Dogg smoking weed at some club in Beirut was featured in the music video for “That’s Tha Homie”.

    Kalaouz claims Snoop blazed up some weed in the middle of a concert after-party — which is illegal in Lebanon — and then featured footage of the puff session in a music video for his song, “That’s Tha Homie” (image featured above).

    Kalaouz claims Lebanese authorities caught wind of the weed smoking — and launched a criminal investigation into his company … leaving his reputation “severely damaged.” Source

    Shu wi2fit 3a Snoop Dogg? The whole country has been high on something over the last few years!

  • Waiting for Godot

    The government always succeeds to leave us on our tiptoes waiting for the “next big thing” to solve the problems with our cellular networks.

    It started with the poor service following the expansion two years ago, then the absence of 3G, and now the whole mess they got themselves into after introducing 3G! Thus the need for $110 million now to enhance the two networks and eventually put an end to the problems in 8 months.

    “I am happy to announce to the Lebanese that the National Quality of Services for the cellular networks will put an end to the poor mobile services. This plan will take eight months to be completed. But the Lebanese will feel the positive results in two to three months. Today I have signed the appropriate investment decision which will allow the two cellular companies, Mtc Touch and Alfa, to start work on this big project,” the minister said. Source

    I wonder what are we going to anticipate next!

  • Cheyef 7alak strikes again

    Once again, Cheyef 7alak exposes another character we all see every day.

    Still, I believe a campaign like Cheyef 7alak is not enough to get such scumbags to change. The extremist in me thinks these people should be shot dead, that’s how much they irritate me.

  • Mariam Nour and the aliens

    I seriously wonder what does Mariam Nour smoke. During an appearance with Tony Khalifeh, she recently revealed that she used to communicate with aliens and even had one of them sleeping at her house! She also claimed she’s not the only one, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah can also communicate with these aliens!

    YOU HAVE TO WATCH THE WHOLE THING!

  • Rima Fakih arrested for drunk driving

    Rima Fakih

    Oops!

    The former Miss USA, Lebanese immigrant Rima Fakih, was arrested for drunk driving over the weekend, according to local media in Dearborn, Michigan.

    She was detained until Sunday afternoon, the paper added. Fakih initially denied she had been arrested on Twitter, saying “Let’s clear things up now … I’m NOT in Michigan and I’m NOT in jail! Wrong Fakih.”

  • MEA pilots ended their strike

    Looks like Middle East Airlines resumed all their flights as of last night after the pilots ended their 5 days strike.

    Captain Fadi Khalil, head of the pilots’ union, announced the strike had ended at midnight on Saturday. Normal scheduling resumed on Sunday.

    “Out of concern for our company and Lebanon’s tourism sector, and out of respect for our passengers, we announce the suspension of our strike,” Khalil said at a news conference, adding that the strike was “in principle over.” Source.

    It’s irritating how problems are being handled over the last few days. The Lebanese Pilots Association initially had a problem with the MEA management over firing a pilot diagnosed with cancer, and next thing we knew is flights are all suspended via MEA.

    Two days ago, some problem/dispute (whatever it is) happened at the Zahrani power plant, and the employees ended up halting all power generation!

    And who gets caught in the middle of everything? Us.

     

  • Yep, we’re a corrupt country

    According to the 2011 Corruption Perception Index, Lebanon scored 2.5/10 and ranked 134 among 182 countries with New Zealand number 1 being the least corrupt, and Somalia at 182 being the most corrupt.

    Compared to the Arab countries, we have a lot of work (or cleaning maybe?) to do since they’re all ahead of us except for Yemen, Libya, Iraq, Sudan and Somalia. What’s amazing though, is that in the most corrupt country (Somalia), electricity is actually available 24/7 for the people!

    You can check the report here for the full results.

    via 248am