+961

A Lebanese Blog

Tag: Beirut

  • The syndicate of owners of restaurants in Lebanon are a bunch of retards

    I was surprised today to see the Syndicate of Owners of Restaurants in Lebanon is now calling for a protest on Wednesday at Sodeco to amend the anti-smoking law (law 174) and make it “more fair”. More fair as in allowing restaurants to apply for special permits to allow indoor smoking at their premises, and next thing you know everyone is getting a permit!

    Check how pathetic the poster is, “Are you sick of having to smoke outside already ? Wait until winter starts…”, that’s how basically those restaurants owners are asking people to join their protest, and second-hand smoker at indoor places can of course fuck off!

    What’s even more rediculous is that they’re calling the activisits who pushed for this law to be implemented as “a bunch of stupid people”. In fact, for calling to amend such law, the Syndicate of Owners of Restaurants in Lebanon and the people advising them should be aware that they’re actually a bunch of retards!

  • A virtual tour inside Beirut City Centre

    I just came across this video showing how Beirut City Centre, which is due to open in the first quareter of 2013, will look like.

    Given how large the mall is, I believe it will cause massive traffic jams near its main entrances especially that the road there is so narrow.

    Thanks to @MarieNakhle

  • Discover Rmeil/Geitawi

    Rmeil will be a car-free area this Sunday November 4th and “Achrafieh 2020” is inviting everyone to discover it on foot, bicycle or roller/skateboard.

    There will be several activities throughout that day including the following:

    • 8.30 Running race
    • 9.15 cycling race
    • 10.30 Awards distribution
    • 11.30 Open air zumba class
    • 12.30 Open air yoga class – Bring your mat!
    • From 11am to 4.30pm Children activities in the Jesuits public garden
    • From 8:30am to 5pm: Artisans display
    • From 8:30am to 5pm: Garage sale
    • From 10am to 5pm: Souk el Tayeb eatery and artisans displays
    • From 1:00pm to 5:00pm: Bands playing live music on the stage next to Souk el Tayeb
    • From 9am to 5pm: Human space
    • From 8:30am to 5pm: Green zone in William Hawi’s public garden
    • From 8:30am to 4:00pm: Bicycles and Segway Rental
    • 3:00pm Skateboard, Rollers
    • 4:15 Hip Hop, Breakdance

    And below a map showing the perimeter of the car-free area.

     

  • 4G soon in Lebanon

    According to this article in Annahar today, telecom minister Nicolas Sehnaoui announced that live 4G tests will start on Novemeber 16 at Beirut Digital District, and the service will be commercially launched on April 23rd 2013 in selected areas.

    It’s definitely about time we get 4G, but I admit I wasn’t expecting we will be getting the service anytime soon given how slow such projects go in Lebanon! I also hope its commercial launch is not going to witness the same mess that happened when we first got 3G.

    Anyway, you can read about Sehnaoui’s announcement here and watch him tonight talking about it in Talk of The Town on MTV.

  • 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.

  • 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

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Photos + Video from Wissam El Hassan’s funeral

    Wissam El Hassan’s funeral started at the ISF headquarter in Achrafieh at around 2PM today and unfortunately ended violently as the protesters in downtown attempted to storm the Grand Serail to demand the resignation of PM Najib Mikati.

    Below are some photos and a video from the funeral and the clash between the protesters and the policemen. (I found photo #9 quite funny by the way!)

    via BBC News & RT

  • Raw footage of the second explosion at Achrafieh

    Here’s a raw footage from OTV showing how the second explosion happened yesterday in Achrafieh following the first big one that killed Wissam Al-Hassan. I don’t it’s due to another bomb but rather to some kind car gas tank maybe…

    Thank god the people who show in the video were not much closer to the fire.