Tag Archives | Lebanon

Time to stock up on candles

By Rami on January 17, 2012 in Lebanon

Energy and Water Minister Jibran Bassil said the country would witness more electricity cuts, adding that he had submitted several emergency plans to Cabinet in a bid to temporarily resolve the crisis but to no avail.

Several areas in Lebanon have been suffering from increased electricity cuts due to the rainy season. This is especially true in south Lebanon, where many have complained that electricity only comes for four hours on a daily basis. Source

Some areas are currently merely getting 4 hours of electricity a day, and I imagine they wont be getting any if the situation gets really worse as Bassil is claiming! Needless to say, that’s great news to the generators mafia.

Update:

The Daily Star has another article related to the electricity in Lebanon, telling about one of the Ministry of Finance buildings in Bechara El-Khoury hosting the revenue department, being forced to stop operations and turning down people during the 3 hours power cuts in Beirut because it doesn’t have any backup source of electricity. Unbelievable!

Lebanon snow scenes

By Rami on January 15, 2012 in Lebanon

The Daily Star posted some very nice photos showing the aftermath of the recent snowstorm across many villages in Lebanon. Make sure you check them out here and here.

Baalbeck

Sawfar

Jabal El-Sheikh

All these white scenes make you crave lunch by the chimney at one of the restaurants in the mountains. Montagnou? Erzel? Any recommendations?

Hariri’s tweet

By Rami on January 15, 2012 in Lebanon

Reading all these articles in the Lebanese media slamming Saad Hariri for replying by mistake to a “good morning” tweet by the Israeli ministry of defense spokesperson Avichay Adraee was quite normal. It just proved that some Lebanese journalists have really nothing to do sometimes other than “philosophizing” a two words tweet!

But has anyone found it weird how it’s very acceptable in Israel for a high ranking official to initiate a conversation with a Lebanese person? Don’t they consider us their enemies? I just tried searching for an article in Israel criticizing Avichay Adraee for his tweet to Saad Hariri and failed to find any!

Even if you check his twitter account now, you’ll see that Adraee went on and simply apologized to Saad Hariri for disturbing him!

Oh and did you notice how whoever took the screenshot above, supposedly to criticize Hariri for that tweet, is following Avichay Adraee? Hypocricy much?

Beirut Hotel to be aired on TV

By Rami on January 12, 2012 in Lebanon

Remember “Beirut Hotel” that was banned a while ago from cinemas in Lebanon? It’s going to be aired on arte next Friday (20th January) at 9:35PM Beirut time. Click here for more details.

via Patrick Semaan.

7assesneh Inne Rkheesa

By Rami on January 12, 2012 in What the fuck!

WARNING: RATED R

An “unserious parody”? WTF! That’s like getting naked in the street to take a stand against nudity!

7assesneh Inne Rkheesa is a lebanese unserious parody song written by Moe & Shonda and recorded vocally by the legendary lebanese diva, Shonda during the first week of November 2011 To the melody of the instrumental version of Katy Perry’s ET (extra terrestrial).

It was written to highlight the wide spread of the unethical and illegal social phenomena that has been the reason behind the broadcasting visual images of moving objects with exposed flesh, voices that sound like hairballs stuck in a cat’s throat, and music that unfortunately slows down the functioning of the human brain cells. The song was introduced with the melody of the song Extra terrestrial (ET) by katy perry due to its catchy beat and rythm. It was recorded two days after it was written. Ever since, it has been among the playlists of DJs in pubs, ipods, and phones around the city. a Crowd of communication arts students offered to shoot a music video staring the vocalist herself, for the priceless charisma she acquires and the powerful effect she projects within the song .

One of the Saint Joseph University (beirut) students was impressed with the piece and contacted the New Tv broadcasting company who offered Shonda an interview on its comedy show “chi nn” to discuss the art of “7assesneh enne rkheesa” and spread the message of Rokhos to all generations. But she had to turn down the interview due to severe circumstances.

Israeli pilot getting all artistic

By Rami on January 10, 2012 in Lebanon

Parallel lines are so 2011! Israeli pilots are flying with style this year.

Photo via ramla8

Costco in Beirut

By Rami on January 10, 2012 in Lebanon

I’m pretty sure it’s not the real Costco, but it does exist, and it has the major American products you might be looking for.

The place is located in Jnah, and I went there last Sunday after a friend told me about it. They have a variety of products ranging between clothing, food and home goods. Part of these available products (especially food) can be found at other large supermarkets like Spinneys, at almost the same price if not lower, while other stuff cannot be found anywhere else and are a bit pricey.

Note that Costco is not the only store of its kind there in the area. There’s another place called “Amtrag” located just next to Costco, in addition to a store called “Brands for less” known for importing the German brand “Tchibo” located 100 meters down the road from TSC Jnah. I believe they’re all worth a visit!

Below is a map showing where Costco is in case you want to check it out.

Lebanese arrested for hacking e-mail accounts

By Rami on January 9, 2012 in Lebanon

I actually found this news a bit surprising because it’s the first time for me to read about people getting arrested for hacking e-mail and Facebook accounts in Lebanon.

The department of Public Relations at the ISF General Directorate announced that investigations were carried out by the Cyber Crime and Intellectual Property Rights Bureau Unit based on more than 70 complaints filed by citizens regarding stolen and hacked electronic accounts (e-mail and Facebook among others). The hackers blackmail the account owners and steal their identity to get large sums of money.

During inquiries, the first man admitted to having carried out acts of piracy and stolen around 600 emails, blackmailing their owners and stealing their identity to get large sums of money by transferring recharge card dollars to cellphones and selling them. These amounts reached around $200.000 and all the electronic equipment used was seized. Source

Still, the police might have chased these two because they went so far with the blackmailing they did.

Anyway, I personally know some people who do such things just for the fun of it. They go to some cafe offering wireless internet for the purpose of “stealing” Facebook session. Some tools to use in the process are widely available and are pretty easy to use if you have enough IT knowledge.

These people better know that things can turn really bad now that the Cyber Crime unit out and about. So unless you know how to really cover your tracks, just keep away from these stuff!

Happy New Year!

By Rami on January 1, 2012 in Lebanon

That’s how the new year’s eve looked like in downtown Beirut, if you’re curious about the rest of the world you can check this nice collection here.

Wishing you all the best of life in 2012!

People fainting at Nefaa

By Rami on December 27, 2011 in What the fuck!

Here’s what you get when everyone (including myself) postpone paying their mecanique fees till the end of December. Some people fainted while waiting in lines today!

Regardless of how crowded the place is, the corruption you get to witness there is guaranteed to cause you a heart attack while waiting.

Source

← Previous 1 … 110 111 112 … 143 Next →