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A Lebanese Blog

Tag: Lebanon

  • Lebanese bloggers meetup at T-Marbouta

    RFI

    It’s all over the Lebanese blogsphere now… Yesterday night I went to T-Marbout along with several Lebanese bloggers to meet with Philippe Couve, Pierre Haski (www.rue89.com), and Eric Scherer from Radio France Internationale.

    The meeting purpose was for the French journalists and bloggers to get to know more about the Lebanese blogsphere and its status. We discussed several issues such as why blogging isn’t very popular here in Lebanese, and why do some bloggers post very frequently when things heat up in Lebanon and then dump their blogs when everything calms down. They were also interested in knowing if anyone of us had a problem with the authorities because of some content (I wasn’t surprised with that question, at the end we’re an Arab country!).

    In addition, while discussing the Lebanese people in general, we all agreed that they hate to read and write, they’re just good at grasping already processed information. Which explains why they’re all active on Facebook, and very few of them thought of starting a blog. Lazy nation!

    w heik..! by the end of the meetup I was glad I had the chance to finally meet Maya Zankoul & Tarek Chemaly.

    Here’s a list of the bloggers who were there:

    20minutes.fr
    beirutntsc.blogspot.com
    choueichoueibeyrouth.blogspot.com
    qussa.nl
    diaryofahalfandhalf.wordpress.com
    mayazankoul.wordpress.com
    29letters.wordpress.com
    klekeesh.blogspot.com
    hanane.me
    onoffbeirut.com
    rue89.com
    atelier.rfi.fr
    kibot.blog.com
    bloggingbeirut.com

    And finally, here’s what others have posted about the meeting:

    Maya Zankoul
    Tarek Chemaly
    Samer Karam
    Pierre Haski
    Hummus Nation (a blogger I really would like to meet someday!)

  • Bachir Gemayel memorial

    Bachir-gemayel

    It’s been 27 years now since Bachir Gemayel has been assassinated, and every year I can’t help but wonder what could have happened if Bachir lived and remained as a president for Lebanon..?

    Israel wouldn’t have invaded Lebanon, the Lebanese civil war could have ended earlier than 1990, a Beirut – Tel Aviv highway could have been created (similar to Beirut – Damascus highway!)… and for some reason Rafic Hariri could have lived!

    What do you think?

  • Shou ya ashta?

    I saw this on the front of a mini-bus 2 days ago in Tarik Al-Jadida, Beirut. I am sure the driver is “Shou ya ashta” style!

    mini bus

  • Zouk electricity factory pollution

    A friend of mine sent me the below photo today asking me to publish it on the blog.

    This is an insane environmental crime! I pity the Zouk inhabitants who have to breath these toxins every single day. All politicians know very well that these factories need to be replaced as soon as possible, and they all go on TV to talk about the problem but none of them suggests a solution. Screw you Lebanese parliament members, I am proud I did not vote to anyone of you.

    zouk electricity factory pollution

  • Worldโ€™s largest Kebbe plate

    lebanese-women-cut-the-biggest-kebbe-dish

    The small town of Ehden in north Lebanon gained an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records on Saturday for producing the largest ever kebbe — a dish of minced meat and cracked wheat.

    To create the giant circular 20-square-metre (215-square-foot) kebbe they had to mix 120 kilos of mince, 80 litres of olive oil, 80 kilos of cracked wheat, five kilos of salt and a mere kilo of pepper.

    Via AFP

    My favorite restaurant in Ehden is “Al-Ferdaws”, they make the best Kebbe there! Although it’s full of fat and cholesterol, but very tasty! ๐Ÿ˜€

    What’s next? World’s longest Markouk & Labneh sandwich in Chtoura?

  • Portable Shisha

    Ba3ed fi faseid aktar min heik?

    portable shisha

  • Toastmasters Lebanon

    Toastmasters International is a nonprofit educational organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping members improve their communication, public speaking and leadership skills. Through its thousands of member clubs, Toastmasters International offers a program of communication and leadership projects designed to help men and women learn the arts of speaking, listening, and thinking.

    There are actually two toastmasters clubs in Lebanon, one is in Beirut and the other in Tripoli. And I got introduced to Toastmasters Lebanon a while ago via Nour’s blog “Sunken Treasure 6”. Nour is a member of Tripoli’s club and she posts frequent updates on her blog about what goes on in the meetings and sometimes shares with the tables topics that she’s going to be speaking about.

    Per my readings of her blog posts, Toastmasters evaluation system helps the individuals identify the weaknesses in their communication skills and of course work on improving them. One thing I have been wondering about though is when do members decide that they got enough practice and no longer need what Toastmasters offers and thus choose to just stop attending. I think Nour can answer this by commenting on the post!

    Anyway, you can get to know more about Toastmaster Tripoli through the below reportage by Mounzer Al-Merehbi which was aired on TeleLiban few days ago.

  • Save Kfardebian natural bridge

    Faqra bridge

    I admit I’m very late on posting this! Il 2ossa w ma fiya, someone is planning to build a cafe on our natural bridge of Kfardebian, which will result in “ruining” this naturally made landmark. What we can do is to show the media that we oppose this project and want to preserve that landmark by gathering tomorrow 9:00AM at the natural bridge.

    Below is more details from Blogging Beirut about the schedule.

    Our Natural Bridge of Kfardebian-Faqra is in extreme danger. The danger is that of urbanization, of a human kind.

    The owner of the land close to the bridge has decided to build an amphitheater and cafe starting from the very edge of the bridge!

    LAW 434 – Lists Lebanon’s Natural bridge of Kfardebiene-Faqra as the 8th great natural site and wealth of the Republic of Lebanon.

    The law also states that this site is protected under a radius of 100m from any type of building or land adjustment. The center of the radius stems from the center of the bridge.

    The law also states that for an additional 50 m, no building or activity of any type can take place, that will harm the identity and character of the site.

    The land owner already built 9 steps and a concrete wall several meters wide within the first protected radius and has illegally bought the road that connects the main road to the bridge from the municipality of Kfardebien.

    On August 8th 2009, a rally to voice our concerns to the media and protect our heritage from destruction.

    We will conduct a hike from the Roman Ruins of Kfardebiene-Faqra to the Natural Bridge starting at 9am.

    Join us at the ruins at 9am and hike with us to the bridge.

    At 10:30 AM the media will cover our event with a press release to help communicate to the Lebanese public the dangers of these circumstances.

    We will afterward s enjoy a picnic at the site and listen to a great Musician playing the Oud.

    Please help support and protect our national heritage.

    Contact Info:

    E-mail: savethebridge [at) bloggingbeirut (dot] com

  • Latest photography

    Here are three of the last photos I took in the summer.

    As you may know, summer is the weddings season in Lebanon, and so the two first photos are from a wedding a week ago.

    Fireworks

    Blowing Fire

    This one was taken early in July from a building in the Sayfi area.

    Beirut Downtown

  • Beirut โ€“ The best party city

    Check out this report by Cal Perry from CNN about the summer season this year in Beirut. So far this is the best summer after more than 4 years of continuous political instability that has started with PM Rafic Hariri assassination and ended with the 2009 elections 2 months ago, and Beirut is literally on fire with the countless events this summer, not to forget the booming nightlife everywhere in the country.

    I loved how Cal Perry ended the report “This summer, the world is partying on the shores of the mediteranean”.