+961

A Lebanese Blog

Tag: Lebanon

  • Lebanese Nizam Shalak Stranded in Ecuador Airport for Over 40 Days Now

    Lebanese Nizam Hussein Shalak has been living inside Jose Joaquin de Olmedo airport in Ecuador for over 40 days now an we unfortunately wouldn’t have heard about his case if it wasn’t for the foreign media outlets.

    The man visited Ecuador two months ago, but on his way back to Lebanon he stopped in Barcelona where he was detained after losing his papers and credit cards and was sent back to the Ecuador. He is now living off food coupons that airlines offer to him and gets to shower every few days when he is allowed to do so.

    What’s puzzling though is that the Lebanese consulate in Ecuador didn’t know about Shalak until the media there reported about him, so I think the ministry of foreign affairs here in Lebanon doesn’t have an idea about the matter as well, and chances are he will have to wait several more weeks until they figure out how to issue new papers for him.

    His situation is not unique by the way and many other people ended up somehow living inside airports around the world after they lost or got rid of their personal papers (check here), with the most notable case being that of an Iranian man who lived in Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris for around 18 years!

  • AUB Sets a Guinness World Record By Creating The Largest Mosaic Flag

    A group of students at the American University of Beirut set a Guinness world record in a project called “Share the Flag” by creating the largest notebook mosaic flag made of 60,000 notebook that were placed in the green field.

    The event took place few days ago on May 9th and it took them around 24 hours to make it possible. Moreover, as a tribute to the Lebanese Army, the son of martyr Colonel Danny Harb (Rayan Harb), completed the Lebanese flag by placing the last red notebook.

    The best part about the whole thing though was donating all of the notebooks that were used to create the Lebanese flag to a large number of public schools in Lebanon. It may sound insignificant to some but needful families will definitely appreciate any contribution to their kids education no matter how small it is.

    Check out this time-lapse video showing how they did it.

  • Prime Minister Saad Hariri Greeted With Animals Painted in Blue!

    I’m not sure where these photos were exactly taken, but they clearly show people painting camels and sheep in blue to greet Prime Minister Saad Hariri in their hometowns as he campaigns for his party ahead of the elections this weekend.

    I totally understand people get over excited in some remote areas where politicians barely set a foot, but needless to say this is just too much…! I doubt people who come up with such ideas are mentally mature enough to choose their representatives in the parliament.

  • Ziad Rahbani to Perform at The Grand Opening of Beiteddine Art Festival

    Beiteddine festival is taking place this year from July 12th till August 15th, and Ziad Rahbani will be opening it with a couple of concerts on July 12th and 13th.

    According to the Beiteddine.org, Ziad will be reviving songs from his 40 years’ repertoire which basically promises that this concert is going to be one of the best since many years. Apart from releasing Bennesbe Labokra Shou and Film Ameriki Tawil in cinemas, the last time Ziad really amazed was back in 2008 when he presented Mni7a at the UNESCO Palace in Beirut and in 2007 when he performed in Damascus. The songs selection was great, there were several hilarious moments, and the singers who were with him were also incredible. Since then I attended one concert he held at the sea front but to be honest it was quite dull compared to the previous ones.

    I already got my tickets for Beiteddine and I really hope the it will be up to everybody’s expectations! If you’re interested then tickets are on sale at Virgin Ticketing.

  • Review – Avengers: Infinity War

    I don’t usually write movie posts but I’ll make an exception for Avengers: Infinity War. The movie is absolutely amazing and is my favorite among the Marvel films so far.

    I actually attended the movie premiere at VOX two days ago and the event coincided with their 5th anniversary in Lebanon. Featuring most of the character from the Marvel universe, you would expect some to appear less special than the others, but the movie is 150 minutes long for a reason, and in my opinion each one of them got the deserved time to stand out.

    The movie is of course everything you would expect from a Marvel movie plus a lot of humor and some emotional moments. This time, the avengers are uniting to face Thanos who’s on a quest to collect all of the 6 infinity stones to abolish half the universe. I won’t spoil rest but do yourself a favor and go watch it in theater. It now has a 9.2 rating on IMDB and I agree with Anis that the movie will definitely stand for years to come.

    Avengers: Infinity War will be available in cinemas as of tomorrow.

  • Video of the 3D Mapping Show on Beirut National Museum

    Cre8mania staged a cool 3D mapping show on the National Museum of Beirut as part of La Nuit des Musées last Saturday. I personally missed the event but fortunately for us here’s a video to show how it looked like.

    Make sure to watch it in high defintion.

    Photo via Nabil Ismail

  • Electoral Camapaigns Bi Gheir 3alam

    I’ve been watching for a while now what the parliamentary candidates have to say about their electoral programs and the amount of literal bullshit you get to see and hear is sickening. The promises almost everyone is making are so ridiculous and fanciful that I can’t believe there are real people supporting them and their programs.

    Take for example this video by Nicolas Sehnaoui which promises a solution for the chronic traffic congestion.

    They’re proposing widening the northern highway, increasing the number of buses, fixing the roads, organizing the public transportation system within the capital, and best of all establishing train lines between the main cities. Wlik w a*rrrr! Shu 3eyshin bi London?! I’m not going to put energy into explaining why each and every idea is impossible to apply with the current system in Lebanon, but seriously how do some people accept contributing to such ads? I really doubt the girl in the video is even convinced with what she’s saying.

    In parallel with the above plan, this gentleman named Nazih Najem wants to also build 13 dams covering the whole country.

    We live in a country where a pothole takes forever to get fixed, yet this candidate wants to convince us that 13 dams can be built with the flip of a switch.

    I really have nothing personal against Sehnaoui or Najem, the above two ads just happened to have appeared on my Facebook feed and I’m pretty sure other candidates are promising similar stuff. The thing is, why can’t they keep it real? First of all, members of the parliament are in principle supposed approve laws and governments expenditure. Initiating projects on the other hand falls under the duties of each ministry, so how on earth can these candidates promise projects?

    Anyway, I personally don’t care who wins and who loses, and I’m not interested to see new faces winning because thank god neither my life nor my income depend on any of them. In fact, I won’t even bother voting for anyone because I’d rather put the energy for going to the polling station into something more useful for myself. I just pity those who actually believe such campaigns and waste their time and effort supporting these candidates.

  • La Nuit des Musées 2018 is Taking Place This Saturday

    The Ministry of Culture is organizing the 5th edition of La Nuit des Musées which will take place this Saturday April 14th. This year, 13 museums around Lebanon will be open for free to the public starting 5:00PM until late at night.

    Free shuttles will be available at LibanPark parking in Mathaf area for people from Beirut who wish to visit the museums in the north and south, but reservations are mandatory through Virgin Ticketing box office to secure your place.

    I highly recommend you use public transportation to visit the participating museums in Beirut by the way because it tends to get very crowded around them on this day.

    Here’s the list of the participating museums:

    MUSÉE NATIONAL DE BEYROUTH
    de 17h00 à 23h00
    “Mathaf”, rue de Damas

    MIM, MUSÉE DES MINÉRAUX
    de 17h00 à 23h00
    Campus de l’innovation et du sport, Université Saint-Joseph

    MUSÉE DE PRÉHISTOIRE LIBANAISE DE L’UNIVERSITÉ SAINT-JOSEPH
    de 17h00 à 23h00
    Rue de l’Université Saint-Joseph, quartier Monnot

    VILLA AUDI
    de 17h00 à 23h00
    Rue St Nicolas, Achrafieh

    MUSÉE NICOLAS IBRAHIM SURSOCK
    de 17h00 à 00h00
    Rue St Nicolas, Achrafieh

    MUSÉE ARCHÉOLOGIQUE DE L’AUB
    de 17h00 à 22h00
    Université américaine de Beyrouth, Ras Beyrouth

    MUSÉE DE LA BANQUE DU LIBAN
    de 17h00 à 23h00
    Locaux de la Banque du Liban, Sanayeh

    SENTIER CULTUREL À SAÏDA
    MUSÉE DU SAVON
    PALAIS DEBANNÉ
    KHAN SACY
    KHAN EL-IFRANJ
    KASR OLA
    de 17h00 à 23h00

    MUSÉE DU CATHOLICOSSAT DE CILICIE
    de 17h00 à 23h00
    Antélias

    MUSÉE DES ORPHÉLINS DU GÉNOCIDE ARMÉMIEN “ARAM BEZIKIAN”
    de 17h00 à 23h00
    Jbeil

    MACAM – MUSÉE D’ART MODERNE ET CONTEMPORAIN
    de 17h00 à 23h00
    Alita, Jbeil

    MUSÉE ETHNOGRAPHIQUE DE L’UNIVERSITÉ DE BALAMAND
    de 17h00 à 22h00
    Koura

  • A Different View of Raouche and The Pigeon Rock

    I lived my whole life in Beirut and never knew you can actually buy a boat ride around the coast and the Pigeon rock until last year!

    I always knew about the two small fishing ports in Dalieh (Raouche) and Ain El Mrayseh, but a friend last summer told me that people can pay the fishermen in Dalieh for a cool boat ride around the area. So back in October I decided to take my kid and do it and we absolutely enjoyed it. I’ve been to a few similar rides in Byblos, Saida and Tripoli but to be honest they’re quite dull compared to what you see in Raouche. And now that the weather is getting nice for such rides, I recommend you plan it because it gives you a very nice perspective of the seaside and pigeon rock.

    First of all, you should know how to reach the Dalieh fishing port which is located right next to the Movenpick Hotel. On your way to Movenpick, slow down before reaching its entrance and you will notice a small unpaved road to the right, stop your car there and ask one of the fishermen you will find there to assist you for finding a parking spot at the port entrance. Don’t try driving further down the road unless you have an SUV because it can seriously damage your car.

    Going down to the port by foot takes a couple of minutes, but make sure to negotiate the price for the ride with the fishermen before you go. I recall we paid around $50 for 4 adults and 3 children on a ~20 minutes ride. And more importantly, make sure to also have a mosquito repellant because you will definitely need it on the way down.

    Don’t be surprised with the port state once you reach it though. It is very ill equipped because the government was supposed to revamp it in 2012 but it unfortunately never delivered and even tried to privatize it, hence why you see the fishermen who live there complaining on the news every now and then. Add to that, the water surrounding it was full of trash coming from the Costa Brava when we went.

    So, once ready, hop into the small boat (no life jackets by the way), enjoy the views, and make sure to talk with the guy steering the boat because all fishermen there have so many interesting stories to tell (our guy was called Mohammad Itani). You will see several sea caves, among which is the one below Dbeibo Cafe where a seal supposedly lives. The boat will also go a good distance into the sea for you to see the coast, and on the way back you will approach the pigeon rock and sail inside the hollow part in it.

    On the way back from the port, you can’t not see the small houses where some fishermen live, and the contrast you will see between these poor wooden houses and the adjacent luxurious Movenpick is just awkward… However, the setting of their terrace and the views they have from it is so beautiful.

    I personally have no idea if the families living there actually own their properties by law, and I also don’t know how legal are the attempts to privatize the area. However, the fishermen who work there definitely deserve a better port and it is a shame for the government to keep it that way. Elsewhere in the world you would see a whole economy built around such rock formations, but then again this is how things are here…

    Anyway again, do not miss this cool ride if you have never done it before.

  • Compensating For The Lack of Public Spaces in Beirut

    One of the things I really struggle with every weekend is coming up with a new place to take my kid to for some outdoor fun. The options in Beirut are quite limited due to the lack of public spaces/gardens so most of the times we end up at a closed playground, which I absolutely despise, and sometimes at some place up in the mountains when the weather permits.

    However, I’ve been lately thinking that the Municipality of Beirut actually does have the capacity to compensate for this lack of public space during the weekends and holidays at minimum, and they can seriously focus on this instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on what they label as attempts to revive Nejmeh square.

    Beirut has a lot of big schools such as Lycée Abdelkader, La Sagesse, Makassed and International College to name a few, in addition to many public schools as well, and most of them have large fields with kids playgrounds. So why not can’t the municipality agree with a couple of large schools in every area to open their doors during the weekends in order for the people to enjoy a casual troll or jog away from the polluted streets or even bring their kids to play and spend some time.

    I know the whole thing is not as simple as just opening the schools’ doors and it definitely needs money and human resources to make it happen, but the municipality can take it as an opportunity to provide jobs for part timers who are willing to participate. Moreover, schools can also benefit by offering to rent small kiosks for business owners for example.

    So yes, instead of pouring money into pointless projects and initiatives, how about we simply try to make use of what’s already available?