The video above is extracted from MTV Lebanon’s program “Ktir Salbe” and has been portrayed as being racist and not funny by activists and bloggers. Few months back, MTV came under fire for a “racist” report on the foreign workers in Burj Hammoud and Dora.

In my opinion, the ‘Ktir Salbe’ show as a whole is not funny at all in general and the video I posted is more lame than racist. The director of the show Hani Khafsheh tried defending it by saying Ktir Salbe has a double meaning in Arabic. You can say it in your daily life and it means ‘very cool.’ and the other meaning is the exact translation with is ‘very negative’… When we raise a serious subject, we talk about it as very negative, like what’s happening with maids, but It’s not very convincing to say the least.

In all, I wouldn’t go as far as calling MTV a racist channel because of few reports and a show, as the majority of its staff are smart and well-educated people, but I strongly believe they should be more cautious in their reports and comedy programs and send out the right message at all time. For example, they could have easily interviewed few non-Lebanese and more competent Lebanese or some officials in their Dora and Burj-Hammoud report and avoided filming random foreigners while taking about crimes and prostitution. Also, they could have covered the matter as an increase in crimes all over Lebanon, and specifically in poor and deprived areas. In fact, Dora and Burj Hammoud are doing relatively well when compared to other regions in Lebanon.

She was not coming due to “security reasons”, then said she’s going to come despite the threats and now finally decided not to come. However, and from what I heard, she will be live on Radio Nostalgie and MTV in a special broadcast.

I will not bother criticize those behind the boycott campaign, as I’ve already done that. What I will do is ask them the following:

The only thing that has kept Lebanon’s economy alive throughout history is its tourism, festivals and freedom of expression, which have attracted many international artists and performers to come here.

Having said that, do you think this cultural terrorism you are exercising is right? Is this really our utmost priority at the moment to frighten international performers just because they sang in Hebrew?

We have an electricity crisis, an internet crisis, a gas crisis, telecommunications crisis, road safety problems, traffic problems, security problems all over our borders, political frictions, hundreds of thousands of refugees, dozens of armed militias, increasing pollution and poverty, collapsing buildings and ALL you can think of working against are non-Israeli artists who sang in Israel?

I rest my case.

The movie was released on the 5th of January, which is less than a month ago, and was showing in Cinemacity but is now only showing in Sodeco theaters.

I’ve heard that there are some violent rape scenes in the movie which have forced theaters to show it at a late hour and then restrict it to one theater, which is really stupid.

There are tons of violent movies out there and I don’t see anyone complaining. Added to that, the movie is apparently great and scored an impressive 8.2 on IMDB. Isn’t it easier to just restrict it to people under 18?

You can watch the trailer [Here].

Update: Visual replaced with correct one

The government decided to back red diesel prices during winter for some of Lebanon’s coldest areas. As a result, the price was slashed from 29,300 to 26,300LL.

One day before the expiry date, around midnight, 8 million liters of red diesel were distributed by the Tripoli Refinery at the discounted price of 26,300LL.

The next day, they were sold to the Lebanese at 29,300LL according to some reports, which means that profits of 3000*(8,000,000/20) = 1,200,000,000 (or 800,000$) were made.

Fingers are pointing at Energy minister Gebran Bassil for being behind this scandal, and investigations are underway with the Tripoli refinery officials.

You’d expect the minister or officials to resign following such a scandal, but I say it will be forgotten within a week time.

Update: According to the head of Audit bureau, Judge Aouni Ramadan, the amount of diesel sold neared the 100 million liters and not just 800,000$. [Naharnet]

Update2: I corrected the profits made as the 8 million liters should have been divided by 20 as pointed out by few readers. That doesn’t however justify stealing money still.

Ever since news spread that Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri broke his leg while skiing in the French Alps, jokes and critiques started pouring in all over the net. “Mich 3ejbitto Faraya, ra7 3al Alps”, “Di3ano ma ya3mil Ski bil Alpes” among others.

What’s the big deal if the man likes to ski and can afford going to the Alps? Have you seen the Alps slopes when compared to the Faraya slopes?

Added to that, Faraya is not cheap at all if you’re planning a weekend there and everyone speaks French up there, so it’s not that different from the Alps come to think of it.

Why isn’t Lara Fabian coming to Lebanon anymore?

Fabian performed at a concert in France in 2008 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel’s establishment in 1948, reportedly saying at the end of a song that she loved Israel. She has also performed in Israel on a number of occasions and attended pro-Zionist meetings. [Link]

What a blasphemy! An artist saying that she loves the country she is singing in! This has never happened before. I don’t know what’s wrong with those people at the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel in Lebanon (CBSI). Who gives a damn about the political allegiances of an artist? She’s here to perform on Valentine, not buy Israel some rockets!

The funny thing about this group is that it’s inconsistent in its boycotts. Let’s take a look at the artists who performed in Lebanon this summer:
- Tom Jones [Interview with Israeli TV] [Tomes Jones tour in Israel]
- Armin Van Buuren [AVB concert in Israel- 2007] [AVB Concert in Israel - 2008]
- Shakira [Shakira in Israel] [Shakira Makes a Star Turn at an Israeli Conference]
- Inna [Inna in Tel Aviv]
- Scorpions [Concert in Israel planned on May 2012]
- 30 seconds to Mars [Concert in Israel in 2010]

I don’t think I need to continue listing all the artists that came to Lebanon and had performed in Israel before or visited Israel. This non-sense must stop and whomever is behind those campaigns must be sued for being an ignorant.

I overheard some people express their relief that a large number of residents were non-Lebanese in the building that collapsed. In fact, 10 Egyptians, 9 Sudanese and 2 Jordanians were reportedly living in that building.

When are we going to get rid of those sick mentalities?

What happened yesterday in Achrafieh was another tragic incident that showed the lack of responsibility of officials, the unpreparedness of the security forces and rescue teams but also the lack of accountability towards the people we vote for.

Everytime a building collapses, we are told that there were previous warnings and everyone knew. Take a walk around Achrafieh and most Lebanese areas and you will see there are tons of buildings that could collapse any second now.

Some are blaming the old buildings’ owners, others are pointing at the government, but the truth is Lebanese are becoming very negligent and taking a nonchalant and passive attitude towards all issues.

We cannot blame the building’s residents but had they been warned, why didn’t anyone take an initiative to move them out?

- Had the building owner warned local MPs, ministers, mayors and officials or even the media, I am sure someone would have reacted.

- If the buildings’ residents are poor and don’t have money, they or their families could have raised the issue to local MPs or municipalities and many NGOs and associations. They could have also helped them relocate. Unfortunately, one resident was moving out with the help of some family members but it was too late as the building collapsed.

I am not trying to point fingers at anyone here, but rather urge Lebanese to raise their voices whenever their lives are endangered and draw attention before it’s too late. There’s no use in yelling and cursing officials and politicians when the tragedy occurs as this will never bring back the dead.

Having said all that, I urge all building owners and residents to warn the authorities of any old or new building in a bad shape and make sure their voices are heard by all means possible because Lebanon is not ready for more tragedies like this one.

Last but not least, our prayers go to the victims’ families and to those still stuck under the rubble.

I noticed that Charles El Helou bridge was undergoing some maintenance work last Friday and the road was closed as a result, but I had no clue the situation was as bad as it is portrayed in this report.

It basically says that the bridge could crumble any second now, similarly to the Jal el Dib Bridge which has expired and is yet to be taken down.

In fact, I had posted back in October that the Jal el Dib will be taken down soon but political disputes between various parties have delayed early plans.

So until then, pray before you cross any of those two bridges or avoid crossing over them by taking other routes.

According to the Maronite League, 80% of lands in Ajaltoun, Rayfoun, Mayrouba and Kfardebian were sold to non-Lebanese. Added to that, Northern town Alma has more than 85% of its land sold to non-Lebanese. [Source]

Those statistics are hard to believe to be honest as these towns are neither deserted nor far away, and there are a lot of Lebanese living there all year long, specially in Ajaltoun and Rayfoun.

[Source]

This ad is so freaking lame! It’s like they have no creativity whatsoever.

Beirut/NTSC on the other hand sure knows how to mock them.

[Link]

No offense to the Daily Star, but I counted at least 4 images out of the 19 related to non-Lebanese, with 3 of them describing the same event. Not that I mind but I am sure there were more Lebanon-related events worthy mentioning in a “Lebanon Pictures of 2011″ album.

Also, it wouldn’t harm if they added more joyful pictures as Lebanon had a relatively calm and bomb-free assassination-free year for a change.

Check the rest of the pictures [Here].

I love the pictures naharnet uses for its stories -_-

I was surprised to read about “phenomenal growth” and “Beirut Port among the the world’s biggest 100 international ports” in the DailyStar, especially when I’ve been hearing the complete opposite from business owners and economic reports.

Here are few excerpts from the DailyStar article:

Zakhour expressed high optimism about the growth prospects in the port’s operations saying that its business is being propelled by massive growth in transshipment that exceeded 27 percent in the first 10 months of 2011 alone, contributing some 405,000 containers.

The turmoil in neighboring Syria would not negatively affect the port, he added, but in fact may well contribute to increasing its activities.

I don’t know who Elie Zakhour, head of the Beirut International Chamber of Navigation, is trying to fool by these numbers as they are inaccurate. It’s good to be optimistic but it’s better if he gives the whole image to the Lebanese.

Here’s an excerpt of Lebanon’s Economic Report for Q3 2011 prepared by Bank Audi, in regards to Beirut Port activity:

The number of containers at the Beirut Port, another important indicator of trade activity, decreased by a yearly 4.1% to attain 439,220 containers in the first nine months of this year. The mentioned number of containers encompasses all incoming and outgoing containers at the Port, but not transshipments. As a matter of fact, the latter totaled 329,162 containers, up by 22%. However, the number of ships that used the Port of Beirut during the first nine months of 2011 declined by 5.8% and amounted to 1,648. As for revenues generated by the Port, they reached US$ 119.2 million during the first nine months of 2011, depicting a yearly 5.2% decline relative to the same period of 2010.

Fransabank, another prominent Lebanese bank, published very similar stats to Bank Audi’s report. You can check it [Here].

As you can see, Beirut Port’s activity has slowed down and revenues are down, despite a surge in transshipments mainly due to the situation in Syria. All in all, Beirut Port is not doing that bad in spite of the recent events in the Arab world and the economic recession in Europe, but its growth has slowed down when compared to last year.

The artist they are interviewing is not really saying anything wrong. She’s for equal rights between men and women, defending gay rights, and promoting safe sex. She is not promoting sex, she wants Lebanese to get over the sex taboo. I am not saying I fully agree with her, but she is making few good points. In fact, for once I thought “A7mar bil Khat el 3areed” was actually sending out a useful message until they let this stupid woman come up and address the artist.

What does nudity have to do with pornography? How does wearing a condom necklace make you a prostitute or a sex promoter? I mean seriously where do they come up with those people?

One last thing, can we please stop comparing every artist or singer dressed in a funny way to Lady Gaga? Chou We2fit 3laya?