Seriously what’s with the hold up? Is it money? In Kuwait where I am currently living for example we had a power shortage last year. Kuwait was producing around 10,000 megawatts of electricity but we were using around 9,800. So this year they increased the production by by 2,000 so that we have 12,000 megawatts and they will keep increasing it until by 2015 we would be producing 20,000 megawatts.

From what I previously read Lebanon produces 1,500 megawatts of power. Why haven’t we doubled that or tripled that? Can’t we all pitch in like $10 and solve our electricity problem? The war has been over for over 20 years!

I’m a big fan of zaatar w zeit but I absolutely dislike their new identity as well as the new look and feel of their branches. With their new identity I feel like they’re leaving the Lebanese culture behind and heading towards a generic fast food chain look. Why drop the beautiful Arabic typography? Why go from warm, cozy and homy to cold and clinical?

Do we really need to fire weapons to separate football players who are fighting? Seriously? Machine gun fire starts at 1:49 [YouTube]

A new club opened up on the Seaside road yesterday. This isn’t a post about the club itself but the ridiculous amount of traffic it caused yesterday around 7 while I was going back home from work.

Traffic was insane and people were parking left and right on the road reducing the lanes from 3 to 2 and finally to 1 then none

It’s not enough that there is traffic during the day all the time, but now because of this place there is even more at night…

And apparently White is supposed to open up somewhere next to it soon.

I don’t understand how they can give permits to clubs that don’t have dedicated parking spots! This place has a capacity of 2,500 people. So on a good night, you can expect to have up to 1,000 cars! Where the hell do you park these cars! I really hope these places shut down ASAP.

I passed by Jounieh tonight since today was the start of the festival they’re having. They’ve basically closed up the old stone street so no cars can get in and when I went down the street was packed with people which is pretty cool. Problem is there were no activities for people to enjoy or do. They had a stage right in the middle of the souk that was empty with just music playing but even if there was something taking place on the stage that wouldn’t have been enough. I was expecting some sort of street carnival with stands and stalls selling random items but there was none of that. I think people were doing what I did and that was just walk from one end to the other without stopping and then just leaving. I think I spent more time stuck in traffic and looking for parking than I spent at the festival. Fireworks were pretty cool… for the whole 2 minutes they lasted for. I don’t know, I really want to be positive here since I am a huge Jounieh fan but it was just very disappointing.

There are a lot more pubs that have opened up in that area which is very cool and I spotted a sign saying Margherita was opening soon. I just wish there was more to it all. For more information on the festival and the full schedule check out their website [Here]

My brother presented the French Baccalaureate two weeks ago and he is now presenting the Lebanese baccalaureate “just for fun”. Most students enrolled in private schools don’t care about the Lebanese Baccalaureate and treat it as an optional exam that they don’t need to study for.

We pride ourselves as being a society with high literacy rates, yet are ashamed of our own baccalaureate and for valid reasons. The most important reason is that everyone cheats at the Lebanese Baccalaureate, and most supervisors support such behavior.

I wonder what’s keeping our ministry of education and the private Lebanese schools from enhancing this program and making it a decent one. It’s not like we lack the professors or intellectuals or the money to do so.

I was reading a post on Ivy Says about a recent issue she faced at one of the Aishti stores. I thought what happened to her was extremely inappropriate and decided to email Aishti myself using their contact us form on their website to make them aware of her post so they could take care of it. After sending them an email and what do I get in return? An automated response informing me that I’ve been added to their mailing list without my consent and not even offering me a link so I could unsubscribe.

Dear Sir or Madame,

We at Aishti would like to thank you for taking the time to write to us.

We would like to let you know that we just added you to our newsletter mailing list. This entitles you to periodic update to all new happenings at Aishti worldwide.

Respectfully yours,

Aishti

I even searched their website for any information on how I could opt out but couldn’t find anything just information on how to opt in. If this was an automated response from my barber Salon Tony I could understand but with a large and now international brand like Aishti you expect a bit more. I’ve already emailed them back about this so hopefully they’ll listen to my feedback and fix this.

Since we are on the Aishti subject, the other day I posted about Aishti’s sale on my other blog which is based in Kuwait. People who didn’t know what Aishti was googled it and ended up at their website… which starts off with a fully naked woman. I don’t have a problem with nudity but you could understand why their customers in the Gulf region might.

Here is the link to Ivy’s post. [Link]

Was this really the best way to preserve that old house in Sursoq street in Achrafieh ? by constructing on top of it and blocking its front view?

I would have preferred that they demolish it rather than screwing it up like that.

A week after Lady Gaga’s album “Born this way” was banned in Lebanon, The General Security officials revoked their decision and unbanned the album, allowing its release at all Virgin Megastores. [Link]

Even though I am against banning Lady Gaga’s album or any other album, I don’t see the point of censorship in Lebanon or censorship as a whole. I mean the album’s available online and will soon be broadcasted on our hacked TV channels (that we pay a mere 10$ to an illegal cable guy to get them). Not to forget the illegal music and DVD shops that sell you porn movies and could not care less.

Looking as well at how censorship works [Link], one cannot but wonder if the guys censoring movies and music can be taken seriously. They banned Lady Gaga because it was insulting to Christians and then a week later they unbanned it for no noticeable reason. Did they get approval from Jesus because I doubt the church will change its stance that easily.

This reminds me of the time they banned the movie “Help” (which sucked big time) because the main actress was some politician’s daughter.

Te3teer.

Riyadi clinches his first Asian Basketball Championship by defeating Iran’s team Mahram in the final game 91-82. [Link]

It’s sad how barely anyone cares about a Lebanese team winning Asian Championships these days while back during Antoine Choueiry’s time, we had fans ready to travel to cheer for their team.

Nevertheless, mabrouk to Riyadi.

I never had to return tickets to the Virgin Ticketing Box Office until now and I just figured out there’s no refund policy but I couldn’t understand why.

I bought my mum a ticket to Magida el Roumi’s concert on the 25th of June 2011 but she no longer can go cause she got invited to a wedding. The ticket cost me 115,000 LL.

My question is:
- Why can’t I return the ticket if the concert is due in one month? Shouldn’t there be a time frame within which we can return our tickets?

Suppose the ticket holder had an accident or an injury or God forbid died. He also can’t refund?

Last but not least, what’s in it for them if I refund it or not? Tickets are getting sold out weeks if not months before the concert.

I don’t know if it’s only a Lebanese thing, but ripping off people is becoming a common thing to do in Lebanon, even if it’s by 100 or 500 Liras.

I was filling up my gas tank yesterday and my bill came out to be 98,850 Lebanese Liras. Even though I was paying with my credit card, I was charged 99,000LL. I did not bother ask why because I was in a hurry, but this is just wrong.

That reminded me of another incident I had at a restaurant once, where I paid with a 100,000LL a 84,500LL bill and I got back 15,000 Liras only. I did not bother ask why but did not tip them at all as they could have put 16,000 Liras or inform me that they ran out of coins.

After all, we are already paying way too much for food and gas and almost everything else and the least we could ask for in return is common courtesy.

Our politicians don’t seem very bothered by the fact that we haven’t had a government for almost 6 months now. They somehow found time to go and attend the Champions League final game between Barcelona and Manchester United. [Naharnet]

I just hope they did not charge their ministries the fees.

I am not a big radio fan but since my cd box stopped working and the kit I got for my iPod stopped working as well, I’ve decided to listen to radio stations in Lebanon for a change until I get them fixed.

I don’t listen to arabic music so I did not bother switch to any of the Arabic stations. As for the English and French stations, I listened to Mix FM, Radio One, NRJ, Light FM and Nostalgie and none of them was good enough for me.

All of them, with the exception of NRJ, put commercials between every song or two which is very annoying. NRJ barely puts any commercials but they repeat the same exact songs all day long. I counted on my way back from Kobayat few weeks ago “Mr.Saxo beat” being played 5 times within two hours.

Added to that, none of the stations put good old songs from the 80s and 90s or even early 21st century artists. You barely heard Cold Play, Robbie Williams, Madonna, Radiohead, RHCP etc etc …

What we need is a radio station that plays without too many commercials just like NRJ and targets people between 20 and 35.

I guess I will be back to my iPod or CD Box very soon.

I hate getting papers from the government, I hate standing in line like cattle waiting for some uneducated idiot to hand me a document I need for a certain procedure and I hate the worn down government buildings where the there are no elevators, where they take your signature in giant notebooks, where everyone smokes, where it looks like the last time they were maintained was in the 70s.

I travel to Saudi a lot for work, so every couple of months I need to get a Sejel 3adle from the government in order to process my visa.

Since I live in Beirut, I get my Sejel 3adle from the “Pierre Ghawi barracks” in Badaro. Just look at this building… it looks like it came straight from Lord of the Rings.

In order to get the Sejel 3adle, you need 2 stamps of 1,000 LL each and your ID. You stand in line and once you get to the counter you hand over the stamps and ID and you get the Sejel in less than a minute. But standing in line is an amazing experience. I used to try to get there very early in the morning as to avoid the long queues, but the line would always extend outside the building and around the corner. To add insult to injury, the AC units that hang outside the building keep dripping water on the people standing in line… Sort of a new-age Chinese torture, Lebanese style. So by the time you actually get inside the building, you’re sort of covered in AC water.

Then there’s always some person who knows someone and ends up cutting in line and I’ve seen that happen about 10 times till now. Last time I was there, the son of a colonel came in, said hello to the guy in charge and cut right in front of me. I was so pissed off that I wanted to snap his neck but I kept my cool, and then when my turn came the system shut down. I had to wait for an extra 30 minutes until the IT guys came in and repaired the problem.

I didn’t take pictures inside since I didn’t want to get in trouble.

However, here’s a tip for anyone who wants to get a Sejel 3adle: NEVER go very early in the morning, go around 10:00 AM. There are no lines and you’ll be in and out in less than 2 minutes.

This is the paper that is given to you in the end