[High-Res]

The Lebanese Army announced on its website that it will perform maritime maneuvers with the French army on Tuesday 26th and consequently will close the road between Tabarja and Jounieh from 7am till 12 noon . I am not sure if the highway will be closed or just the coastal road but either way expect a nightmarish traffic on that day, specially that Monday is a day off and everyone will be heading to Beirut from the North.

Knowing that Monday and Friday are holidays, isn’t it better to organize the maneuvers on these days? I am sure no one wishes a repeat of what happened back in November when the army closed down roads to rehearse for the Independence day.

Either way, I advise Zaatar wou Zeit to get ready for a busy morning.

[High-Res] Picture via Mustapha

Lebanese President Michel Sleiman and his wife Mrs Wafaa Sleiman were on a 2 days visit to Ghana last week.

As you can see from the article shown above, the donations that our First Lady gave were not so generous but knowing the first lady, there seems to be a missing link in that story. Why I am saying is because it is a well know fact that she is very involved in the public field in Lebanon and supports a lot of NGOs and groups, specifically those linked to children and education.

I tried to look further into the story online and I found out what Ghana’s First Lady, Mrs Lordina Mahama had donated as well and the items include:

10 bags of rice, five bags of sugar, two cans of cooking oil, four cartons of milk, two cartons of Milo, two cartons of cookies, two cartons of Golden Tree chocolate, assorted drinks and cash.

While Lebanon’s First Lady donated:

2 boxes of Milo, 4 boxes of Lactogen, and 5 packs of soft drinks.

Apparently both donations were symbolic and I think it’s normal for our First Lady not to donate more than Ghana’s First Lady for the formalities at least. I guess this settles it then.

Here’s what Ghana’s First Lady said about Wafaa Sleiman:

She described the First Lady as a “kindhearted woman who has the welfare of vulnerable children at heart,” and thanked her for the support and wished her long life on her 50th Birthday.

Picture taken from SpyGhana

Good education, adaptability and networks helped Lebanese succeed outside their country. That’s a positive thing that came out of our “wasta” system for a change. Check out the full article [Here].

ON A recent flight from Beirut to Addis Ababa, Lebanese businessmen were swapping stories. “Business is excellent in Angola,” declared one. “I hear it’s good in Ghana?” inquired another. Flights out of Lebanon buzz with optimism. For Lebanese business “good education, adaptability and networks” are the keys to their success.folk, the juiciest opportunities are abroad.

More people of Lebanese origin live outside Lebanon than in it (perhaps 15m-20m, compared with 4.3m). Many have done well. Carlos Slim, a Lebanese-Mexican telecoms tycoon, is the richest man in the world. Carlos Ghosn, a French-Lebanese-Brazilian, is the boss of both Renault (a French carmaker) and Nissan (a Japanese one). Nick Hayek, a Swiss-Lebanese, runs Swatch, the biggest maker of Swiss watches.

Lebanese people have long had wanderlust. Ancient Phoenician merchants roamed the Mediterranean, setting up cities such as Carthage and Cadiz. In the past century and a half, waves of Lebanese have left for the Americas and west Africa. Lebanon’s long civil war prompted many more to pack. Some 7m Lebanese and their descendants now live in Brazil, 3m in the United States and at least 250,000 in west Africa. They do everything from running restaurants to dealing in diamonds. By and large, they find business easier elsewhere than back in their fragile motherland.

Via Mustapha

Love the Slogan!

After organizing a car-free day in Achrafieh, Rmeil and Geitawi, the people behind the Achrafieh2020 initiative are joining the global community in celebrating Earth Hour by voluntarily cutting the power off for an hour. The event will take place in Achrafieh on March 23rd at 8:30pm.

The electricity goes out involuntarily everyday. On Saturday 23rd March, make it a choice. Achrafieh goes dark for Earth Hour at 8:30 pm, switching off for an hour and turning up environmental awareness. Join us at ABC Achrafieh for a voluntary power cut, or join in wherever you are. Join the rest of the world to save our planet. Badna nitfeya. [Link]

I know that we technically “celebrate” Earth hours 6 to 12 hours a day in Lebanon, but this global event is to remind us all that we have to seriously start considering renewable energies as individuals and as a country. Companies and large corporations can start by spreading awareness inside their workplace and Lebanese can start by installing a solar panel at their apartment or house if they can afford it for example.

You can read more about the Achrafieh2020 [Here] and on their Facebook page [Here].

[YouTube]

[YouTube]

Sfee7a Baalbakiyye with a special sewerish flavor. This ought to attract more tourists for sure!

Picture taken from Zawya.com

I’ve heard news of a lawsuit being prepared against the Energy Ministry and Lebanese government before but I wasn’t sure about it up until now. Here’s a small brief on what happened:

A tender to build a new power production unit at the Deir Amar facility was initially won by Abener-Butec, a Spanish-Lebanese consortium few months back. The contract was estimated at $662 million dollars, which according to Energy Minister Gebran Bassil, exceeded the $502 million allocated to fund Deir Ammar’s reconstruction. What happened next is that the first tender got cancelled and a second one is set to be open for interested companies.

Under the terms of the tender, Energy Minister is allowed to seek a 10% reduction from the winning company, and Abener-Butec agreed to these terms by downsizing the capacity of the new plant from 535 megawatts to 430 megawatts, but refused to cut down the contract by $160 million, which kind of makes sense. [DailyStar]

“You cannot ask us to deduct more than 10 percent of the total costs of the project, because if we were able to reduce costs more than that then how much profit would we be making? We’d be stealing from the government,” Zakharia said (Myrna Zakharia, Butec’s PR and communications adviser).

I don’t quite understand why did the government chose Abener-Butec’s offer in the first place if they knew they were above the amount allocated to fund Deir Ammar’s reconstruction. We are talking about international companies here with a reputation to keep, not some local bid over few thousand dollars.

Added to that, it seems the Spanish Company’s offer was apparently an excellent one:

“The offer Abener-Butec had made gave a really good price, even lower than what the ministry had expected,” said Younes. The consortium’s offer set the cost of producing one Kilowatt at $1,262 when using heavy fuel and $1,170 when using gas. Younes said the consortium’s offer also maintained high-quality implementation: “Our competitors were Indian, Turkish, and Chinese companies, our offer was the best, in terms of value and quality.”

I am not sure how solid is Abener-Butec’s case legally speaking, since no contract was signed yet, but we might end up getting unofficially blacklisted by international companies because of that.

Picture taken from ZWZ Facebook Page

I was surprised to read on Gino’s blog yesterday that the newly open Zaatar wou Zeit in Hamra does not service pork or alcohol. The reason was not explained to him in the branch but ZWZ justified this ban by linking it to “leasing conditions”.

Here’s what Gino wrote:

I sat down, ordered a ham and cheese mankooshe. The waiter suggested cheese and turkey, so I asked if they were out of ham or something, he ensured me that that specific branch does not serve pork. I ordered something else “halal” and then asked for an Almaza, he said alcohol was not served at that branch either. [Full Post]

And how the Zaatar W Zeit Team explained it:

Dear All,

We are very fond of Hamra and we love to be part of its full-of-life streets. We couldn’t miss the opportunity to open there and let our customers enjoy the experience we have to offer. However, we had to do some amendments on our menu in order to still be able to cater to our loyal fans, while respecting the leasing conditions.

Adaptability and respect of others’ opinions are an integral part of the ZWZ culture. Our objective is to reach all customers in all regions while serving safe and delicious food.

Finally, we’d love to see you all in our other close branches, such as Bliss, Gemmayze or Sodeco, where you can enjoy our full menu, no exception whatsoever!

Have a great day ahead.

Zaatar W Zeit Team. [Source]

Now this may seem reasonable if this was a franchise but Zaatar W Zeit clearly stated that all ZWZ stores in Lebanon are owned by one company and thus aren’t franchised. If that’s the case, the question that comes to mind is whether it is legal to set leasing conditions of this type on a restaurant. Can’t they point out that there’s pork in some items (like they do now with the little piglet) and let customers decide if they want it or not? Where’s the harm in that?

Last but not least, the branch is not that far away from a street filled with pubs and bars that obviously serve alcohol and people who go there are the most likely to be visiting the ZWZ branch after a long drinking night, add to that LAU students so I am not sure who they are trying to reach with this ban.

If I were ZWZ, I would have simply picked another spot in Hamra.

Picture taken by myself via Instagram: One of ZWZ’s best sandwiches, Ham & Cheese and no it’s not the same if you replace the ham with turkey.

Picture Taken from NowLebanon

That’s great news for Lebanon’s first ‘civil’ couple but not so much for the baby as I don’t know yet how they will be able to register him given that Minister Charbel has yet to approve their marriage. What is confusing to me though is what Minister Charbel stated in NowLebanon’s article.

When asked how the baby would be registered if he does not sign the marriage contract, Minister Charbel answered: “Kholoud Succariyeh and Nidal Darwish had a religious marriage so they can have the baby registered. In any case, I am waiting for the Consultations Committee’s response before making the appropriate decision.”

I wasn’t aware that they had a religious marriage. Why go through all this hassle if they had a religious wedding? Am I missing something?

Picture taken from Ibnlive

I’ve been hearing a lot lately about girls getting harassed “textually” by unknown men either through WhatsApp or other messaging service. Only last week, 2 friends of mine showed me messages they are getting from these random guys, sometimes accompanied with naked pictures or love songs. One of them even proposed to marry her and sent her his own picture (even though she never answered him back and always ignored his calls).

I know that the best way is to just ignore these people but sometimes it can go on for weeks and the same person could be using several numbers which is why I think there should be an easy way to report such harassment acts and catch the people doing this. It’s not funny when a married woman gets a naked picture of another man on her phone or gets offered money in return for sex from a total stranger. The annoying part is that once that person knows your number, there are many ways he can reach you.

Having said that, and based on what I’ve been told, the legal way to approach a harassment is by either going to the nearest Office of Public Prosecutions and filing a complaint or talking to a lawyer. Another “illegal” way is to have someone call the guy and pretend they are from the ISF Information Branch or Army intelligence Officers but I wouldn’t recommend it. In fact, the reason I know about this illegal method is because someone tried to do that with a well-connected relative of mine and ended up getting caught along with the guy he hired. Of course the girl can always call the guy or have her brother or boyfriend or father call him and warn him but that’s not the proper way to deal with it.

Back to the main topic, I think there should be a hotline or website shared by the police and Telecom ministry dedicated to reporting harassing phone calls and texts. That way, people who are getting harassed will avoid the hassle to hire a lawyer or going to the Office of Public Prosecutions for a small yet serious matter.

All they would have to do on the website for example is to submit a form accompanied with screenshots and the people in charge of this website or hotline would double check the information and then block the line or trace it to its owner and arrest him. If they report it via the hotline, the number would get a warning call.

I will submit this request to Minister Sehnaoui since he’s the current Telecom Minister and other concerned parties to see if there’s anything they can do about it.

Here’s a screenshot I got from a friend who got this message from some unknown number. The conversation dragged a bit before she blocked him.

[YouTube]

I saw this YouTube video by mistake today and was honestly surprised to learn Lebanese Memes have a YouTube Channel and are taking part in the Social Media Awards. I was even more surprised to learn they are turning the Lebanese Memes Facebook page into some business with a mission “to reunite ALL the Lebanese people (In Lebanon & around the world) via pure Lebanese humor” and an objective “to be the number one Lebanese facebook page & to give foreigners an idea about our culture and WAYS of life.”

Speaking of our culture and ways of life:

Kidnapping has become part of our culture

Mocking the Lebanese Nationality

Praising Myriam Klink

No comment

Zouk Power Plant is part of our culture?

Don’t get me wrong, I like some of the memes and think they are funny but that’s about it. No Lebanese would want to spread the ways of life portrayed to foreigners because that’s not something to be proud of. I am hoping whomever is behind that page is being sarcastic about it but it doesn’t look that way and this kind of beats the purpose of a meme.

One last thing, I think they should remove the lame memes, not just the ones who are racist or sexist.

Protecting women from domestic violence is as important as any other issue in this country. Having said that, a hunger strike is an extreme and life-threatening measure but it might pressure the government to amend these archaic laws ASAP. This is the first time I hear about hunger strikes in Lebanon so let’s hope it will end well.

March 8,2013 was the International day for Women. After years of receiving nothing but deaf ears from the Lebanese parliamentary committee, a group of Lebanese women will be giving the Lebanese Parliament one more week to correct article 522 and serve justice to Lebanese women who still suffer from domestic violence. They plan to start a hunger strike and will need all the support possible, be it via social media or on the ground. [Link]

MayaZankoul’s take on International Women’s Day.

Picture from ThisisBeirut

According to Al Rai, the Lebanese government refused a 1 billion dollar offer from the World Bank in exchange of privatizing the EDL (Electricite du Liban). Now I am not sure how reliable this source is but that’s not the first offer our government has refused as far as I know. Privatizing the EDL is a good option in my opinion.

It looks like we’ve moved officially from stealing cars to kidnapping people as it’s more profitable. The big question is though who’s providing the political cover for these gangs?

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Ibrahim’s relatives are rich and powerful. But the young Lebanese taxi driver was reluctant to go into the family business when he found himself struggling to make ends meet. His family is one of the country’s largest Shiite clans, and their business is kidnapping.

“Of course I don’t want to do this,” Ibrahim said of his new part-time job driving for his cousins, both professional kidnappers. “But [the victims] are never harmed and I have to feed my family.”

Kidnapping for ransom is one of the few forms of economic activity to flourish here as the civil war in neighboring Syria cripples the tourism industry and erodes the authority of the state.

Last week a 12-year-old boy became the latest victim.

In broad daylight gunmen snatched the child, the son of a prominent businessman, as he waited for a ride to school in an upscale Beirut neighborhood. He was released five days later, after the family paid a reported ransom of $250,000. Dozens of Lebanese businessmen have been taken and held for ransom over the past year. [Link]

Picture from TheDailyStar

Mohammad Awada is a 12 year old schoolboy who got kidnapped in Beirut last week. Today at 4:30 am, his kidnappers dropped him off under the Wati Bridge between Corniche al-Nahr and Adlieh and got back $100,000 as ransom money (Even though 1 million dollars were requested originally).

Now the interesting part is that the kid’s father thanked the Lebanese Army and police (Normally), but also Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Najib Mikati for their efforts to release his son. This is where I join my voice to Habib’s and ask: How exactly did they help? by bargaining for a better price? by getting him a discount?

That’s not the first time we hear about kidnap-for-ransom cases, but we should be arresting those criminals, not negotiating ransom prices and wait for the next kidnapping.