Hana Makhmalbaf’s Green days was banned for good by the ISF after it was postponed a year ago upon the Iranian president Ahmadinajad’s visit. I am guessing the reason is that it messes with the Iranian political stability which is crucial for us Lebanese of course. [Link]

The Lebanese movie “Chou Sar” will be allowed though after being banned in September 2010. Apparently, it no longer incites sectarianism now. [Link]

If only ISF were more focused on catching criminals and armed maniacs than banning cultural movies.

To read more about the movie, click here [Green days]

To check the list of movies and series banned in Lebanon, click here [List]

According to some friends, the huge buildings next to ABC Dbayyeh are movie theaters set to open soon.

The first thing that came to my mind is that ABC will be needing more parking lots, so hopefully they thought of building underground parking.

The second thing is that Le Mall is opening meters away from ABC Dbayyeh, so imagine the traffic we’re gonna have there during holidays.

Lebanon ranked 54th in the Global Finance list of richest countries in the world with a GDP (PPP) per capita per year of 14,988 in 2010. [Full List]

Bahrain, KSA, UAE and Kuwait are way ahead of us with Qatar being the richest country in the world with a 90,149$ GDP. Kuwait is the second richest Arab country and ranks 14th.

I never intend to keep our readers away from Lebanon or encourage them to spend their summers elsewhere, even though that would mean much less traffic. The few things that bother us about Lebanon don’t mean we should stop loving our country.

Despite all the pollution, the corrupted politicians, the war threat at any second, the civil war threat at any second, the bombings and assassinations, the traffic, the underpaid jobs, we still have a beautiful country with beautiful beaches and nature. [Lebanon in Winter]

Let’s just say spending Lebanon in summer is about having a cold Almaza on one of its many beautiful beaches, and enjoying Lebanon despite all its flaws and its crazy people. The picture above is Pierre and Friend’s beach, and you can find plenty of similar beaches from Jbeil till Chekka. Tyr has also one of the most beautiful sands in Lebanon but it’s a long trip to go there.

To read more on Pierre & Friends, check a day out and a night out at Pierre & Friends.

I always pass by this huge flag at Sin el Fil’s entrance but was never able to get a good shot of it. Well thanks to traffic and winds blowing, I was able to do so today.
Too bad it’s not the tallest flag pole in the world; those behind it should be ashamed of themselves for not breaking another Guinness record when doing it.

Thank God though we have the world’s largest flag, or else I don’t know how we could have lived with ourselves. [Link]

I was coming back from Jeita Country Club on Sunday when I noticed this weird looking place on top of a hill. It’s like a huge ship and behind it a building or maybe a restaurant?

Anyone has a clue what this is?

While I was in Lebanon last week I passed by this cute little place called Kitsch in Gemmayze. It’s like a small boutique that sold some random items as well as some clothes and it had a small coffee shop as well. Seemed pretty cozy.

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

Amendments on laws related to honor killings in Lebanon proposed by Kataeb MP Sami Gemayel on the 8th of May 2011 were accepted yesterday. This is quite the achievement as those laws were truly insulting to all Lebanese, not just its women.

The old law basically stated that if a man were to surprise his wife or one of his female relatives in bed with someone, and committed a crime against them, it would not be considered as a first degree murder but an “honor killing” and would receive a lower sentence. If you want to read more on the matter check [Here]

I don’t know why this didn’t get a lot of media coverage even though it is a major step forward in modernizing our archaic laws on women rights in Lebanon.

Nevertheless, congrats to all the Lebanese women!

Pecha Kucha Night #11 will be held on Wednesday, May 25 from 8pm to 11pm at the Beirut Souks. 20 images x 20 seconds to be presented by:

Maya Metni – visual communication
Ahmed Khouja – architecture
Cyrille Najjar – product design
Fadi Shayya – Horch Beirut
Emily Cremona – fashion design
Linda Selwood Choueiri & Simon Mhanna, BHARAT – arabic design workshop
Nahwa Al Mouwatiniya – NGO
d2w Oxo, Biodegradable Plastics – sustainable development
a3lab, Asterios Agkathidis – emerging technologies in architectural design
mating season, Dar Onboz – publishers
HIBR – newspaper
Eco Village – sustainable project
Carwan – pop-up gallery for limited edition design

For more information on the event click [Here]

What is Pecha Kucha? Click [Here] to find out.

In Day2 of my trip to Kobayat (See Day1), I drove around checking out few sites in the town, and visited the famous Mar Geryes monastery. Kobayat is 600 meters above the sea level and its nature is quite amazing as there are lots of forests and green fields. It reminded me a little bit of Jezzine.

As far as the roads and houses are concerned, there are some beautiful houses but a lot of ugly ones which I think the municipality should work on enhancing to make the town look nicer. The roads are in good shape even in distant parts of the town, except between few houses where you can barely fit your car ( like most old Lebanese towns & villages).

Last but not least, we went to visit some friends before going to the Mar Geryes monastery. They had prepared us a dozen of Kebbe Chmeliyye to eat even though it was only 10 am. We went afterwards to visit the Mar Geryes monastery and it was truly a beautiful place. After the visit was done, we ate Kebbe Chmeliyye and drank Laban with it. I usually hate Kebbe but it was nothing like the one we have in Beirut, as it was bigger and filled differently and tastier.

In all, it was an enjoyable and sort of adventurous weekend given how far the place is. The food was great, the town was beautiful but I don’t advise you to go there by yourself, as it’s very easy to get lost on the way and you will not enjoy it as much as you should.

Here are few pictures of the monastery

IPT opened a self-service gas station in Kaslik. I think they already have one on the Batroun highway. There’s still a full service option though.

Has anyone tried it yet?

I never realized there was an American band called Beirut until today. The name however has nothing to do with their music as it is a mix of Eastern Europe, and Balkan folk with Western pop music. [Link]

I tried looking for the reason behind that name but could not find anything which is pretty weird. It would be interesting to know why he chose the name? Maybe we should email him about it.

You can listen to some of their songs here. [Link]

Beirut has been a byword for chaos, war and destruction since the civil war [BBC]. However the Lebanese blogger Jad through his blog is on a mission to change that and is sending out “Looks like Beirut” certificates hoping people will stop using it.

I thought at first it was a one time thing but Jad’s been doing it consistently and is even getting responses from the people receiving their certificates. Last one to reply was Monona County Sheriff’s Deputy Roger Krohn who promised not to use this cliche anymore and nailed it on his wall as a reminder. [Link]

Great job Jad and it’s quite astonishing that after 20 years since the war has ended people still think of Beirut in terms of ruins and ashes while it’s a beautiful city.

Search for Lebanese Blog on Google and BlogBaladi shows up on top. That doesn’t mean it’s the #1 blog but it’s pretty cool. [BlogBaladi]