Cheapflights.com (www.cheapflights.com) has come up with a list of top 10 places to celebrate Easter, with Lebanon ranked 3rd. Here’s what they say about Lebanon:
Visitors will notice the ornately decorated streets, shops and restaurants filled with all things Easter from bunnies to chocolate, painted eggs and even live baby chicks in some places. Good Friday is marked by mass. Easter Sunday is a huge celebration where absolutely everyone goes to church. After taking communion, the 40-day fast comprising a strictly vegan diet, is broken with a feast featuring lamb and lots of egg breaking. Get your hands on the delicious Easter sweets called Maamoul. These are little cookies made with a mixture of semolina and butter then stuffed with either dates or ground sugared nuts and dusted with icing sugar. [Source]
They sure are right about Maamoul. If you are interested in knowing how to make Maamoul, check out this awesome post at the Food Blog.
Full rankings are a follows:
1 – Argentina
2 – Greece
3 – Lebanon
4 – Scotland
5 – Spain
6 – Sweden
7 – France
8 – Germany
9 – United States
10 – Canada
Regarding the hippodrome, the leaked correspondence shows that the culture ministry agreed to “the reintegration of the whole southern section of the ruins into the structure intended to be built by keeping it in situ, and the dismantling and re-installation of the central course and northern sections.â€
Layoun vociferously defended his decision when he spoke to Al-Akhbar.
“What we did is an important achievement. It corrects the mistake by Solidere, which deceived property owners by not informing them that there were archaeological finds before buying the property,†he said. [Link]
I am not surprised to read this one single bit. In fact, I am a bit happy that they will actually preserve the site by “integrating” it into an upmarket commercial development, because I don’t expect better from this government or any other one. When you hear about filling up an archaeological site with sewers in Beirut in order to build a monument on top, you should not be shocked to hear this.
Few days ago, I read on a Lebanese news portal that a man by the name of Zakaria Ahmad Hankir was arrested outside a Palestinian camp in Lebanon with a “Doshka” in his trunk. The weapon was confiscated and the man put behind bars.
Surprisingly, the man was released today because, and I quote, “he was using the weapon as a decoration item”.
Miss Farah has taken online education in Lebanon one step further, by introducing Brainy, an interactive and educational website for kids between 5 and 10 years old.
Brainy’s aim is to help kids who need extra help or just more practice on a certain skill. After all practice makes perfect right? At Brainy your child can play educational games in English, Math, Science, Computer, Drama, Art, learn new songs, and read online stories with audio. [Source]
There’s also a weekly treasure hunt game that all children can participate in and collect a signed certificate from Miss Farah if they win.
Thumbs up for the great job and Happy Teacher’s day to you Miss Farah and all the teachers out there! Click here to check out [The Brainy Website]
For those of you who don’t know Miss Farah by now, you can read more about her [Here].
ABC’s smoke-free environment campaign is definitely a step in the right direction, even though restaurants and cafes will only have to abide by this non-smoking initiative on Mondays only. Some say it’s not enough and smoking should be banned all week long but I think it’s unfair:
1- Because smokers should be allowed to smoke in designated places and I honestly don’t see how Arguile places in ABC are going to manage that, such as Leila and Cafe Blanc (Assuming arguile is also considered as smoking).
2- Because ABC is not ready to endure major financial losses and be the only mall to ban smoking.
Among those present at the official launch of the happy smoke-free campaign at ABC Achrafieh were Minister of Public Health Mr. Ali Hassan Khalil and Minister of Tourim Mr.Fadi Abboud. I was glad to hear Minister Abboud is planning to increase the price of the cigarette pack, but his statement on the non-smoking law in the airport was a complete joke.
He also reminded people how they believed it would not be possible to implement a non-smoking law in the airport and they were proven wrong. [Source]
In fact, the most difficult task awaiting ABC at the moment is making sure no one is smoking and being able to kick out those who refuse to turn off their cigarettes, because last time I checked, no one cared about the smoking ban at the airport.
Joe Ayoob throws a John Collins design, officially breaking the world record by 19 feet, 6 inches. The new world record, once verified by Guinness, will be 226 feet, 10 inches.
That’s pretty awesome, my paper planes barely make it past my desk. [YouTube]
I met Myriam 3-4 years ago at a physiotherapy center where I was recovering from my football injury (Torn ACL), and I went to see some of her games afterwards. She’s a very talented player and was Al-Ansar’s team captain before moving to Femina FC in Hungary, then to Newcastle United. [Link]
Alf Mabrouk Myriam!
In other Football news, don’t forget to support Lebanon in its game against the UAE today. Brazil 2014 here we come!
Classified documents detailing Pres. Obama’s visit to France for the G20 Summit were left in a Cannes restaurant. A forgetful FBI agent apparently left the dossier at the cash register of a Lebanese owned restaurant.
“It looked like a usual file,†Bilal Herche was quoted by the Le Figaro newspaper as saying. “I opened it and understood that the documents contained crazy data.â€
Bilal called the FBI and told them about the files. They didn’t believe him at first but then came back to claim their documents. FBI rewarded him with a medal.
I am not a big fan of the singer, but I remember very well the big fuss her song “I will always love you” did in Lebanon back in the 1990s. Back then, we had no internet, no “Dish” and had only LBC, TL, C33 and MTV channels to watch. The Bodyguard was one of the few famous movies LBCI decided to broadcast and almost everyone in Lebanon saw it.
It became a bit like Vangelis’ Conquest of Paradise that was played in almost every wedding or any occasion in Lebanon during the 1990s and is still popular these days.
The treatment of animals is a reflection of how we treat ourselves and each other. There’s a lack of awareness in Lebanon on how to treat animals and endangered species and there’s an imminent need for a National animal protection and welfare legislation.
This is where Animals Lebanon have been doing an incredible job over the past two years and have finally managed to prepare and present a draft animal welfare and protection law to the Minister of Agriculture and all parliamentarians on November 24th. [Link]
In order for that law to become a reality, Animals Lebanon needs to secure 25,000 signatures and meet individually with Parliamentarians, while cooperating with the Ministry of Agriculture to see the draft proceed as quickly as possible.
There are 6317 signature so far, so I ask you all to spread the message and sign the online petition [Here].
A very nice article by Hala Moubarak featured in today’s L’Orient le Jour on the few hundreds of young Lebanese born in wartime and still hoping to change this country for the better.
The flyer above was an invite by a bar in Gemmayze to an event scheduled for this Friday, which invited guests to dress up as migrant domestic workers for the chance to win $100. [Link]
Noting that this bridge should have been taken down since October, let’s hope we don’t have to wait for the bridge to collapse to have it changed and hold Charbel accountable if another tragedy takes place.
The decision has been taken to remove the Jal el-Dib bridge “as soon as possible†in order to avoid a possible “disaster,†Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said Tuesday.
Charbel reassured that “there is no need to panic,†saying the relevant authorities had taken the “necessary precautions.†[Naharnet]
