I spotted this memorial on the road underneath La Creperie Restaurant in Kaslik. There are two statues for Bernardo O’Higgins, father of the Chilean Independence, and José Gervasio Artigas, father of Uruguayan nationhood. I don’t know how they got there but I assume it has something to do with the university of USEK and their series of lectures few months back, given by nine ambassadors of Latin America in Lebanon on the theme of: “Foreign Policy – Latin America and its Relations with the Middle East”.

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.

I am not talking about myself of course but about a Lebanese called Ahmad Khodr Slaibi who shot his wife dead yesterday night and then tried to kill himself with an automatic riffle but failed. [Link]

[YouTube]

I passed by Lazarieh building in DownTown Beirut this morning and spotted what seems to be a clock tower getting built right next to St.Georges’ Maronite Cathedral.

I must say it’s quite impressive the number of churches and mosques we have in DownTown Beirut. There are at least 25 or 30 both combined.

Watch the commercial above and then watch the Najwa Karam music video below (gets interesting at 40seconds).

Thanks Pierre

Maybe this will help explain my position better.

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.

I never thought I would feel that lucky to be Lebanese, specially with everything that’s been going on in this country for the past 10 years or so, but seeing what’s happening in the Arab countries around us, we should consider ourselves as being very fortunate.

We’ve always criticized fights erupting after Basketball games, or Football games where the army started shooting in the air to disperse the crowds, but we’ve never had one single casualty as a result of such events.

This being said, Over 70 were killed when Fans of Al-Masri football cub, which beat Al-Ahly 3-1, invaded the pitch and began to throw rocks, bottles and fireworks at the al-Ahly fans. Some of the deaths were the result of stab wounds, the doctors said. [Naharnet]

This is just crazy.

We spend between 30 and 45 minutes trying to cross the Marina Dbayye zigzag roads every morning. I was thinking someone should open up a small Kiosk and sell Zaatar and Jebneh Manakish, or maybe hot beverages and snacks. They would have two or three people passing between the cars selling stuff.

We are moving at 5 km/h so it’s not like it might cause more traffic.

We are most certainly running out of names. Abbouta teghneejit “Abta” (hug) for those who don’t know.

The guy showing his back is a Lebanese called Joseph Abou Fadel. He is presumably a political analyst? The other guy is a member of the Syrian Opposition. I wish they kept filming and showed us the whole fight.

For those of you who missed Alloush vs. Chaker fight, click [Here].

After the collapse of the Achrafieh building, and rumors that the Jal el Dib bridge could collapse any second, the authorities decided to close down the bridge and widen the adjacent road.

This all sounds great but why did they block the entrance to the O&C Fresh Market? What’s the use of all those piles of concrete blocks separating cars coming from inside Jal el Dib and those coming from the highway?

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

This is a parody created between friends as a critique of the explicit themes adopted by some artists in the music industry on both the Arab and international scenes.[YouTube]

I don’t know what people like about this video. I like the message behind it but that’s about it.