A Petition To Save Achrafieh’s Massaad Stairs And Stop The Fouad Boutros Highway

[YouTube]

I honestly lost track of what’s happening to the Massaad stairs and the nearby green space as I thought they were threatened by the Fouad Boutros highway, not a new building. To recap quickly, Mar Mikhail residents are against the “Hekmeh-Turk”, which is basically the planned Fouad Boutros road and wish to turn the green space mentioned in the LBC report to a public garden not a fancy building.

To be honest, I think it’s better if we have a public garden there as the last thing we need is a new building, but I think residents and the NGOs protesting against these projects need to be more pragmatic in their approach. For example, the abandoned green space that they want to turn into a public garden is abandoned, dirty and I’ve never seen anyone there. A good way to convince the municipality or to put more pressure is by organizing campaigns and get volunteers to clean and revamp the green space. That way if people start going there more frequently, it will be easier to organize protests and convince the municipality to change its plans.

In all cases, I am fully supportive of any petition to save Beirut from another ugly building and build a new public garden instead. Here’s a link to the [Petition].

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Statistics On Stolen Cars In Lebanon Over The Last Five Years

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Source: Al-Jomhouria

Al-Jomhouria posted today statistics related to cars stolen over the past five years in Lebanon. I assume the source is the ISF since the numbers match for the years 2009 and 2010 but the ISF stats are not yet updated.

As you can see, the number of stolen cars has almost doubled between 2012 and 2013 and there are around 5000 cars that haven’t been returned and that we know nothing about. The sad part in all this is that the sides that are behind most of the car thefts are apparently well known, but nothing can be done to stop them.

The Masrou2a App I had posted about previously would definitely help identify the bad guys, and lead the cops to the source, but it’s useless if there’s no green light to arrest these criminals.

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Review: 300 Rise of an Empire

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300: Rise of an empire is the sequel to the awesome 300 movie that came out few years back and that I’ve personally watched 5 times. It’s basically a follow-up of 300 with events taking place before, during and after the epic Battle of Thermopylae that opposed 300 Spartans led by King Leonidas and the might army of the Persian King “God-King” Xerxes.

I watched 300: Rise of an empire yesterday at Vox and I have to say it was a decent action-packed movie but definitely not as impressive as the first one. The battle scenes are nice but a bit fast-paced and Themistocles who’s leading the Greek armies and most of the battles is not as powerful and charismatic as Leonidas. Moreover, the only sex scene in the movie seems a bit out of place, and there’s this scene with Themistocles riding his horse that’s just ridiculously fake. I understand it’s a fantasy action film but 300 was the same and didn’t have such scenes or at least they felt a bit more realistic.

In all cases, I think it’s a decent sequel/presequel to 300 but I doubt that I’ll be watching it more than once.

PS: It is recommended that you watch 300 before watching 300: Rise of an empire in order to better understand what’s happening.

French International Basketball Player Ali Traoré Joins Amchit Club

Ali-Traore

I still think Riyadi is the team to beat this year, but things are going to get tougher for them with French Centre Ali Traoré joining Amchit alongside Fadi el Khatib and Jeremiah Massey. Amchit has already defeated Riyadi by 2 points and is going for the championship with Traoré’s signing.

That’s definitely good news for the fans as the games will get more competitive now specially that Sagesse has apparently agreed to sign NBA Basketball Player Quincy Douby.

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via LebaneseBasketball

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Lebanese Ziad Doueiri’s Upcoming Movie Foreign Affairs Among The Top 200 Most Anticipated Films for 2014

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We never got to see Ziad Doueiri’s last movie “The Attack” because it was banned in Lebanon. Let’s hope we get to see this one in Lebanese theathers specially that it was placed in the 75th rank of the 200 most anticipated movies for 2014 and Gerard Depardieu is in it.

The film is set soon after the end of the first Gulf War, and portrays American efforts to facilitate an Arab-Israeli peace agreement. A diplomat turned used car salesman is called back to help break the ice between the most important political figures of the time.

French actor Gerard Depardieu, who featured in the films Life of Pi, My Afternoons with Margueritte, and Potiche, has been cast as one of the film’s main characters.

The high-profile French magazine Le Monde mentioned the film in an interview with Depardieu on his future projects.

Producer Jean Bréhat described the French actor’s role to www.lemonde.fr: “[Depardieu plays] a disillusioned character who is somewhat of an alcoholic. He acts as a negotiator for the Americans during the secret discussions which preceded the Oslo Accords.” [Now]

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A Map Of Female Labor Force Participation Around The World: 25% Or Less Of Lebanese Women Work

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The numbers are taken from the most recent data from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators on female labor force participation rates, but to be honest, I find 25% a very low percentage for Lebanese women. You check out the original article [here].

That’s a jargony way of measuring the percentage of women ages 15 and up who are employed. The higher this number, the better for women (economic self-sufficiency, or at least the potential to be economically self-sufficient, is closely linked with all sorts of other basic rights) and the better for countries. Any country where it’s hard for women to work, whether because they’re pressured to stay home or because educational attainment is tougher or just because of straight-up discrimination, is effectively suppressing half of its economic potential. That makes everybody poorer and worse off. [WashingtonPost]

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8 Useless Speed Bumps At the Marina Dbayyeh

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Anyone who takes the Dbayyeh Maritime road in the morning has probably noticed a bunch of new speed bumps at the Marina entrance all around the new public park that they are working on. Now I understand placing one speed bump or maybe two to slow down cars driving around the park but why the hell would you put 4 consecutive speed bumps over barely 30 meters? Similarly there are a couple of other speed bumps placed at the end of the straight or right when you turn which don’t make any sense.

Funnily enough, the long Dbayyeh road where all Zouzou Ebbas meet to do their drag races and which is now packed with malls and restaurants is still without a single speed bump.

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