Who Needs Cedars Anyway? Alf Malyoun Mabrouk Gebran Tawk

Mabrouk former deputee Gebran Tawk, even if a little early. I’m crossing my fingers you’d become a jeddo soon – if you’re not already one. Sorry, I’m not that well-versed in the Tawk family tree.  But I’m willing to learn.

I get you. I really, really do. You love your son. I love your son too – we are all brothers and sisters of this one fine mighty (maybe not) nation. Ok, Cliche season is over now. If it were me, I’d want my precious offspring to have the most kick ass Lebanese wedding that many won’t be invited to, a wedding that would befit their stature and mine (if I had any).

I heard you’ve invited about 3000 people to the wedding in question. You know what they say, go all out or go home. The festivities will last three days as well. Now isn’t that just beautiful. Speaking of which, I’m still waiting on my invite, fellow Northener and all. I want to be part of the fun too.

Your son’s wedding is so important, I heard, that it has triumphed over our national symbol. I jokingly said a few times that we only have one Cedar tree left, the one on our flag. Well, you’ve out-rooted that one as well. Who needs those pesky trees anyway? They don’t serve any function. They don’t hold fruits or anything eatable. Their ecological impact, given their rarity in this country, is minimal. They are just old. We hate old – we want new and new comes with fancy weddings to make head spins.

I want you to extend my gratitude to the Maronite church as well. I have been so busy trying to keep up with their constant rambling about the need to preserve the land, our presence, Christ in our heart, the Lord in our beings w heik that it totally slipped my mind that even someone in your grandeur would require some approval – in this case theirs – to turn part of our Cedar Forest into your son’s marital complex.

I also really hope this marital complex becomes available for future wedding celebrations. You can call it Cedars Wedding Club. A little tacky, sure. But can you imagine the amount of money it would bring in? Is that way the municipality of Bcharreh is allowing this? I would if I were them.

Quick question before I go, will you hold the fireworks show inside the main forest? I heard the reflection off those trees serves as a magnificent backdrop to your son’s first kiss.

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The area adjacent to the main Cedar Forest in Bcharreh, part of the reforestation efforts that have been ongoing for years now,  is being allegedly leveled off by former MP Gebran Tawk in order to create a space for his son’s wedding, end of August.

The forest in question is on the UNESCO list of world heritage sites. According to this article, Lebanon, the country of the Cedars, has about 2000 hectares of trees left. Turkey has 400,000. I guess we couldn’t care less.

I’m guessing the silence of Sethrida Geagea and Elie Kairouz, the region’s current MPs, is because they are invited to the wedding too.

Pictures courtesy of LBC and L’orient le Jour:

Update: The government has stopped all works. 

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46 thoughts on “Who Needs Cedars Anyway? Alf Malyoun Mabrouk Gebran Tawk”

  1. Holy shit! How could someone de such a thing to the so called emblem of our country? Isn’t there anybody that’s standing against that MP or it’s the power of the wasta that wins again, as usual.

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  8. We need details, when are they planning on uprooting the trees? When is the wedding? Is it too late to do anything about it? What can we do? These are more than trees, these are our national symbols. They stand for all that is good in this country, and this Tawk swine and his ilk stand for all that is bad. We must stop this!

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  10. Well Mr Tawk Junior , Ms Tawk and the whole dam Tawk family have no whatsoever a common sense of mind! I seriously do not understand how could they accept such a thing , they must be sick , dont worry there’s so many hospitals that can take you in because seriously you have lost it and need rehab!Plus , i cant imagine having such a careless gvt! No one has even tried to do smtg (ministry of culture/environnent/agriculture/tourism/interior….). Not even the own residents of Bcharré! Since the begining this forest should have been turned into a Reserve for it’s unique biodiversity , but who caressss the gvt has other things to worry about : like steal from our pockets while we stay silent! Finally i just would like to say that the biggest criminals are the lebanese people for not caring enough for things that matter but only for partying day and night and saying repeatedly “guysss hayda ahla baladdd”. WAKE UP LEBANON

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      • Très chère Nivine permettez moi avec tout respect vous demander a vous même de vous reveiller! Mettez vous a ma place vous auriez fais la meme chose ou peut etre pire! Je crois avoir bien lu plusieurs blogs et sites avant avoir poste ce comment et tout ces sites pointaient sur le meme point , il n’y a que votre lien qui dis le contraire , rien n’oblige que le votre soit incorrect!!!!! Vous etes vraiment pathetique! Et c’est a vous d’utiliser votre cervelle et pas a moi .

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        • Tres cher(e) Anonymous, Si vous prenez la peine de BIEN lire les articles ecrits a ce sujet, vous aurez su que le terrain sur lequel ils entreprennent les travaux est une propriete privee adjacente a la foret. Ce terrain a ete utilise comme depotoir pendant des annees et vous pouvez voir les photos attachees a l’article reponse. DOnc c’est le depotoir qui a ete nettoye et amenage en gradins .
          Et j’utilise tres bien ma cervelle, essayez de faire de meme ca ne peut que vous faire du bien

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  11. I cannot fucking believe this. Angryleb, I fully agree with you. What has this country come to? How the fuck is nobody caring about this? Why have I not heard about this until now? This is truly outrageous. We cannot just let this slide (then again that is what we say every time)…

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  13. wlek eh 3000 people? allah yi zeedon. If your budget is that big then you can get an airplane stuff your guests on it and go somewhere which already accommodates 3000 peoples. You sir are NOT sean parker and this aint a game of thrones themed wedding -__-

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  14. great suggestion for future venue for weddings , yes that is if there will be any trees left after the “must have” Glorious celebration standards of fireworks , and i am guessing more so for the illustrious and hugely egotistic , ambivalent and narcissistic branch of the family . Shame on you . money does not make people better nor more respectable. nor promises of bringing back what you destroyed of natural beauty , Shame on those that have stayed silent pretending not knowing what is going on . I must however Give great Kudos to the branch of the tawk Family that have brought this matter to the public attention, Namely Aline and youssef tawk Thank you for caring for our cedars , our heritage , our Lebanon ….

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  17. WTF.. go f… up with ur nasty ….. and leave our trees away ya ………………………… .
    This wedding must not be done.. not overthere.. who do u think u r to do this to the nature our nature.. stop this massacre MF.. please someine has to crash their night…

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      • i’m guessing you’re the wedding planner for that wedding. Or you’re one of the guests and you’re really, really looking forward to this weeding. Maybe you’ll get lucky, bump into some handsome son of some influential politician.
        Believe me, i do use my brain. I suggest you use yours and think critically.
        Let me give you some guidance:
        – what kind of source is http://www.lebanondebate.com? This is a press release whith some pictures and shouldn’t be considered an impartial, solid source.
        – Looking at the pictures in the article you keep forwarding, i do not see the land being a garbage dump before they started the works
        – You do not need to touch a tree or a forest to affect it or destroy it
        – My guess is, there will be fireworks at the wedding and that the wedding will be in summer. The land will be very dry. The risk of fire will be high. And I am not too sure, the fire department will be on standby during the weeding in case of fire. In case they are present and there is a fire, I am not sure of their ability to take care of it.
        – This is a natural reserve. Some of the trees are 2000 years old or even more. We shouldn’t take ANY risk at damaging them.
        – Nowhere in the world (or should I say civilized world) would this be allowed.

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  18. I hereby invite everybody on this forum and every Lebanese citizen who loves his country to block the roads to the wedding venue the night of the wedding.
    Let’s not only be offended online but let us do something about it. The Tawk family thought they could fool an entire nation with their behavior. Let us show them what happens to people like them..

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  19. did someone look into this in DEPTH??
    is he actually uprooting any actual cedars?? or is it just next to them?
    is this his own private land? or is this part of the reserve?
    many unanswered questions. from the pictures, it doesn’t look like he’s done any damage to the trees themselves?
    I’m not defending the crook, cause he is one, but what are the details here.
    y’all are ready to crucify him online before knowing the details.
    and if you don’t like it, do something about it. an online forum is the not the right venue. go tie yourself to the tree and let’s see what happens.

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  20. عزيزي سامي
    اسمح لي ان اكتب لك باللغة العريية فلم تسمح ظروف الحياة لابي ان يضعني بجامعة خاصة او ان يرسلني الى الخارج كما هو حالك ونحن نفتخر بشبابنا المثقفين امثالك ولربما لم تسمح لي ظروفي ان انهي دراستي الجامعية ففضلت تركها في السنة الثانية لكي لا اكون بحاجة لاحد او لاحد منة له علي .. اقول هذا وكلي اسف وخجل مما كتبته ونشرته انت يا عزيزي وانت البعيد كل البعد عن مدينتك واهلك …. فانا ما زلت في كل عطلة اسبوعية ازور جدي ليخيرني عن جدك رحمه الله وازور جدتي لتخبرني عن صحة جدتك التي لا ادري ان كنت تعلم بحالها … لماذا اتكلم خارج الموضوع لانك يا نسيبي بعيد كل البعد عما يجري فانت لست بمدرك من هو جبران طوق وما نمثله نحن له وما يمثل لنا … انت لم تكن يوما ندا معه او مع ابنه كما حالنا تتهمه بكل تلك الصفات والاكاذيب عن قصد او غير قصد دون الخوف ان كنت اسأت الحكم او تداولت فقط ما يشاع في بعض وسائل الاعلام فانت القابع البعيد تعتقد انك من محبي الارز ونحن كارهيه او انك تعتقد انك الوصي ونحن مدمريه … لا عليك يا نسيبي فان الارز ارزنا ولم ولن تمس اية ارزة من ارز الرب …. منذ شهرين ونحن نقوم بالاعمال دون ادخال ذرة باطون فلم لم يتناول احد الموضوع او ان يقول ان هنالك مخالفة … لماذا فبل اسبوع من حفل الزفاف لماذا لم يتم الاعتراض منذ اليوم الاول ؟؟؟ لن الومك ولست بموضع الدفاع عن احد لكنك انك مخطئ في تقييمك للامور

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    • Nevine my lady: it appears that the involved party is really attached to the Cedars because he wanted his son married right under their branches. Wouldnt it not have been better that Tawk Senior marries his son in another destroyed forest and instead donate this ” private” property to the cedar forest planting it baby cedar trees increasing everybody’s national heritage setting an example and proving to everybody what a great family the Tawks have always been. This individualism that is affecting a whole nation is absolutely nauseating. I know others have done worse but does it stop?

      Hada ytarjemlo lTony

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  22. Ya dear Nevine,
    Some state that this land is “private” and other state that it is on the UNESCO list of world heritage sites!!!!!
    In any case, what is being done, even if “no one is going to touch the trees” now, if you use your brain, you’ll understand that such a project is ecologically harmful to our nature and our heritage! And of course, later on will come a parking, and 1000s of cars, and some fireworks to add fire hazards, and more forest destroyed for more weddings …
    YOU try to use some of that brain of yours and try to think a bit further, what will happen after this wedding ya tura?? (and we’re not talking whether the newly wed will get a divorce, or whether they will have a Gibran Junior Tawk or a Gibranette as a 1st child…) AND what kind of good you are doing to your country by supporting such acts??!

    ويا استاذ توني
    شكلو لأنو طوق مزفتلك الطريق هونك مرة (مع انو ما قدر يعلمك أو يأمن كنائب شوية علم وثقافة بضيعتو …بس شكلو هيدا مش مهم الك) صار بحقلو يخرب الطبيعة؟؟؟؟؟؟!
    بتخايلك من هاو العالم يلي بضلو يلومو “الدولة” على مصايبن، وبيرجعو بينتخبو نفس العالم

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  23. To the point. Unfortunately the damage was done, and the wedding is still taking place tomorrow. The work started 2 months ago and no one raised the issue. Shameful.
    The most important thing is everything should be removed after the wedding and trees planted there; leaving no chance for anyone to turn to a normal wedding venue.

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  24. Dear Nevine, its either ur the wedding planner like zedoude said ! or the bride to be ! in both cases stop posting the link and stop giving advises about using our brains and getting informed ! trust me when i say if u have some brain left you would be ashamed of defending such a tragedy regardless of any fact… The Cedars are for every Lebanese and not another property of the Tawk ‘s Family ! ..

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  26. Stop bull shitting …. what has been done has been done ghassbinn 3an 2akbar rass bil 3alam ru7o balto alba7ir ……… go & stop the killings that ur people r doing defend the humanity before nature stop hiding behind a tree

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  27. Ana men fo2 w I know keef ken the place before the wedding w kif sar after the wedding ! Ken makab lal zbele w ma ken fee one single tree and jebran did not cut down one single tree so 3azeezee l muwaten, kol 5ara 🙂 w alf mabrouk la 3aress l arz

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