Because accepting a differing opinion with a free spirit is not the norm, we’ve reached a level where we attack TV stations that broadcast anything we disagree with – despite that TV station breathing “our” air, for the most time.
NewTV, which is pro-March 8 in Lebanon, was attacked yesterday by one of March 8’s supporters. His name is Wissam Alaeddine. He is one of an armed gang that committed the act.
Why did Wissam attack New TV?
Because a day earlier they had the audacity to host extremist Sunni cleric Ahmad el Assir who trashed Hezbollah and Amal, the former of which Mr. Alaeddine supports.
How did I know this? Well, everyone has Facebook. Even Wissam. And he supports the cause of “Sayyed Hassan” whatever that may be. (link).
Soon after hosting Al Assir yesterday, and after the uproar that followed, New TV basically disowned Al Assir and anything he had said using their platform. They had gotten their ratings. Their political scoop was made.
But someone saw it differently. How dare New TV stray from the path it always followed? How dare they not continue their 24/7 brainwashing – like other Lebanese TV stations – that is needed for the ignorant masses? How dare they broadcast anything that uses “Sayyed Hassan’s” name in vain?
Shame on them, shame on them. Let’s burn them down. Burn them all down.
And that’s what they tried to do.
Here’s how it is Lebanese media, now that the sarcastic bit is over: you are not allowed to diversify your scope. Some people won’t be happy with that and if they have the resources they will act upon it. Wissam Alaeddine was caught. But he’s part of a dangerous and growing ideology that those who speak differently from what “we” think need to be terminated and silenced.
Good luck Al-Jadeed with the Ahmad el Assir aftermath.
Because an AUB graduation wouldn’t be the same without a mini-scandal on the side, this year refused to be any different. Donna Shalala, former US secretary of health, was making a speech accepting the honorary degree which AUB awarded her when some students started to boo her and chant against “zionist Shalala.”
You can read the details here. There’s also a short video that shows some of what happened:
Shalala has a 20 pages CV. Some of what she has accomplished, apart from becoming the first ever Lebanese-American to hold such a high ranking position in an American government, is the following:
She is the president of the University of Miami.
She was named one of the United States’ best leaders by many publications, one of which is News & World Report.
Former president George Bush handpicked Shalala to co-chair with Senator Bob Dole the Commission on Care for Returning Wounded Warriors.
President Bush presented Shalala in 2008 with the highest honor an American citizen can get: the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
In 2010, she received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights.
But all of this is not enough for us, as Lebanese, to be proud of Shalala apparently. There are other “things” on her CV which some deem shameful enough to cause a ruckus. Why are some calling Shalala a “zionist”?
She has three honorary degrees, among the few dozens that she has, from Israeli Universities.
She doesn’t ask to boycott Israel. In fact, she opposes the Boycott Israel movements.
She signed agreements between the University of Miami and the University of Ben Gurion in Israel.
Never mind that she has declared that “[her] experience with Palestinians in the refugee camp seared me forever as an advocate for the people of Palestine and their statehood.”
An AUB student was heard saying “I don’t want my university to honor someone who is on a normalization quest.”
I have to ask him/her something. You do know you are attending the AMERICAN University of Beirut, right? You do know that most of the funding AUB gets is from the AMERICAN government? You only need to take a stroll around the biology department to see USAID stickers plastered everywhere in case you have doubt.
Do you also know that your university presidents, all of whom are Americans, probably support normalization? For all matters and purposes, your place is not AUB if you are so deeply offended by this.
I’ve heard some AUB students say: “this makes me ashamed to be an AUB student.” You know what, I’ve got a very simple solution for you. If you believe the entirety of your academic career rests on who your university awards with a degree that person probably has thirty other ones just like it, you can simply transfer.
As students booed her, Shalala replied: “Let us welcome this demonstration of academic freedom.” Perhaps a dose of the idea of freedom of thought is what some students (and newspapers) need, regardless of whether you agree with those thoughts or not. We’re slowly getting to a point in Lebanon where we’ll refuse to welcome an American just because they may or may not support Israel.
Sure, we all support the struggle of Palestinians but what does shouting at a graduation ceremony accomplish? Nothing.
To sum this up, not everyone who supports Israel is a Zionist and before someone decides to consider me one, no I do not support Israel. As a former AUB student, I’m proud to have received the best education my parents could afford me in Lebanon. And as current AUB students, some of whom were shouting at Shalala, you should know that you are attending AUB because it is the best university in Lebanon and because this is the best education you can get in order to build a future for yourself. Stop getting carried away in useless shouting rows. You want to help Palestine? How about you become a successful individual first and then advocate it at other places than a graduation ceremony where many, many students don’t even agree with what you did?
I had a few friends go to the Evanescence concert which took place yesterday at Beirut’s new Waterfront so for those of you who couldn’t go, this is how the concert went.
It was very crowded and the crowds were so energetic that Amy Lee, Evanescence’s lead singer, was impressed and apologized to the Lebanese crowd for not coming sooner.
It’s not like they would have come before when they were much bigger and Lebanon was an irrelevant speck on their radar. But whatever, right?
The concert took around 80 minutes, which wasn’t much according to many concert goers, although that’s pretty much around the average for a set by an American band.
Just so you don’t think I have a blind vendetta against Tayyar.org with me bashing them on different occasions (check those here & here), it’s now the Lebanese Forces website’s turn to take a hit.
We’ve all been suffering through horrible electricity outages. Even Beirut is getting 6 hour cuts. Different sides are taking different opinions regarding the matter, as usual, depending on which end of the political spectrum they belong to.
Those opinions can be summed up with the following: Blame Bassil vs Don’t blame Bassil.
I don’t like Gebran Bassil and as a voter in the Batroun caza I won’t vote for him when he runs here – again – in 2013. That won’t end up doing much since he will end up as a minister – again. But I would have done what I can.
When it comes to the electricity problem, however, there’s a drastic difference between putting the entirety of the sector’s woes on him, as some people are doing, and actually acknowledging that the problem didn’t start with him, although his handling of the whole issue isn’t top-notch. For the record, I have blogged before about the electricity problem and about how silly Gebran Bassil was when he threatened civil strife against his one-sided government if they didn’t comply with his electricity plan.
All the political talk aside, you’d expect a reputable political website which should be concerned with, well, politics not to flaunt such a post on their Facebook page, which holds over 57000 likes.
The article they linked to can be accessed (here) and it features a collection of pictures such as the following:
Some of you might think these pictures are funny and you can share them on your Facebook and Twitter timelines all you want for all I care. But it’s unacceptable for the website of one of Lebanon’s leading parties to make an “exclusive” out of them. It’s unacceptable for that website to use them as material in order to please its readers.
How about Lebanese-Forces.com and tayyar.org stop running tabloid-ish “news” and focus on real issues instead? What does either website hope to accomplish by running silly articles about the politicians of the other?
The 2013 elections, if they happen, will be here before we know it. The article in question has over 700 Facebook “likes.” Brainwashing is here in full swing.
Have you ever wondered how the Lebanese capital looked before it got turned into the concrete maze it is today? Well, I blogged a while back about Lebanon in its golden age. Since then, I’ve found many pictures of Beirut that precedes the rabid urbanism of today.
Beirut – 1900
Bourj Hammoud, circa 1930
Raouche, around 1925
Martyr’s Square, 1930
AUB, 1930
Martyr’s Square (Previously Bourj Square) – circa 1898
A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares 