Category Archives: Lebanon

Stories of Lebanese on the Titanic – Part 3: The People of Kfarmishki

For part 1, click here. For part 2, click here.

Out of all the Lebanese villages that sent its sons and daughters to America on the Titanic, Kfarmishki has the highest death toll at 13, out of the 14 people that wanted to reach Ontario, Canada where most of the town’s expats reside.

Out of the 13 people that kfarmishki lost, only one body was recovered. Everyone else was lost, never to be seen again or given a proper burial. The abyss of the Atlantic became their final resting place.

Of those whose bodies were never found, there’s Assaf el Saykali who left his newly pregnant wife in order to find a way around the poverty in his hometown. Another is Mansour el Hajj, who left his 3 year old daughter and wife, only to be taken in by the sea.

The only body that was recovered through the MacKay-Bennett belonged to Mansour Nawfal, a man in his late twenties who had left his hometown searching for a better life all by himself. Almost none of the people of Kfarmishki know about him. The MacKay-Bennett’s crew wrote his name as Mansour Sovel on the medical form they filled upon collecting him on April 24th, 1912.

The only survivor from Kfarmishki was a woman named Zad Assaf, who is more commonly known as Mariana Assaf. The name discrepancy arose when she was rescued and asked for her name. Being illiterate, she couldn’t inform the personnel of her proper name so on the lists of survivors, she became known as Mariana.

Zad was born in 1867 and got married in her hometown before leaving it and her two sons to follow her husband to Ontario. In 1912, she returned to Lebanon to see her sons and got on the Titanic, via Cherbourg in France, to go back to her husband. Her sons would soon follow her. It was a good thing they weren’t on the Titanic with her.

While being interviewed on April 24th, 1912, a traumatized Zad told the story of what happened on the day Titanic sank. She said when the ship first hit the iceberg, none of the passengers she was with, most of whom were Lebanese, got afraid. They had called it a night and went to bed. The lack of fear was due to them not knowing the gravity of the situation. It had been kept under wraps for as long as the crew could do so. Some of the Lebanese, however, wanted to go on deck to see what was happening. They were told nothing was wrong and no one felt any danger. So they stayed in their rooms.

Zad Assaf's house in Kfarmishki.

As time went by and the ship didn’t move, their minds started racing and thinking about what the crew could be hiding from them. Some had started to think about the possibility that the ship might be sinking. Suddenly, one of the passengers shouted that the ship is sinking fast. That was then the chaos began and people started running frantically to the deck of the ship, not caring how they got there as long as they did.

Zad said her mind went numb. The only thing she was able to think about back then was to get to the deck where first class passengers had already been. She got to there with a man from her hometown named Elias Tannous Nasrallah, a 22 year old who had left his wife in Kfarmishki. He was going to Ontario to provide for her. As he neared the rescue boats, Elias tried to reason with an officer there to let him on. The officer wouldn’t let him. The chaos that ensued and Elias still pleading for his life got the officer to hold his gun at Elias and shoot him in the chest, killing him instantly, saying: women and children go first.

Shocked by what happened to Elias, Zad froze in her spot. She couldn’t move. The shock of the ship sinking was just made worse by seeing the man from her hometown murdered right in front of her. Without her being aware of it, a navy officer pushed her into a boat full of women and a few men. The boat was then lowered to the water and the men started rowing away as the ocean engulfed Titanic.

Some of the survivors had said the music band kept playing until the very last moments. Zad wasn’t aware of that. She was still in shock. She was among the last people to be lowered off the ship, an hour and thirty minutes after impact. Stranded at sea, they stayed there for hours, freezing in the cold. Six hours after leaving Titanic, the ship Carpathia came to their rescue. The only thing she was able to remember was them offering her warm clothes.

Once she got to New York, she was admitted to the hospital for observation. Once discharged, people from the area helped her get to Ontario where she met her husband. Her sons soon followed her. One of them later on went to Sao Paolo where he lived to be over 105 years old.

Elias Nasrallah’s wife got remarried in Kfarmishki after getting the news that her husband has passed away.

Stay tuned for part 4 tomorrow.

Smeds Knefe and Pizza ads: Sex, Breasts & Food?

The new ads by Smeds for their mozarella cheese are nothing but sexually inferring. Without them telling you what they’re advertizing, you’d think Antoinette Akiki has a new sex-ed show, à la Lezem Ta3ref, on YouTube.

I’m not a marketing expert. But if someone intends to sell some food item, is associating it with talk about breasts and a man bringing his wife to orgasm a decent strategy?

In other words: food and vulgar ads, do they go hand in hand (no pun intended) or is it a grave misstep here?

I’ll leave the answer to the pros.

To me, I think sex sells. But not cheese.

Here are the ads:

Where Do We Go Now (W Halla2 La Wein) Released on DVD & Blu-Ray

For those searching for torrents or a way to download Where Do We Go Now, you might want to stop searching and go buy the DVD for the movie, which will be released today.

Check out my review of the movie here.

Stories of Lebanese on the Titanic – Part 2: The People of Hardin

For Part 1, click here.

Hardin is a town in the mountainous region of the Batroun caza, famous for St. Neaamtallah who is famous for his hometown and who made his hometown famous. During 1912, Hardin had 19 people on board of the Titanic. Only 7 of those made it, including a man, two children, an infant and three women.

One of those who survived, named Sileneh Dagher, was a newly wed who was traveling to the United States with her husband, Antoun Yazbeck. Their cabin was close to the water line of the ship so the collision was especially frightening for them. They went out into the hallway to see what was happening. Once they realized the gravity of the situation, they started moving towards the main deck. But many of the passageways, especially those that went through first class areas, were sealed off by passengers for fear of theft. Once they reached the deck, Sileneh and her husband both got into a rescue boat. But an officer held a gun to Antoun’s head and forced him to relinquish his seat, convincing Sileneh that her husband would follow her on another boat. That was the last time she saw him. She later on remarried and changed her name to Celine. She gave birth to 9 children and raised them before dying at the age of 69 on March 10th, 1966.

Sileneh Dagher remarried

Sileneh with her family

The only man from Hardin who survived did so because a foreign woman pitied him and got him to hide under her dress. The man in question, Moubarak Assi, was the deacon of Patriarch Elias Howayek, who’s currently laid to rest in the convent he built in my hometown. Assi went on to start a family and a business in Michigan. He died on February 3rd, 1952.

Mr. Moubarak Assi

Sileneh Dagher wrote to her brother, the former mekhtar of Hardin, about what she went through aboard the Titanic. She spoke about how cruel the officers were to the men who tried to get on the rescue boats. She spoke about how the men of Hardin who knew they wouldn’t be rescued knelt in their last moments and prayed to the Saint of Hardin.

Another story that came from Hardin is the story of Hanna Touma, a man who was in love with a girl from his hometown called Zahiyya Khalil. Both decided to travel to the United States to start a better life but Zahiyya’s parents refused for them to leave without getting married so they tied the knot hours before leaving Lebanon. Aboard the Titanic, a wedding party was thrown for the newlywed the night Titanic hit the iceberg. Once the news of the collision reached them, they continued their wedding party as if nothing happened. Later on, when death was looming, Zahiyya refused to leave her husband’s side despite the officers begging her to. And so they held to each other tight and bid farewell to their lives.

The people of Hardin clinged to their Lebanese heritage until the last moment. According to Moubarak Assi, as his rescue boat was being lowered off the ship, he saw the men of his hometown huddle around each other. Then one of them shouted: “Dabke ya chabeb!” And they faced death with a Lebanese dance, knowing they won’t be saved.

The zajal for the occasion that went on to commemorate the loss went as follows:

ابكي ونوحي يا حردين…..عالشباب الغرقانين
غرق منك حدعشر شاب….. بسن الخمسة وعشرين
منهم سبعة عزابي…..والبقية مزوجين
ما فيهم واحد شايب….. كلن بالخمس وعشرين

Cry and weep, Hardin for your men who drowned.

You lost 11 young men, aged 25.

7 of them are single, the rest are married.

None of them have gray hair, all were 25.

Hot or Not? Some AUB Students Start iGossip – Vote For Girls Against Each Other

Some students seriously have way too much free time. I sort of envy them, not for the thing they started here though.

Some AUB students decided to have AUB girls pitted against each other where you vote for the “hotter” one in order to determine the hottest 10 girls at AUB.

So much wrong in this.

Check out the website here. I also advise you not to start clicking.

I don’t think AUB should let students squander its name like this.