Category Archives: Lebanon

Good Luck Lebanon!

Update: For those asking how to watch the game online, you can use the LBC live stream link. Or this link in case LBC’s bandwidth dies.

Lebanon is playing the UAE today in a very crucial game on its way to qualify to the 2014 World Cup, to be held in Brazil.

After a surprising and very exciting win against South Korea last November, Lebanese football has gained great momentum with people and officials. You only need to look at any Lebanese’s Facebook timeline to see how enthusiastic everyone is about this game.

Lebanon needs to draw or win against UAE to advance to the next and final round where we’ll have to play eight extra games over the course of 2012 and 2013 in order to qualify. For a full analysis regarding the situation, check out this link.

As it stands, the ranking of all four teams in group B is as follows:

Wikipedia has everything

Even if we lose and Kuwait doesn’t win, we’d still advance. I’m not sure if we have an upper hand in any of our games. Don’t call me unpatriotic but I don’t want to be foolishly optimistic.

Either way, the Lebanese national football team has proven itself to be the little team that could. Hopefully its recent streak of victories will get sponsors to notice it more and start to splurge in giving it the proper equipment and training it needs to shine more than it is currently doing.

Good luck Lebanon. Let’s kick some Emirati as*!


Russel Peters Coming to Lebanon in March

Famous Indo-Canadian comedian Russel Peters is coming to Lebanon again on March 24th for a standup comedy event at Platea Hall.

Ticket prices range from $100 to $40 (pretty acceptable if you ask me) and can be bought from Virgin Ticketing Box Office online or at their stores.

This wouldn’t be the first time Peters visited Lebanon. In fact, Lebanese people and our partying has been a fixture in his shows. I’m actually excited about attending this. Are you?

Let’s hope he doesn’t end up having some 13th degree ties with Israel and that we actually get to enjoy his show without unnecessary drama.

Natalie Portman’s Dior Ad Causes Controversy in Lebanon – Israel Related, Obviously.

The Dior Ad I drove by all the time and never thought could cause drama

What do you know, just when I thought we’d get at least a few weeks off from the crazies, they’re back at it again. This time, however, the casualty is not a performer or a physical presence of someone who’s associated with Israel. They want a poster featuring Natalie Portman in her Dior ads to be taken down.

Why? Because she’s a known “Zionist.”

Cue the outrage.

What does her being a Zionist have to do with a poster of her promoting a cosmetics company? Are those cosmetics killing the children, women and men of Palestine? No. Is her picture causing their death as well? No.

According to this article, a Lebanese blogger said: “Since each contact or with an Israeli occupation in Lebanon is considered a crime, you do not think hanging a poster size of 15 meters with the Zionist Jerusalem is illegal?”

Simply, no. How in the name of everything that is Holy is hanging a poster of Natalie Portman contacting someone who is Israeli? How in the name of everything that is sacred does a billboard ad be considered as dealing with Israeli occupation?

Another blogger wrote: “Portman, who was born in Jerusalem and whose real last name is Hershlag, has spoken at length about her love for her home country and how she wants to move back there once there is peace.”

Many Jews believe it is their religious duty to return to their promise land, regardless of what we think of that or not. Her support for the state of Israel is simply a byproduct of her culture, just as there are millions of Americans, French, Italians, Arabs (yes, the do exist), British, German, etc… people who share her line of thought. You are entitled not to support her or her ideology, which is something I don’t do. But you calling for a removal of a poster featuring her is simply nonsensical, childish, useless and will reflect negatively on you, first and foremost, and on your country.

What do those calling for the billboard removal hope to achieve? Much needed publicity, maybe. Apart from that, there will be hundreds, even some who are as anti-Zionist as they go, who will laugh at their meaningless and ridiculous attempts of exposure.

You know what, next time BDS and the like want to take a stand, how about they stand for something useful with which they can actually get support, not against an actress whose movies are released in our movie theaters without hurdles and who was won an Oscar for a movie they have definitely seen, despite her being a “Zionist.”

Enough is enough when it comes to this silliness. But hey, at least Natalie Portman, unlike Lara Fabian, will probably not hear of this. I guess that’s a good sign, somehow.

Winter in Lebanon: Snowy Landscapes from the Recent Snowstorm

After posting a few pictures of a trip I took to the Cedars, I figured I’d help show another side of Lebanon that most people don’t get to see (especially tourists). And what better side to show than the one showcased by the recent snowstorm?

I did not take these pictures. I got them, after permission, from the Lebanon Weather Facebook page. I’ll try to go on a roadtrip around the Batroun area soon to take pictures. So stay tuned.

In the meantime, we present:

Zahle

Anjar

Assia, a village at 700 m of altitude in Batroun

The Chouf

The view from Hasroun, in the Bcharre Caza

Jezzine

Kawkaba, in South Lebanon

Knise Moutain in the Metn region

South Lebanon

Toula, in North Lebanon

West Bekaa

West Bekaa, again

And this is a picture my friend Firas took of the Cedar Mountains from his hometown in Koura:

The Cedar Mountains from afar

And people ask me why I’m “hating” on Zaitunay Bay when it’s getting all the attention and scenes like these are getting ignored. I guess that’s the way things are – you have money and power, you get noticed.

 

 

Beirut’s Zaitunay Bay Featured in the New York Times

The Zaintunay Bay picture used by the NY Times

Yet another piece of Lebanon’s capital makes it to a highly acclaimed international publication. This time, Zaitunay Bay takes center stage with a feature in the coveted New York Times’ Travel section. You can read the full article here.

And if you thought previous articles by The Telegraph and New York Times and other publications about Beirut were not nauseating enough with use of words and adjectives that revolve around “Phoenix, resurrection, war-torn, etc….” this article is no different.

“It’s the phoenix of downtown Beirut coming back,” one of the owners of a restaurant in Zaitunay Bay says. Somehow almost 20 years after the end of the civil war, color me tired of using this terminology. If in 20 years Beirut isn’t back, then it might as well not plan a come back at all.

And somehow I don’t think Beirut has really returned if our pride and joy in the city when it comes to tourists extends from Gemmayze to Hamra. The “Phoenix” we are proud of has a golden beak, which is the aforementioned region. The rest of that Phoenix? I guess the best description would be: wings and body of concrete (and weak concrete at that).

My problem with Zaitunay Bay, and other similar projects around Beirut, is that they are not happening anywhere else. Having blogged before about how Beirut is not what Lebanon is all about, I feel the need to reiterate that point when articles such as this one arise. You see, of course Beirut will keep getting “resurrected” if all the capitol Lebanese and non-Lebanese investors put is in this city, in a very select area of it to be exact, while other places in Lebanon have to make their own luck, so to speak.

The fact that Zaitunay Bay is only an extension of Beirut’s DownTown is a testament to that.

In a way, I am prouder of places like Batroun that have surpassed years of Syrian presence and became one of the North’s major cities. I am proud of Jbeil, a city that is becoming a major tourist attraction solely based on what it has to naturally offer, not because of millions and millions of dollars being thrown in it.

But well, have I mentioned how gorgeous the Cedars are this time of year?

And if you think I’m being too harsh, the concrete marvels of Zaitunay Bay are absolutely breathtaking in this weather, don’t you think?