For the many of you who want to watch the Lebanon vs Qatar World Cup qualifier football game and need an online link for that, I’ve found two for you.
Just click here and you’re set.
If you’re a Twitter user watching the game, make sure you add the hashtag #GoLebanon to your tweets.
Apart from that, good luck and go Lebanon!
Update: this is not the official song. Armin Van Buuren just did an official video for it that’s Euro 2012-inspired. Shakira can still have a song be the official one :p
It’s not a Shakira song. Can you believe it?
I actually like it. It definitely serves as something that would get the crowds going.
As for me, I’ve got my jersey ready for next week. The flags will soon be taken out of storage. We are pumped for some football!
Yes, Forza Azzurri!
The power of a picture can be changing. It can change perceptions. It can alter ideas. It can even ignite movements. Some pictures will even bring you to tears.
I recently stumbled on a post online that had a selection of 40 pictures deemed as some of the post powerful photographs ever taken. By the end of the scrolling through those 40 images and reading the captions, I was amazed.
This is a picture of three sisters, posing for the same picture, years apart.
This is Harold Whittles, hearing for the first time ever in his life.
This is a photograph by Marc Riboud, showing young pacifist Jane Rose Kasmir planting a flower on the bayonets of one of the Pentagon guards during an anti-Vietnam war protest.
These three pictures are but a fraction of a series of equally haunting images that you can check out at this link.
Looks like our government changes opinions quicker than a hormonal person. Could they change opinions again soon? Time will tell.
The Ministry of Interior & Municipalities has canceled yesterday’s decision to ban audiences from attending the Lebanon vs Qatar football game. They are now permitted to do so.
What caused this change of heart? I have no idea. But it looks like we don’t care now about the Qatari prince’s feelings. Why was that an issue in the first place, I have no idea. Blog Baladi believes it’s the Lebanese audience’s fault based on the way they behave in usual sports games. I totally disagree. It’s as if we’re the only sports fans whose excitement goes through the roof before games.
Quick question to any average Lebanese who would attend the game: do you know what the Qatari prince’s name is in order to curse him?
No? Thought so. Neither did I.
Either way, those who can should attend the game to root for our national team. The audience is an important player in such games, especially with players that are severely underpaid and under-appreciated. The Lebanese attendees of the South Korea vs Lebanon game made all the difference.
Good luck to Lebanon in the game against Qatar. Here’s hoping we win, despite it being a severe uphill climb.
When it comes to my favorite places in Lebanon, the Saydet el Nourieh (Our Lady of the Light) Orthodox Convent in the Batrouni village of Hamat, which many people incorrectly believe is in Chekka, ranks high.
It’s possibly one of the most peaceful and picturesque places you can find. But I may be biased. Batroun pride, I guess. I think it’s very difficult not to be taken by the beauty of the mountain descending almost perpendicularly into the sea, giving you a breathtaking view of the Mediterranean and for religious people a very serene place to pray.
The story of the convent goes as follows: around the year 503 AD, two sailors found themselves in peril at sea. So they prayed to the Virgin Mary for salvation. She appeared to them as light and guided them safely to shore. To honor Her, they carved a cave where they saw the light emanating from. An Orthodox monastery was built in the 17th century.
And what better way to bid farewell to the Marian month than with a tribute to one of the most famous Marian shrines in Lebanon?
The convent
The view from the top of the mountain
Going towards the cave
The cave that was carved
All of these pictures were taken with an iPhone 4S and edited with the app Camera+.
A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares 