The Official UEFA Euro 2012 Song?

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?

Armin Van Buuren is delivering the official “song” for this year’s Euro 2012. It’s obviously trance and features one sentence, which is incidentally the song’s title, “We Are Here to Make Some Noise.”

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!

Lord Gaga X Does It Again

Provide a hilarious show without intending to, that is.

To those who watched the show, did he advance to the next stage?

If they let him through, then it’s beyond any doubt a gimmick to bring in viewers. How many tuned in to Arabs Got Talent only to see what he had up his sleeve?

Now imagine him winning and becoming the symbol of what talent the Arabs have. That would be quite awesome.

If I were in his shoes and after the week his country (Syria) had, I would have shown a little more consideration.

 

Maronite Church Land Forcibly Taken By Mayor of Lassa, Jbeil to be Given to Shia Mosque

The tensions in the Jbeil town of Lassa continue to surface. After an episode involving Hezbollah communication and whatnot, it has transpired that the town’s mayor, Issam Al Meqdad, started taking 5000 sqm of land owned by the Maronite Church to give them to the nearby Mosque, considering the land as belonging to the Shia “Waqf” of the town.

When the Patriarchal envoy to the region, Chamoun Aoun, found out, he contacted the Maronite Church in Jounieh and notified policemen who rushed to the town but couldn’t do anything. MP Michel Aoun was notified of what was happening. He found the affair very peculiar and notified Jbeil’s MP Simon Abi Ramia to pursue the matter further.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Lassa, with whom the policemen couldn’t do anything, still firmly believes that the land is not for the Maronite Church – even though they legally own it – but for the Mosque.

Now one cannot but wonder, what more do some entities in Lebanon need to do to prove ownership of a land? Is it not enough that they have the deed? Is it not enough that they paid for it? Is it not enough that it has been there and for years and years?

5000 sqm may sound like not much for many people but this is not the first time this happens and by the looks of it, it won’t be the last. This land was not bought or sold. In order for the Maronite Church to sell land, it needs authorization from the Vatican who most probably wouldn’t approve such a transaction. This land is being simply stolen – there’s no other word for it.

And the sadder part is we can’t do anything about this but watch. At least that’s what we did when land was being taken in the same way in other locations in Lebanon.

Some of the Most Powerful Pictures Ever Taken

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.

A Pedophile at a Lebanese Catholic School

LBC has reported that 11 girls, aged between 6 and 8, fell as victims to a 20 year old arts teacher at a very renowned Lebanese Catholic school in Mount Lebanon.

The teacher in question, whose whereabouts are currently unknown and who has deleted all his social network accounts, asked the girls to give him nude pictures of themselves and it wasn’t except by coincidence that his actions were discovered.

One of the 6 year old girls he assaulted told her parents about how he used to ask her to lift her skirt and he’d press his body on hers.

The school asked the teacher to resign, pending investigations. Some of the parents have already filed charges. Others are still waiting on the necessary psychological assessments.

Does anyone know if Lebanese law is protective towards children? Or does it deal with them when it comes to these things the same way it does to women?

The issue of the sexual abuse of children is rarely spoken of in the country. More “pressing” issues are of concern but do our children even have the basic legislature to protect them?

I don’t blame the Catholic school for hiring this man. They surely had no idea of knowing he was a pervert but hopefully this becomes a cautionary tale for other schools in the country to properly vet any candidate that seeks a teaching position in their institution.