4G In Lebanon? Apparently Yes.

A very good friend recently told me that her sister was getting a 4G signal on her phone in Batroun. While I still don’t have 3G on Alfa, it looks like MTC are moving on to the next generation already. I would assume Batroun is not their top priority and other regions have this as well.

I find it interesting that it hasn’t been advertised anywhere yet. I remember reading that LTE and 4G would be available in Lebanon starting summer 2012. We all thought they were kidding back then. While I still don’t think it will happen by then, it looks like 4G in Lebanon is closer than we think.

I guess we should’ve gotten those 4G LTE iPads.

Facebook, “Social” Media & Stupid People….

Imagine this real-life scenario.

You come back home and check Facebook. It’s late at night so the timeline is slow. Someone has shared a picture from an album they titled “:D:D.” The title they gave their post is: R.I.P, I will miss you. You look at the picture and at the album’s name. It’s a while before the idea connects in your head.

You look at the picture and you know the person in the picture. It’s someone from your family. Yes, you just found out they died from Facebook not a few hours later via a phone call like your parents intended to tell you.

Now imagine this other real-life scenario.

You get news that your grandma is sick so you book an airplane ticket to Lebanon to see her. The moment you land, you check your phone. The messaging service of choice, in this case BBM, is full of people who have changed their statuses to the typical “R.I.P” stuff.

The former scenario happened to me a few hours ago. The second one happened to a friend. I had heard of similar incidents happening to other people as well.

It seems that even when it comes to death, people are quickly losing their head. Why in the name of everything that is holy would anyone want to make a Facebook “scoop” out of the death of a loved one? Shouldn’t they be grieving instead?

Shouldn’t people have that common-sense fuse that perhaps not everyone has been told about the death in question and they should refrain from updating their Facebook status thirty minutes after the person passes away, while their body is still warm?

I have the answer as to why people like that do what they do: stupidity, lack of class, lack of consideration…

Will they care? Absolutely not. All they care about is getting those coveted Facebook likes and comments. The post in question in the scenario that happened with me now has 23 likes and 19 comments. Mission accomplished? I think so.

R.I.P Warda Al Jazairia

Whenever I think of Warda, I think of my mother singing her songs as I hovered around her. The legendary Algerian singer passed away a few hours ago, at the age of 71, in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

My favorite Warda song is not the go-to Batwannes Bik. It’s one from the only Egyptian movie I’ve watched, back when I was much younger, upon my mother’s request. It’s probably my favorite because of the number of times I’ve heard my mother sing it.

The song is “Hikayti Ma3 l Zaman.” You can’t but be delighted by her voice, her performance, the lyrics and the tune.

I find it horrifying that as the news of Warda’s passing spread around, one of the newer “singers” was busy stripping and “singing” on MTV. The contrast is eye-opening. The giants of Arabic music are fast going away. It’s sad that we only cherish them when they pass away.

Warda’s body will be sent to Algeria tomorrow. She was born in France in 1940 to an Algerian father and a Lebanese mother. She has said on numerous occasions that her talent comes from her mother so with her passing, Lebanon has lost one of its giants as well.

Warda’s repertoire is non-ending. Her highlight songs are many. These are some of them:

And last but not least:

May she rest in peace.

 

Notre Dame de Paris (The Famous French Play) Coming To Lebanon!

FINALLY! An event this summer I am beyond beyond excited to go to.

Imagine this: the best of the best contemporary french singers, singing the best of the best contemporary french songs from one of the most memorable plays…. It’s enough to make my ears drool.

Notre Dame de Paris, based on Victor Hugo’s infamous French novel and from which arose Belle, the classic song that no one can ever get enough of, is coming to Lebanon for a concert on July 9th and 10th. The concert will not be the play itself but songs from the play. I’ll take it.

Patrick Fiori, Garou, Helene Segara, Julie Zenatti and others are all coming to perform the originals. Will you be going?

Tickets are priced at $60, $100, $130, $180, $240 and $300. You can buy them from Virgin Megastores or online here.

Meanwhile, I leave you with Belle sung by Garou, Daniel Lavoie and Patrick Fiori (in that order):

A Lebanese Priest On Tannoura Maxi’s Potential Ban in Lebanon

If you don’t want to hear it from me, how about you listen to someone who’s among the most concerned (Arabic article) with Tannoura Maxi?

Father George Massouh, who teaches at the University of Balamand, wrote an article for Annahar in which he discussed the matter from the perspective of basic liberties, without even watching the movie.

Sects in Lebanon today, he said, are not only hijacking a person’s sense of nationalism but they are also attempting to take over people’s taste by trying to dictate what they can or cannot watch. And he’s totally right.

Religions are supposedly a voice for liberties – none of them, in theory, ask for oppression. Those who start oppressive measures are the people whose understanding of religion is quite limited. Do you think Jesus would be offended by Tannoura Maxi? There’s only one answer to this question and it’s a no. One only needs to look at the Bible and read the teachings of the Man to know that such a thing wouldn’t register on His radar of relevance, which begs the question: who are we offending here?

The answer is simple. Our Christian pride.

I think Christians in Lebanon have reached a point of mass hysteria, especially with the recent events in Tripoli, where they’re feeling increasingly threatened, unjustifiably so. Even though their reason is telling them they have nothing to worry about, their passion is telling them to grasp at anything that might make them feel strong and in control. Tannoura Maxi turned out to be the casualty.

The argument I’ve heard being tossed around: “But if this had happened with them, the whole country would have burned.”

Perhaps so. But two wrongs don’t make a right especially when it comes to something that touches on basic liberties. The moment we start compromising on what we allow others and ourselves to be exposed to is the moment we start biding farewell to our position in Lebanese society and the region. And that’s the true danger we are facing, not some irrelevant extremists whose effect far transcends their actual size.

Father Massouh concludes his article by saying: instead of asking for bans on things that we think are offending religions, we need to use civilized platforms to get the message across. Clergy and religious figures nowadays are only contributing to increasing ignorance among the people by failing to grasp that point.

So, as I said, instead of making a big deal out of Tannoura Maxi’s religious content, just let the movie be. For religions that have been around for thousands of years, how big of a threat can a movie be? In the grand scheme of things, it’s totally irrelevant. How about we see it as such instead of asking what religious people shouldn’t ask for: a policy of bans and limiting freedom?