Just an Egyptian Football Game

20120202-124347.jpg

Egyptian football teams have taken their rivalry to a whole new level. In fact, this level that Egyptian football and sports has reached is probably new to mankind. Give it to the Egyptians, still breaking boundaries 4000 years later.

Except unlike the pyramids and other monuments the Egyptians can be proud of, this is something that is of such a magnitude you’d think it’s straight out of a horror movie.
Soon after Egyptian football team Al-Masry won over Al-Ahly (for the record, I had never heard of the former and only heard of the latter because of its constant rivalry with Al Zamalek), the supporters of the former invaded the stadium in celebrations. The fireworks they fired led to a massive fire.

Police were nowhere to be found – probably still busy checking women’s hymens in Tahrir. As a result, over 73 people died because of a football game. Some had been found with stab wounds, obviously murdered.

I am a fan of football but this is not football. This is not sports, this is not something you can politically explain, as some people had suggested as it being a remnant of the former Mubarak regime because, simply put, this will not change the dismal state of politics Egypt has gotten itself into. This is not something you can really describe and find any words to without sounding absolutely cliche.

I’m not sure what measures the current Egyptian authorities will undertake. But if it were me, I’d suspend the whole football premiere league, enforce sanctions on both teams and start hording people left and right in jail.

73 people dead…. One can simply summarize this in one phrase. Football excitement level: Egyptian.

A Camel in Downtown Beirut – Literally. A Music Video by Michelle & Noel Keserwany

As Lebanese, we always laugh when a foreigner asks us about our mode of transportation. We brush off their whole “tents and camels” ideas by showing them pictures of ferraris, BMWs and other cars most of us cannot afford but love to take pictures of.

And although most of us haven’t seen a camel in our lives, Michelle & Noel Keserwany, who went viral with their song Jagal El USEK, have a new video out for a song titled: 3al Jamal Bi Wasat Beirut (On a Camel in Downtown Beirut).

The song opens with the following: “Badde kazder 3al jamal bi wasat Beirut 7atta yalli ma ma3o 7a22 benzene ysir 3endo 2amal, 7atta l ajeneb yenbesto wa akhiran shefo l jamal. Khalle kell as7ab l m7allet ya3mlo panic w kyes l shopping tou2a3 men 2id l 3alam l chique… Ana bedde kazder 3al jamal bi wasat Beirut w khalle kell l nes tghar.”

Which translates to: “I want to wander around on a camel in Downtown Beirut to give hope to those who can’t buy gas, so that foreigners can finally be happy that they’ve seen a camel. So the shop owners start to panic and shopping bags fall from the hands of posh shoppers. I want to wander around on a camel in Downtown Beirut and get everyone to be jealous.”

In this simple song, Michelle and Noel Keserwany have painted a sarcastic parody of a part of Lebanese society you cannot but make fun of. The look on the people’s faces? Priceless. The woman holding her nose? Epic. The camel riding next to a Chanel shop most of us won’t dare to enter? Stunning.

This is Beirut! And this is awesome Lebanese talent. Thank you Patrik Abdel Sater for sharing the video with me. You can follow Patrik on Twitter here. He’s also behind the awesome new logo you currently see as a header for the blog and on the Facebook page.

Lebanese Memes: It’s FAPruary!

It’s only fitting… and she had it coming (no pun intended).

Remember, you can always send me your own and I’ll make sure to post them.

Introducing: Lebanese Memes

[Edit]: It looks like Lebanese Memes would be a better description for what this is than Lebanese 9Gag. So I have decided to change it.

We all love 9gag. Actually, scratch that. We all LOVE 9gag. You go on 9gag and then, 5 hours later, you’re surprised how the time passed.

9gag is also the reason I’m staying awake during classes. So I figured why not bring in cool internet memes and give them a Lebanese flavor.

What’s the reason behind this? Well, sometimes laughing at all the problems our country is facing is the best way to deal with them without going into a dark phase of Lebanon-hating.

And so we begin, the first Lebanese Meme – a commentary on the electricity situation:

Lebanon's Electricity Crisis - Lebanese 9Gag

I thought about translating the memes… and then I figured it would be a total disaster. “3ouzran ya kalbe [Bitch please], Sa yakrah l karihoun [haters gonna hate], 2essa 7a2i2iye [True story], Ana b7ebb [Me Gusta]” – No. Just no.

If you have any pic you did and would like to have it posted, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Just some German Family Drama

The following actually happened. It’s straight out of a soap opera and it’s simply hilarious. It’s also very sad. In short, this picture is the life of two German couples – or six months of it:

At least this is more interesting than many movies churned out by Hollywood. Also, 72 times… that’s some dedication for someone who’s not enjoying it, don’t you think?