Metel Ma Shelta – A Lebanese Anti-Littering Campaign by AUB Graphic Design Students

Meet Nadine Razzouk, or as I like to call her Nado.

Nado is one of the first people I ever met at AUB. She’s also one the quirkiest and most charmingly happy human beings you can ever encounter. Nado is also a graphic design student, soon to graduate and grace the world with her impeccable talents and keen eye for details.

Nado & Mohamed Olaymi & Lama Shehadeh, three brilliant graphic designers, sat together and managed to come up with an ingenious idea to fight littering in Lebanon. If you’re anything like me in that regard, you get infuriated whenever you see – for lack of a better word – shitheads throwing used tissues, coke cans, cigarette boxes, etc… on Lebanon’s streets and not giving a second look as to what they left behind.

I remember when I had French friends over a few years back. Their main comments regarding Lebanon can be summed up in one sentence: “One of the most gorgeous countries. But it’s also very dirty.”

And I can’t agree more. If you ever drove around slowly, you can’t but notice the sidewalks, the sides of the roads, the highways… everything is just filled with litter. And people seem not to care that they live in filth.

Here comes a team of AUB graphic designers and their idea: Metel Ma Shelta.

The campaign’s description is as follows:

As we were strolling around the beautiful streets of Hamra, we witness a man pulling his arm outside the window of his car to throw a tissue paper. What upset us the most was that this was happening across Lebanon and we weren’t able to do anything about it.We, as graphic designers decided to use what we’re best at (our witty minds and shiny tools) to visually express our frustration regarding the littering issue in Lebanon.Since people nowadays are immune to flyers, we thought of creating something irresistible that no one can overlook. Mmmm, so what can be irresistible to every individual on this planet…That’s when it hit us like a lightning bolt!
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!We photographed lebanese money and slightly altered the colors and design so that this project won’t be mistaken for forgery (something that was holding us back from going through with this campaign).

We’re well aware that many campaigns have been done regarding this issue, but if Metel Ma Shelta reaches out to at least 1 individual, we’ll be more than glad to have helped somewhere somehow.

Now lets clean Lebanon 10 thou at a time 🙂

The arabic on the right translates to: Similarly to how you picked this up, you can pick up the litter off the street

I wish them the best of luck in their campaign and I hope it becomes very successful and gains enough traction to hopefully pass an anti-littering law that would punish those who litter by getting them to pay ridiculous amounts of money.

Let’s keep Lebanon clean. We owe it at least that much. This is their Facebook page.

Lara Fabian Cancels Lebanon’s Valentine Concerts

Following “requests” to ban Lara Fabian from coming to Lebanon because she sang in Israel, the Belgian-Italian singer has canceled her two concerts, originally scheduled for February 14th and 15th, and issued the following statement:

A vous mes Amis Libanais une lettre d’Amour…

A L’amour …
Seule source de paix et de rĂ©conciliation…
A L’amour …
Seule vĂ©ritable intelligence, profonde et infinie…
A L’amour…
Seule arme contre son ennemie jurĂ©e la haine…

A nous qui vivons tous sous le mĂŞme ciel,
Je nous souhaite l’amour…et toute la guĂ©rison qu’il procure…
A nous qui ne faisons qu’un, puisse l’amour nous donner la force d’ETRE TOUS HUMAINS
A nous qui souffrons, souvent battus d’avance par la bĂŞtise et l’absurditĂ©, puisse l’amour Ă©clairer l’unique chemin sur lequel nous voyageons tous ensemble : la Vie.

Seule la musique peut gommer les diffĂ©rences et briser les barrières mentales, religieuses et culturelles…
Ceux qui crĂ©ent cette diffĂ©rence sont une minoritĂ© de gens qui ont peur….
Ils vivent dans la haine,car ils n’ont pas Ă©tĂ© suffisamment aimĂ©s.

Je ne chanterai pas sous les menaces que l’on me fait…
Je ne marche pas avec la haine……
Je marche avec la tolérance, la générosité et la vérité.
Je VIS et J’AIME.

Ceux qui n’ont pas compris ça et qui ne souhaitent pas ma venue dans votre beau pays oĂą j’ai dĂ©jĂ  eu la chance de venir chanter ne seront pas inquiĂ©tĂ©s…
Je ne viendrai pas perturber votre quiĂ©tude par ma prĂ©sence physique,…
Mais sachez que je serai là à ma manière.

Un soir de St-Valentin, quelques chansons d’amour feront du bien au coeur et Ă  l’âme.
Je donnerai un concert unique, crĂ©e pour l’occasion, ce sera mon geste pour la paix..
Il sera diffusé le soir où mon concert aurait dû avoir lieu à Beyrouth.

De cette façon Je continuerai sur le chemin qui est le mien, celui de l’ĂŞtre et de la lumière…
Puisse-t-elle Ă©clairer ces consciences jusqu’au bout, afin d’apaiser leur peine et dissoudre leur haine…

En mon âme et conscience je sais que L’amour est immuable.
Et qu’il ne connait pas les restrictions du temps et de l’espace…
Je vous Ă©cris cette lettre d’amour, car mĂŞme contrainte de le faire Ă  distance, je chanterai pour VOUS, mes amis Libanais…

Lara.

I won’t go into the litteral English translation but she goes on, in typical French manner, about the power of love. Most importantly, however, she says she won’t let her physical presence in Lebanon trouble the peace we have and that those who asked for her concerts to be canceled do not understand the message of love she was trying to get across. She will be having a concert, however, which will air on the days her concerts should have taken place.

So after all this brouhaha, I guess we can draw a few conclusions:

1) If Israelis watch a movie, then we CANNOT watch this movie.

2) If Israelis listen to a song, then we CANNOT have this song play on our airways.

3) If Israelis attend a concert, then we CANNOT have the artist who played at that concert come to Lebanon.

Apparently, for many, singing on an Israeli stadium has become equated with the artist in question chanting: “Death to Lebanon.”

Now let me ask the people of BDS to ponder on this. Is Israel the only country that did Lebanon wrong? Or is Israel the only non-Arab country that did Lebanon wrong, therefore, the only one we get angry about their transgressions? (This post might put things in perspective for you). I don’t see “activists” asking for artists (some of whom are Lebanese) who sang for the Assad regime or in Syria get asked not to sing in Lebanon. Or is the blood of the Lebanese who got killed by the Syrian regime much less “precious” than the blood of the most “honorable” of people?

Or is the fight for freedom in Lebanon become also subjective to where you come from, the country you fight and the cause you die for?

I’m not asking to ban artists who sang in Syria and for Syria to be able to hold concerts in Lebanon. Likewise, you have no right to ask for artists who sang in Israel (they didn’t even sing praise to their government, which is the entity killing Lebanese, Palestinians, etc…) not to hold concerts just because you believe it damages your pride and dignity and nationalism.

You can stand against an artist’s political views. If you don’t like Fabian’s, then simply don’t attend her concerts. If it had been against the law for an artist who sang in Israel to sing in Lebanon, the authorities would have been very clear regarding that. The fact that bands like Placebo and artists like David Guetta, Armin Van Buuren, etc… have already held concerts in Israel and Lebanon is enough testament to that.

But I guess if I speak more about the issue people will start to call me a blinded ignorant who cannot appreciate the struggles of the Lebanese who fought against Israel. Call me ignorant all you want but in my head attending a concert doesn’t lead to me killing Palestinians or Lebanese. The ticket price I would pay isn’t going to buy a warhead to attack the Palestinians or the Lebanese. And at this rate, if every time an artist wants to come to Lebanon, we’ll have so much drama associated with them, they will stop coming altogether.

And you know what, amid all the chaos, no one noticed the fact that the prices for tickets to her concerts were simply outrageous. With a range of $200-$500, most Lebanese wouldn’t have been able to afford such a ticket, making the concert for a very select crowd. I’m just saying.

Nadine Labaki’s Where Do We Go Now (W Halla2 La Wein) No Longer In Running For Oscars: Not on Foreign-Language Shortlist

The shortlist for Best Foreign-Language movie at the Academy Awards has just been announced and Lebanon’s Where Do We Go Now is not on it.

Therefore, we are no longer in the race for an Oscar nomination.

The nine shortlisted movies, out of which five will be selected for nomination, are:

Belgium, “Bullhead,“

Canada, “Monsieur Lazhar,” 

Denmark, “Superclásico,” 

Germany, “Pina,” 

Iran, “A Separation,” 

Israel, “Footnote,” 

Morocco, “Omar Killed Me,” 

Poland, “In Darkness,” 

Taiwan, “Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale.” 

 

That’s it, fellow Lebanese, I guess we were too foolishly optimistic about our chances. I guess having a movie from Iran, Israel and Lebanon in a shortlist was too much for the region. Till next time, I guess (which means till Nadine Labaki’s third movie). You’d think winning the same prize that the King’s Speech and Slumdog Millionaire won, at one of the world’s top festivals, would be enough to pull an Oscar nomination for a movie. But I guess politics is more important.

 

Lebanese “Activists” Call for Lara Fabian Concert Cancellation

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Spread around the Lebanese highway are billboards announcing two concerts for Belgian-Italian singer Lara Fabian, on February 14th and 15th at Casino du Liban. This is the third time she has concerts in Lebanon.

All is well, right? Fabian has many fans in Lebanon, mostly of the older generation. Her repertoire includes songs that many fans of older French music know.

But as it is with many so-called “activists,” they are now calling the Lebanese government to cancel Fabian’s concert because Fabian performed at a concert celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel.

For reference, French-Moroccan comedian Gad El Maleh had his sold out comedy show at the Beiteddine International Festival also cancelled because of his ties with Israel. Armin Van Buuren’s most recent NYE-1 concert was also met with resistance because Van Buuren has pro-Israel stance. Steven Spielberg’s name was hidden off his movie poster in Cinemacity because he donated money to Israel… And the list goes on. The latest casualty: the French singer behind Je T’aime and J’y Crois Encore.

I am not an Israel-supporter. If my country is in a state of war with a country, then, regardless of what I personally think about that war, I am supportive of my country’s stances regarding its enemies. But I, as a Lebanese, cannot expect people from other nationalities to also conform with my ideas. I also cannot condemn them if their ideas are different from mine – even if they are about Israel.

Most foreign artists are pro-Israel. It is simply a byproduct of being in the countries they come from, where the existence of the state of Israel has become associated with a redemption for the holocaust and where the Palestinian political leaders are as inept about defending their cause as the media portraying them badly. Those artists, however, are not coming to Lebanon to spread their pro-Israel ideas. They are coming here to sing, act, give you a comedy show. They are coming here to share their talent with you. The fact that some “activists” cannot see beyond their finger and are so adamant about the whole “OMG FIGHT ZIONISIM” mantra is none of my concern as an individual who simply wants to be entertained.

Look at it in a different way as well. How many of those “activists” use laptops & smartphones? How many of those “activists” go to Starbucks on daily basis for their daily “activism” meetings? How many of those “activists” are so drenched in Israeli-related products that their shouts of disdain become meaningless, childish and non-sensical?

You know, perhaps instead of shouting against Israel (which people, for the record, have the right to do) those Lebanese (and other nationalities) “activists” need to look at the injustice going on in their own backyard before lashing out for the causes of neighboring countries that have, like it or not, also caused their country harm. Are those activists as vocal about their support for the fight rape campaign as they are for artist bans? Are those activists as vocal about the eaten rights of their fellow countrymen as they are about the rights of Palestinians? Are they as vocal about the people losing their lives to Lebanon’s rent laws? Are they willing to help those people?

One only needs to look at the state of Christians in Egypt and Iraq, at the situation of women in the region, at the lack of freedom and all the other basic human rights that the region lacks to know that those “activists” are as empty as the shouts and slogans they will chant outside the Casino du Liban when Lara Fabian sings there.

I understand some of those “activists” are not Lebanese. And I always tried to steer away from discussing Palestine-related stuff on my blog. But let me tell those “activists” this: do not bring your fight to your country, especially with things as meaningless as this.

So sing miss Fabian, sing. And don’t you worry. Irrelevant people will remain irrelevant as long as their priorities are not sorted.

 

Update: Fabian has canceled the concerts. 

How To Help The Victims of the Achrafieh Building Collapse

Following the collapse of an Achrafieh building yesterday, many were wondering what they can do to help the victims of this tragedy.

Well, there is something you can do and it’s taking the form of a form circling around the internet. All you need to do is to include whatever contact information you feel is enough, as well as what you are willing to offer.

Your donations can range from money to clothes to simply helping spread the word about the form, in case you can’t personally donate any items. Blood donations are also encouraged and are being taken at Saint George’s Hospital and Geitawi Hospital.

Here’s the form. Start helping. It can be anonymous.