Having my American family over these past 3 weeks, Lebanese politics and elections were always a topic of discussion whenever we got together. And one of the recurring elements of that discussion was how much those family members wanted to vote in the Lebanese elections that took place in 2009. Some of them were even wondering if voting would be worth a trip to Lebanon in 2013.
Lebanese expats everywhere, or at least in the United States, wonder no more as by the looks of it, you will be able to vote in the upcoming parliamentary elections, set to take place in 2013. All you have to do is register by December 31st 2012 to be eligible.
A friend brought my attention to this as he stumbled on a pdf document posted at the website of the Lebanese consulate in New York.
The document, which you can download here, discusses the registration procedure as either one of two ways: go to the consulate personally with the required paperwork (valid Lebanese ID or passport) or mail the attached affidavit, after having it notarized, to any of the three Lebanese consulates in the United States, along with a copy of any Lebanese identification document.
Nothing is said, however, about the practical aspects of this vote. It is mentioned that the ministry of of Interior and Municipalities is undertaking the necessary measures to allow such a vote to happen.
This is definitely a step in the right direction for the political system in Lebanon. Now let’s hope for a voting system that allows fair representation to all.
JK Rowling has just revealed on Pottermore’s website what the thing is all about.
She said: “I wanted to give something back to the fans that have followed Harry so devotedly over the years. Pottermore is a way for the creativity to live on and a way for me to be creative on a platform that did not exist when I started writing the books.”
It is a free website that builds an online experience based on reading the Harry Potter books. People can register for the challenge starting today and one million users will be selected by July 31st (which happens to be both JK Rowling and Harry Potter’s birthday), after they successfully complete the challenge, for early testing of the website, with full public availability in October.
Registration is currently down on the Pottermore website, which you can access here, probably due to an overload of Potterheads trying to get their emails through.
The announcement came via JK Rowling’s youtube page, through a video, in which she said:
Thirteen years after the first Harry Potter book was published, I’m still astonished and delighted by the response the stories met. Even though the seventh book and the eighth movie have now been completed, I’m still receiving hundreds of letters every week and Harry’s fans remain as enthusiastic and inventive as ever. So I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you, because no author could have asked for a more wonderful, diverse and loyal readership.
I’m thrilled to say that I’m now in a position to give you something unique. An online reading experience unlike any other: it’s called Pottermore. It’s the same story, with a few crucial additions. The most important one is you.
Just as the experience of reading requires that the imaginations of the author and reader work together to create the story, so Pottermore will be built, in part, by you, the reader. The digital generation will be able to enjoy a safe, unique, online reading experience built around the Harry Potter books. Pottermore will be the place where fans of any age can share, participate in and rediscover the stories. It will also be the exclusive place to purchase digital audiobooks and, for the first time, e-books of the Harry Potter stories.
I will be joining in too because I will be sharing additional information I’ve been hoarding for years about the world of Harry Potter. Pottermore is open to everyone from October but a lucky few can enter early and help shape the experience. Simply follow the owl. Good luck.
The project will allow readers to answer their own questions, get sorted in Hogwarts houses, play games, add comments, drawings, etc…
The project has also been carefully planned to be spoiler-free. For the time-being, the world of Pottermore will be restricted to the first book: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (or Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for the US version), with the story unveiled over a two-year course, for new readers. It will enable them to live each impact moment of the books.
The new material by JK Rowling is said to be around 18000 words so far. The e-books will be DRM free, meaning they can be viewed across platforms without the need to purchase them again, but they will be watermarked with the buyer’s info. While this doesn’t prevent copyright theft, the file can be retraced to the original buyer.
“This was about the give-back,” she said. “The technology now existed to do something outside the books and the films for existing fans.”
Rango starts when a pet chameleon (Johnny Depp), after trying to orchestrate a very fancy looking play with a plastic fish and beheaded doll, gets stranded in the Mojave desert after he falls from his owner’s car. There, the chameleon (who is still nameless at this point), dazed and confused narrowly avoids getting killed by a hawk. Then, the chameleon meets an iguana named Beans (Isla Fisher) who takes him to the desert town: Dirt.
In Dirt, the chameleon finds the opportunity to be whatever he wants. He chooses to be Rango, a westerner marksman, and moments later, when the hawk comes back to terrorize the town, Rango kills him by firing a lucky shot that gets an empty water tower to squash the hawk.
However, soon after their arrival to Dirt, Beans discovers that the water reserves are dangerously low, which prompts her to ask Rango, who gets appointed sheriff, to investigate the matter. Rango undertakes her request and as the movie progresses, you find out the water issue is more complex and twisted than any of them first imagined: control the water and you control everything.
Rango is not your typical animated movie. It is definitely not something for the kids. After all, how many times do you hear the words “prostate exam”, “I’m ready to mate” and so on in a cartoon? The movie is a celebration of everything that is Western. There’s even a Clint Eastwood sort of appearance, just to top it all.
Johnny Depp is brilliant as the voice of Rango. The chameleon who embodies many personalities, depending on how he sees fit, needed an actor as versatile to give him life. And Johnny Depp does not fail at this. He plays well on screen with Isla Fisher, who has come a long way from being a shopaholic, with her impeccable western accent.
Director Gore Verbinski, known mostly for the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, strings this movie together as an overall tribute to the western genre. There are hints from many famous western movies in Rango that anyone who’s a fan of the genre would pick up. Add to that the brilliant work of Hans Zimmer on the score, as well as screenwriter John Logan, and the movie becomes a very strong movie overall.
Rango is not a very pretty movie in the sense that animated movies are almost always aimed at providing audiences with a cute looking hero/heroin before anything else. Here, even the good people are cringe-worthy when it comes to the cuteness element, which goes to show how much the creators of Rango did not waver in them wanting to make an animated movie that’s not addressed to a particular audience, but one that fit their vision. Rango is a movie with many firsts. This the animators’ first animated movie and the director’s first animated movie as well. But you don’t feel that it’s a movie of firsts when you watch it because everyone involved gives it their all to make it as good as it could be. And yes, it is good.
I honestly do not get Lebanon these days – or maybe I do and don’t want to admit that our newly formed government is as uptight and horrible as we thought it would be, but the Iranian movie “Green Days” has been banned from being screened in the country.
What is the movie about? The 2009 Iranian protests against Ahmadinejad.
The movie “Green Days” was directed by Hana Makhmalbaf, aged 22, daughter of Mohsen Makhamalbaf, who is close to Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, whose followers led the 2009 protests. A General Security personnel in Lebanon said the ban was fulfilled after a request from the Iranian minister in Lebanon.
Since when does a request by an ambassador actually get fulfilled in Lebanon? Especially if it’s something as silly as them asking to ban a movie that details the regime they represent in a hideous light? It’s nice to see Iran’s main allies in Lebanon looking after their love’s interests over here. After all, why should Lebanese be allowed to watch a movie that details Iranian protests? I think that’s something Khamenei banned, no? Therefore, we should not be allowed to watch it! What an abomination that would be to our souls and to the good of the glorious nation of Iran!
But wait! Isn’t Lebanon a mutlicultural country where the say of one group or sect shouldn’t apply to the rest of the people? You’d think Mr. Orange, carefully looking out for the “best interests of Christians”, would stand up against such an atrocity. You’d think the “best interest of Christians” would be them exposed to all the different cultures the world has to offer. Guess now we know who’s truly ruling the country, regardless of how many ministers they have in our awesome new government.
I don’t know about you but I shall be downloading this movie (along with subtitles) and making a few copies to distribute just to spite the ambassador and the holy Lebanese resistance whose only job these days, by the looks of it, is to ban movies. How does that work against Israel again?
It is the summer solstice and also fathers’ day in Lebanon.
My dad and I are, for lack of a better description, gunpowder and fire. Whenever we clash, things are going to explode. It could be because we’re more alike than we both want to admit.
My dad is a great man. And these last few weeks have only proven to me how lucky I am to have him as my father. Be it when I hugged him to say so and he almost cried or when he stood with his sister for their brother/sister wedding shot and they both chocked up.
My dad is a mountain of feelings that are always hidden beneath a surface of might. He always aims to give us the best life he can, even though that’s not always a possibility in a country like Lebanon. But the words: “you don’t need to worry about anything, whatever you want, just ask” are always coming out of his mouth.
I remember a night this winter when it was almost snowing in my hometown and my dad had to go fix the family’s main source of income. He begged my mom not to let me go with him but I went. I couldn’t have imagined any person going through that night alone. Imagine being out in freezing temperatures as the wind howls and rain/snow pours on you.
I am who I am today because a great man like him had a hand in raising me. My dad has his faults. But for what it’s worth, his faults make me love him even more.
And the fact that his birthday also happens to be on Fathers’ Day is not a coincidence. So to my awesome dad, happy birthday and happy fathers’ day.
A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares 