“For Lebanon to remain beautiful, we cannot burn tires whenever sh*t hits the fan. So MTV Lebanon has decided to stop covering all incidents that distort Lebanon’s image for the world and we’ll be there for you when you protest in a civilized manner. You can get your voice across at any time you want, instead of your smoke. Your demands are righteous but the situation cannot remain tense. This is our message and we hope everyone follows it.”
Let alone the fact that a TV station is required to cover these things which are crucial to the livelihood of citizens since MTV is one of the country’s leading networks but I have to ask the simple question: what Lebanon do they live in exactly? Because I really want to live there as well. Do they really think the tire-burning incidents are so un-Lebanese that they do not deserve coverage?
Denial is not just a river in Egypt. It seems to run straight through Naccache as well. Let’s stop pretending that the Lebanese are so above burning tires and distorting the image of their country. They’ve been doing it for years. They won’t stop now.
I spotted the following poster while walking in Gemmayzé yesterday.
Yes! Another talent show imported to the region for insatiable crazed fans.
The Voice, originally a Dutch TV show, was taken up by the US and then many other countries followed suite. Now it’s the Middle East’s turn.
Because between Star Academy, Arab Idol, Arabs Got Talent and many other talent shows that I haven’t heard of, we still have a shortage.
The concept of the TV show from what I gathered is the following: it starts with blind auditions whereby candidates sing to judges who have their backs turned to them. If only one of the judges likes a candidate, he would choose for this candidate to be on his or her team. So each judge builds a team and then the teams go head to head against each other while people vote, obviously.
This time, he’s defying a law by the Shawra Council, whose jurisdiction supersedes that of the minister, which doesn’t allow any works to be done inside the estate of the Roman Hippodrome, which I spoke about back in March.
MTV has gotten exclusive footage from inside the hippodrome, which is sealed off for the public, in the Wadi Bou Jmil area showing the dismantling process in full swing. It’s still in its early stages by the looks of it but this is downright unacceptable. And if a law can’t keep the real estate mafia from eating away at whatever heritage Beirut has, you can’t but ask: what will?
This is our history. This is something that makes Lebanon unique in a way since not all countries have hippodromes stranded on their land. This is something that we should be proud to have. This is something that we should turn into a public venue.
But no. The minister has other plans. The best use for the hippodrome would be the parking lot of a high-rise. And you know what the sad part is? Some people will ask: what’s the point behind a hippodrome? Should all of the ancient monuments in Beirut be kept?
And the sadder part is that the beyond evident and deafening “YES” to second question is not as evident and common as I had originally thought.
Minister Layoun should resign because the only ministry he’s being in charge of is the ministry of un-culture. Let’s help strip whatever identity Beirut has and cash in a few millions in our bank accounts. Those will surely come in useful when he stops being minister and he leaves to some other country with his family.
I’d say I’m disgusted. But at this point, in this country, I’m simply amused. Destroy away. Destroy away. If your brain can’t tell you that you’re doing something wrong, how will anyone convince you?
Just a question though. How do these people reach power? Also, don’t you just love change and reform?
When my brother returned to Lebanon after a near 10 months stay in the United States, we went out to a restaurant in Batroun. After picking whatever food he felt like eating, I asked him what he wanted to drink. He said: a glass of water.
I replied: You’re not in Portland anymore. A glass of water isn’t an option here. You have to pay for a bottle.
In fact, the price of a water bottle in most Lebanese restaurants is outrageous. When I can buy the same bottle for about 300LL at any hypermarket and they’re selling it for about 3000LL as an average price, imagine the steep profit they’re making off of you absolutely needing that vital fluid.
It doesn’t stop at water though. Even beverages are so steeply overpriced you can’t but wonder if they’re aiming at making a profit solely off selling them. 5000LL for a soft drink can that can be bought anywhere else for 500LL.
A friend of mine recently came back from Vienna and she told me something that contrasts drastically with the water situation in Lebanese restaurants. As she sat in a restaurant that was all non-smoking, the lights outside turned off after a certain hour – not dimmed but totally turned off. Why’s that? Because the area was residential and people have a right to relax without excessive visual pollution. Hello Gemmayzé and Hamra?
But that’s not the point.
As she sat there having dinner, a man strolled in with his dog. The restaurant didn’t have a no-pets policy. In fact, what the restaurant (and many others on different occasions) did was to bring in a small bowl for the dog, bring out a bottle of mineral water, open it and pour it down for the dog to drink. Free of charge.
Even when it comes to drinking water, we are figuratively raped in Lebanon and that’s without addressing all the other “luxuries” the dog gets without even needing them. So why not be dogs in Wien? It beats being melting bugs in the Beirut July heat.
Tickets ready, car parked, we went ahead to Biel last night for the Lebanon stop of the Notre Dame de Paris concert. The ordeal to get tickets had caused any enthusiasm we had to get sucked out of us. But man how wrong were we not to be beyond excited for this concert.
Even though it was said the concert would start at 9:00 pm, it started 40 minutes later. I guess they must have accounted for Lebanese people who can’t be on time even if their life depended on it. At 9:40 some people were still trickling in. The seats were a little crammed. Perhaps it’s the venue but a few seats less per row would have made things much more comfortable, despite it being less financially-pleasing.
I had purchased the $100 tickets and thought I had overpaid. The concert proved to me that I had actually underpaid. The orchestra took its place. The conductor struck with the motion to play and Bruno Pelletier came from the crowds to give a brilliant rendition of “Le Temps des Cathedrales.”
And that was the start of two hour long goosebumps. Garou had a rough start in the first act but he brought it back in the second. Patrick Fiori, Julie Zenatti, Helene Segara, Luck Mervil and Daniel Lavoie all gave flawless performances of every single song they sang. They basically showed how a two hour vocal show can be done without a hitch, bringing some crowds to their feet with every note they hit.
I’m not a regular concert-goer because there are very few artists which are brought to Lebanon that I would pay to watch so saying this is the best concert I’ve ever attended wouldn’t be a fair comparison. However, a friend of mine who has attended way more concerts than me said this is by far the best concert she went to.
It’s not very difficult to see why. Each performer had his group of fans rooting for him. Some had even brought out a huge banner for Julie Zenatti which they put up when she sang “La Monture.” She looked at them and smiled halfway through the song.
As the performers left the stage, the crowds started shouting for an encore of the play’s most famous song “Belle.” And that’s what happened. The crowds rushed to the stage. Phones in the air, people singing the lyrics to the song as Garou, Patrick Fiori and Daniel Lavoie gave it their all, before being joined with the rest of the cast to deliver the song’s last chorus.
If you didn’t attend Notre Dame de Paris, let me tell you something: you missed out on a concert that will not be matched any time soon. And I’ve never been more thankful I know French.
PS: I would like to thank my iPhone 4S for filming 11GB worth of videos and pictures and the battery for lasting the entirety of the concert and then some. :p
Let me know in a comment if there’s any particular performance you want me to upload.
A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares 